Any ideas on Nvidia SATA raid problem ?

[imported_techman]

I am trying to setup my new Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 mobo with SATA raid-0.

I have set up quite a few systems with raid w/o problem in the past, but this has me stumped.

I have 2 WD 80 gig SATA HDs, and no IDE devices except the CDROM. I am installing W2K, and put the drivers on a floppy from the CD, as required. The install goes well, loading the drivers, etc, but when it gets to installing Win on the HD, the 2 drives do not show up as a 150 g single drive, but as 2 separate 74 g drives on the same port ! I can select either one for formatting and installation, but that's not what it should be.

I have tried SATA0-SATA1 ports (pri and sec on 1) and SATA0-SATA3 (pri-pri on 1 and 2) and the results are the same. I have also tried all combos od IDE raid enabled and disabled, unused SATA disabled, etc. All wthout any change.

Bios is the latest, F2, and there appear to be no updated drivers on Gigabyte or Nvidia's sites for the raid. CPU is 300+ and 1 gig Crucial DDR3200

Anybody got any ideas, or had similar problems ? Am I missing something very basic or stupid ? After 6+ hours I'm stumped.

paul

 

[Nomad692000]

Try downloading the SATA drivers and making your own driver disk. I have had same thing happen before. Or reset the CMOS and start setting up the Bios fresh, you might be over looking something. You also have to load both drivers (Sata and Storage).

 

[imported_techman]

Do you know a site to find the drivers for download, I've come up dry.

paul

 

[imported_techman]

I did find drivers on line (5.06). I reset CMOS and tried the downloaded drivers, still the same results

paul

 

[grooge]

either RAID is not enabled in BIOS or you did not define your array when asked by nvidia raid at boot up.

At page 37, of your manual, you should have SERIAL-ATA 1 enabled and SATA1 primary and secondary RAID set at Enabled.

Then, when you reboot, while posting, you should get the screen as shown at page 67. Oh, and from page 67, there is a step by step guide to define the array. Then, at page 71, there is a guide to extract drivers from the CD and make a floppy.

Once all that done, start the windows installation, press f6, put the floppy in, load all the drivers that are showed on the list and you'll be all set.

 

[imported_techman]

Raid is enabled, and the Raid BIOS shows a Healthy array, striped, 149 g, and it appears as well during boot the array shows as present and healthy.

As far as drivers I have tried those on the disk, as well as about 10 older and newer versions from Nvidia's site, etc. In every case the result is the same.

I also tried not loading the drivers during Win install, as well as loading each individually, and both drivers. The end result is the same. It looks like the drivers are loading, but not doing anything in the Win install.

I also tried WinXP...same results. I've tried multiple floppys, thinking it may be the problem. Whatever the reason, the drivers don't seem to allow Win to see the array.

So far I've tried everything twice or more. Baffling !

paul

 

[FastEddie]

You need to have SP4 installed to support boot to raid. If installing W2K fresh, try slipstreaming the install with SP4---> Autostreamer

 

[imported_techman]

An update

After several email correspondences, Gigabyte suspects a bad mobo and suggested return for repair. All factory suggested tests made no change.

paul