problem with P4C800 deluxe and clean WinXP installation

[TheNet]

Hi all!
I just got a 250GB Maxtor HD (6Y250P0) which I connected to the Ultra
DMA bus on my P4C800-Deluxe Asus mobo. I used the MaxBlast 3 software
by Maxtor to format the disk (didn't partition it), and downloaded the
Promise Fasttrak RAID drivers from the asus website and created the
driver disk that WinXP installation CD asks for after pressing F6.
Everything seems fine so far: the system copies files and warns to
take floppy out of the bay before rebooting.
Then the system reboots... and that's where my troubles start!

GUI starts, and it hangs right at the beginning of the installation
procedure, when it says "39 minutes left". The little dots at the
right bottom corner of the screen stop winding, i.e., the progress bar
stops, and the CD-ROM stops rotating. Basically, it stops reading
files and the system just hangs...

If I botton-reset the PC, GUI claims that installation process will be
reinitialized, but then an error message pops up warning that the
proceure could not be completed (too fast to spot the file name in the
left top corner that causes the problem). The system then reboots, and
that goes on and on and on and on...

(Additional note: after giving some more tries, now the system hangs even
before starting to copy files to the HD. Namely, it hangs when the "analysis
of 239xxGB on fasttrx2k in progress"...)

I have installed WinXP (BTW, the CD contains SP2) on the very same
system even if using a different HD (160GB by Maxtor) and attaching it
to the IDE controller.

Does anyone have any idea about the problem and the related solutions?
My kindest regards,
Nicola

 

[RBM]

I've had glitches with on board promise controllers on two Asus boards.
unless you are creating a raid 0 can you install the operating system on one
drive and then create the mirror

 

[Nicola]

I've had glitches with on board promise controllers on two Asus boards.

unless you are creating a raid 0 can you install the operating system on one
drive and then create the mirror

I only have one drive that I believ I have set as a RAID 0 drive,
optimized for performance (security option is not available due to
absence of other drive).
At this point, I was wondering whether someone could help me step by
step create the most appropriate controller configuration to be used
in conjunction with the HD I own: should I use the IDE controller,
Ultra DMA or what?
The PowerMax utility by matrox states that the HD is ok, i.e. the disk
is error-free, so I do feel that it is turning to a motherboard
issue..

I would very much appreciate your help, I would look for all possibile
solutions before claiming an HD failure that may instead resolve as a
Mobo failure or inappropriate configuration.

Nicola

 

[RBM]

It sounds to me that it is a configuration situation. You can't make any
raid array with just one drive, so in bios change raid to non raid or better
just connect your hard drive to a non raid controller. This way you won't
have any driver issues, it should automatically be recognized and windows
should load

 

[Nickeldome]

It sounds to me that it is a configuration situation. You can't make any
raid array with just one drive, so in bios change raid to non raid or better
just connect your hard drive to a non raid controller. This way you won't
have any driver issues, it should automatically be recognized and windows
should load

Use the ICH5R controller. You won't have to load drivers during setup
because the controller is native. And it puts less stress on the cpu.
Also it's easier to configure trough the bios.

Nickeldome