Raid array not seen by XP install on Supermicro PT3DDE

[Amused]

I'm putting together a dual PIII box with a Supermicro P3TDDE motherboard that has onboard Promise Fasttrack100 RAID. The mobo has the latest BIOS. I have four WD 1000JB drives in a master/slave config that are seen by the RAID BIOS and are easily built into a four drive RAID-0 array.


But that's where the ease stops. XP will not see the array when I try to install XP. XP does have drivers for the Fastrack, but just to be sure, I did try loading the drivers when the XP install screen says "press F6 to install third party RAID or SCSI drivers."

I tried hooking up a drive directly to IDE1 and it was seen by XP. So this is a problem with XP seeing the RAID array during XP installation, not other drives.

Thanks in advance for anyone helping, I'm really out of options here.

 

[Amused]

bump

 

[cliftonite]

I had this problem once right after I built my RAID array and reinstalled XP. I could not get XP to detect the RAID even after I installed the drivers for the card. So I reinstalled XP and installed the drivers during the XP install when it prompts you to wether you have any scsi or raid controllers.

 

[MichaelD]

In the mobo's bios, is the SCSI controller enabled? Trying to help....

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
In the mobo's bios, is the SCSI controller enabled? Trying to help....

Yes. It's also set as the boot drive.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: cliftonite
I had this problem once right after I built my RAID array and reinstalled XP. I could not get XP to detect the RAID even after I installed the drivers for the card. So I reinstalled XP and installed the drivers during the XP install when it prompts you to wether you have any scsi or raid controllers.

Yeah, I tried that too. No dice.

HEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!

 

[MichaelD]

This is a lot of work, but it would (SHOULD ) work.

Install a single HD on a regular IDE channel. Install XP on it, along w/the drivers for the RAID controller. Install all the HDs onto the controller. Ghost the fresh install from that single HD over to the array, then you can boot from it.

Whadda'ya think?

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
This is a lot of work, but it would (SHOULD ) work.

Install a single HD on a regular IDE channel. Install XP on it, along w/the drivers for the RAID controller. Install all the HDs onto the controller. Ghost the fresh install from that single HD over to the array, then you can boot from it.

Whadda'ya think?

Well, this is being used as a file server. So we just used a 40GB HDD as the boot drive and were able to find the RAID array in XP after install. It doen't matter what drive the XP install is on because nothing is being run on that box. They all use laptops in the house on a network, and are using this old box as a file server to store and back up files.

They had it working before on an Abit VP6 mobo, but the mobo died and I replaced it with the SM PT3DDE.

So it's working fine in what they want it for, now. But I'm still perplexed as to why that freakin' RAID array wouldn't show up in the XP install.

Thanks for the help. If anyone still knows the answer, I'm still curious what I may have missed.

 

[stingray2]

cliftonite is right.. I have installed WinXP on several machines where the RAID was the Primary boot drive, and if you dont hit the 'F6' button when the WinXP install program asks if you have any SCSI or RAID drivers to load (this is one of the first messages that come up when you start the install), then it will not see those drives . and not allow you to install the OS to those drives. no way around it, so have those drivers loaded on a floppy, and be ready to use when it asks for it. you should be able to get those drivers from the manfactures web site, the primary file on the root will have a .OEM extension, like 'TXTSETUP.OEM'..

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: stingray2
cliftonite is right.. I have installed WinXP on several machines where the RAID was the Primary boot drive, and if you dont hit the 'F6' button when the WinXP install program asks if you have any SCSI or RAID drivers to load (this is one of the first messages that come up when you start the install), then it will not see those drives . and not allow you to install the OS to those drives. no way around it, so have those drivers loaded on a floppy, and be ready to use when it asks for it. you should be able to get those drivers from the manfactures web site, the primary file on the root will have a .OEM extension, like 'TXTSETUP.OEM'..

In my original post I said:

XP will not see the array when I try to install XP. XP does have drivers for the Fastrack, but just to be sure, I did try loading the drivers when the XP install screen says "press F6 to install third party RAID or SCSI drivers."

So I did, in fact, try that. The drivers were accepted and a list displayed a number of Promise RAID drivers to choose from. XP STILL did not see the array after that.

But get this, it DID see the array after I loaded XP on to a single HDD on IDE1 while leaving the array attatched. Go figure.

But you are not completely correct. Using a Highpoint 370 RAID controller, I can load XP to the array without loading drivers at the F6 prompt. I've done so many times before with both my machine, and others.

XP, unlike 2K, has many RAID and SCSI drivers built in. Next time you load XP, note what drivers are being loaded (listed rapidly at the bottom of the screen during the initial loading phase) and you'll see what I'm talking about. Both Highpoint and Promise RAID drivers are loaded from the XP CD, along with many SCSI drivers.

 

[Awakened2002]

I have no answers for you at all. My Raid 0 install went smoothly luckily. Have you tried contacting tech support for the motherboard or hard drives yet?

 

[Tripleshot]

My Raid 0 is working fine with XP Pro because I installed the drivers on install when prompted to hit f6 at startup. I am using a promise fastrak pci card controller(not on board the mobo) and it is my fileserver as well. I do keep the OS on a seperate (not raid) HDD. That is the advisable way to set up any raid system. Do not put the OS on Raid array. Use Raid for what it is intended, fastand redundant data access(if configured correctly).

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Tripleshot
My Raid 0 is working fine with XP Pro because I installed the drivers on install when prompted to hit f6 at startup.

Yeah... like I said, I tried that. It didn't change anything.

 

[Upham]

On my raid 0 when i try to install buy hitting F6 i get an error code 18 and cant figre out a way to fix it... yes i have latest drivers and bios, and es the right files are on the floppy. i have a soyo dragon kto400 platinum edition motherboard. wtf is up with this?

 

[mechBgon]

Well, this is being used as a file server.

Let me get this straight you're making a 4-disk RAID0 for file serving?! That doesn't sound sensible.