Win2k and 2k3 lose floppy after start; need 3rd-party storage driver

[Peter E. Fry]

Kinda frustrating. Anybody got a method of adding a 3rd-party storage
driver without A) a floppy, or B) having an existing win installation?
I can run the old "winnt" copy setup, but I still don't see how to feed
it a driver (I can do it after install, but that doesn't do me much
good). The floppy is fine, by the way -- Windows just doesn't see it.
Setup can read the driver during the first copy, but not the second
(grrr). Given that the drive and cable came from another machine on
which Windows could see it, I suspect (a compatibility issue between the
driver and) the motherboard -- a Tyan S2726. The driver I need to
install is for the AMCC/3Ware 7000 series.

Thanks.

Peter E. Fry

 

[Dave Patrick]

Probably a long shot, but make sure the option (if it exists) for MBR and
boot sector protection in controller bios is off. If you're using an LS120
floppy drive then this can also cause a problem. Use a standard floppy drive
to get through text mode setup.


--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Kinda frustrating. Anybody got a method of adding a 3rd-party storage
| driver without A) a floppy, or B) having an existing win installation?
| I can run the old "winnt" copy setup, but I still don't see how to feed
| it a driver (I can do it after install, but that doesn't do me much
| good). The floppy is fine, by the way -- Windows just doesn't see it.
| Setup can read the driver during the first copy, but not the second
| (grrr). Given that the drive and cable came from another machine on
| which Windows could see it, I suspect (a compatibility issue between the
| driver and) the motherboard -- a Tyan S2726. The driver I need to
| install is for the AMCC/3Ware 7000 series.
|
| Thanks.
|
| Peter E. Fry

 

[Peter E. Fry]

Probably a long shot, but make sure the option (if it exists) for MBR and
boot sector protection in controller bios is off. If you're using an LS120
floppy drive then this can also cause a problem. Use a standard floppy drive
to get through text mode setup.

Nope. Ordinary floppy, boot sector protection off. It was a shot.
I've been messing with "unattended" options, and I've sort of loaded
the driver, but the thing gags miserably when it reboots -- first it
can't copy files, then it can't "verify the disk". This from a system
that booted Win2k from the same RAID minus a couple disks (which is one
reason I'm reinstalling). I can transfer files on and off of the RAID,
but Win2k3's install poops out. I'll try leaving the filesystem alone
next...

Peter E. Fry

 

[Dave Patrick]

Starting to sound typical of bad or mismatched RAM. You might give this a
go.
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Nope. Ordinary floppy, boot sector protection off. It was a shot.
| I've been messing with "unattended" options, and I've sort of loaded
| the driver, but the thing gags miserably when it reboots -- first it
| can't copy files, then it can't "verify the disk". This from a system
| that booted Win2k from the same RAID minus a couple disks (which is one
| reason I'm reinstalling). I can transfer files on and off of the RAID,
| but Win2k3's install poops out. I'll try leaving the filesystem alone
| next...
|
| Peter E. Fry

 

[Peter E. Fry]

Starting to sound typical of bad or mismatched RAM. [...]

Heh. I should have said -- I've tested the bugger thoroughly.
MEMTEST86 and the M$ memory tester. In fact, for another test, I threw
Fedora Core 2 test 1 on it -- I had it lying around. Aside from a few
bugs (smartd fails, probably because it doesn't get along with the
3Ware; and it fails to create stats for CPU0 for some reason), it runs
fine. And it appears to be able to see the floppy drive. Sigh.

Peter E. Fry

 

[Peter E. Fry]

OK, after spending quite a bit of time, the Internet wins:

http://www.thetechguide.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5090&st=40

...has a good discussion, and...

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=txtsetup...sftngp10&rnum=1

....has the method I ended up using. I tried for the textmode setup --
no fly: Using winnt, it crashed on the third file copy; from a bootable
CD, it died with "...txtsetup.oem caused an unexpected error (18)...".
For the heck of it, here are two resources for creating the bootable CD:

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=297
http://old.bink.nu/bootcd/

....just because it doesn't take much space and may shorten someone
else's search. We'll see if it works when all's said and done.
Hey Dave -- thanks for the replies.
And last, I'll leave off the rant. Ain't as though it'd be new or
different.

Peter E. Fry