A7N8X-E Deluxe: Installation of Windows XP with RAID

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Tone-EQ

I've just bought two WD 36.7Gb Raptors for my A7N8X-E Based system.

I currently have two 120Gb Diamondmax 9's with various partitions. I want to
setup the two Raptors in RAID 0 (already done in SATA BIOS) and reinstall
Windows using the RAID array. I've seen the prompt during installation of XP
asking for SATA drivers, is SIISUPP.VXD the correct file to put on a floppy,
any others?

I know I need to use a copy of Windows with at least SP1, which I already
have, but is there any known problems with SP2? I have a slipstreamed copy
Windows XP and SP2 with my serial key and other information already
preloaded.

--
Regards,
Tony. (tony.cue(at)tiscali.co.uk)

Discogs: building the definitive database of electronic music...
http://www.discogs.com

Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe (Revision 1.01, BIOS 1008)
AMD AthlonXP 3200+ (Barton, 11 x 200, 1.65VCore)
1Gb (2 x 512) Samsung PC3200 400Mhz DDR RAM Dual Channel
(M368L6423DTM/CC400)
Leadtek WinFast GeForce 4 Ti4200 128Mb (A250LE TD MyVIVO)
19" Mitsubishi 1280x1024 100Hz 0.24 dot pitch (Diamond Pro 930SB BK)
2 x 120Gb Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 8Mb Cache (6Y120P0, Primary Master,
Primary Slave, no RAID)
 
Tone-EQ said:
I've just bought two WD 36.7Gb Raptors for my A7N8X-E Based system.

I currently have two 120Gb Diamondmax 9's with various partitions. I
want to setup the two Raptors in RAID 0 (already done in SATA BIOS)
and reinstall Windows using the RAID array. I've seen the prompt
during installation of XP asking for SATA drivers, is SIISUPP.VXD the
correct file to put on a floppy, any others?

I know I need to use a copy of Windows with at least SP1, which I
already have, but is there any known problems with SP2? I have a
slipstreamed copy Windows XP and SP2 with my serial key and other
information already preloaded.
Click to expand...

I'm in a similar position to you except I've just bought a single 80GB
Hitachi SATA drive which I'm yet to reinstall XP SP2 with a slip-streamed
CD. I was intially confused by exactly what files to put on the floppy when
pressing F6 during the install.

The Asus m/b CD is not that clear. Under Drivers\Sata when you browse the
disc, is a list of files; copy the lot to a floppy, ignoring the listed
folders. I've yet to install XP on my new SATA drive but am confident this
is the correct procedure. Before you do that however, I'd consider flashing
your Bios to v1012e which updates the RAID firmware IIRC. I think this Bios
revision also adds a RAID/SCSI boot option over v1011 that my board shipped
with.

If you want pucker ACPI power management where the fans turn off in Standby
mode, don't forget to set this up in the Bios *before* you install XP, it
won't work setting it after installing the OS! I'm not yet sure if you need
to reset your boot device order or not (I'm guessing you may have to set HD0
to OFF).

Others here with direct experience may fill in any gaps. As for SP2, like
any major s/w revision, there will always be some who have issues, I
haven't - quite the opposite, much of the kernel has been recompiled & it
seems to run both faster & more smoothly. The tightened Security defaults
seem to be the main source of problems with SP2, so be prepared.

RAID 0, rather you than me :) Storage Review stated it was a waste of time
for the reduced level of reliability for a *non-server setup*. They also
stated this would fall on deaf ears! I may buy a 2nd 80GB Hitachi (quiet
drive!) & play with RAID 0 myself to directly compare it then return to
non-raid, having imaged the drive 1st of course. I hope you have good
speakers to drown the noise from those Raptors!
 
dino said:
sorry timed out

http://www.siimage.com/home.asp

under search and support type drivers...
then downloads folder on left and then SiL3x12..
Click to expand...

Interestingly, SI state these are general drivers & that m/b manufacturers
may have specific ones. presumably the same goes for WinUpdate which I used
in this case. Whatever, mine appears to be a signed & later version than
from SI's own site?!

I panicked a bit when pressing F6 during a clean install 'cos nothing seemed
to happen. After a couple of retries, I left it alone to discover that the
driver had indeed been loaded - that'll teach me not to watch the light on
my floppy drive! I had no intention of doing a clean install at this stage
but was a long-winded way of writing the correct boot.ini entry which ended
up being identical as it happened. I'd already loaded the SI driver to my
main copy of XP which I imaged onto the SATA drive, rebooted, let it find
the new h/w & rebooted again. Works fine, though it's actually booting from
my C drive on the IDE bus, so I don't yet know how much of a delay there
would be booting directly from the single SATA disc. The idle noise from
this Hitachi h/d is virtually inaudible & seek noise is also very low - just
hope it remains so. My introduction to SATA has been fairly pain free.

Regards
 
I am running a Max120gig..silence would be nice..this thing sounds like a
rabbit eating a carrot everytime you access it.
 
I wouldnt advise the use of any drivers from winupdate, use those from manu.
only
Winupdate actually had a corrupt SI driver, previously, they also did for
nvidea.
 
I wouldnt advise the use of any drivers from winupdate, use those from
manu.
only
Winupdate actually had a corrupt SI driver, previously, they also did for
nvidea.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Windows Update screwed up my system when I tried to download a updated
Nvidia driver for my Leadteq branded Ti4200, al least driver rollback fixed
it sharpish.
 
Interestingly, SI state these are general drivers & that m/b manufacturers
may have specific ones. presumably the same goes for WinUpdate which I used
in this case. Whatever, mine appears to be a signed & later version than
from SI's own site?!

I panicked a bit when pressing F6 during a clean install 'cos nothing seemed
to happen. After a couple of retries, I left it alone to discover that the
driver had indeed been loaded - that'll teach me not to watch the light on
my floppy drive!
Click to expand...

I'll keep an eye out for that, thanks!
I had no intention of doing a clean install at this stage
but was a long-winded way of writing the correct boot.ini entry which ended
up being identical as it happened. I'd already loaded the SI driver to my
main copy of XP which I imaged onto the SATA drive, rebooted, let it find
the new h/w & rebooted again. Works fine, though it's actually booting from
my C drive on the IDE bus, so I don't yet know how much of a delay there
would be booting directly from the single SATA disc. The idle noise from
this Hitachi h/d is virtually inaudible & seek noise is also very low - just
hope it remains so. My introduction to SATA has been fairly pain free.
Click to expand...

Everything seems OK hardware wise, I'll know for sure tomorrow when I boot
from an install XP on the SATA drives.

--
Regards,
Tony. (tony.cue(at)tiscali.co.uk)

Discogs: building the definitive database of electronic music...
http://www.discogs.com
 
I've just bought two WD 36.7Gb Raptors for my A7N8X-E Based system.
I'm in a similar position to you except I've just bought a single 80GB
Hitachi SATA drive which I'm yet to reinstall XP SP2 with a slip-streamed
CD. I was intially confused by exactly what files to put on the floppy when
pressing F6 during the install.

The Asus m/b CD is not that clear. Under Drivers\Sata when you browse the
disc, is a list of files; copy the lot to a floppy, ignoring the listed
folders. I've yet to install XP on my new SATA drive but am confident this
is the correct procedure. Before you do that however, I'd consider flashing
your Bios to v1012e which updates the RAID firmware IIRC. I think this Bios
revision also adds a RAID/SCSI boot option over v1011 that my board shipped
with.
Click to expand...

Will do that right now for the BIOS, as I'm still using 1008. I have just
downloaded the latest SATA drivers from the Asus site.

Am I correct in thinking that I will need to select SCSI as first boot
device to use the SATA drives to boot from?
If you want pucker ACPI power management where the fans turn off in Standby
mode, don't forget to set this up in the Bios *before* you install XP, it
won't work setting it after installing the OS! I'm not yet sure if you need
to reset your boot device order or not (I'm guessing you may have to set HD0
to OFF).
Click to expand...

That's how it's setup now and I shall be doing the same...
Others here with direct experience may fill in any gaps. As for SP2, like
any major s/w revision, there will always be some who have issues, I
haven't - quite the opposite, much of the kernel has been recompiled & it
seems to run both faster & more smoothly. The tightened Security defaults
seem to be the main source of problems with SP2, so be prepared.
Click to expand...

I will continue to use my own choice of firewall software, Windows and
security don't belong in the same sentence unless there is fair amount of
swearing... ;-)
RAID 0, rather you than me :) Storage Review stated it was a waste of time
for the reduced level of reliability for a *non-server setup*. They also
stated this would fall on deaf ears! I may buy a 2nd 80GB Hitachi (quiet
drive!) & play with RAID 0 myself to directly compare it then return to
non-raid, having imaged the drive 1st of course. I hope you have good
speakers to drown the noise from those Raptors!
Click to expand...

They're not as noisy as I thought they would be. With one of the case side
panels off they sound like a 24x or 32x CD-ROM reading at full speed, with
the case fully closed it's just like having another fan.

Audio output is connected to a 400w (RMS) Aiwa amplifier, with a pair of
Technics wired up, so no problems there!

Thanks to everyone for their input on this, it is vey much appreciated.

--
Regards,
Tony. (tony.cue(at)tiscali.co.uk)

Discogs: building the definitive database of electronic music...
http://www.discogs.com
 
Tone-EQ said:
I'll keep an eye out for that, thanks!
Click to expand...

Don't expect to see any floppy disc activity until it prompts to press the
"S" key, there wasn't any when I retried with a different winnt.sif file.
Everything seems OK hardware wise, I'll know for sure tomorrow when I
boot from an install XP on the SATA drives.
Click to expand...

You may have to change the boot order only if you have any IDE h/ds attached
with active partitions though I'm not absolutely sure 'cos I'm currently not
booting off my single SATA disc which has XP on it. This arrangement boots
very quickly so will be very interested to hear about your SATA boot time.
I've recently had problems with WinUpdate versions of SoundStream & nVidia
video drivers. They are often no more than signed but broken versions (on my
PC at least). So I take back what I said about using WinUpdate as I do about
the noise from the Raptors - Storage Review Com states they are quiet.

Regards
 
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