need help reinstalling windows xp with abit nf7s v2.0

[butters14]

help! im really stumped. i tried unsuccessfully to reinstall my windows xp. i followed the prompts and windows quit on me because it didnt see my existing hard drives.( 2 maxtor 60gb sata connected in a striped raid array) ok, so i thought i'll go by the maxtor instructions which had me boot using thier maxblast 3 cd. it quit because there was a current windows installed. ok, i tried booting with the sata driver floppy that came with the mobo thinking maybe windows would work if it recognized the sata connection.(abit nf7-s v2.0) no dice, the floppy isn't bootable. ive put off reinstalling windows because i dreaded it and now that i need to, i cant! this was a lot easier when i first built the thing and the drives were empty. also, is there a way to possibly repair windows without losing my data? one more thing, the latest windows feature to go corrupt on my system is the system restore so that option is history. thanks for reading.

amd athlon xp 3000
2 maxtor 60gb sata hd's striped
abit nf7-s v2.0 mobo (nvidia chipset)
2 gb ram (2 512 gb kingston 1 gb patriot) pc3200 400
pny gforce 6600 256mb agp
pioneer dvr109 dvdrw
lite on dvd
various usb & firewire peripherals, unaffected by the windows problem

 

[Beginner]

bump cause your situation sucks, i've been there but with other issues.

here's my view, i'm not trying to be a jerk

- sata is enabled in bios
- make a floppy with the drivers for the abit site
- if on a modded bios, is it known to work with sata(you had it working before so yeah)
- when loading windows your hitting f6 when prompted
- you have the floppy unabled under "standard cmos features"
- you have the floppy as one of the boot devices(this might not matter, but its helped for me)
- created raid driver floppy properly by extracting the files and then copying them over to your floppy disk
- your sata serial cables are in working order
- your sata power cables are in working order
- your not overclocked while trying to reformat you raid array
- clear the cmos and try it again
- boot with drives connected, under "standard cmos features" autodetect to see if it see's your drives.


thats all, i hope you get your situation resolved.