ButtChew Posted April 18, 2006 Posted April 18, 2006 Ok, for the past two weeks I have been trying to get my Raid0 working ... it just isn't happening. I have followed Angry's guide exactly ... only difference is our BIOS version, but I have tried 3 seperate BIOS's including the new beta with the 5.50 raid version. I have every BIOS setting configured like the pics in Angry's guide. Without fail I continue to get the BSOD after the auto-reboot during windows installation (right as the Windows logo appears for first time with the animated blue loading bar). All power/cables are in right spots and I have installed the OS on one of the drives singly. I'm currently running of a 20GB IDE while Im messing with it so I can have an OS to run on. I'm beggining to think I possibly have either a bad MOBO or bad HD's. I have formatted my drives several times using the Hitachi DOS disks, and have installed Windows on one of them. Next to calling Hitachi and having them explicity test my drives, I have to assume they are fine. Here is everything I've tried so far. - F6 with included Floppy - F6 with latest DFI disk from site - F6 with the 6.53 Legacy drivers - F6 with the 6.70 Legacy drivers - F6 with the modded 6.85 drivers as outlined by RGone - Slipstreamed at least 5 windows installations with the above drivers The nVidia raid during boot, and in the initial Windows installation appear healthy and is the correct size, (2)250GB = ~460GB I will take screenshots later if needed to prove the validity of my BIOS settings. I have the majors down for sure though (rest following Angry's guide) *Silicon Raid Disabled *Sata 1/2 & 3/4 enabled *Raid enabled *Raid configured and healthy. I've had lots of help with this previously, and I've tried every last suggestion. I hate sending back the board if there is something I'm not doing correctly ... but I feel like I've turned every stone. Help is always greatly appreciated. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted April 18, 2006 Posted April 18, 2006 are you using Windows XP 32-bit or 64-bit? at the worst, send the board and the hdd's to me and let me take a look at them. If the board is faulty, I'll replace it on the spot and send it back to ya (and your hdd's lol) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButtChew Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 Its just regular Windows 32bit. Should I maybe try 64 bit? But yeah, I'm gonna try a full Hitachi format here again soon (takes like 2 hours per drive :mad:) and give it a go. I'll run some fitness tests on the HD's, and if they turn up without errors still, I'll get ahold of ya for sending them in. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 @ButtChew Are you using an original OS CD or a Slipstream version? Always revert back to an original "hologram" CD if you get this kind of error. Been there, done that! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joalaielna Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 nothing is more frustrating(except 8 hours then errors in prime) then doing a fresh install over and over and getting errors in windows only to find out that the slipstream disc you made was corrupt! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ztech1 Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 You say the system is up and running on an IDE drive. Hook up the raid drives and create the array, do it like your adding a data drive. If the array works like this then the hardware is not the problem. Some drives taken from other arrays have the array meta info still on the drive. Regular formatting does not remove this info and it can make it difficult to use the drive on another array. Some RAID setup menus allow you to remove this info but I don't know of the NF4 RAID has the option. If you can get your drives to work as a RAID0 drive you can always use a utility to image your present boot drive to the array drive, pull the boot drive, set the BIOS to boot from the array and you are done. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButtChew Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 nothing is more frustrating(except 8 hours then errors in prime) then doing a fresh install over and over and getting errors in windows only to find out that the slipstream disc you made was corrupt! Well I've tried 4 seperate slipstreamed CD's ... all off the same Windows CD, but the original CD works just fine. One of the four slipstreams I've used shouldv'ed worked, I used nLite every time. The Windows CD I've made them all from is a WinXP with SP2. It works on its own, the slipstream would as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButtChew Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 You say the system is up and running on an IDE drive. Hook up the raid drives and create the array, do it like your adding a data drive. If the array works like this then the hardware is not the problem. Some drives taken from other arrays have the array meta info still on the drive. Regular formatting does not remove this info and it can make it difficult to use the drive on another array. Some RAID setup menus allow you to remove this info but I don't know of the NF4 RAID has the option. If you can get your drives to work as a RAID0 drive you can always use a utility to image your present boot drive to the array drive, pull the boot drive, set the BIOS to boot from the array and you are done. I think I know what you're saying. I setup the Raid through BIOS/Setup. The raid shows up as healthy and all that jazz. When I boot into Windows (on the IDE), it doesn't show up as a single drive under 'My Computer'. I tried using Acronis (image management program) to copy my working image of the IDE HD to the Raided HD's, but it shows them as two seperate HD's ... even though BIOS etc show it as a proper raid. After setting up the raid, and entering "IDE Windows" I went into disk management. It doesnt just show one active raided disk ... it shows two disks: one with the raided size (~460GB) and another drive of single size (~240GB). One is active, one isn't. Sorry if that sounds confusing, I can take some screenshots of what it shows directly aftering formatting and setting up the raid (without trying to install windows). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButtChew Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 @ButtChew Are you using an original OS CD or a Slipstream version? Always revert back to an original "hologram" CD if you get this kind of error. Been there, done that! The *only* thing I haven't tried was using a stock Windows CD to install. Everything I have tried (sliptream or F6) has included the SP2 CD I have. I'll try to get my hands on an original WinXPro CD, see if that makes a difference. If it does, the time it takes to update Windows fully will seem like mere seconds compared to the days (literally) of trying to get it to work. The CD I am using now though, does for a fact work fine on a single drive. It's been used on 4 seperate computers already. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
learners permit Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 If it makes you feel any better I spent a 3 day weekend on an X-64 raid install just to find out there is a constant error warning popup window regarding the O/S and my raid bios that cannot be fixed without a raid bios update. DFI doesn't officially support my core so I'll never see a fixed bios. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ztech1 Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 Do you have a "Nforce ATA RAID Class Controller" entry in the Device manager under SCSI and RAID controllers. If not then your Nvidia raid drivers are not loaded correctly and you could get multiple drive listings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButtChew Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 Do you have a "Nforce ATA RAID Class Controller" entry in the Device manager under SCSI and RAID controllers.If not then your Nvidia raid drivers are not loaded correctly and you could get multiple drive listings. NVIDIA nForce RAID Class Controller Thats what shows up under 'SCSI and RAID controllers' under Device Manager. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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