Dell & Windows XP Pro SP1 & Adaptec ATA RAID 1200A Install Instructions

D

Dan

For anyone struggling to find information about properly installing an
Adaptec 1200a into a Dell workstation running Windows XP Professional
+ SP1. I found the Adaptec documentation lacking the necessary,
detailed information.

My old setup:

Dell Dimension 8100 (just over 3yrs old)
XP Professional
Dell XP2 BIOS
A master CD-ROM drive and slave DVD drive on the Secondary IDE channel
1 Maxtor 60GB (original OEM drive) on the Primary IDE channel

My new (target) setup:

Dell Dimension 8100 (same machine as above)
XP Professional
Dell XP2 BIOS
A master CD-ROM drive and slave DVD drive on the Secondary IDE channel
2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus Hard Drives (part #ST3160023A)
Adaptec ATA RAID 1200A (Mirrored - RAID 1)


* My old Maxtor hard drive failed so I removed it from the case and
replaced it with one of the new Seagates. I did not change any BIOS
settings and the new drive was plugged into the Primary IDE channel,
just like the old one.

* I reinstalled XP by booting from the CD-ROM. Once XP was installed,
I installed Service Pack 1 + Critical Updates via the Windows Update
site.

* I shut down the computer and installed the Adaptec card into one of
the available PCI slots (slot #5, the bottom-most slot) ... no disk
drives attached.

* I restarted WinXP (should see Adaptec's RAID BIOS start message ..
"Press <Ctrl-H> to enter BIOS ..."). The operating system should
detect the new hardware and prompt for a driver install. If not, open
Device Manager (via Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab),
right-click on the unknown SCSI & RAID Controller item and select
"Update Driver".

NOTE: at this point, the OS sees the new device as a generic "Mass
Storage" device but we'll fix this shortly

* Here's where it gets a little tricky ...

If you choose "Have Disk" to update the driver using the supplied
Adaptec floppy disk, the supplied Adaptec CD, or drivers downloaded
from the Adaptec web site, the driver update will fail with the
following message: "The driver installation file for this device is
missing a necessary entry. This may be because the INF was written for
Windows 95 or later. Contact your hardware vendor." (only a Finish
button is available)

Instead, perform the following steps (these are taken directly from
Adaptec web site knowledgebase article/answer #5123):

"The error message is displayed because Windows XP recognizes the
Highpoint chipset on the 1200A and tries to load the driver embedded
in XP for the Highpoint chipset. This driver is no longer embedded in
the operating system release, so no driver is loaded.

To install the driver, follow this procedure:

1) In Device Manager, right-click on the Mass Storage Controller entry
under SCSI & RAID Controllers and select Update Driver.

2) Choose to "Install from a Specific Location", then select "Don't
search. I will choose the driver to Install." For the hardware type,
select SCSI and RAID controllers and click Next. On the next screen
Press Have Disk, then Browse to the location of the 1200A drivers. The
Adaptec 1200A should show up in the list of Models to select.

3) Choose the 1200A and continue. If prompted that this driver is not
signed or may be the incorrect driver, say Yes to continue.

4) During the driver installation, you may receive a message that a
file being copied is older than the existing file, do you wish to keep
the newer file? Select to overwrite the existing newer file with the
older version from the Adaptec 1200A drivers. If you keep the newer
driver, your card will not function properly.

5) Once the driver for the 1200A is loaded, Windows should now detect
another device, "Adaptec RCM Device". Repeat steps 2 & 3 for the
Adaptec RCM Device."


* Shut down the machine and plug the new, XP drive into the Adaptec
card, channel #1.

* Restart the machine and enter the BIOS ... set the Primary Master
IDE Channel to "None"/"Off" and bring up XP (note: leave Secondary IDE
settings alone because the CD and DVD drives are on these). The OS
should now recognize the hardware as an Adaptec 1200a (instead of the
generic Mass Storage device). Install the Adaptec GUI software from
the CD.

* Shut down the machine and plug the second hard drive into the
Adaptec card, channel #2.

* Restart the machine and enter the BIOS ... set the Primary Slave IDE
Channel to "None"/"Off" and bring up XP (note: leave Secondary IDE
settings alone because the CD and DVD drives are on these).

* Open the Adaptec GUI (there should be a system tray icon per GUI
install) and configure for RAID1 per instructions. Mirroring my 160GB
drives took ~2.5 hours.


Hope this helps ...

- Dan
 

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