Vista homepremium x64 upgrade and RAID 0

[Jonathon]

I was previously running windows xp home with RAID 0. I love RAID and I
never want to go back to a single drive again... I bought the upgrade version
of Vista hoping that I would be able to use Vista with my existing RAID
system. I also got the 64-bit media hoping that I could also upgrade to 4gb
or RAM. The first problem that I ran into was that the x64 vista upgrade DVD
cannot run from withing XP home edition. A screen popped up telling me to
try a clean install... The problem is that when I try and do a clean install
it tells me that my product key is an upgrade version and must be started
from within windows. So... I tried to install the 32-bit Vista on my RAID 0
setup but I kept getting an error that says Vista cannot update the registry.
And yes... I did load the proper drivers. If I can't get Vista x64 to run
on my RAID 0 I'm going back to windows XP!!! Any ideas???

 

[Jonathon]

Another question... It seems that it is impossible to upgrade to Vista x64
from XP x86. I personally think this is bullpucky since MS doesn't warn you
of this before you waste $140 on Vista planning to install the x64 version.
I'm surprised nobody has brought this one to court yet! Is there ANY legal
way to upgrade to Vista x64 from XP x86 or did Microsoft succeed in finding
another way to steal my money?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Installation choices for 64-bit consumer versions of Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932795

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

:

I was previously running windows xp home with RAID 0. I love RAID and I
never want to go back to a single drive again... I bought the upgrade version
of Vista hoping that I would be able to use Vista with my existing RAID
system. I also got the 64-bit media hoping that I could also upgrade to 4gb
or RAM. The first problem that I ran into was that the x64 vista upgrade DVD
cannot run from withing XP home edition. A screen popped up telling me to
try a clean install... The problem is that when I try and do a clean install
it tells me that my product key is an upgrade version and must be started
from within windows. So... I tried to install the 32-bit Vista on my RAID 0
setup but I kept getting an error that says Vista cannot update the registry.
And yes... I did load the proper drivers. If I can't get Vista x64 to run
on my RAID 0 I'm going back to windows XP!!! Any ideas???

 

[Jonathon]

Thanks for the quick reply. The page says:
"Do not remove the previous operating system before you start the Windows
Vista installation. This is because Windows Vista Setup has to verify that
your current operating system license supports the installation of a 64-bit
upgrade version."
This answers my question about how to upgrade for XP x86 to Vista x64... but
how can I use this process to preserve my RAID 0 setup? When I have
attempted installing this way I get errors. Is this an issue with the RAID
drivers? I've been using the latest raid drivers from nVidia for my chipset.

 

[xiowan]

Hello Jonathon:
You can use a Vista 32-bit O.S. upgrade version to upgrade from Windows
XP 32-bit but not to Vista 64 bit. To install the 32 bit upgrade in Raid 0
you will need to do a clean install with the upgrade disk. During the
install the old operating system will be kept (but not usable) even during a
clean install. The current Windows XP O.S. will show up in the files of the
new Vista 32 bit system as "Windows Old". You can copy files from it to your
new installation but you will no longer be able to use the XP operating
system. The upgrade installation saves the old system for two reasons: one
is to verify you are entitiled to use and Upgrade O.S. and secondly, I
"THINK" if you want to revert to XP for compatibility reasons, you can use
the Windows Old file for that purpose. As far as the installation of the new
O.S. in RAID 0, I think Vista may have the RAID drivers built in for many
boards......it was for my Intel DG965WH board with the ICH8R controller.
Your board may use the same RAID controller? If that is the case, I believe
if you have the bios configured for RAID and not SATA or Legacy IDE that
Vista will automatically install the RAID drivers. You would then just
select the drive(s) that you want to install Vista on to install the new O.S.
I think the entire drives will be used automatically for the RAID
installation.
If your board doesn't have the current RAID drivers built in to Vista, you
will need to load the RAID controller drivers during the Vista installation.
Instead of using the F6 method like XP, you are offered the option to "load
additional drivers" during the Vista install. With Vista you can install the
RAID drivers using a floppy, cd or USB drive containing the correct drivers
for your RAID controller. They should be available from the board
manufacturer's website.
If your board does have the Intel RAID controller, Intel has a lot of
info on their support site with instructions on installing RAID controllers.
I imagine your board manufacturer has similar support help available too.
I was lucky to find a online retailer that offers very good prices on the
retail versions of Vista and purchased the Vista Ultimate retail version for
the same price as CompUSA sold me the Home Premium retail version (about
$250). The retail version allows a reasonable number of re-installs and even
moving the O.S. to a new pc or making major hardware changes.

xiowan..........in tucson