Has anyone successfully installed Windows 2000 on a PC using Adaptec RaidPort ARO-1130xA?

[Kwad Guy]

I've been trying to install Windows 2000 on an HP
Kayak XW workstation (BX- board based) with an
installed Adaptec ARO-1130xA RaidPort card (installs
in a designated PCI slot and provides raid on the
SCSI channel built into the motherboard).

I can hook up two SCSI drives, low level format and
configure them for Raid 0 and everything looks fine.
I use Partition Magic to partition/format the array
and everything still looks fine. I can go back into
the configuration routine after PM and it appears all
is well.

I then boot off the Windows 2000 install CD. I specify
the Raid driver, and Windows does the copy of install
files to the raid array. The computer then reboots and
hell breaks loose. After the "Windows is staring up"
screen I get the blue screen of death telling me the
boot device is not found. If I reboot and go into the
raid configuration (DOS) program again, I find that one
drive is now thought to be "missing". If I delete
the raid array, so I can access this drive individually,
I find that the listed capacity of the drive is now
something wacky (like 64Gb when the drive is only 18Gb;
sometimes it tells me the drive has a negative number
of GB!) I can do a low level reformatting of the problem
drive using the Adaptec SCSI utility built into the BIOS,
and the drive capacity returns to normal (18Gb).

At which point I can recreate the Raid array, repartition,
and so on and get right back to the same problem...!!!

Help!! Does anyone have experience with this RaidPort
card???

Kwad

 

[Vegito]

Yes, you may have the wrong adaptec driver, goto the website, they have a driver A and driver B make sure you download the right one.. or flash the BIOS before you try again... have you tried to break the raid and take the card out and then do a install ? see if that works ..

 

[Kwad Guy]

Yes, I can install fine if I pull the Raid card and install on
a single (non raid) drive...

I am using a HP OEM version of the ARO-1130xA card, and I am
using the Win2000 driver right off the HP Website. I would expect
this to be the right driver, but of course it's possible that
there are issues with the HP BIOS and/or Driver. Kind of sucky
if so, since this card is sold by HP specifically for this
computer...

Another thing: On the Adaptec site, I cannot find any reference
to the ARO-1130xA. I can find the ARO-1130SA and the
ARO-1130CA. Are the drivers for the ARO-1130xA interchangable with
either of these? (It appears so, but should check).
And what is the difference between Driver disk A and B???

The card in question is sold by HP as the FastRaid II.


Kwad

 

[Kwad Guy]

OK, last night I flashed the BIOS to the latest and greatest
from the Adaptec site. I also downloaded the drivers (the BIOS
flash utility pointed to which driver set to use) from Adaptec.
As it turns out, the Adaptec Win2000 drivers are identical to the
Win2000 drivers at the HP site (not surprise, really).

After flashing, I created a new array, low level formatted using
the SCSI utility, and then immediately booted up on the Windows
2000 boot disc (no partitioning whatsoever). Win2000 saw that
the disc had no partitions and offered to partition/format it
for me. I requested a 2GB NTSC partition. No problem so far.
What was odd was that the partitioning/formatting once I requested
it took less than 10 seconds...Hmmm...

Anyway, Win2000 then proceeded to copy files to the new partition,
then rebooted and then...BLAH! Windows startup screen followed the
same blue screen of death (can't access startup disc). When I rebooted
and went back into the raid configuration routine, I saw that,
once again, one of the drives was thought to be "missing" and that
if I tried to format/verify that disc using the standard Adaptec
SCSI drive routine the drive was listed as having a 64Gb capacity
(it only has a capacity of 18.2Gb)...

Any other suggestions? Is it possible these hard drives are simply
not compatible with the raid card? These are Western Digital
Enterprise 10K 18.2Gb SCA (80 pin) drives used with a 80->68
adaptor. No jumpers are being set on the adaptor except the SCSI
ID.

Kwad

 

[Kwad Guy]

No one...?

Kwad

 

[Kwad Guy]

One more time...

Kwad