Drives not recognised on Win XP installation on new machine

[Ray]

I'm having no success trying to install Win XP on a brand new computer.

A system has been built to the following spec:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8I915P Duo Pro.
This has an on-board SATA RAID ICH6R chipset and an IDE RAID VT6410 chipset.

Hard Drives: 2 x Hitachi 160GB SATA 7200RPM

Memory: 2 x 512MB 533MHz DDR2 Kingston

CPU: Pentium 4 540

Graphics: Sparkle 6600GT PCI E 128MB TD

A DVD recorder and DVD combo is fitted.

The computer builders were informed that I wanted the machine with the RAM
to be configured in dual channel mode and with the drives configured in RAID
O. No OS was ordered as I would install my own Windows XP Pro Corp with SP.
I wanted the machine set up in this fashion insofar as was possible.

I'm not sure if the Bios settings are OK or whay changes if any to make but
when Setup begins, it very soon reports that it cannot find any hard drives
on the machine.

I am not sure if this is solely due to the driver and RAID software
installation. The MB came with a CD and IDE RAIDE function manual which
deals with transferring a driver from the CD to a floppy and describes its
installation. It says:
"Boot from the Windows CD to install the RAID drivers. When install XP from
the HDDs in Serial ATA controller, press F6 as XP boots up, then supply
serial ATA controller driver by this floppy disk."

The MB manual does not explain very well the differences between two
features on the MB;
a) the on-board SATA Raid (the ICH6R chipset) and
b) the on-board IDE Raid )IDE2, IDE3) which has a built in VT6410 chipset.
Both support RAID0.

The Gigabyte CD has a collection of 'Chipsets/Serial-ATA/RAID Network/Audio
drivers. There's a choice of 17 RAID drivers on the CD under which include
ones called 'Promise, Hance rapids, and Si3144 - all of which I think are
irrelevant. Also present, however, are three which might be correct, one
called 'Via 6410 RAID', 'GIGARAID' and 'SCSI'.
I've tried the first one but this does not solve the 'no hard drives'
message.

Can anyone advise on this probleb?

TIA

Ray

 

[Guest]

Youll want youre SATA drives connected to the intel controller,to set-up with
F6 only select the ICH6R or 82801 or 82802 or similiar,you'll also need to
configure the RAID array and enable it in BIOS,usually 2-3 places,advanced
chipset,integrated perephanals,then set up in sub-BIOS menu,after youve
exitted reg BIOS,for more info
try:http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/
desktop/sb/CS-010695.htm
Youre board uses RAID application accelerator matrix edition.Chk
downloads,chip
set software.

 

[Treeman]

I'm having no success trying to install Win XP on a brand new computer.

A system has been built to the following spec:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8I915P Duo Pro.
This has an on-board SATA RAID ICH6R chipset and an IDE RAID VT641
chipset.

Hard Drives: 2 x Hitachi 160GB SATA 7200RPM

Memory: 2 x 512MB 533MHz DDR2 Kingston

CPU: Pentium 4 540

Graphics: Sparkle 6600GT PCI E 128MB TD

A DVD recorder and DVD combo is fitted.

The computer builders were informed that I wanted the machine with th
RAM
to be configured in dual channel mode and with the drives configured i
RAID
O. No OS was ordered as I would install my own Windows XP Pro Cor
with SP.
I wanted the machine set up in this fashion insofar as was possible.

I'm not sure if the Bios settings are OK or whay changes if any t
make but
when Setup begins, it very soon reports that it cannot find any har
drives
on the machine.

I am not sure if this is solely due to the driver and RAID software
installation. The MB came with a CD and IDE RAIDE function manua
which
deals with transferring a driver from the CD to a floppy and describe
its
installation. It says:
"Boot from the Windows CD to install the RAID drivers. When install X
from
the HDDs in Serial ATA controller, press F6 as XP boots up, the
supply
serial ATA controller driver by this floppy disk."

The MB manual does not explain very well the differences between two
features on the MB;
a) the on-board SATA Raid (the ICH6R chipset) and
b) the on-board IDE Raid )IDE2, IDE3) which has a built in VT641
chipset.
Both support RAID0.

The Gigabyte CD has a collection of 'Chipsets/Serial-ATA/RAI
Network/Audio
drivers. There's a choice of 17 RAID drivers on the CD under whic
include
ones called 'Promise, Hance rapids, and Si3144 - all of which I thin
are
irrelevant. Also present, however, are three which might be correct
one
called 'Via 6410 RAID', 'GIGARAID' and 'SCSI'.
I've tried the first one but this does not solve the 'no hard drives'
message.

Can anyone advise on this probleb?

TIA

Ray

Yup,
Sounds like the chipset drivers aren't getting installed. You need t
research the GA-8I915P Duo Pro mobo website to see which chipse
drivers need to be installed for that board for raid and othe
functions. No drivers=no raid array.
Treema

 

[Richard Urban]

In building a computer, the only way to tell if everything is configured
correctly is to install an operating system - which you didn't allow the
builders to do. Now you are on your own!

Do you have a floppy with the correct raid drivers available so that they
can be loaded during the install? Do you have the M/B jumpers correct
configured to allow RAID operation? Is the bios likewise correctly
configured for RAID operation? These are all things that would have been the
responsibility of the builder, had you allowed him/her to continue. Now you
have to read the M/B manual to find out what you have to do.

There is no such thing as Windows XP "CORPORATE EDITION". You are trying to
install a pirated operating system on your computer.

You spend all that money on a new computer but don't spring for a legal
operating system!

That's foolish!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Adrian Parker]

Richard, that's a helpful reply.. though I guess your sig says it all
really.

Ray, why not phone the builders and ask them how to go about it..

 

[Richard Urban]

I told him what to do. Get drivers, check jumpers, check bios and read
manual. If he brought me the computer to work on that's exactly what I would
have to do.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Ray.

I don't have that board or chipset, but Andrew's advice sounds right. The
only drivers that need to be loaded via F6 during Setup are the ones for the
boot device. Any others can be added after WinXP is up and running after
booting from that device.

First, in CMOS, choose the boot device and make sure all BIOS support for it
has been enabled. (It might be best to leave all other HDs unplugged or
disabled until after successful installation of WinXP.) Then be sure that
you have the proper drivers for THAT device on a floppy. Then boot from the
WinXP CD-ROM and press F6 when invited - and wait. WinXP Setup, booted from
the CD, is smart enough to partition and format the HD and copy hundreds of
files to it. But when it finishes all this, it tries to reboot - from the
HD this time. If the boot device drivers have not been integrated into
WinXP by this point, it can't boot from that device. When you press F6,
WinXP will seem not to notice and will continue to copy all those files.
Then it will stop and ask for the floppy. You will, of course, need to know
which are the correct drivers to tell it to integrate into your copy of
WinXP, and those will have to be on that floppy.

After the drivers are installed, WinXP Setup should reboot from your SATA
RAID and finish installation in a half-hour or so. Then you can install any
additional drivers you need for non-boot devices.

This F6-to-install-drivers-for-the-boot-device procedure goes back at least
to Win2K. I had to use it to install Win2K on my SCSI-only system back in
2000. And I have to use it again every time I have to reinstall for any
reason, even though my non-boot drives are IDE now. Many drivers are on the
WinXP CD-ROM, but many - especially for HDs (such as SATA) that have come to
market since it was produced - are not on the CD. So DON'T LOSE THAT
FLOPPY! If you ever have to reinstall WinXP, you'll probably need it again.

RC