"dadiOH" wrote in message
...
Andrew Wilson wrote:
dadiOH
Many thanks for your suggestions. I have tried everything you
suggested with no luck. The system is messed up big time. I have
bitten the bullet and split the two RAID hard drives which obviously
wipes the disks. I have set the system to boot from CD and have put a
Win XP installation disk in. The disk runs OK and installs the
drivers but when it comes to the point where it asks which hard drive
you want to install to three hard drives (the two previous RAID
drives plus my hard drive) are showing but are unrecognised and if I
try to continue by pressing ENTER I get a blue screen. Could it be that:
1) Win XP needs drivers for SATA hard disks before installation and
if so how do I achieve this?

Yes, could be, did you ever install such? Normally, they would be on the
disk that came with the mother board but you should also be able to find
them at the mobo manufacturer's site or that of the system manufacturer
(Dell, HP, etc.).

Read some of these...
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&tbo=d&o...=874&bih=54 4

Especially these...
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/2544-insta...ata-hard-drive
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Insta...F6-47807.shtml

2) The hard disks need formatting but how do I do this with no
operating system in place?

You do it from the XP install CD.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

I *STRONGLY* suggest that you disconnect the two other drives before
formatting or installing; that way, only the pertinent drive is available.



--

dadiOH
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dadiOH
Sorry to bother you again.
I have read all the information that you kindly provided. I have isolated
all the hard drives except one but am having terrible trouble finding Win XP
SATA (not RAID) drivers for the machine.
The computer in question is an Advent T9208 which I have established has an
MS 7187 motherboard. The Advent site doesn't list this model and the MSI
site keeps telling me that the MS 7187 doesn't exist or gives no results.
There are other places but these are offering Win XP SATA RAID drivers which
I don't want.
Do you know of a website that will just give me Win XP SATA (not RAID)
drivers that I can put on a floppy and install when Windows starts loading
drivers.
Many thanks
Andrew