Well, I am a first time builder. I am having trouble setting up my A8N SLI Deluxe mobo. I appologize for the length of this post but I have been doing this on another board and wanted everyone here to get the whole story. I will try to answer all questions. I hope someone here can help. You all seem pretty good at this type of thing.
am installing an oem version of Windows Xp Professional SP1a on my new self built computer. I can't get it to load. I will tell you as much info as I can.
I first set up my 2 SATA HDD's in a RAID 0 configuration in the BIOS. I installed the SATA drivers from the CD and partitioned the drive. I formatted both partitions as NTFS. I made one 20GB and left the rest in the other partition. After installing the HDD drivers I am prompted to install the OS.
I put the Windows CD in the CD-ROM drive and restart. I then hit any ket to boot from the CD. Windows start up begins. I hit F6 and install my RAID drivers when prompted. Windows begins installing setup files. I get through that with no problem and then I get a message telling me that the computer will reboot and startup will continue.
The computer reboots......the first time absolutely nothing happened. I rebooted the system again. Again nothing happens. I boot from the CD and go through the entire set up process again. This time Windows set up successfully starts after reboot. I notice that I have 2 copies of Windows XP Pro before the set up process continues. I assume that I made an error and installed one set to the other partition the first time around. I felt this may have been the reason for it not starting correctly the first time.
Set up continues. I get a few messages when devices are being loaded. The message tells me that certian devices have not been Windows Logo tested and may cause problems with Windows operation. I figure this is already a bad sign. Things like my motherboard and other related items come up with this warning. I have an option to let the installation continue and I choose it. I figured that once Windows started and I installed drivers for these devices all problems would go away. Windows finishes installing and the computer reboots.
My machine goes through POST and I get an option to choose either Windows XP Pro or Windows XP Pro. Again, I figure this is because it has been installed twice. One on each partition. I choose the first Windows XP Pro and hit enter. Nothing. I reboot and try the other Windows XP Pro. This time I get an error that says Windows has failed to start due to start up being halted, or a power outage....an error that goes something like that. It gives me options to start in safe mode or start Windows Normally. I choose start Windows Normally and get nothing. The screen just goes blank and I get no HDD activity.
I left my SATA cables on SATA 1 and 2 and enabled RAID. I set up an array I booted from the XP CD. I got this after being asked to set up a partition:
114471 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
Unpartitioned Space 114471MB
114471 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
Unpartitioned Space 114471MB
I chose the first drive and started to format it as NTFS. It got to 100% and then I got an error that Windows could not format the drive. It was either damaged or I did not have SCSI devices set up correctly. It let me choose another partition. I chose the same partition Windows said it couldn't format but chose the (quick) option this time. Windows completed formatting and began loading installation files. It then prompted me to remove floppy drives and rebooted.
When the system rebooted the XP CD start running setup from the beginning. I rebooted and took out the XP CD. I rebooted again and Windows did not start. I rebooted again and entered BIOS where I deleted my RAID array and disabled RAID. I rebooted again. This time Windows XP Pro started and continued set up. (I was pretty surprised but I put the XP CD back in the drive and let it continue) I was getting errors saying Windows could not load install device drivers for ports and modem. I got the ports one several times. I just OK'ed and let XP run it's course.
Windows loaded and is currently running nicely on my machine.
I have 2 Hard Disks showing up in Windows but only one is actually available to me.I think my working drive is being mirrored by the second drive. I have no idea why as I have disabled RAID.
Here is my plan of attack. I will try setting up a RAID 0 array with NVRAID. Once I set up the array I know I get a screen that shows the status of the array and I have a few options on the bottom. One of these is Boot. I will hit the button to set it to boot then try to load Windows again. Hopefully, this will get my array working. However, I expect Windows to see partitions. It did before. I just hope that I could delete those partitions and everything goes where it should be. Anyway, I will try to get Windows to format the whole drive and install. How should Windows view my RAID 0 array? I am guessing it should see one large drive.
Here is my other option. I think my problem is that I am loading RAID drivers in Windows when I have RAID disabled on the mobo. I think this might be confusing Windows. (I don't know if this is correct but I figure...what the heck) I figured that the problem might be with Windows since my BIOS does not show a RAID array. The only reason I am loading RAID drivers when I have RAID disabled is because I figured that the same floppy with the RAID drivers would have the SATA drivers. I do not know how I can make just a SATA driver floppy from the support CD. ANyway, I plan to set up Windows without putting my floppy in the drive. I will see what happens.
am installing an oem version of Windows Xp Professional SP1a on my new self built computer. I can't get it to load. I will tell you as much info as I can.
I first set up my 2 SATA HDD's in a RAID 0 configuration in the BIOS. I installed the SATA drivers from the CD and partitioned the drive. I formatted both partitions as NTFS. I made one 20GB and left the rest in the other partition. After installing the HDD drivers I am prompted to install the OS.
I put the Windows CD in the CD-ROM drive and restart. I then hit any ket to boot from the CD. Windows start up begins. I hit F6 and install my RAID drivers when prompted. Windows begins installing setup files. I get through that with no problem and then I get a message telling me that the computer will reboot and startup will continue.
The computer reboots......the first time absolutely nothing happened. I rebooted the system again. Again nothing happens. I boot from the CD and go through the entire set up process again. This time Windows set up successfully starts after reboot. I notice that I have 2 copies of Windows XP Pro before the set up process continues. I assume that I made an error and installed one set to the other partition the first time around. I felt this may have been the reason for it not starting correctly the first time.
Set up continues. I get a few messages when devices are being loaded. The message tells me that certian devices have not been Windows Logo tested and may cause problems with Windows operation. I figure this is already a bad sign. Things like my motherboard and other related items come up with this warning. I have an option to let the installation continue and I choose it. I figured that once Windows started and I installed drivers for these devices all problems would go away. Windows finishes installing and the computer reboots.
My machine goes through POST and I get an option to choose either Windows XP Pro or Windows XP Pro. Again, I figure this is because it has been installed twice. One on each partition. I choose the first Windows XP Pro and hit enter. Nothing. I reboot and try the other Windows XP Pro. This time I get an error that says Windows has failed to start due to start up being halted, or a power outage....an error that goes something like that. It gives me options to start in safe mode or start Windows Normally. I choose start Windows Normally and get nothing. The screen just goes blank and I get no HDD activity.
I left my SATA cables on SATA 1 and 2 and enabled RAID. I set up an array I booted from the XP CD. I got this after being asked to set up a partition:
114471 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
Unpartitioned Space 114471MB
114471 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
Unpartitioned Space 114471MB
I chose the first drive and started to format it as NTFS. It got to 100% and then I got an error that Windows could not format the drive. It was either damaged or I did not have SCSI devices set up correctly. It let me choose another partition. I chose the same partition Windows said it couldn't format but chose the (quick) option this time. Windows completed formatting and began loading installation files. It then prompted me to remove floppy drives and rebooted.
When the system rebooted the XP CD start running setup from the beginning. I rebooted and took out the XP CD. I rebooted again and Windows did not start. I rebooted again and entered BIOS where I deleted my RAID array and disabled RAID. I rebooted again. This time Windows XP Pro started and continued set up. (I was pretty surprised but I put the XP CD back in the drive and let it continue) I was getting errors saying Windows could not load install device drivers for ports and modem. I got the ports one several times. I just OK'ed and let XP run it's course.
Windows loaded and is currently running nicely on my machine.
I have 2 Hard Disks showing up in Windows but only one is actually available to me.I think my working drive is being mirrored by the second drive. I have no idea why as I have disabled RAID.
Here is my plan of attack. I will try setting up a RAID 0 array with NVRAID. Once I set up the array I know I get a screen that shows the status of the array and I have a few options on the bottom. One of these is Boot. I will hit the button to set it to boot then try to load Windows again. Hopefully, this will get my array working. However, I expect Windows to see partitions. It did before. I just hope that I could delete those partitions and everything goes where it should be. Anyway, I will try to get Windows to format the whole drive and install. How should Windows view my RAID 0 array? I am guessing it should see one large drive.
Here is my other option. I think my problem is that I am loading RAID drivers in Windows when I have RAID disabled on the mobo. I think this might be confusing Windows. (I don't know if this is correct but I figure...what the heck) I figured that the problem might be with Windows since my BIOS does not show a RAID array. The only reason I am loading RAID drivers when I have RAID disabled is because I figured that the same floppy with the RAID drivers would have the SATA drivers. I do not know how I can make just a SATA driver floppy from the support CD. ANyway, I plan to set up Windows without putting my floppy in the drive. I will see what happens.
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