Re: WinXP Pro Installation on RAID0

[Chris C]

Hi again, sorry to add that it's the raid drivers that you require, nothing
to do with SATA drivers at all....
Chris
"Pete Baker" <petebkrAThotmailDOTcom> wrote in message
...
> Hi Scott
>
> My mistake, I've just rechecked the floppy I have and it should have been
> packaged with your MB, not as I said the HD. By the way which MB is it?
> Have you looked on the MB manufacturers site for the SATA drivers? The
> Intel board I'm using (D845PEBT2) uses the same controller and has the
> Integrated SATA RAID drivers available on the Intel website... you could
> possibly try downloading the drivers you need from the MB manufacturers
site
> instead (for Intel board it's version 1.0.0.21).
>
> Pete
>
> "Scott" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Pete,
> >
> > Thanks for the reply. My MB came with no floppy for the
> > SATA RAID controller(It's an onboard controller) so I
> > obtained the driver from the manufacturer of the
> > controller (Silicon Image). When I am prompted to insert
> > the disk, it only comes back with 2 options. 1 is for the
> > driver for WinXP and the other option is for NT/2000/98
> > but it makes no reference to RAID or non-RAID setup. I
> > never get prompted for anything along those lines. I am
> > assuming that I should not have any problems installing if
> > I delete the RAID and leave the drives as individual
> > drives but would like to avoid that if at all possible
> > since I forked out the extra cash for SATA drives just so
> > that I could run with a RAID:) Thanks for the feedback
> > though!
> >
> > Scott
> >
>
>

[Pete Baker]

Chris C

acutally, as it reads on the Intel supplied disk I am holding in my hand,
it's 'Serial ATA RAID Drivers'.

Pete

"Chris C" > wrote in message
...
> Hi again, sorry to add that it's the raid drivers that you require,
nothing
> to do with SATA drivers at all....
> Chris
> "Pete Baker" <petebkrAThotmailDOTcom> wrote in message
> ...
> > Hi Scott
> >
> > My mistake, I've just rechecked the floppy I have and it should have
been
> > packaged with your MB, not as I said the HD. By the way which MB is it?
> > Have you looked on the MB manufacturers site for the SATA drivers? The
> > Intel board I'm using (D845PEBT2) uses the same controller and has the
> > Integrated SATA RAID drivers available on the Intel website... you
could
> > possibly try downloading the drivers you need from the MB manufacturers
> site
> > instead (for Intel board it's version 1.0.0.21).
> >
> > Pete
> >
> > "Scott" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > > Pete,
> > >
> > > Thanks for the reply. My MB came with no floppy for the
> > > SATA RAID controller(It's an onboard controller) so I
> > > obtained the driver from the manufacturer of the
> > > controller (Silicon Image). When I am prompted to insert
> > > the disk, it only comes back with 2 options. 1 is for the
> > > driver for WinXP and the other option is for NT/2000/98
> > > but it makes no reference to RAID or non-RAID setup. I
> > > never get prompted for anything along those lines. I am
> > > assuming that I should not have any problems installing if
> > > I delete the RAID and leave the drives as individual
> > > drives but would like to avoid that if at all possible
> > > since I forked out the extra cash for SATA drives just so
> > > that I could run with a RAID:) Thanks for the feedback
> > > though!
> > >
> > > Scott
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

[Pete Baker]

I'm reposting this because it failed to go through properly, as far as I can
tell. Ron has suggested, in a side thread to this from the original post (I
know we are an untidy bunch), that the problem may be as simple as a failure
by XP to register a Hard Drive larger than 137Gb. It's a known problem that
has a fix in Service Pack 1. That doesn't help you initially but, as Ron
has suggested, partition the Raid array into 2x80Gb and after installing XP
and Service Pack 1 you could merge the partitions with Partition Magic or
similar. Let us know how it goes. In the meantime I'll leave these
suggestions with you.

Pete

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Scott

I've just checked the Asus website. If you check the global site there is
a Silicon Image Serial ATA driver available from them for your MoBo. I know
that the RAID controller operates in an overall capacity but the zip file
here should contain everything you need.


http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7N8X%20Deluxe

The above address was arrived at via www.asus.com / Global / Support /
Downloads etc. (it may be available on the US site as well)

If you take this 4.26MB zip file as a starting point (it includes utilities,
maunals and drivers, as well as diskette folders) - driver version is
1.0.0.22 by the way, so compare it to the ones on the CD.

Asus, SiI and Intel provide very similar versions of the following
information for installation of the integrated Serial RAID controller

1. Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000/XP Fresh Installation Follow the
instructions in this section if you are performing a new installation of
Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000/XP, and you wish to boot from a device
attached to the SiI 3112 controller.

1.. Put your Windows NT/2000/XP CD into the
CD-ROM/DVD drive, or the NT/2000/XP boot diskette #1
in the floppy drive if your system cannot boot from
the CD.
2.. Press F6 for third party SCSI or drive
installation at the beginning of text mode
installation. Press 's' when setup asks if you want
to specify an additional device, and insert the
diskette labeled 'Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATA Raid
Driver Installation Disk' . Press 'Enter' and select
'Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller'
3.. Press 'Enter' to continue on with text mode
setup.
4.. Follow the setup instructions to select your
choice for partition and file system.
5.. After setup examines your disks, it will copy
files to Windows 2000 installation folders and
restart the system. The setup program will continue
and finish the installation after restart.
6.. Wait until Windows 2000 finishes installing
devices, regional settings, networking settings,
components, and final set of tasks; reboot the
system if it is required.
7.. See instructions in section 4 to verify
controller was installed correctly.


Now, we know that the floppy is a problem but I'd suggest the zip file is
similar to what's on the CD. It is very likely that copying the files from
your CD will work but, if this is a newer version of the driver I'd use it.
Although the earlier examples of the Readme.txt files that I've seen seem to
use the terms "Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATALink controller" and "Silicon
Image SiI 3112 SATARaid controller" interchangeably, I think that this might
be a case for careful checks on what is available in the options and what
choice is made.

I looked through the SATA RAID pdf manual in the zip file but it ignores
completely the circumstances you need (installing on a fresh XP). The major
part of the problem would seem to be when to set up the RAID array. Having
tried it before starting the installation of XP it would probably be
worthwhile trying it without pre-setting. Check which option appears for
the SATA controller and, if possible, select the SATARaid Controller.

Hope some of this has helped.
If you can please post a follow up

Pete