RAID0 on SN25P - no floppy

[~J~]

Trying to reinstall xp on my machine with a RAID0 stripe.

Get to the F6 prompt fpr additional drivers but the installation won't read my floppy UNLESS I continue and even then only reads nvraid.sys.

When I get to the actual partition part of installing both my drives are shown rather than a single stripe.

Any ideas of how to install using a usb floppy?

 

[semi-pro waster]

Sorry if this is obvious but I'm starting from the position of not knowing what you have done or how much you know. Have you already built the Raid array in the Raid 'bios'? If not you need to do that first.

Have you tried a different floppy disk drive? I don't think XP is designed to be able to boot from a USB floppy although I could be wrong here. If the PC can read the floppy disk drive at all then you should be able to set up the Raid array.

 

[~J~]

Yeah kinda rushed the question there.

Right, I'm pretty savvy when it comes to setting it all up, so here's what I've done.

Setup the RAID0 within the nVidia F10 RAID setup. Both drives are identical, same manufacturer, size, make, model, etc, etc.

I've no floppy drive attached to the PC other than a USB one. When installation of Windows starts, the drive light comes on, the motor turns, so it appears to be recognised*

At the F6 prompt, I press it to specify additional drivers and sure enough, when the time comes for them to be installed, I get the press S to specifiy the drivers to install.

When I do, there is NO drive activity from the floppy, simply says no files found.

IF I quit back to the "specify drivers" screen and simply continue, that's when the A: kicks in and reads a file! Only reads the nvraid.sys file and I'm sure there's a nvstorage.sys it needs to read too in order get the proper RAID drivers.

So that's it, stuck as a stuck thing in stuckville.

 

[semi-pro waster]

Ok, do you have another floppy disk drive that you could use just for the process of setting up the system? That would be the simplest option.

If not then I'd suggest putting everything possible at the lowest level on the floppy disk e.g. straight at a:\ and hoping that Windows can pick it up better from there as some of the disk creation utilities seem to put them in folders which Windows won't look in on its own.

 

[~J~]

Don't have another floppy drive unfortunately, but I'll try your suggestion of putting all the files at the root of the floppy and see how that goes.

Thanks for the help, appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Shuttle Support | 14/04/2005 15:43:00

I have difficulty installing Windows with RAID.

To install an Windows 2000 or XP on a SATA hard drive, a floppy drive (or USB floppy drive) and floppy disk with the correct RAID drivers are essential.

To install an Windows 2000 or XP on a SATA hard drive, a floppy drive (or USB floppy drive) and floppy disk with the correct RAID drivers are essential.

1. Insert the motherboard driver CD into your CD-ROM. Copy all files in RAID directory (\nVIDIA\K8\nForce4\Win2kXP\IDE) to a blank floppy disk. (Current CD driver is in Drive D)
2. Or download the files here and extract them to a blank floppy disk.

Note: This procedure requires that you install TWO RAID DRIVERS. Repeat, you must install both drivers during the RAID installation procedure.

Pre-installation setup.

In BIOS you will need to enable RAID functionality and select the drives that you wish to use in a RAID array.

1. Enter "Integrated Peripherals"


2. Enter "Onboard IDE Device"


3. Enter "Raid Function Setup"


4. Enable "IDE RAID" and enable any of the disks that you want to use as RAID disks.


5. Press F10 to save the configuration and exit.


The following procedure outlines the important steps in installing Windows on a Serial ATA drive. Before you begin, please make sure the RAID driver disk is inserted in the floppy drive, and the floppy drive is connected to the computer.

Installing Windows

1. Press F6 function key when RAID setup message string come up.


2. Press S key to select RAID driver.

Note: You must install TWO RAID DRIVERS. Please follow the procedure below carefully to ensure successful RAID installation.


3. Press "Enter" to select the " NVIDIA RAID CLASS DRIVER(K8)".
*Different RAID Driver version, the list will be different.


4. The following Windows Setup screen appears listing the drivers that you choose.
Press "s" to continue.


5. Press "Enter" to select the "NVIDIA NForce Storage Controller(K8)".


6. The following Windows Setup screen appears listing both drivers.
After the drivers are selected, press Enter to continue installing Windows.

Note: Due to a driver limitation, If you're installing Windows XP, try void using Windows XP SP2 bundle CD. If you're installing Windows 2000, please use Windows 2000 SP4 bundled CD.