XP Setup on a A7V with raid mod

[st]

Hi!

I have the a7v rev1.02 - "a7v classic".
The promise is modified to be a raid controller with the resistor method.
I have 2 WD 80GB disks on it, wanting raid 0.

i had this setup working already, but a few weeks ago the harddisks got damaged (maybe due to a faulty psu which finally failed 2 days ago).
also when installing xp the last time on this raid i had problems - i ended up with installing to another disk and the copying it to the raid... much problems with this method....

but now i really wont to set it up clean from the cd.

when i boot from xp cd and hit F6 at the right tme i can choose a additional raid driver.
i use exactly the driver i now use on a xp setup (on another disk) and which works here. it is the modyfied driver (crazy ape).

but any time the setup programm says that there are no disks installed.

i have formatted a 30gb partition at the beginning of the raid disk, fat32, can access it from xp.. the mbr is right also.
i also can access the disk with ranish partition etc.


I tried several versions of the driver to add with F6, some modified ones and also unmodified ones (which shouldn't work).


Please, if anyone has an idea how to get the setup accepting the drives please answer...

i really think i have read everything i could find (here) and did what was suggested.. but it will not work for me.

kind regards
stefan

[Google]

[DMW]

RAID 0 is the same as striping.....you do not need controller card for raid functions in XP... but you must be willing to start from 2(or) more identical blank drives.

[st]

as far as i am informed the xp "wannabe raid"
is only useable for data storage.
the actual xp operating system can't be booted from the striped drives.


also i would much more like a hardware solution (other operating systems etc.).

thanks but xp soft raid is absolutely no option.


regards
stefan

[DMW]

ok...that makes more sense...you mentioned 3 drives and it sound to me like you just wanted raid0 on the latter 2, with the OS on the first one in the FAT32 Partition.....my bad.

[st]

thanks...

i use 2 drives in normal operation in the raid.
i have now a third drive in there (because i had to use the pc also while the 2 drives were out for exchange).


now i have 2 new drives and installed them.

before the drives failed i already had the setup working.
it is difficult to get it working because of the strange behavoir of winxp.
in the boot.ini you have to set a partition number.
i have no idea how this is connected to the physical order (adress order) or partition order in mbr.
i found only out the right by trial and error. (simply make multiboot with numbers from 0 to 4 and then you can try fast).

also it is important to keep the drive letter the same (the fu*** windows does not always refer to system disk / system directory but also sometimes has the drive letter stored directly.
so it won't boot if the drive letters don't get the same when you copy it to another disk.


but if you get that right it is possible to copy it. actually the windows running now no longer runs from the temporary "emergency" disk but from the raid. few minutes ago i copied it with ranish. but it is messed up a lot and can't really be used.


i did this because i thouht "why not simply copy the messed up xp and then start the setup on the cd with explorer".
but this doesn't work too - when i reboot to finally start the setup it shows a blue screen with some error and i should check hd connection etc.

so this is not possible too.

the only possibility i see until now:
a) empty the "temporary emergency harddisk" completely.
b) set up a clean xp on it like i want it
c) copy it to the raid
d) get all parameters working (letter, partitionnumber)
e) resize partition (emergency disk only 8gb).
but still it is not sure it will work without errors.


this is much unwanted excess work (only because the setup doesn't find the disk).

so i still hope to find another solution.

regards
st

[st]

does it really make any change to delete the 30 partition?
i have read here it may be needed to have a fat32 partition on it.
i do not have to keep it - for what?
but i don't think it gets better if i delete it.
(actually it has been deleted by copying the xp from the emergency harddisk)
i will try...

[DMW]

I am going to have to withdraw from this one....there is a particular reason that I do not use raid arrays....
for my uses there is no benefit....I do no multimedia editing or CAD programming and SCSI is not worth the money (IMHO), so from what reading I have done on this seems to indicate that having a pre-existing partion on one of the HDDs you intend to stripe is wrong.

I apololgize if I have misunderstood any of your question, but the broken english is hard for me to follow at times.
again...this is a little beyond the scope of my experience.


btw, there is well documented evidence that raid controllers using the Silicone Image chipset are known to have issues with XP. Given that you have a "moded" controller, there is little chance that you could upgrade the firmware.
Sometimes the SI chipsets will work fine for a few days...then "poof" the OS is trashed just from trying to boot up.

[st]

well, ok i see you can't help me with that.
i want the raid for recording video to harddisk (from sattelite).

also i want it because i see no reason for having 2 disks and not taking advantage of the increased speed.

i also did not find any solution in the web etc. i read several times that it should work if i provide the right driver (F6) for the setup.
i'm sure it is the right one because it currently works (if i install it windows also boots fine from raid - but i have to install it while xp is still on a non-raid disk.).
only the setup seems not to work with that driver.

i hoped someone here had this problem and i simply forgot something important.... but there is no clue and so it slowly gets less time - consuming to do the install to other disk - copy - modify thing....


anyways, thank you for your suggestions.

regards
stefan

[DMW]

without knowing which card you have modified...finding the right driver or doing any research on it is going to be difficult.
can you provide the specs of the controller and the HDDs?