WD Raptor Drive not working with XP....Help!!

[devdude]

I just did a big system upgrade using an ASUS A8N Premium motherboard
and an AMD Athlon 64 4000+ CPU. As part of this upgrade I planned on
using a 74Gb Raptor drive as my OS/Program files drive then using a
higher capacity SATA drive for file storage. The problem I am having
is that I cannot get the Raptor to format when I boot from the XP
installation disk. When I install XP on another disk (non-SATA) and
try to format the Raptor it still fails. XP is reporting the disk as a
68.9Gb drive. I tried using Wetern Digitals Data Lifeguard tools and
was able to format the Raptor. This tool reported the Raptor as 73.9
Gb but after formatting XP still says 68.9. At this point I can copy
and read files off of the Raptor but when I try to install XP and
reboot the system I get an error saying that the System32/Hal.dll file
is missing or corrupt. Yet I can read and see the file when I boot off
of the other drive. These issues are the same using XP Home Edition
and XP Professional.

I have already received a replacement drive from Western Digital
thinking it was a problem with the drive. But I am getting the same
problem on the new drive. I figure I must be doing something wrong, XP
doesn't recognize the SATA drive, or I am missing a driver or
something. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I
am quickly reaching the end of my patience.

 

[JAD]

I just did a big system upgrade using an ASUS A8N Premium motherboard
and an AMD Athlon 64 4000+ CPU. As part of this upgrade I planned on
using a 74Gb Raptor drive as my OS/Program files drive then using a
higher capacity SATA drive for file storage. The problem I am having
is that I cannot get the Raptor to format when I boot from the XP
installation disk. When I install XP on another disk (non-SATA) and
try to format the Raptor it still fails. XP is reporting the disk as a
68.9Gb drive. I tried using Wetern Digitals Data Lifeguard tools and
was able to format the Raptor. This tool reported the Raptor as 73.9
Gb but after formatting XP still says 68.9. At this point I can copy
and read files off of the Raptor but when I try to install XP and
reboot the system I get an error saying that the System32/Hal.dll file
is missing or corrupt. Yet I can read and see the file when I boot off
of the other drive. These issues are the same using XP Home Edition
and XP Professional.

I have already received a replacement drive from Western Digital
thinking it was a problem with the drive. But I am getting the same
problem on the new drive. I figure I must be doing something wrong, XP
doesn't recognize the SATA drive, or I am missing a driver or
something. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I
am quickly reaching the end of my patience.

XP SP2? or Later edition SP1? If not, then you must use the F6 option at
install. I'm not sure if there is a way to 'force' XP to accept the driver
afterwards or not.

 

[DaveW]

While installing XP to the Raptor you MUST, during the installation press F6
when the screen asks you if you want to load any 3rd Party Drivers, and then
insert the Floppy disk into your A:drive on which you have previously copied
your motherboard's SATA drivers.

 

[devdude]

Well I actually made some progress. This Mobo didn't come with any
SATA drivers other than RAID. I found that I had to modify the CMOS so
that the drive was being seen as a Large LBA. The Mobo was defaulting
to CHP. So I can now boot and install the operating system. Windows
still sees it as a 68.9Gb drive though.

The problems I am having now are related to drivers. I will ust have
to slug through them I guess. I randomly get a blue screen of death
with the DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error. Microsoft says this is
an issue with third party drivers. So I am now reinstalling XP to
remove the third party drivers I installed to see if that clears this
situation.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[John Doe]

Well I actually made some progress. This Mobo didn't come with
any SATA drivers other than RAID.

According to the web site data sheet, it supports SATA.

I found that I had to modify
the CMOS so that the drive was being seen as a Large LBA. The
Mobo was defaulting to CHP.

You just noticed that? Yes, your mainboard probably should identify
the drive correctly before Windows has anything to do with it.

So I can now boot and install the
operating system. Windows still sees it as a 68.9Gb drive though.

Looking at your mainboard, I am sure it supports your hard drive.
Did your whole problem start when Windows did not recognize it as
74GB? Is that when you started messing with BIOS settings? You
really shouldn't unless you know what you are doing or are willing
to spend lots of time playing with your computer.

Maybe you should slipstream service pack two (SP2) into Windows XP
before you install Windows XP.

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html
(beware of pop-ups)

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=148&model=539&modelmenu=1

Good luck.

 

[John Doe]

While installing XP to the Raptor you MUST, during the
installation press F6 when the screen asks you if you want to load
any 3rd Party Drivers, and then insert the Floppy disk into your
A:drive on which you have previously copied your motherboard's
SATA drivers.

Maybe that's true only for an installation of Windows XP which does
not include SP2.

I had no trouble at all installing Windows XP SP2 on my Raptor
without pressing F6 or installing any hard drive drivers.

 

[Bill's Dead]

Maybe that's true only for an installation of Windows XP which does
not include SP2.

I had no trouble at all installing Windows XP SP2 on my Raptor
without pressing F6 or installing any hard drive drivers.

Same here. Another slipstream link here
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?object=article.cfm&id=160