Fasttrak 378 compatible driver, anyone?

[Guest]

My primary computer these days is a Power Mac G5 but I do happen to have a
2-year-old, FX-53-system. Just for grins and giggles, I downloaded the beta,
only to find that the FastTrak controller isn't supported and my extensive
Googling has proved fruitless in finding a compatible driver (the motherboard
is an Asus SK8V, if you're interested). Because it's an oldish board, it also
has a PATA controller and I plugged in an old 160GB WD Caviar I happened to
have laying around. I formatted and set a primary partition using Acronis
Disk Manager and booted the system from the Vista disc. The partition is
75GB, so there is more than ample space for installation. However, this
method fails because "the volume does not meet the criteria for
installation".

So, is there any way to get it installed on a 2-year-old system with the
following specs?

FX-53
2x75GB WD Raptors in a RAID0 array
1x160GB WD Caviar (PATA)
2GB Copper OCZ RAM (PC3200, IIRC)
Radeon X800 Platinum
Audigy ZS

Like I said, I'm only doing this for grins and giggles, but it would be good
if it could be made to work. I think the SATA controller driver route is the
only one to go down - if only I could find a bleedin' driver!

Any clues, anyone?

Cheers, folks!

 

[Michael]

Things you can try:
1. Install the 160 GB Caviar on IDE - like a regular HDD.
2. Install Vista on RAID0 from XP.
Michael

 

[Guest]

Io have seen success from using the XP driver for your controller. You will
have to create the driver floppy using makedisk. Boot from the cd and click
the driver button on the partition screen. Point it to the floppy disk. If no
floppy is present on your machine you may be able to copy the contents of the
floppy to a flash drive.

Here is the link:

ftp://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/ide/pdc20378/378ata_100104528.zip

 

[Guest]

Things you can try:
1. Install the 160 GB Caviar on IDE - like a regular HDD.
2. Install Vista on RAID0 from XP.
Michael

With all due respect, Michael, you didn't read my post properly (if at all).
I CANNOT install to the Caviar because of the error I mentioned in my OP. I
cannot install it from within XP because it informs me that "a device driver
required to start your machine is not compatible. Your system may not boot
after installation. Do you wish to continue?"

If I select 'yes' what happens is that I receive a BSOD after installation;
the code being '0x7' or '0x9' or somesuch.

Cheers for replying, though.

 

[Guest]

Io have seen success from using the XP driver for your controller. You will
have to create the driver floppy using makedisk. Boot from the cd and click
the driver button on the partition screen. Point it to the floppy disk. If no
floppy is present on your machine you may be able to copy the contents of the
floppy to a flash drive.

Here is the link:

ftp://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/ide/pdc20378/378ata_100104528.zip

Unfortunately, it does not work. I tried it (and the instructions to have
the driver in the root of the floppy, and removing the oemtxt file) and setup
merely informs me that "no compatible driver was found" or words to that
effect.

I have one other system here, but it's so near the minimum spec, that I fear
it would be a very painful experience to run it (if, indeed, it installed at
all). It's only got 384MB RAM for a start and no graphics card (it's a
Shuttle box - and it's got an on-board chip which is currently munching 64MB
of the available RAM). IIRC, Vista requires a dedicated DX9-compatible card,
so I'm not even going to contemplate installation.

I could move the RAID to the VIA controller, but this is a *VERY*
tempramental box and it does not like having its innards messed with. The
last time I messed with it, it refused to boot at all for a couple of days.

The other thing I forgot to mention in my reply to Michael was that,
although installation on the Caviar is theoretically possible, it does,
obviously, require access to the boot partition to write to the boot.ini and
it cannot do that if it cannot 'see' it.

The only reason I want to install the ruddy thing is to compare and contrast
it to OS X, which is one of the best OSs I have ever used (and I've used a
few in my time). Is Jobs going to be suing Gates for plagarism?

Cheers for any other assistance!

 

[Ed.]

When you say you put the driver in the root on the floppy, do you mean you
took the files out of the XP folder and put them in the root of the floppy?
That is what I did to get mine working. I used the floppy that came with my
mother board and created a new one. On the new one I just took the files out
of the XP folder and put in the root of the floppy along with what was
already there. Vista then found them and installed and I was on my way.

 

[Michael]

I meant to be brief...
Get rid of the Promise drivers by:
1. Disable Promise in BIOS, or
2. Remove the power connectors from the Promise HDD's - you might get a HDD
missing message at Promise boot. The idea is to have just one HDD present.
Later, you can re-enable the Promise controller/plug in the HDD's.

Then boot from the Vista CD - select boot device either in BIOS or with F8
(or whatever your BIOS accepts) key at boot.
You might be able to install Vista or you will get a "no operating system
found" pop up in Vista install screen.
For the later, you can either install XP on the HDD or just copy and paste
the C:\root files and the Windows folder... I don't know what OS files Vista
"needs" to confirm on install.

Michael