Can't install XP on an i7 Raid system

[CdrDave]

I've recently upgraded my computer to an i7-920 with Vista Ultimate. Of
course, Vista isn't compatible with my recording studio hardware, so I need
to dual boot with XP for backwards compatibility. When I try to install XP
on a non-raid storage drive partition, it crashes to a blue screen with lots
of hex info and a request to verify disk health with chkdsk etc.

I thought it may be a conflict with the Raid setup, so I disabled /
unplugged my raid drives and tried again. I think I finally got XP to
install on the extra drive, but even setting the drive as the main boot disk
in BIOS, when XP starts, I see the splash screen, then it crashes to the same
blue screen. I can view the XP directory and files through Vista explorer.
I can even launch a few files like notepad etc.


Is there a compatibility issue with XP and the new i7 hardware?

 

[THE C. [MS MVP]]

CdrDave did you research Virtual PC options for your computer instead of dual
boot?
Make it a great day.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

I thought it may be a conflict with the Raid setup, so I disabled /
unplugged my raid drives and tried again.

Check this: Go into system setup and look at your SATA controller
configuration. Is it set to "RAID" or "AHCI" mode? If it is, you can do two
things to fix it:

1. Enable the setting that forces your SATA controllers to act as
conventional IDE/PATA controllers. This is the quick and very easy fix, but
it comes with the disadvantage of reducing the feature set offered by SATA.
It's mainly intended for use with operating systems that don't understand or
have drivers for SATA controllers.

2. Leave the RAID or AHCI mode enabled, and figure out where to get the
appropriate driver package to provide Windows XP setup when it says "Press
F6 if you have a third party RAID controller or driver diskette". You'll
need a floppy drive for this. USB drives can work, if your system BIOS knows
how to make a USB floppy drive appear as though it were a conventional
floppy drive.

You will have to do one of those things. Until you do, Windows XP will crash
because it loses access to the disk it is starting up from since it doesn't
have the needed driver software.

William

 

[CdrDave]

The C.:
Thanks, I installed Virtual PC 2007 and it worked like a charm, at least for
getting Windows XP to work. However, my firewire audio interface, that does
not like a 64 bit OS, still will not register with the computer. So I think
that, in spite of WindowsXP 'running' inside of Vista64, it's still a 64 bit
machine and the hardware won't work Which probably means, I have to dump
Vista64 all together, or do a true dual boot setup with different HDDs and
switch between them in bios.

William:
Thanks. Before Virtual PC, I did change the raid setup in bios to IDE, and
was able to begin the installation process, however, it still crashed to
bluescreen. I do not have a FDD on this computer, so I'll have to try to
figure out the thumbdrive replacement and see if raid drivers would work for
XP, assuming I can find them.