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SOYO Dragon+ -->Booting from RAID problem

B

Buzzcut

Member
Hello,
I just picked up a Dragon + motherboard. One of the main reasons I chose this model was so I could use the onboard RAID controller to boot windows. So far I have been unsuccessful. I have managed to install and configure the RAID 0 array and install windows xp on it, but when windows tries to load for the first time the array gives an error indicating that it cannot boot.
Here are the details:
I'm using two identical maxtor 40 gb drives for the RAID array. Both are set to master and connected to IDE 3 and IDE 4. I set the jumper on the mobo to use raid, then enabled raid in the bios and set the first boot device to SCSI. So far so good, the fasttrak bios loads and I configure the array as performance/desktop. There is an * next to the array 1, indicating that it is bootable. Next, I reboot and use fdisk to create the partition, and everything looks ok. Then I start the windows xp setup from cd, and I have my first problem. I hit F6 at the beginning to load a raid driver, which I have copied from the mobo install disc to a floppy. When setup asks for the driver, it encounters an unexpected error while trying to read a file from the install cd. I have tried the fastrak100 lite driver that is on the mobo cd and the driver from the soyo website. I get the same error with both drivers (they appear to be the same driver version). So I try the fastrak100 driver from the Promise website and it works. Now everything seems to go ok. Windows xp setup continues, I can see the array and choose to install windows on the array partition. Setup continues normally, copies the setup files and reboots. It goes through the whole setup routine, installs software, network, etc, then at the reboot at the end, I get the stop error and windows will not boot. What gives?
If this is any help, I am sure the RAID array is working because if I install windows xp on to a seperate single drive I can see the array in explorer. The device manager says it's working properly and using the fastrak100 lite driver.
Any help here would be greatly appreciated, I've been to the troubleshooting sections on the soyo and Promise sites and still no luck. Thanks!
 
hmm
i'm surprised that you were able to fdisk the array...for me that didn't work, because dos can't see the raid array without drivers (or so i thought). is it possible that there might be something wrong with your winxp cd?

 
I used fdisk from a Windows ME startup disc, if that makes any difference...
There's nothing wrong with my Win xp cd (I think), since I am able to do a successful install on to a single drive. Also, I tried installing Win 2K on the raid array, and had the exact same problems. It sounds like you did a RAID setup on the Dragon? Are you able to boot from it?
 
let xp do it's own partitioning. i had an odd time with the f6 and the driver myself. it was corrupt each time. download it again from the soyo site, to your hard drive.

format a floppy disk

cut and paste it to your floppy

then boot with the xp cd and hit f6 and load it. should work. if it does and then you need to reinstall or something, you may have to format the drive again. i have no idea why but after installing the o/s several times, it would need a formatted disk with just that file to keep from being "corrupt"
 
Make sure to copy the entire folder of drivers. I tried to copy the files only to the base directory of the floppy. It gave me a error message. I deleted the files on the floppy and copied the raid driver folder with OS driver subfolders and it worked perfectly.
 
I've found that given half a chance windows xp will update the "lite" driver to the full promise driver, which causes problems on boot as the raid driver chips are different.

Ive jusdt flashed my soyo with a modified bios that enables full raid support, and requires modified drivers. but it is working perfedctly and booting into windows from the raid only.

cray ape
 
Thanks for the responses everyone. I figured out the problems, everything is working fine and the RAID array will boot. First, I was using a corrupt floppy to load the raid drivers. Doh! The other trick is during the windows xp install, after the first reboot. While installing drivers, windows finds one that is not certifed and warns against installing it, so I didn't. Well, it happens to be the raid driver! As soon as I installed that driver, everything worked of course. Thanks again for the help.
 
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