cannot boot to a RAID 0 array

[Dead...Again]

I am having a bizarre issue on my system at home. I had to reinstall Vista, so I decided to nuke both my Vista and XP installs and combine the two drives into a RAID 0 array. I created the RAID 0 array using the first two SATA ports (1.0 and 1.1) on the motherboard (an Asus P5N32-E SLI) and set the array as bootable in the RAID setup utility. I then updated the HDD boot order in Setup to set the RAID array first.
I reinstalled Vista x64. Everything seemed to go fine until I removed the Vista x64 DVD from the DVD-ROM drive. On the next boot, I got the following message:

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

I can boot consistently to Vista x64 as long as the DVD is in the drive. Otherwise I get the error message above. It appears that the BIOS does not detect that the array is bootable. The Vista DVD detects the drive and passes control to it, allowing it to boot.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? I started a thread in the ASUS forums, but I haven't gotten a response yet. I have also tried using Google, but have been unsuccessful.

[juneau]

Hmmm, is the boot order set to DVD first?

[Dead...Again]

Initially it was, but I changed the order to try the HDDs first and get the same results.

[Duke{CLR}]

I am a complete newbie to this but the other day when I had to reset my BIOS I had a situation where RAID wasn't enable on the ports that I thought so I just enable all 6 of them and it worked.

[Dead...Again]

Can I enable RAID on all 6 ports if I have another non-RAID HDD connected to one of them?

[Duke{CLR}]

Can I enable RAID on all 6 ports if I have another non-RAID HDD connected to one of them?

I doubt it. Like I said I am a noob at this stuff.

[drunken_chef]

not being able to boot without the DVD in is kinda wierd. there is some info that is missing...

as far as a single drive on a RAID contoller goes. that shouldn't be a problem at all. the controller doesn't really care. being a RAID controller allows you to create an array but doesn't mean is has to be an array to function.

[Dead...Again]

Sorry I haven't gotten back on sooner with an update. Its been kinda hectic around here. I was able to fix the problem by switching my HDD boot order to put the non-RAID drive first. Apparently Vista wrote the MBR to that drive instead of the array when it set everything up. However, I was having problems with that install, so I started over. This time I disconnected the other drive until the initial install was complete. Everything is working much better now.

One thing I learned that was causing me fits before: some drivers/utilities/etc. need to have the C++ redistributable installed to work properly, but they don't tell you this. So this time one of the first things I did was install the 2005 SP1 and 2008 redistributable.