I have a system comprising a 2 disk striped Promise array (2 x 40gb maxtors
= 80gb) and another disk (not part of the RAID) which I use for backups.

Windows XP is installed on the RAID array and all disks (the RAID and the
backup were formatted as NTFS).

I recently had some problems (the RAID crashed) and I wanted to recover some
files from my backup drive and transfer them to my laptop. I noticed that
even though I disconnected my RAID drives and booted from a Windows 98
bootable diskette, I could not see the remaining backup disk. This is not
too surprising I guess because Windows 98 is incompatible with NTFS.
However, I also booted using a Caldera DOS bootable diskette but this also
couldn't see the backup drive (I expected this to be NTFS compatible).

Having recovered my RAID array some days later, I decided I would re-format
my backup drive using FAT32 then I would be able to see it regardless of O/S
should the situation arise again.

Windows XP wouldn't allow me to format the drive using FAT32 (it always gave
a completely useless error message towards the end of the format - something
like "Couldn't complete format"). So I used Partition Magic 8. This worked
a treat, however I now have the problem that each time I boot my system I
get the message "Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart".
If I press return, booting into Windows XP continues without a problem. (I
do not have any diskettes or CD's in the drives).

If I physically disconnect my backup (FAT32) hard drive then the machine
boots straight into Windows XP (using the RAID) without displaying the
message. When I reconnect the FAT32 drive I get the message and have to
acknowledge it before booting resumes from the RAID!

This is extremely annoying.

Can anyone explain what is happening here? I guess it could be a couple of
things:

1. Partition Magic has somehowe altered the boot sequence so that it tries
the FAT32 drive before the RAID! (The RAID is drive C: and contains a
number of partitions, the FAT32 drive is drive H.

2. Windows XP is trying to boot from a FAT32 drive prior to trying to boot
from an NTFS drive. I wonder if reformatting the FAT32 drive to NTFS will
stop this happening, although I will be back to square 1 and unable to read
the drive from a boot diskette!

I would appreciate your help in resolving this situation.

Regards.

Paul.