Blue screen while trying to install XP on second partitiion

I'm trying to install a separate XP system on the second partition of
my Promise SATA raid set. I have 75 gb unallocated on the second
partition of the drive.

When I try booting the XP CDROM it doesn't show me the unallocated
space on the drive. Only the partition on which my current system
resides. I've tried creating the partition using PartitionMagic. I've
even tried creating a second primary partition on the disk. No go. The
XP installation sees nothing here but the current boot partition.

I tried running setup from the existing system and telling it to copy
the setup files to the new partition -- which is now formatted with
NTFS -- that goes well with the system rebooting and starting the
stand-alone install off the copied files. At some point in this process
it tries to boot XP to continue the setup process and I get a blue
screen. It says something about not being able to initialize a process.

Questions:

Should I be able to see the unallocated space at the end of this drive
when installing XP off the CDROM? Is this an aberation due to the
fasttrack raid controller or would windows be too obtuse to see it
anyway?

Is there something inherent with the setup process that won't allow it
to take place on the second partition of the disk? Or else, again, is
this because of the fasttrack drive controller.

-- Les Walker

Les Walker wrote:
> I'm trying to install a separate XP system on the second partition
> of my Promise SATA raid set. I have 75 gb unallocated on the second
> partition of the drive.
>
> When I try booting the XP CDROM it doesn't show me the unallocated
> space on the drive. Only the partition on which my current system
> resides. I've tried creating the partition using PartitionMagic.
> I've even tried creating a second primary partition on the disk. No
> go. The XP installation sees nothing here but the current boot
> partition.
>
> I tried running setup from the existing system and telling it to
> copy the setup files to the new partition -- which is now formatted
> with NTFS -- that goes well with the system rebooting and starting
> the stand-alone install off the copied files. At some point in this
> process it tries to boot XP to continue the setup process and I get
> a blue screen. It says something about not being able to initialize
> a process.
>
> Questions:
>
> Should I be able to see the unallocated space at the end of this
> drive when installing XP off the CDROM? Is this an aberation due to
> the fasttrack raid controller or would windows be too obtuse to see
> it anyway?
>
> Is there something inherent with the setup process that won't allow
> it to take place on the second partition of the disk? Or else,
> again, is this because of the fasttrack drive controller.

First - what SP level is said Windows XP CD?

Second - have you tried using the F6 method to install the drivers for the
FastTrack RAID controller during the install?

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

The CD that I'm using is sp2. I hadn't thought to load the drivers
manually; I've never actually done that before.

Anyway, at your suggestion I put the fasttrack drivers on a floppy and
loaded it using F6. Windows setup now shows both partitions on the raid
set. Problem solved! The rest of the installation went smoothly.

Thanks for your help!

-- Les Walker

Shenan Stanley wrote:
> Les Walker wrote:
> > I'm trying to install a separate XP system on the second partition
> > of my Promise SATA raid set. I have 75 gb unallocated on the second
> > partition of the drive.
> >
> > When I try booting the XP CDROM it doesn't show me the unallocated
> > space on the drive. Only the partition on which my current system
> > resides. I've tried creating the partition using PartitionMagic.
> > I've even tried creating a second primary partition on the disk. No
> > go. The XP installation sees nothing here but the current boot
> > partition.
> >
> > I tried running setup from the existing system and telling it to
> > copy the setup files to the new partition -- which is now formatted
> > with NTFS -- that goes well with the system rebooting and starting
> > the stand-alone install off the copied files. At some point in this
> > process it tries to boot XP to continue the setup process and I get
> > a blue screen. It says something about not being able to initialize
> > a process.
> >
> > Questions:
> >
> > Should I be able to see the unallocated space at the end of this
> > drive when installing XP off the CDROM? Is this an aberation due to
> > the fasttrack raid controller or would windows be too obtuse to see
> > it anyway?
> >
> > Is there something inherent with the setup process that won't allow
> > it to take place on the second partition of the disk? Or else,
> > again, is this because of the fasttrack drive controller.
>
> First - what SP level is said Windows XP CD?
>
> Second - have you tried using the F6 method to install the drivers for the
> FastTrack RAID controller during the install?
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html