I've just built a new PC (P4P800 deluxe/P4 2.8 800MHz/512MB Geil PC4200 & 2x 36GB WD Raptors which are configured as RAID-0). The raptors are recognised in the BIOS, but when I boot from the Win XP install CD it says No hard disks are installed, and quits Any ideas???
Firstly, welcome to the forums To install XP onto S-ATA drives, you will need to press F6 right at the start of the windows XP installation (almost immediately, when the blue screen comes in and it starts loading its own drivers for various sorts of hard drive controllers), and 'install an additional device' - namely the RAID controller, so that XP installation can see the hard drives attached to the RAID controllers. You have to install the drivers, because WindowsXP shipped before S-ATA was around and so it cannot load drivers automatically for S-ATA controllers. To install the drivers for the RAID controller, you will need the floppy disk that came with your motherboard that has the RAID drivers on it, and a floppy disk (thats the only reason I still need a floppy disk...raid drivers). Hope this is of some help...
And miracualously I can now see this in the mobo manual - sure it wasn't there before. Looks like I'd better buy an FDD
OK. FDD is now flying & I'm now on the latest version of the BIOS. HOWEVER... now when I run the XP install, press F6 to load the drivers, it shows the correct driver listing from the floppy (from which I obvsly select the XP driver!) but it's still bombing out claiming that it aint found any "Mass Storage Devices" Any suggestions appreciated...
Did you get a driver floppy with the Hard Drive? i never used SATA yet, but i have the feeling that you might find all your answers in the mobo manual AND the Hd manual. I dont know, good luck though.
The MoBo's an ASUS P4P800 Deluxe. ASUS don't actually supply a driver-floppy with the MoBo, instead you've got to make your own from the supplied CD. Don’t know what you’re supposed to do if you don’t have an alternative rig? Anyway, I made the disk as per the manual (using the Makedisk.exe utility), it writes various XP/2000/98/ME folders to the floppy (but produces an error!). I tried using it during the XP install (pressing F6), but it doesn’t find any drivers on the disk! PS. The HDD's were pretty light on information, think they came with a 1-page picture showing where to plug the cables, definitely no drivers.
P4P800 uses the Intel 801ER RAID, doesn't it? I'm assuming you'd probably have to enter some sort of RAID BIOS to setup the RAID array. If you havn't done this, the manual should be fit to tell you how.
Ah-ha. There are two versions of makedisk.exe - one for VIA and one for IAA. I definitely used the VIA one. Will give the IAA a try and see if I can this baby started.
At loooong last the Raptors are flying and the OS is installed. Man these babies are fast They run very hot though... Thanx for all the help.
