OK so I’m not happy....this post might sound like a whinge but it's gonna happen anyway 
OK so I decided the other day that I wanted to run RAID 0 instead of a single disk and going to install Vista x64 (Don't ask!)...now I have run striped disks before and tbh it's a piece of p*** to set up. So I installed 2 nice shiny spinpoints into my nice shiny Antec case and connected them to my nice shiny ASUS SE mobo....oh how I wish I hadn't of had the RAID thought!
So here's the jist of it....Created the RAID within the NVIDIA RAID BIOS (MediaShield), I also set it as a boot disk as you do! If you don't know the layout of the Striker BIOS you need to enable the RAID on a per HDD basis which I did and I also made the new stripe disk the priority disk for booting....all going well so far!
I then popped in my nice shiny Vista 64bit OEM disk and away we did go....or did we...well no! It booted from the disk and started to run the installation. It got up to the point of just finishing the white bar across the screen and froze...so we are talking about around 30 seconds in to the installation. I then rebooted...and tried again...still the same. So I thought it might be an issue with me having a RAID enabled AND at the same time having a single disk enabled....so I went back to the BIOS and disabled my standalone SATA disk with XP on it and gave it another try.....
You know it doesn't end there!! So it booted of the CD. This time it did the white bar across the screen and then went to the next stage where you get the box with the green rolling bar...but there was one problem...the box was there but no bar...doh...it had frozen! At this point I had a cup of coffee...strong...lots of sugar...black
I rebooted one more time and baddabing it started getting a little further...whoopwoo...This time it even asked me for my CD key...so thought I was on to a winner. It went through the usual Vista 'expanding files' malarkey and all was going well...in fact all did go well at that point....but...(and you knew that was coming)....after doing the full installation it did the reboot...as it should do.....upon reboot it got to the rolling bar screen and FROZE!! Oh I feel cold now!! I then rebooted the machine and low and behold it booted straight to the 'configuring Vista' stage...yeehaaa....hmmm...it was going well again.
So there I was watching the last moments and hoping it wouldn't freeze or just reboot and it didn't...it went straight through it and loaded up Vista desktop..."av some of that" I think were my exact words! Didn't last long.........
After updating the OS (carefully going through what M$ wanted to install of course!!) and installing the usual NVIDIA GFX drivers...plus a few hot fixes...one for 4GB within Vista and what not.....so all going well AGAIN. I rebooted...........
Did it come back up like a good little computer...did it hell. Upon reboot it came up with a Boot Disk Failure....oh sweet be Jesus another issue! Now at times like these when I see that kind of error I think of a few things...possibly a HDD failure..yeah could be...or it could be a simple setting within the BIOS...why it could even be me forgetting to boot from the correct disk...all could have been an option and a few more. But knowing that me system was up and running a mere 5 minutes previous and the disks were brand spanking new I knew it had to be something else.....
I decided to work on the BIOS (after checking all the connections etc..as you do!). I started of by disabling one setting at a time and trying to boot...ending in the same failure each and every time. I got all the way through the BIOS until I decided to disable the RAID and then re-enable it....i tried to boot...it work...yeah that’s right it bloody worked...so by just turning it off and back on again (pun intended!) I was back up and running...well it was booting in to Vista anyway!
I know...this is going on for a while but its helping me get it all in order as well...so humour me
I was back in the OS up and running but no real reason for what went wrong....which I didn't like. However I decided to do the usual check with my drivers...I hadn't at that point installed the chipset drivers from NVIDIA so I checked what M$ installed instead before I got the installation under way....very weird this bit...typical M$...it recognised my 680i as a 570/590 chipset....so it had installed the incorrect drivers...so I installed the newly downloaded chipset drivers..all went well. I rebooted.......
Yup you guessed it...did it boot back up...did it hell! BUT this time the error was not a disk failure...it was a BSOD! yup fresh install of Vista and I get the age old blue screen....hmmm how things have changed from XP...NOT!
I tried booting a couple more times but still got the same outcome. I tried 'last known config' and it did boot up...but as soon as I rebooted it did the same thing!! So I tried Safe Mode...did the same thing, but at least this time it gave me what driver was last in line before dying on me again. crcdisk.sys was the culprit. So I consulted my guru...well google.co.uk but its the same thing!
After a lot of research I found what I was looking for...a whole load of people with the EXACT same issues....oh and they were ALL were using NVIDIA's NForce chip using the NVIDIA RAID controller and trying to get RAID 0 working! It turns out that there is STILL an outstanding issue with some boards when trying to get RAID 0 OS's running. No workarounds, no "oh you just need to do this"...or bloody anything.
Phew...that’s the end of a very long rant...in fact my head hurts!!
So I’m left with a board that will not do what I want it to do...so do I RMA it...hmm not to sure...should I keep researching...I’m really at the end so might not be an option!!
IF ANYONE has ANY experience with dealing with this then please help!! The crazy thing is....I'm a newbie when it comes to overclocking...but hardware/software is not an issue...I'm a support engineer!
OK so I decided the other day that I wanted to run RAID 0 instead of a single disk and going to install Vista x64 (Don't ask!)...now I have run striped disks before and tbh it's a piece of p*** to set up. So I installed 2 nice shiny spinpoints into my nice shiny Antec case and connected them to my nice shiny ASUS SE mobo....oh how I wish I hadn't of had the RAID thought!
So here's the jist of it....Created the RAID within the NVIDIA RAID BIOS (MediaShield), I also set it as a boot disk as you do! If you don't know the layout of the Striker BIOS you need to enable the RAID on a per HDD basis which I did and I also made the new stripe disk the priority disk for booting....all going well so far!
I then popped in my nice shiny Vista 64bit OEM disk and away we did go....or did we...well no! It booted from the disk and started to run the installation. It got up to the point of just finishing the white bar across the screen and froze...so we are talking about around 30 seconds in to the installation. I then rebooted...and tried again...still the same. So I thought it might be an issue with me having a RAID enabled AND at the same time having a single disk enabled....so I went back to the BIOS and disabled my standalone SATA disk with XP on it and gave it another try.....
You know it doesn't end there!! So it booted of the CD. This time it did the white bar across the screen and then went to the next stage where you get the box with the green rolling bar...but there was one problem...the box was there but no bar...doh...it had frozen! At this point I had a cup of coffee...strong...lots of sugar...black
I rebooted one more time and baddabing it started getting a little further...whoopwoo...This time it even asked me for my CD key...so thought I was on to a winner. It went through the usual Vista 'expanding files' malarkey and all was going well...in fact all did go well at that point....but...(and you knew that was coming)....after doing the full installation it did the reboot...as it should do.....upon reboot it got to the rolling bar screen and FROZE!! Oh I feel cold now!! I then rebooted the machine and low and behold it booted straight to the 'configuring Vista' stage...yeehaaa....hmmm...it was going well again.
So there I was watching the last moments and hoping it wouldn't freeze or just reboot and it didn't...it went straight through it and loaded up Vista desktop..."av some of that" I think were my exact words! Didn't last long.........
After updating the OS (carefully going through what M$ wanted to install of course!!) and installing the usual NVIDIA GFX drivers...plus a few hot fixes...one for 4GB within Vista and what not.....so all going well AGAIN. I rebooted...........
Did it come back up like a good little computer...did it hell. Upon reboot it came up with a Boot Disk Failure....oh sweet be Jesus another issue! Now at times like these when I see that kind of error I think of a few things...possibly a HDD failure..yeah could be...or it could be a simple setting within the BIOS...why it could even be me forgetting to boot from the correct disk...all could have been an option and a few more. But knowing that me system was up and running a mere 5 minutes previous and the disks were brand spanking new I knew it had to be something else.....
I decided to work on the BIOS (after checking all the connections etc..as you do!). I started of by disabling one setting at a time and trying to boot...ending in the same failure each and every time. I got all the way through the BIOS until I decided to disable the RAID and then re-enable it....i tried to boot...it work...yeah that’s right it bloody worked...so by just turning it off and back on again (pun intended!) I was back up and running...well it was booting in to Vista anyway!
I know...this is going on for a while but its helping me get it all in order as well...so humour me
I was back in the OS up and running but no real reason for what went wrong....which I didn't like. However I decided to do the usual check with my drivers...I hadn't at that point installed the chipset drivers from NVIDIA so I checked what M$ installed instead before I got the installation under way....very weird this bit...typical M$...it recognised my 680i as a 570/590 chipset....so it had installed the incorrect drivers...so I installed the newly downloaded chipset drivers..all went well. I rebooted.......
Yup you guessed it...did it boot back up...did it hell! BUT this time the error was not a disk failure...it was a BSOD! yup fresh install of Vista and I get the age old blue screen....hmmm how things have changed from XP...NOT!
I tried booting a couple more times but still got the same outcome. I tried 'last known config' and it did boot up...but as soon as I rebooted it did the same thing!! So I tried Safe Mode...did the same thing, but at least this time it gave me what driver was last in line before dying on me again. crcdisk.sys was the culprit. So I consulted my guru...well google.co.uk but its the same thing!
After a lot of research I found what I was looking for...a whole load of people with the EXACT same issues....oh and they were ALL were using NVIDIA's NForce chip using the NVIDIA RAID controller and trying to get RAID 0 working! It turns out that there is STILL an outstanding issue with some boards when trying to get RAID 0 OS's running. No workarounds, no "oh you just need to do this"...or bloody anything.
Phew...that’s the end of a very long rant...in fact my head hurts!!
So I’m left with a board that will not do what I want it to do...so do I RMA it...hmm not to sure...should I keep researching...I’m really at the end so might not be an option!!
IF ANYONE has ANY experience with dealing with this then please help!! The crazy thing is....I'm a newbie when it comes to overclocking...but hardware/software is not an issue...I'm a support engineer!
