Knavish
Senior member
I've got some software that isn't playing friendly with Vista 64 on this big Precision 690 Dell box I've got at work. I've decided to "downgrade" to 64 bit XP, but it's proving to be rather difficult to install. This is a workstation with a Intel 5000X chipset and a Dell SAS5 integrated controller, which is apparently based on an LSI Logic 1068 controller chip.
I'll list my installation attempts...
1. Tried installing using stock XP 64bit disk. Failed because the XP install disk doesn't recognize the HDs plugged into the SAS5 controller. (I expected this to happen.)
2. I slipstreamed Dell's latest XP-64 driver for the SAS5 controller onto the XP-64 disk using nLite. Failed in the installer, before it detected the disk. It gave some error about a file not being compatable as though Dell's driver wasn't intended for XP-64.
3. I repeated #2 with an older version of Dell's SAS5 controller driver. Failed with the same error as in #2.
4. I used RAID-Slipstreamer x86/x64 to provide the LSI Logic 1068 controller driver and then nLite to build the XP-64 disk. The XP installation detected my drive and completed the install, but it Failed upon first boot after displaying the Win XP splash screen. (The system rebooted itself.) The computer would also reboot itself when I tried Safe Mode.
5. I used RAID-Slipstreamer x86/x64 to install its entire set of RAID drivers and then nLite to build the CD. This Failed in the installer, before it detected the disk with the error "MEGASR.SYS could not be found". (I thought I'd give this step a try, but wouldn't expect it to do anything different than #4. Apparently the slipstreamer didn't provide a file that XP expected, so it failed.)
Any suggestions? I'm guessing my best option is to plug the HD's into the other set of SATA ports on the motherboard (I guess these are provided by the Intel chipset, not the LSI controller).
I'll list my installation attempts...
1. Tried installing using stock XP 64bit disk. Failed because the XP install disk doesn't recognize the HDs plugged into the SAS5 controller. (I expected this to happen.)
2. I slipstreamed Dell's latest XP-64 driver for the SAS5 controller onto the XP-64 disk using nLite. Failed in the installer, before it detected the disk. It gave some error about a file not being compatable as though Dell's driver wasn't intended for XP-64.
3. I repeated #2 with an older version of Dell's SAS5 controller driver. Failed with the same error as in #2.
4. I used RAID-Slipstreamer x86/x64 to provide the LSI Logic 1068 controller driver and then nLite to build the XP-64 disk. The XP installation detected my drive and completed the install, but it Failed upon first boot after displaying the Win XP splash screen. (The system rebooted itself.) The computer would also reboot itself when I tried Safe Mode.
5. I used RAID-Slipstreamer x86/x64 to install its entire set of RAID drivers and then nLite to build the CD. This Failed in the installer, before it detected the disk with the error "MEGASR.SYS could not be found". (I thought I'd give this step a try, but wouldn't expect it to do anything different than #4. Apparently the slipstreamer didn't provide a file that XP expected, so it failed.)
Any suggestions? I'm guessing my best option is to plug the HD's into the other set of SATA ports on the motherboard (I guess these are provided by the Intel chipset, not the LSI controller).
