Win98 & KT7-RAID

[NiPNi]

I'm getting desperate here. Win98 just won't work when installed on my RAID-0 array.
My system:

TBird 800 on a KT7-RAID mobo
256MB PC-100 SDRAM
IBM 75GXP 30GB*2 in RAID-0 (masters on IDE3 & 4)
IBM 18GB (don't remember the model, slave on IDE3)
Seagate 9.1GB (slave on IDE4)
Adaptec AHA-2940AU SCSI adapter
Plextor 40Max CD-ROM (SCSI)
Teac CD-R55S SCSI
Soundblaster AWE64 Gold (ISA)
3DFx Voodoo3 3000 (PCI)
3Com 905B (or something like that, don't quite remember) 10/100 NIC

Now, to the problem, or problems. I have tried to install Win98 several times now. I have always used to copy all installation files and install directly from my hard drive. But as long as my RAID controller is enabled, that doesn't work (even when I try installing to a non-RAID drive). Everything hangs once ScanDisk has completed its scan. When I try to install from my CD-ROM it kind of works, but it hangs several times during the installation. Anyway, with some reboots, Windows is installed and with some luck I'm able to boot after 3 or 4 tries. When Windows is finally running, I install the Via 4in1 drivers and the HighPoint driver. The only problem is that my computer locks up every time I try to write to any hard drive (RAID and non-RAID), and without writing, it's kind of hard to get anything installed.

Any suggestions? (What I know is that when I disable the RAID controller, everything works nice and smooth, but once the controller is enabled, I'm in trouble...)

 

[blurredvisionx]

I had a friend who had the KT7-RAID with an 800 T-Bird (since which I have bought , and he had the RAID array set up on his for striping. He had 2 IBM Deskstars, both at 15GB each, and it worked fine on his. He was unable to get a high-quality sound card to work with the VIA chipset, and tried 98SE, ME, and Win2K, but nothing would work with the sound card, so he sold the mobo and processor to me. Anyways, the whole point is is that he got his RAID array to work with Windows operating systems. So it's certainly not an issue with Windows.

Try downloading the BIOS update from ABIT.

 

[zzzz]

Yeah. I had also been able to run win 98 on the raid drives. try to install windows first without all the peripheral.(keep only the video card) and then install the peripheral one by one

 

[Taylorm]

I HAVE THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM>

It locks up in scandisk right be4 the windows setup, but sometimes i get lucky and enter the windows setup and it will lock up in there.

Glad im not the only one with this problem.

BTW, i know a friend who build a comp just like me but his OS was windows98 SE And he used the bootdisk that came with the package and his worked fine. ILl be getting win98 Se shortly

..So in conclusion....get windows98 SE

 

[NiPNi]

I'm sorry, my fault, I should have been more precise.

It is Win98SE I'm trying to install. But I don't use boot disk, I just boot with the CD. It doesn't work (sorry if I destroyed your only hope there, Taylorm...). I have also tried the method suggested at ABIT KT7 & KT7-RAID FAQ, without success.

As for the BIOS update, I think I got the latest BIOS when I bought the mobo. I'm not 100% sure about that, but the options "Enhance chip performance," "Force 4Way Interleave" and "Enable DRAM 4k page mode" are available, and I can set Vcore to 1.85, and I thought that meant I had the latest BIOS?

I tried a new approach yesterday, by installing to another drive with RAID disabled and then clone that partition to the RAID array after completion of the installation. Same thing happened, Windows starts up after a lot of waiting, and looks fine, but only until I try to write anything at all to the RAID array. Then the computer locks up. But once I boot from a non-RAID partition, access to the RAID array is no problem at all.

It won't be long now before I give up and install to a non-RAID drive instead, just to get my computer up and running again. The only one I haven't tried yet is removing all peripherals. I'll try that one today.