So I have a weird boot problem with my 890FXA-UD5...help?

[mezman]

OK, I've been around and around and I have no idea what's up with system.

Yesterday I flashed the F5 BIOS for my GA-890FXA-UD5.  In preparation for that, I backed up my RAID arrays since the new F5 BIOS updates the RAID ROM.  I have an external eSATA drive that I copied the contents of my arrays to.  After flashing the F5 BIOS I was surprised to see my arrays still intact.  I thought they were supposed to get blown away but hey, bonus, I thought.

Then I formatted my boot drive and reinstalled Windows 7 x64 on it.  I never disconnected or turned off my eSATA drive.  The Windows install went just fine with nary a problem.

However, now I find that unless I have my external eSATA drive connected and turned on, the C drive can't be booted from.  I don't change anything in the BIOS settings but the connection of the external drive seems to magically make the C drive bootable.  And I'm sure I'm not booting from the external drive by accident because as soon as I see the "Starting Windows" screen, I can turn the external drive off and things proceed fine.

So...I have no idea what to do with this but it's a real drag.  I'm debating wiping Windows and starting again with the eSATA drive disconnected since I'm only a day into this install and haven't really installed anything but drivers and a few small programs.  I haven't restored my personal files yet for sure.

My stats:
Processor: 1090T
Mobo: GA-890FXA-UD5
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1600 7-8-7-24
GFX Card: GeForce GTX 275
OS Drive: 90GB OCZ Agility 2 SSD
RAID: 750GB X 2 RAID 1 and 250GB X 2 RAID 1
OS: Windows 7 x64

Thanks!

[absic]

Hi there,

I've had a similar situation in the past when I have forgotten to remove other HDD's from my system when installing Windows.

The only practical solution that I know of is a re-install, remember to remove all external and internal HDD's apart from the one you are using for the OS.

[mezman]

Drag.  I was hoping there was something I'm missing but I feared what you suggest absic is the only way.  Oh well.  I have installed little other than updates and Steam.  At least I'm not that invested in this build.

Thanks!