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Driver? WHat The Hell Do I Do?

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HungryForHertz

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Installing SATA driver for my WD Raptor, but I don't know what I am doing. There is a file called ebd.cab I extract that and see the files that re in it but I can't run them (this may be my inability to type in the right thing). I am doing it in DOS as Windows needs to have a HDD to be installed.


Thanks.
 
ok, every SATA drive is plug and play. you don't need to install a driver for that. what you need to do is install a driver for your RAID controller, or SATA controller, whichever one you're using. when the windows installation says "Press F6 to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver" (it's almost the first thing that pops up in windows, so be ready), do so. then you have the driver disk (there should be a directory called make disk in a folder for your RAID controller on your mainboard cd driver disk), windows will prompt you to insert it, and then you can pick which version of the driver you want to use (windows xp, 2000, 9x, etc.). Then windows will forever, at least on this installation, be able to recognize your hard drives.
 
if you're using a RAID controller that supports windows 98, there is a way to install windows such that it can support 98. surely there's something in the installation of 98 that prompts you for mass storage device drivers, which is where you would use your RAID controller driver. Almost all hardware is backwards compatible with 98, even though that was one of the worst operating systems ever coded. windows 2000, anyone?
 
The AV8, comes with an on board raid controller but I don't care I hust want to load windows. There is a disk that comes with it, I extract a file inside it but don't know how to open the files in that.
 
with the asus a8v, you go to the directory drivers/via raid/makedisk.exe. it opens a utility that formats a 3.5" floppy drive with all the raid drivers you need. i assume that abit would do the same.
 
Absolute Zero said:
ok, every SATA drive is plug and play. you don't need to install a driver for that. what you need to do is install a driver for your RAID controller, or SATA controller, whichever one you're using. when the windows installation says "Press F6 to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver" (it's almost the first thing that pops up in windows, so be ready), do so. then you have the driver disk (there should be a directory called make disk in a folder for your RAID controller on your mainboard cd driver disk), windows will prompt you to insert it, and then you can pick which version of the driver you want to use (windows xp, 2000, 9x, etc.). Then windows will forever, at least on this installation, be able to recognize your hard drives.

I'm a first time PC builder, and also one who is looking to RAID harddrives. Are the above steps all I need to setup RAID? Do the individual hard drives have to be configured specifically for RAID?
 
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i would say it is *not* true that 'most hardware is backwards compatible to 98'. Quite a lot of new kit just doesn't have drivers available for 98. It might or might not work. As to the chances of DOS being able to deal with the controller drivers.... Nill IMHO.

I gather this is a modern Abit AV8 motherboard. On my NF7 motherboard, the controller for the SATA drive looks like an IDE controller to Win2000, and I didn't have to load and special drivers for it when installing. In Device Manager under 'IDE ATA/ATAPI' controllers are two entries, one each for P-ATA and S-ATA.

Also, unless there is more than one hard disk there's no need to install the RAID driver, as there is nothing to build a RAID set with.

Win98 never had the 'Press F6' stage that I remember - I first saw it in NT4, then Win2K & XP. ME might have it.

The OP hasn't actually told us what he has tried. My suggestion is to simply install Win98. I suspect it will work. Once that is installed, immediatly install the motherboard chipset drivers. He might also want to visit the Abit site and check the Win98 drivers there.

Given, however, that the motherboard is one of Abits current models for an Athlon 64 so is a very modern board, in my view that a more suitable (modern!) OS than Win98 would be well worth while. It will be more stable and will support the new hardware much better - for example will the cool'n'quiet feature work under 98? As said elsewhere, Longhorn is *way* off and in my view going back all the time, given that some features are now being back-ported to WinXP...

A small note to the OP: next time, it would be very helpful if you include details of the hardware, OS and what you have tried so far in the original post. Clearly this is a much more tolerant forum than many, where the first reply would be to ask for all those details.. It's also very different to the Abit/AMD motherboard forum on this site where some people will tell you *all* about their hardware down to what colour the case is... :) In fact - you might find that a more useful forum for getting the system up & running. There are *lots* of installation questions being asked there.
 
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