Error installing WinXP Pro with RAID array

[Posh]

Hi

Hopefully this will be an easy one for someone out there....been driving me nuts.

My problem is that when doing a fresh install of Win XP Pro onto my newly built computer with motherboard RAID (Promise controller), I get the following blue screen when I attempt to install the Promise RAID drivers:

"File \WinXP\Fasttrack.sys caused an unexpected error (18) at line 2108 in d: \xpclient\base\boot\setup\oemdisk.c."

This occurs when I attempt to install the Promise drivers via a floppy after being prompted (yes, I hit F6 when Win XP install starts up booting from my CDROM).

Here is my setup:

Gigabyte GA-7VAXP Ultra motherboard with BIOS F4 (latest)
Athlon XP 2700+
PC Toys 520W PS
2 - 512MB Corsair XMS 3200 Memory
ATI All In Wonder Radeon 9700 Graphics card
Sony DVD Burner on IDE 1
Sony DVD Rom on IDE 2
Western Digital WD1200JD 120GB HDD on IDE3 set to single
Western Digital WD1200JD 120GB HDD on IDE4 set to single

Using OEM version of Windows XP Pro (not an upgrade disk).

I set up the RAID array per the instructions and it is identified at boot. FDISK'ed both drives and formatted them with a single partition.

I tried putting another formatted HDD on IDE 1 as a master to no avail.

I would be thankful for anyone's help to solve this dilemma!

Thanks

Posh

 

[boomerang]

I think I'd try downloading a fresh version of the Promise drivers. It sounds as if you have a corrupted file or files in the set you're using.

 

[Posh]

Thanks, boom, but I have tried this as well to no avail. I have tried both the drivers that came with the motherboard (on CD) as well as drivers downloaded from Gigabyte's support site.

 

[Granorense]

I have a problem too, same board and same RAID controler. Here is a description of my problem:
I want to create a strip 0, I follow manual instructions to creat it. When I am done creating the array, I have to Fdisk and I do so by using a W98 start up disk. I want to have one large disk, don't want partitions but for some reason DOS can't recognize all the data of both HDs. I got 2 new 80 GB WD drives, they are identical.

Even though 1 get 1 drive at fdisk, which doesn't represent the total space of borht drives, I go ahead and format C. When it is done I boot from my XP Pro cd, do the F6 thing, and when I get to where drive sellectionl, there is the C partition formated as Fat 32 and down below the rest of the disk that didn't get formated. I tought that I could just install XP on C, and then use Ghost to redistribute the unformated part and make just one big drive. I decide to convert C to NTFS when asked to do so. It starts formating, but only makes it to 50 % and stopstelling me that the drive can't be formated, says check your drive.

Any advice is very welcome!

 

[Jeff7]

Check Promise's website too - the ones on Gigabyte's site, and those on the CD may be outdated. Download page.

 

[CThomp2003]

Posh,

I had the same problems (same error) installing WinXP on my ASUS P4PE mobo with 2 WD 80GB HDs in RAID 0. Managed to get through - here's what worked for me...

If you have a drive connected to the Primary Master IDE channel, move it to the Primary Slave (leave Primary Master "open" - nothing connected/set to it). Once I did this, the install went flawlessly. Also, try using a regular CD-ROM for the install. I've had numerous problems using DVD drives as install drives after a new build/OS install.

Once WinXP is fully installed, move your drives back to where you want them and reassign drive letters (within WinXP) if you need to.