falure to detect HDD during OS installation.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jerry Chong
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J

Jerry Chong

I have 3 HDD, two of them (2 x 120GB) is set in a RAID configuration (RAID 0
or striping), this is done with the Silicon Image Sil 3114 SATA RAID
controller. It is one of two of the onboard RAID controllers on my system
(the other being the Intel RAID controller on the chipset). My third HDD (1
x 320GB) I am using to store my data.

I have actually manage to run this OS on the RAID already but that was done
not by installing a fresh copy of the WinXP Pro but copying an image of the
same OS from my old HDD (a WD 40GB) onto the array with an Norton Ghost.

My problem is simple, now I'm trying to do a fresh install (clean install)
of the OS WinXp Pro on the RAID but during installation all the HDDs were
not detected. The HDDs were detected during startup on a page before the
Window logo appeared. Using another HDD installed with Window XP OS, (this
was installed in the said HDD from the same computer much earlier) the
computer can be boot up and all the HDDs(the 3 others) are registered in
thedirectory and can be used normally(including functioning in Raid
configuration).

I'm all out of ideas as to what coud be wrong. I've checked and rechecked
the power and data cables of the drives and even clearing the cmos and also
flashing the bios.

Here are the spec for my pc:

2 x WD 120GB SATA I hdd
1 x WD 320GB SATA II hdd
Abit IC7-Max3 motherboard
Intel P4 3.0E (Prescott) processor with 800Mhz FSB, 1MB L2 cache
480W PSU
2 x 256MB Corsair TwinX memory
Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card
MSI FX5200 AGP 8X graphic card with 128MB ram

Hoping that someone can help with clue to this problem.
 
Jerry Chong said:
I have 3 HDD, two of them (2 x 120GB) is set in a RAID configuration (RAID
0 or striping), this is done with the Silicon Image Sil 3114 SATA RAID
controller. It is one of two of the onboard RAID controllers on my system
(the other being the Intel RAID controller on the chipset). My third HDD
(1
x 320GB) I am using to store my data.

I have actually manage to run this OS on the RAID already but that was
done not by installing a fresh copy of the WinXP Pro but copying an image
of the same OS from my old HDD (a WD 40GB) onto the array with an Norton
Ghost.

My problem is simple, now I'm trying to do a fresh install (clean
install) of the OS WinXp Pro on the RAID but during installation all the
HDDs were not detected.
Click to expand...

That's because the Windows install CD does not have drivers for your SATA
controllers. If you watch carefully, Windows will prompt you to load
third-party RAID or SCSI controllers in one of the early screens as the
install is booting. To activate this option, you have to hit a key. I
think (from memory) the key is F6. Then after windows install loads for a
while, it will ask for SATA controllers. That's when you insert the floppy
disk with the SATA controllers. Windows install will then continue from
there. -Dave
 
That's because the Windows install CD does not have drivers for your SATA
controllers. If you watch carefully, Windows will prompt you to load
third-party RAID or SCSI controllers in one of the early screens as the
install is booting. To activate this option, you have to hit a key. I
think (from memory) the key is F6. Then after windows install loads for a
while, it will ask for SATA controllers. That's when you insert the
floppy disk with the SATA controllers. Windows install will then continue
from there. -Dave
Click to expand...

Yes, during setup there should be a prompt to hit F6 to install the driver.
You have to watch for it or it will pass you by. And as I recall, the driver
must be laid out correctly on the floppy because it won't let you browse .
It think for mine it was txtsetup.oem in the root, and then the folder with
the xp driver.
 
Thanks a lot Dave. Its working now but did'nt know about that part of the
installation process until now. Thanks again.
 
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