Bootup issues... Disk Order in Disk Utility Messed Up

[ildondeigiocchi]

My Mac Pro has been acting strange on boot lately. When I hit the power button, the fans rev up normally, then there is a pause, the Apple chime sounds and instead of instantly getting the grey Apple boot screen the screen stays blank for about 20 seconds. Then I get the grey boot screen. I tried resetting the video controller by unplugging all things connected to my Mac Pro, unplugging it from the power source and then rebooting with nothing plugged. Didn't solve the issue.

After this odd startup, the computer boots into OSX fine. The OS works great. It's been over two weeks since I installed AHCI on Windows with gugucom's method and haven't had any problems since and none now except for this boot issue. MP boots into windows 7 fine. Only thing is that in SL when I hit shutdown or restart the MP doesn't always do so right away.

Furthermore, I just took a look in disk utility and the order of my disks has completely changed. My initial disk order was:

disk0: Macintosh SSD (BootDrive)
disk1: Win7 SSD Bootcamp
disk3: 1.5TB WD Backup
disk4: 640GB stock Apple HDD

Now Disk Utility reads:

disk0: 640GB stock apple HDD
disk1: 1.5TB WD Backup
disk2: Win7 SSD Bootcamp
disk3: Macintosh SSD (Boot)

How can I fix this boot issue. Can this be caused by the patching of my Win7 MBR for AHCI install even though I haven't had issues until yesterday? Any ways on how to fix this. If this may help... I have a 2.0TB WD HDD set up in Time Machine with several backup points however I have been working on a powerpoint project in Windows. Will a restore (if necessary) also restore my Windows drive to a previous date or not? Any help is welcome.

 

[ildondeigiocchi]

Update: Rebooted into OSX.

Disk Order in Disk Utility is now right but boot issue still persists

 

[ildondeigiocchi]

Any ideas guys? The issue still persists.

 

[hubiedubie]

Have you managed to fix this?

I have exactly the same problem: it spends a long time (20 seconds or so) "in the black" as such.
I don't have bootcamp/Windows 7 installed however I have the following system which is very similar to yours:
2009 Mac Pro
Intel 2.93GHZ Octocore.
2XIntel X-25M SSDs configured in RAID0(Software)
2X7200 Standard HDD configured in RAID0(Software)
12GB RAM
ATI 4870


Looking at our systems, it would seem that the problem is in one or more of the following areas:
1. Intel SSDs
2. Fact that all 4 bays are filled
3. Radeon 4870

I might try a few things tonight to see if I can pinpoint the problem. Loading of the firmware for the Intel SSDs may at some seconds to the boot time but I'm not 100% sure.

Let me know if you have any more info.

Hubie

 

[Infrared]

Furthermore, I just took a look in disk utility and the order of my disks has completely changed. My initial disk order was:

disk0: Macintosh SSD (BootDrive)
disk1: Win7 SSD Bootcamp
disk3: 1.5TB WD Backup
disk4: 640GB stock Apple HDD

Now Disk Utility reads:

disk0: 640GB stock apple HDD
disk1: 1.5TB WD Backup
disk2: Win7 SSD Bootcamp
disk3: Macintosh SSD (Boot)

Those are logical, not physical, disk numbers. The assignment
of those numbers to physical disks can change. It's nothing to
be concerned about.

How can I fix this boot issue. Can this be caused by the patching of my Win7 MBR for AHCI install even though I haven't had issues until yesterday?

If you cold boot directly into OS X the AHCI code isn't executed. It
can, therefore, have no effect.

 

[Dragonforce]

Its the same for me and it never was different.
Pressing the power button gets me 100% fan blast from the 4870, chime and 20 sec blank screen (with the 4870 still being at 100% fan), then the grey boot screen appears.

 

[hubiedubie]

I did some tinkering last night and removed the RAID(0) config on my SSDs. This reduced the time spent in the black to about 15 seconds.

Unfortunately, it now turns out I've lost my Leopard install DVD so am going to have to install Snow Leopard tonight.

I'll try some different configs: non-RAID, RAID0, JBOD, and also removing some of the disks to see whether I can improve things any more.

 

[hubiedubie]

I'll also be installing windows 7 over the next few days. So will comment on whether that affects the issue or not.