Strange Windows/Ubuntu/everything problem

[alevasseur14]

Hey everyone!

A while back, I asked about putting together a fileserver. Well, I finally ordered all the parts and am having issues getting it up and running. Here's the hardware I'm using:

-Biostar Geforce 6100-M9 Motherboard (Integrated video)
-Areca ARC-1210 RAID 5 controller (PCIe x8)
-4 Seagate 500 GB SATA drives
-1 GB Corsair DDR 400
-Leftover Thermaltake PS (480 Watts)
-Leftover DVD reader

First thing I did after hooking everything up was get into the RAID BIOS and set up my RAID 5 array. Everything went fine. Next I booted up with the Windows Home Server installation DVD. I can find the drivers for the RAID controller from my USB floppy just fine and the installation starts. It copies files and restarts, but when it gets to the familiar blue Windows Installation screen it says "starting windows" for a few seconds and then blue screens. I've tried 3 different burns of the ISO, 3 different readers and none of them work.

Next I moved onto regular Windows Server 2003. Same thing. Starting Windows then bluescreen.

After that I tried Ubuntu. The installer worked fine and even had drivers built in for my RAID controller. The snag here came when I fired up Gparted from the live CD in an attempt to partition the unused space on the rest of the array. It simply wouldn't let me do it. I could set it up to partition around 1.1 TB of the 1.3 available but then it would give me a disk error and fail. If I tried more, it would try to set up a negative amount of space and obviously fail.

After that I took the RAID controller out and hooked up just two of the drives to the Mobo's SATA ports. To my surpirse, the Windows Home Server install went fine.

So now I'm really confused and wondering what to try next. I ran Seatools on all the drives and they all passed the short test. I didn't have the patience to do the long test on all 4 drives. Basically, this leads me to think the PSU is faulty if it works with 2 drives but not 4. It's an old (2003) Thermaltake and I'm concerned about it's quality after these 4 years. The RAID controller is supposedly a superb card and I'd hate to think it's the culprit.

Sorry to be so long winded, but I wanted to make sure I included everything I've done. What should I test next???

Thanks for reading!!

 

[imported_Baloo]

at this point, I'd be looking in the BIOS for any setting that impact the PCI-E slot.

 

[alevasseur14]

I'll have to take another look in there. I went through and tried to find all the settings that would tell it to use integrated video only but maybe that wasn't enough.

Thanks for the help! I really want to get this thing going!

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Sounds like a flakey controller to me

 

[alevasseur14]

I'd be inclined to agree except the Highpoint controller I tried before the Areca controller did the same thing. I left that part out because it would have made the OP even longer and I was fairly sure it wasn't the controller. I also used a Foxconn mobo in the beginning but had the same issues.

 

[alevasseur14]

Thought I'd update you all on my trials with this hardware. I went to a local parts shop today and picked up a 2 port PCI SATA controller so I could hook up all 4 drives and try the install without RAID in the mix. Hooked it up and WHS picked up the other two drives no problem. I've concluded it isn't a power supply issue. I threw the RAID controller back in just now and am going to try it as a 320 dollar JBOD controller to see if that makes a difference. If it does, I somehow wound up with two bad controllers from two different companies. If it bluescreens on me anyways, it's the mobo and something with the controller sitting in the graphics slot. I really want to run RAID 5 so I hope it's some dumb setting with the motherboard.

I'll keep y'all posted. Thanks for the help!

 

[earthman]

You're using a 320 dollar RAID card with a 50 dollar motherboard? I bet that's where your problem is. High end RAID cards sometimes overwhelm the BIOS on desktop boards. I'd try a used entry level server board if you're on a budget.

 

[alevasseur14]

You're right. Admittedly, I've never done anything like this before and wanted to keep it as cheap as possible. I've eliminated every other possibility and the controller just doesn't like this motherboard. Now I'm debating whether or not I should just hang onto the controller until I feel like springing for a new mobo and memory or send it back.

I just bought a brand new Macbook 2.13 GHz from a friend so the money situation is considerable tighter... Thanks for the help though, people!