Help with installing Windows XP on a RAID 0 array (clean install)

I am a complete newbie at setting up RAID arrays and I am pulling my hair trying to get Windows XP loaded on a RAID array.

I have an IT7 MAX2 v2.0 motherboard which supports RAID so I went into BIOS, set up a RAID 0 array, booted from the Windows XP CD, pressed F6, loaded the HPT374 drivers for RAID and I get a screen showing 2 hard disks with Windows asking me where I should install Windows.

Shouldn't Windows see only one physical device when I have a RAID 0 array configured??

As a note, the 2 hard drives (in my sig) are connected to the IDE RAID ports on the motherboard and BIOS recognizes the array I set up as a 160 GB RAID 0 array. Also, in BIOS, I have ATA133RAID selected as the second and third boot device (first device to boot from is CD so that I can boot from the Windows CD)

I tried to create 2 same sized partitions on both disks at the Windows setup screen when I'm presented with which disk and partition to use but this didn't work. Windows copies the installation files when I do that, but when I reboot, I get a "error reading from disk" error and the computer just locks up hard there.

Why doesn't Windows XP setup see my RAID array as a single 160 gig drive EVEN THOUGH I did F6 and gave it the RAID drivers???

Please help!

this sounds really strange! I have the IT7, and I did not have any of these problems.

from what you've described, I can't see anything you've done wrong. that's exactly the right procedure: create RAID array (I think it was pressing Ctrl + F to enter the setup screen...), start windows install, press F6, load the correct drivers from the floppy, then windows should see the RAID array as one disk.

What size did windows show the 2 disks as? Are you positive you have the array set up correctly? maybe you could try deleting the present one and making a new one? try changing the channels the hard disks are connected to? You might try downloading a new HPT374 driver disk?

What you describe is certainly a very strange problem.

shiyan said:

this sounds really strange! I have the IT7, and I did not have any of these problems.

from what you've described, I can't see anything you've done wrong. that's exactly the right procedure: create RAID array (I think it was pressing Ctrl + F to enter the setup screen...), start windows install, press F6, load the correct drivers from the floppy, then windows should see the RAID array as one disk.

What size did windows show the 2 disks as? Are you positive you have the array set up correctly? maybe you could try deleting the present one and making a new one? try changing the channels the hard disks are connected to? You might try downloading a new HPT374 driver disk?

What you describe is certainly a very strange problem.

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I agree that this is strange and I am about to truly go insane because of this.

After I typed the original post I posted here, I downloaded the latest (v 1.23) HPT 374 RAID drivers from Abit's website and tried using them instead of the V 1.00 drivers that came with the motherboard. No change. Still 2 physical disks showing up on the setup screen.

I also tried wiping out the array I created and re-creating it several times. I read a post on some forum recommending to FIRST set the boot devices to ATA133 RAID as primary, secondary and tertiary and THEN go into RAID management, wipe out all arrays and re-create them. No go, same result. I also even tried doing the above with setting the boot device as SCSI just for the heck of it.

I then read something in another forum that jumpers could be causing this problem. At the time I wrote my earlier post above, I had the jumpers on both of the drives set to cable select. The reason for that was that I had the drives connected to the SATA controllers (the only reason I had them hooked up to the SATA controllers was to be able to use SATA cables for tidiness since SATA cables are a lot thinner than IDE cables and of course I had SATA adapters on the drivers to be able to use SATA cables). Anyway, after reading the post I mentioned about jumpers, I took the jumpers off both of the drives and tried re-creating the array but still no go...

After this, I decided to unplug the IDE cable for one of the drives, install XP one the remaining functional drive, reboot, re-plug the second hard drive and then re-create the RAID array and try to install XP again. I am in the process of doing this right now. With a single hard drive connected and RAID disabled, there are no problems with installing XP.

The funny thing here is, Windows WILL let me choose a partition and format it when I am presented with 2 physical drives to choose from and it will copy the setup files on the drive I select. Unfortunately, since this way, RAID is not recognized by Windows(even though my array shows up fine as a 160GB stripe under BIOS), upon trying to boot up after the setup files for Windows are copied, I get a "A disk read error occured", press ctrl-alt-del message.

EDIT: My 2 hard drives are on IDE channels 3 and 4 which are reserved for RAID on this motherboard.

i have the at7-max2, and i had the same issue since the 1.23 raid bios was implemented into the motherboards bios. the earlier versions could create and run a raid0 array, but the 1.23, and maybe the 1.22 cannot create the array, but it can run an existing array.

the problem can easily be solved by using partition magic 8, and create 2 floppy disks with it. run the floppies at boot after you create an array in your raid bios. with partition magic 8's floppy disks, you have to set the settings for win xp 3.1 (i think that's what it's called), and then you must set the array as "active". after that, windows will see one large hdd, and not 2 seperate ones.

before i used pm8, i used to install windows on a single hdd, create my bios flash floppy disks, and reboot, and flash the bios to an earlier one, and then create the array, flash to the new bios, and install windows xp. what a pain.....now i use pm8, and all is good. i hope this was helpful, as it sounds like the same dilema i had......

This is just pure cruelty. If there is a god, it certainly hates me...

XP got installed fine with RAID disabled, now I tried to create the array again but got the same problem...

76317 MB Disk 0 at ID 0 on bus 0 on HPT 374 [MBR]

Unpartitioned space 76317

AND THEN UNDERNEATH:

76317 MB Disk 0 at ID 1 on bus 0 on HPT 374 [MBR]

Unpartitioned space 76317


So BIOS says that I have 160GB stipe array but the ****ing Windows XP setup says that I don't and that I have two seperate hard disks, one on ID 0 and one on ID 1.

WHY THE **** DOES THE PIECE OF **** MOTHER****ING XP DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THAT I HAVE A RAID ARRAY HERE?

I am about to start ****ing on the hard drives and watch sparks fly...

madsam said:

i have the at7-max2, and i had the same issue since the 1.23 raid bios was implemented into the motherboards bios. the earlier versions could create and run a raid0 array, but the 1.23, and maybe the 1.22 cannot create the array, but it can run an existing array.

the problem can easily be solved by using partition magic 8, and create 2 floppy disks with it. run the floppies at boot after you create an array in your raid bios. with partition magic 8's floppy disks, you have to set the settings for win xp 3.1 (i think that's what it's called), and then you must set the array as "active". after that, windows will see one large hdd, and not 2 seperate ones.

before i used pm8, i used to install windows on a single hdd, create my bios flash floppy disks, and reboot, and flash the bios to an earlier one, and then create the array, flash to the new bios, and install windows xp. what a pain.....now i use pm8, and all is good. i hope this was helpful, as it sounds like the same dilema i had......

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Madsam, you are my BEST FRIEND right now.

Truly, you are a real lifesafer.

Hehe, I am also glad that I have Partition Magic 8.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see your post at the point I was replying to the other person's post so I ended up posting after your post.

thank you, but lets save the celebration til it all works out for ya....he he

I am installing Windows XP without RAID again. I need to install Windows XP on the machine I am having a problem with to create the partition magic floppies because I had backed up all my programs to DVDs before I created a RAID array and the machine I am using to type this message right now does not have a DVD drive.

But wait a minute...

I do have a spare DVD reader that I could hook up to the machine I am using for now...

Hmmmm.

man i had a weird problem like this the first time i ran SATA in raid. I think once you create the raid aray you have to change somthing again in the bios. When i first created my first aray i reboot the machine and the raid bios wouldnt show the drives. I think you create the raid then go back into the bios and tell it to run the raid or somthing.

Its tricky

Strange, while my DVD reader reads my Memorex 4x DVD+RW DVDs fine, it doesn't read my 2.4X Fujifilm DVD+RWs.

As a result, I have to install Windows XP with RAID disabled on the machine I am having problems with to get Partition Magic installed.

I could just unplug the PX708-A and plug it to this machine but to me that would a pain in the ***.

EDIT: OK, got XP installed again with RAID disabled, installed Partition Magic and now I am creating the boot floppies.

don't feel bad about your problem because a few people have the same problem as you have when they install winxp on a raid or SATA.

how do i know ??? just do a search in this section and you will see what i mean

I have the same board and ran into trouble also,for me it was a bios setting that I had wrong.I think I flashed to the latest BIo's also.it was almost a year since I dealt with it but if I can help in anyway just shoot me a pm.

ShadowCat66 said:

I have the same board and ran into trouble also,for me it was a bios setting that I had wrong.I think I flashed to the latest BIo's also.it was almost a year since I dealt with it but if I can help in anyway just shoot me a pm.

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the "current" newer bios's have the 1.23 raid bios, which will not successfully create a raid0 array. it seems like it does, but it doesn't. when you go to install windows, it detects 2 seperate drives, and not one larger raid0 array, as we need.

i am going to assume the "new" bios you flashed to at the time, had the 1.21, or maybe the 1.22 raid bios. some folks mod the motherboard bios to inplement the 3.01 raid bios, which has added the raid5 capabilities as well, but still cannot create a successful raid0 array. when i used the 3.01, i believe they were a bit faster than the 1.21, 1.22, and 1.23's, but it wasn't anything to write home about...


also, i recently got my sata portion of my raid controller to work. i was told by another member here that i needed "marvel" drivers, as the sata contoller was a "marvel" controller. this info was completely wrong, and i don't know why it was even suggested. what i was doing wrong in the past was i "assumed" the power adapter replaced the molex, but with further digging, i found out recently that to use the converters with pata drives, i also had to connect the regular molex as usual, along with the small 4 pin that comes with the sata adapters. i thought i would mention this since a couple other folks had the same issue with the sata not working with the converters.....maybe they have forgotten the power cable as i did...

I just checked to see what I have.I have the DF bios installed dated 3/27/2003(It seemed longer ago) which has the Highpoint driver ver 1.23.I have a pair of WD 80gig se drives in a raid 0.I tried the serial ATA 150 with no luck in a raid 0.I gave up and just stuck with the IDE 3 & 4.

madsam said:

the "current" newer bios's have the 1.23 raid bios, which will not successfully create a raid0 array. it seems like it does, but it doesn't. when you go to install windows, it detects 2 seperate drives, and not one larger raid0 array, as we need.

i am going to assume the "new" bios you flashed to at the time, had the 1.21, or maybe the 1.22 raid bios. some folks mod the motherboard bios to inplement the 3.01 raid bios, which has added the raid5 capabilities as well, but still cannot create a successful raid0 array. when i used the 3.01, i believe they were a bit faster than the 1.21, 1.22, and 1.23's, but it wasn't anything to write home about...


also, i recently got my sata portion of my raid controller to work. i was told by another member here that i needed "marvel" drivers, as the sata contoller was a "marvel" controller. this info was completely wrong, and i don't know why it was even suggested. what i was doing wrong in the past was i "assumed" the power adapter replaced the molex, but with further digging, i found out recently that to use the converters with pata drives, i also had to connect the regular molex as usual, along with the small 4 pin that comes with the sata adapters. i thought i would mention this since a couple other folks had the same issue with the sata not working with the converters.....maybe they have forgotten the power cable as i did...

Click to expand...

Yes, thanks to Madsam for posting this info. The day I posted the first post for this thread, Madsam helped me figure this problem out but I was too tired to post the solution here afterwards.

Like Madsam pointed out, the Highpoint BIOS after version 1.22 will not let you create a RAID 0 array. By all means the BIOS tells you that it created the array and it shows you the right size as the combination of 2 or more of your drives and makes you THINK that the array is setup correctly but in reality the array is not created.

Going to Highpoint's website has confirmed this as well. On their webpage (http://www.highpoint-tech.com/usaindex.htm), at the very top of their main page, Highpoint openly give you this info. Here's the quote:

HPT374 driver/BIOS revision 3.01 and above

These versions introduce two new RAID levels - RAID 1/0, and RAID 5. RAID 0/1 arrays can not be created with these revisions, though they will continue to support existing RAID 0/1 arrays (those that were created with previous versions).

As you can see in my sig, at the time I was having the problem, I was using the latest version of Phantom Punisher's modded BIOS for my board with the 3.01 Highpoint RAID BIOS. As a result of this, I could never get Windows setup to recognize the array (because it wasn't being created).

When I found out the above mentioned information, I downloaded the D6 BIOS dated 2002-12-16 from ABIT's website since it contains the v1.22 RAID BIOS. I was able to create my RAID 0 array successfuly after flashing to this version of BIOS and got Windows setup to recognize my 2 drives as a single drive and the install process went very smoothly.

I used a 16K stripe size for my array upon Madsam's recommendation and now, at least in Windows, I can feel a noticable speed increase. This is with just 2 WD 800JB drives so I can't imagine how fast a RAID 0 array with 2 or 4 WD Raptor drives would be. I bet a setup like this would fly.

As a note, after I flashed to the D6 BIOS and created my array and installed Windows, I flashed back to Phantom Punisher's modded BIOS as the 3.01 Highpoint RAID BIOS integrated into it should give me better performance than the v1.22 RAID BIOS the D6 ABIT BIOS contains. Fortunately, to my relief, I found out that while the 3.01 Highpoint RAID BIOS will not let me create a RAID 0 array, it will manage one that has already been created just fine.

ShadowCat66 said:

I just checked to see what I have.I have the DF bios installed dated 3/27/2003(It seemed longer ago) which has the Highpoint driver ver 1.23.I have a pair of WD 80gig se drives in a raid 0.I tried the serial ATA 150 with no luck in a raid 0.I gave up and just stuck with the IDE 3 & 4.

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is your board the it7-max2, or the at7-max2? i would assume the highpoint bios would be the same on either board though.

also, why couldn't you use the sata connections? do you have the converters? you need one for each drive, and unlike me..you have to plug in both power connectors. i only used the small connector that came on the adapter, but until i used the molex also, mine didn't work.

i still find it hard to believe a 1.23 raid bios created a successful raid0 array. if so, there is definately a bug i am unaware of with these boards, and that raid bios. i have never been able to create a raid0 array with the 1.23, unless i created it, and then made it active with pm8, or flash to an earlier bios, and create the array that way.

please give us more info, if you have any idea why it would work for you, and no one else. if the 1.23 has worked successfully for anyone else, i haven't heard of it as of yet, so, please post here if anyone has the 1.23 raid bios, and knows why it doesn't work for most folks, but works for some.

hopefully, we can get your sata to work for you as well.

ShadowCat66 said:

I just checked to see what I have.I have the DF bios installed dated 3/27/2003(It seemed longer ago) which has the Highpoint driver ver 1.23.I have a pair of WD 80gig se drives in a raid 0.I tried the serial ATA 150 with no luck in a raid 0.I gave up and just stuck with the IDE 3 & 4.

Click to expand...

If you download the D6 BIOS that contains the v1.22 Highpoint RAID BIOS from ABIT's website like I did, I bet that you will be able to create the array fine. Read my above post of the one before that written by Madsam for details.

After successfuly creating the array, you can flash back to the DF BIOS and the array will be preserved.

madsam said:

i have never been able to create a raid0 array with the v1.23, unless i created it, and then made it active with pm8, or flash to an earlier bios, and create the array that way.

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Well, I looked again and the Highpoint website says that the RAID 0 array creation is not possible only with versions v3.01 and up.

v3.01 was what I was using so I couldn't create the array but I never tried v1.23.

Perhaps it is possible that you can create a RAID 0 array with the v1.23 BIOS but with this revision, it is possible that the SATA support is broken.

I would just revert to v1.22 and try creating the array like I said above.

It is possible that I created the raid first before flashing to DF bios,I just cant be clear since I have put soo many systems together since then they all kinda fade together.To be alittle more clear on what I said,raid with sata was a no go,a single drive it would load windows.I wish I had taken some notes on my troubles and the steps I took so I could be precise,but I didnt.I'm sure if it didnt work for anyone else then I must have had the earlier bios and upgraded after I created it.

BTW Its an IT7 max2 ver2

Very interesting info,I may just give it another shot.If I flash my bios to the earlier one and hook them up to the sata , will I have to reformat and recreate the array?It would be nice just to have it work without losing everything.Any thoughts on that?

ShadowCat66, i hear ya. i have reinstalled windows, and recreated my array, and partitioned and gone back to single drives, and back to raid again, and now i tried the sata's, and got that working finally, so, to pinpoint what gave me better hdd scores than i have now, would be impossible to remember. unlike some folks, i do take notes..lots of notes, and they all look like chicken scratch, and most get lost or tossed out..lol

i make a mess of notes, so, any notes i take are useful the first week or so, and then it ends up in the great pile of rubbish i have ......

as a matter of fact, i was saving some atto32 scores as images,earlier this week, and i didn't take a moment to jott down what settings i was at, and i have tweaked a lot this week, and can't remember what drivers i was using, or what bios settings made a difference for me. it's so typical of me though...i learn something...take sloppy notes, lose them, or throw them away, and then at a later date, i simply re-learn what i already learned.....ha ha ha .