Ok, here goes:
I am NOT using build 42 or 44 of the FastTrak drivers. I was originally using version 1.30 build 60, which came from MSI's website. I then tried version 2.0 build 6 from Promise's website, and I STILL had the problem with Evian.sys.
I don't know what you mean by "release" drivers, because I believe I AM using their "release" drivers AFAIK.
I'm thinking at this point that by simply re-installing the newer drivers over the old ones, I did not eliminate the old "evian.sys" dependency. But since Win2k cannot boot from my drive without the promise driver installed, I cannot remove it and then re-install it without Wiping Windows.
<< Either you are doing something wrong, or have a configuration unknown to me. >>
This is quite possible. I don't pretend to be an all-knowing expert, although I have been around the block a few times.
Here's how I did it. Logged in as Administrator, I went into Device Manager and checked "Show Hidden Devices", expanded the "Non Plug-and-Play Devices" subtree, and right-clicked on the Evian service to select "Properties." I changed the "Boot" option to "Disabled." I then rebooted. Please tell me if I did something wrong, because I would really like to know.
The only devices in my system are a generic ATAPI CD-ROM drive, my bootable IBM 75GXP hard drive (on IDE3), a Linksys EtherPCI II card (slot 3), and an ATI Xpert98 PCI video card (slot 2). I don't think this sort of configuration is unreasonable.
If I don't hear anything more I will certainly contact Promise tech support.