P5K / Adaptec 1220SA Raid / XP

[grumblenoise]

Hi Guys,

I'm having a real problem trying to impliment Raid 0 on my system. My main system spec is as follows:-

Microsoft Windows XP SP2

Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Adaptec AAR-1220SA PCI-Express x1 2-Port SATA-II RAID Controller

x2 Western Digital RAID Edition 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500YS)

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

The problem I having is this. I have installed all the componts in my PC with no problems. I've updated the RAID card to the latest BIOS version and also updated my MB to the latest BIOS version. I've created my RAID 0 array by booting in to the RAID card BIOS and set this to boot. No problems so far. Next I create my RAID card drivers (I downloaded the latest ones from Adaptec) and put them on a floppy disk.

Now, I run the XP set-up press F6 and when prompted install the drivers. No problems so far. Now, I make my partitions as I want them, in my case I have just 2, 1 200 gig for system and 1 300 (ish) gig for data etc. The set-up sees my disks as I can create the partitions.

The problem occurs just after the disk formats though. No matter how hard I try I am getting the same message "Setup cannoy copy the files adp3132.sys" at first I thought it was just a corrupt floppy so I made a new one but no. OK, so then I tried an older version of driver but again NO .... So then next I made an image with NLITE and included the drivers. But this dosen't work either. Evertime it get's past formatting the disk "Setup cannot copy the files" RARRRRRR

I've had a look in the BIOS of my MB and tried to disabled PNP but that made no difference. I've also tried different memory settings just in case but again it makes no difference!!!!

I've had a look on Adaptecs website but can't find this problem. I've also had a look on the Asus website but again no solution.

If anyone has any ideas please feel free to shout. I'm totally fed up with this.
I'm guessing someone here has the same set-up as me so hopefully one of you kind people can assist me.

Thank you all

 

[jbloggs]

Which PCI-E slot do you have it in....put it in the PCI-E x16 (@ x4 or x1 mode) black slot...

Try the install without making any partitions (you can do this afterwards with 3rd party software).

 

[grumblenoise]

Hey thanks for the reply. There is only 1 PCI-E on my board so it's in that one (other then the ones for the gfx cards) Interestingly, I have tried another card in a normal PCI slot and get the same problem. I've also tried installing it with no partitions.

I've just come off the phone from Adaptec one thing I didn't think of yet was to upgrade the firmware on my hard drives - I looked on WD site and noticed this:-

Description:
This firmware resolves an issue where a WD1600YS, WD2500YS, WD4000YS, or WD5000YS hard drive is dropped from a RAID set without reporting errors after a period of normal usage. This utility is designed to upgrade the firmware of the following hard drives:

* WD1600YS
* WD2500YS
* WD4000YS
* WD5000YS

This would be similar to my problem because after the format of the drives it could be that the RAID array drops off and so it cannot copy the file back to the disk.

Well it's something to try anyway - also there are a few extra things to disable which I didn't think of - these might be effecting things so I'll try later.