Critical Installation Problem with XP

[Gazzy 0]

Just tried installing the Corporate version of XP on my machine (A7V133 which incorporates the Promise Fasttrak100 controller). I have two IBM 75GXP hdds in RAID0, no bad sectors. Running latest BIOS, 1005A,

 

I tried upgrading from Windows 98SE - install died half way through, giving" unable to read data from drive C" bluescreens then crashing.

 

Using either the CD or winnt.exe/Smartdrv DOS install trick doesn't work - set-up just won't detect the RAID array - I've tried F6 and given it the Fasttrak100 Win2k driver, and it still won't detect any partitions.

 

Thinking I'd finally figured it out, I hooked up a spare 20gb HDD to the Via IDE controller - detected fine, but when Setup was beginning it bluescreened.

 

Does anybody have any ideas? Really stressing me out, since there's no

logical explanation.

 

All the best, tia.

[[H]ard-Turtle 0]

There is a small disagreement going but it doesn't apply to you at all. This gentleman has a scsi adapter and an actual PCI promise controller....I have done an install on a7v133 and it was a pain but I detailed it near the end of this post:

http://www.ntcompatible.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16965

 

To prepare for the install make sure you are not overclocked, don't have your RAM at improper settings...etc. I found the install/setup to be VERY sensitive to these things.

 

If you need anything else..feel free.

[Gazzy 0]

I considered that too, and underclocked the CPU 133MHz and the memory to their least aggressive settings, and disable other performance tweaks that might be pushing too hard.

 

Nothing at all

 

I'm mystified why XP can't/won't see the RAID array at all, just incredibly annoying and strange

[[H]ard-Turtle 0]

I also had several BSODs while doing the A7V133 install...turned out the bios for the promise chip was corrupt. After flashing with a bios w/RAID bios I had no additional problems. I doubt seriously you have the same problem...so click that link and follow along...hehe

 

I'm in the middle of an install on an Abit KT7-RAID, how easy...the built in RAID drivers for that board are sooooooo nice.

[Gazzy 0]

Yeah I considered that too, that's why I flashed to the latest BIOS (1005A).

 

Christ this is going my head in

[[H]ard-Turtle 0]

http://www.asusboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8723

 

Here is the other board and post and solution for my A7V133....maybe it will help afterall. When I determined the bios for the Promise chip was hosed, no "normal" bios flash worked. I'm going to guess that when you flash if the data is the same it doesn't "re-flash" it...if you notice some of the blocks using aflash go unchanged...Maybe I wasn't flashing the promise. When I used the bios mentioned in that thread I KNOW it flashed the promise as there are visible changes. I'm typing from the A7V133 RAID w/ XP right this second...hehe

[Gazzy 0]

Everything copied fine, just during startup (I remember it just setup my USB MS Intellieye Explorer with the LEDs flashing) it came up with a blue screen.

 

Not a big fan of using yet another hard disk just to boot off; besides not having a UDMA100 drive to do the boot time/etc justice (only got a UDMA66/5400 Seagate), it's a massive waste of the disk since I won't ever bring myself to use it.

 

Surely there's *something* going wrong since other people are fine with the RAID0 in XP using the A7V133?

[Gazzy 0]

Wahey, problem solved!

 

Someone in another forum had the exact same problem, so I shot an email off to him asking if he managed to fix it. Indeed he had, with this driver (uploaded for anybody who needs it) - http://www.gareth.dr.btinternet.co.uk/FastTrackPromise.zip.

 

The Promise controller built into the A7Vxxx is the Promise Fasttrak100 PDC20265.

 

Many thanks to Sirraj for the driver, lifesaver

[[H]ard-Turtle 0]

Very Cool...I have a hate/love relationships: I hate it when things go wrong..but I love finding the answer and seeing it fixed!!! Glad you got it.

[FogEater 0]

Hi,

 

I have the very same problem, but I think that diver won't work for me. I have an Abit KT7A-Raid with two drives on RAID-0. The Raid controller is a HighPoint HPT370.

 

Well it seems I can't actually install XP on my machine. Setup locks everything up when it shows 'setup is starting windows'.

I think the problem sits in the Raid controller but am clueless at present. I've been trying whatever my mind suggested for days and days with no luck. Can anybody help?