ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe RAID problems

[Peter]

Hi! I've had ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe for a few months and finally decided to
make a RAID 0 array. I bought another hard drive, so currently I have two
36GB WD Raptors and one 250GB WD SATA. When I went into BIOS nVidia RAID
setup and marked the two Raptors as parts of my RAID array, both drives
dissapeared. I was able to still see them in the nVidia RAID setup, but the
system stopped detecting them when booting up. So, needless to say I was
unable to install Windows XP. As soon as I removed the RAID array, both
drives became visible. Then, I decided to try the Silicon RAID controller,
but it failed to detect any drives at all.
Am I doing something wrong or I simply have a defective motherboard?

Thanks

 

[Paul]

Hi! I've had ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe for a few months and finally decided to
make a RAID 0 array. I bought another hard drive, so currently I have two
36GB WD Raptors and one 250GB WD SATA. When I went into BIOS nVidia RAID
setup and marked the two Raptors as parts of my RAID array, both drives
dissapeared. I was able to still see them in the nVidia RAID setup, but the
system stopped detecting them when booting up. So, needless to say I was
unable to install Windows XP. As soon as I removed the RAID array, both
drives became visible. Then, I decided to try the Silicon RAID controller,
but it failed to detect any drives at all.
Am I doing something wrong or I simply have a defective motherboard?

Thanks

The NVIDIA RAID needs RAID drivers. They can be installed by
pressing F6 early in the Windows install process.

The drivers are presented on a floppy disk. The Asus CD
probably has a couple of "Makedisk" options, which will
put a driver folder on the floppy for you. Or you can copy
the necessary files yourself.

For example, in the latest 8.22 chipset download from Asus,
you'll find a folder containing:

32nforce822\Disk\WinXP\sataraid

nvraid.cat
nvraid.inf
nvraidco.dll
nvraid.sys
idecoi.dll
nvatabus.sys
txtsetup.oem <---
disk1

Quoting from the txtsetup.oem file: "Txtsetup.oem is a generic
way to install Storage adapters to get them through textmode
setup."

The "Makedisk" utility should just copy a folder of stuff like
that to a floppy for you.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Peter]

So, it's normal that the drives disappear in the BIOS setup once I put them
in a RAID array?

 

[kony]

So, it's normal that the drives disappear in the BIOS setup once I put them
in a RAID array?

They may no longer be enumerated on (what is often the first
bios menu page), and to boot from them the bios boot order
is set to include this alternate controller or at least a
more generic "try all" or "other"... however your bios words
it.

Try providing the raid driver as Paul suggested during
windows installation.

 

[Boba & Ilinka]

Piter, read instruction of the motherboard. There is step by
stepinstruction. Generaly speaking on the flopy there is a few drivers and
in one of the step of XP installation you have to point on raid drivers.
Boba Vankufer

 

[John]

So, it's normal that the drives disappear in the BIOS setup once I put them
in a RAID array?

Im working from a murky memory but I think yes. They do disappear.
They appear in one of the screens as you boot up itll say something
RAID array blah blah on mine and then itll say hit F6 or something to
get into the RAID setup screen after you enable it in the regular bios
setup screen.

Obviously in win you have to have the drivers as was mentioned which
is part of the NVIDIA package driver download package.

 

[John]

Im working from a murky memory but I think yes. They do disappear.
They appear in one of the screens as you boot up itll say something
RAID array blah blah on mine and then itll say hit F6 or something to
get into the RAID setup screen after you enable it in the regular bios
setup screen.

Obviously in win you have to have the drivers as was mentioned which
is part of the NVIDIA package driver download package.

Im talking about a CHAINTECH VNF4 so its not exactly the same but all
my boards have had separate screens for RAID and even the HDs
connected to the controller thats not the main builtin controller.