Problems setting up SATA drives and getting Windows XP to load on them.

[adrianpullar]

Looking around the internet it seems a lot of people are having
problems setting up SATA drives and getting Windows XP to load on them.
Much of this is in setting up the RAID configuration to get the
computer to recognise the discs in the first place. Below are my notes
which should help anyone to have a general overview of how to solve the
problem on their specific machine.

Setting up SATA Drives on an ASUS Motherboard.
Plug the drives into the SLi (red) slots on the motherboard and connect
power to the drives.
You need to enter the RAID setup to tell it that you do not want the
discs set up as RAID devices. This means using the Just A Bunch of
Discs option - which is called "JBOD (Single)" - and you need to do it
for each installed SATA disc. Here's how ........
* When the computer boots up, the message "Press <Ctrl-S> or F4 to
enter RAID utility" is displayed. Press F4.
* A screen appears with a series of boxes in it. In the bottom left box
entitled "Physical Drive", highlight the first drive - it is usually
designated drive zero.
* In the "Create Raid Set" box, highlight "JBOD (Single)" and press
enter. This sets the SATA disc up as a single RAID device.
* If you have a second SATA drive installed, go back to the "Physical
Drive" box, highlight the second drive - it is usually designated "1",
and repeat the process.
The SATA drives will now be recognised by the computer.

Configuring a mixture of SATA and IDE drives in the BIOS.
Enter the BIOS and under "Boot" select
- Hard Disc Drives. This lets you decide which drive to boot from and
lets you place the drives in any order you require.

Installing Windows XP on SATA Drives.
To install Windows XP on a new blank SATA disc you need to make
yourself a floppy disc with the SATA drivers on it. You are not going
to boot from this floppy, just show it to Windows XP as XP loads so
that it can load the drivers and recognise the SATA drives. This floppy
is refered to as a "RAID drivers disc", and you can create one from one
of the options on the CD that comes with the new motherboard. You can
also download the required files from the www.asus.com.tw site. See
"Creating a RAID Drivers Disc" in the manual - or look on the web for
more help if required - but it is not a hard procedure. So....
* You need a blank formatted floppy disc.
* Using the supplied CD copy the files to the floppy.
* Take the floppy out of the drive and boot off the Windows XP install
CD.
* Watch as windows begins the setup process and you will see the
message "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID
driver...". That's you - so press F6.
* Windows keeps rolling on for a while and then stops with the
message..
"Setup could not determine the type of one or more storage devices
installed on your system, etc...
* To specify additional SCSI adapters, CD-ROM drives, or special disk
controllers ..... press S".
* So here you place the floppy in the drive and press "S".
* A list of drivers on the floppy appears - you are looking for SiL
3114 drivers for Windows XP. eg
"Silicon imageSil 3114SoftRAID 5 Controller for Windows XP/Server
2003"
WIndows should now install on the SATA drive

 

[Guest]

Youre wrong in thinking a RAID configuration should'nt be set up before
you install the OS...Also,the RAID drivers on the floppy are really
controller
drivers that the RAID/SATA drives are connected to.To properly install RAID/
SATA on xp go to:
http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-010695.htm

 

[Mercury]

JBOD is rarely used - very rarely.

Most usual RAID levels are RAID 1 and 5 (for current workstation hardware).
RAID0 is foolishly common.

Many use RAID 0 - striping under the impression that they will get a magic
performance boost. Instead they get a more than doubling of the probability
of loss of data on those discs.

RAID1 - mirroring - increases data resilience via the mirror process but at
the cost of an extra disc for each disc. RAID5 increases data resilience not
quite as far and at a lower cost - it is a compromise between resilience and
cost - it costs less (discs) but the controllers cost more, read performance
is quite improved, but write performace is quite degraded. Often the loss of
write performance can be ignored as the ratio of writes to reads is often
low - 1:10 or so.

RAID is no replacement for backups.

Before implementig RAID always run failure simulations so you know what
happens and how to fix it. Disc drives do die, and just 'cos you have RAID
they don't stop.

HTH

- Tim

 

[Guest]

Thank you Adrian for your very detailed, step by step method to set up SATA
drives - specially in an ASUS motherboard.
I have ASUS A8V model and have been having a bit of a problem installing my
WinXP in the SATA drives.
One thing, and I credit that discrepancy to differences in models and Bios
Versions is that, in my motherboard RAID SETUP Utility there is no "JBOD
(Single)" option.
Mine simple lets me choose between RAID 0, 1 or 0+1...i think that's the
order, but no JBOD. My mobo bios version is 0219.

But in any case, thank you again.