Desperately need help installing OS with RAID on an Intel mobo

Hello all,

First off please don't be offended by my cross posting. I am in desperate
need of help here. I need to have this new system rolling for a Xmas
present for my Dad.

Here's what I got. I just purchased a new motherboard from www.newegg.com.
An Intel D845PESV. I have a HighPoint RocketRAID 404 RAID card to use with
it, and 2 WD SE 80GB HD's. I have confirmed that the RAID Controller,
cables, and HD's are all in working order by testing them on an ASUS P4B533
after my troubles starting popping up.

Here is the problem. With the RAID controller and drive connected to the
brand new Intel board, I can no longer use PowerQuest Partition Magic 8.0 to
create the partitions on the HD's. I get an error #88 (specified drive
cannot be found). This works just fine on the ASUS board. So I tried to
use my Windows XP disk to create the partitions during the install. It
seemed to work, and install began. I hit F6 when prompted to load support
for the RAID controller. Setup copied its' needed files to the RAID array.
Once it gets to the point where setup needs to reboot, the system will
reboot, and automatically start the setup again from the beginning. It
doesn't pause like with the ASUS boards requiring a key to be pushed to boot
from the CD. So it just keeps looping Windows XP setup. When I go into the
BIOS and disable CD-ROM boot so setup will stop looping, this new board
refuses to boot from the RAID1 HD's to continue the setup. Now this may be
because I couldn't use Partition Magic to set the 1st primary partition as
active. I had hoped maybe the Windows XP setup would do this when I created
the partitions. The RAID controller's BIOS is configured properly. The
RAID1 array is set to boot. Everything looks fine in the RAID controller's
BIOS.

In closing, how the heck do I install Windows XP on this system using a RAID
array?

If I can't boot from a RAID array, then these Intel mobo's are junk, and I
will never, ever buy one again. This board had great customer reviews on
the newegg site. I will be sure to post my unkind review on this board at
the newegg site if I can't get this working. :-)

Thanks for any help,
Nate

On Wed, 24 Dec 2003 15:13:05 -0700, Nate wrote:
When I go into the BIOS and disable CD-ROM boot so setup will stop
looping, this new board refuses to boot from the RAID1 HD's to continue
the setup. Now this may be because I couldn't use Partition Magic to set
the 1st primary partition as active. I had hoped maybe the Windows XP
setup would do this when I created the partitions. The RAID controller's
BIOS is configured properly. The RAID1 array is set to boot. Everything
looks fine in the RAID controller's BIOS.

The boot options (in your MB bios, not RAID bios) may have "scsi" or
"external" as boot options in addition to floppy, cd, ide0 etc. Try this
setting in place of IDE0.

--
Ray

You'll have to use XP to FDISK and Format the drives. My guess as to the
problem you're having is that you missed a step. When installing XP, early
on in the install you are asked to press one of the F Keys (it'll say which)
if you want to install any 3rd Party Drivers from a Floppy. Press the F Key
and then place a Floppy, onto which you have copied the RAID driver from
your motherboard's Installation CD, into the floppy drive. Then continue
the installation process.

Hope this helps

--
DaveW



"Nate" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

First off please don't be offended by my cross posting. I am in desperate
need of help here. I need to have this new system rolling for a Xmas
present for my Dad.

Here's what I got. I just purchased a new motherboard from
www.newegg.com.
An Intel D845PESV. I have a HighPoint RocketRAID 404 RAID card to use
with
it, and 2 WD SE 80GB HD's. I have confirmed that the RAID Controller,
cables, and HD's are all in working order by testing them on an ASUS
P4B533
after my troubles starting popping up.

Here is the problem. With the RAID controller and drive connected to the
brand new Intel board, I can no longer use PowerQuest Partition Magic 8.0
to
create the partitions on the HD's. I get an error #88 (specified drive
cannot be found). This works just fine on the ASUS board. So I tried to
use my Windows XP disk to create the partitions during the install. It
seemed to work, and install began. I hit F6 when prompted to load support
for the RAID controller. Setup copied its' needed files to the RAID
array.
Once it gets to the point where setup needs to reboot, the system will
reboot, and automatically start the setup again from the beginning. It
doesn't pause like with the ASUS boards requiring a key to be pushed to
boot
from the CD. So it just keeps looping Windows XP setup. When I go into
the
BIOS and disable CD-ROM boot so setup will stop looping, this new board
refuses to boot from the RAID1 HD's to continue the setup. Now this may
be
because I couldn't use Partition Magic to set the 1st primary partition as
active. I had hoped maybe the Windows XP setup would do this when I
created
the partitions. The RAID controller's BIOS is configured properly. The
RAID1 array is set to boot. Everything looks fine in the RAID
controller's
BIOS.

In closing, how the heck do I install Windows XP on this system using a
RAID
array?

If I can't boot from a RAID array, then these Intel mobo's are junk, and I
will never, ever buy one again. This board had great customer reviews on
the newegg site. I will be sure to post my unkind review on this board at
the newegg site if I can't get this working. :-)

Thanks for any help,
Nate

I did that part. F6 to install 3rd party mass storage drivers. It don't
work with this Intel mobo.

Thanks for the reply,
Nate


DaveW wrote:
You'll have to use XP to FDISK and Format the drives. My guess as to
the problem you're having is that you missed a step. When installing
XP, early on in the install you are asked to press one of the F Keys
(it'll say which) if you want to install any 3rd Party Drivers from a
Floppy. Press the F Key and then place a Floppy, onto which you have
copied the RAID driver from your motherboard's Installation CD, into
the floppy drive. Then continue the installation process.

Hope this helps

There were no other options. There are no HD's connected to the onboard IDE
channels. The 2 HD's are connected to the Raid Controller. I had it set to
boot from floppy 1st, CD-rom 2nd, Raid controller 3rd. It looks like I'm
screwed.

Thanks for the reply,
Nate



The boot options (in your MB bios, not RAID bios) may have "scsi" or
"external" as boot options in addition to floppy, cd, ide0 etc. Try
this setting in place of IDE0.

Try newer drivers?
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/brr404.htm

"Nate" wrote in message
...
I did that part. F6 to install 3rd party mass storage drivers. It don't
work with this Intel mobo.

Thanks for the reply,
Nate


DaveW wrote:
You'll have to use XP to FDISK and Format the drives. My guess as to
the problem you're having is that you missed a step. When installing
XP, early on in the install you are asked to press one of the F Keys
(it'll say which) if you want to install any 3rd Party Drivers from a
Floppy. Press the F Key and then place a Floppy, onto which you have
copied the RAID driver from your motherboard's Installation CD, into
the floppy drive. Then continue the installation process.

Hope this helps

In your post, you didn't mention that you had created the RAID array prior
to trying to install XP w/ the RAID drivers. I've never used an IDE RAID
(only SATA). On the system I just built, I had to create the array through
the motherboard BIOS first, then use the XP disk to format the drives and
install the RAID drivers (F6).

Good Luck,
Fitz

Thanks for the reply.

I did that first before anything else. I created a RAID1 mirror array
before I ever attempted to load XP.

Thanks,
Nate


Fitz wrote:
In your post, you didn't mention that you had created the RAID array
prior to trying to install XP w/ the RAID drivers. I've never used an
IDE RAID (only SATA). On the system I just built, I had to create the
array through the motherboard BIOS first, then use the XP disk to
format the drives and install the RAID drivers (F6).

Good Luck,
Fitz

Allready got them. v3.03. That's what I'm using.

Thanks for the reply,
Nate


'Show wrote:
Try newer drivers?
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/brr404.htm

Ha!

I figured something like that would be the outcome of this. Thank you for
the reply. :-) Not a server board, but yet, my RAID controller showed up
in the BIOS as a boot option. Go figure. I'm saying these Intel
motherboards are not half as great as I've heard and read. Long time ASUS
user here, and sticking with them now. My P4PE-X that took its' place is
working like a champ. Newegg should have received my RMA'd Intel board
today in fact. :-)

Thanks again,
Nate




I had the same problem with a D845BG and a Promise Controller. After
numerous emails, Intel support finally came right out and admitted
that the board and controller would not work. Get this. They said
the board wasn't a "server board". Never had the problem with Abit
or Asus. Using an Ausu P4P800E - Deluxe as my "server" now.