Installing XP on Sata Raid - ARRGGH !!

  • Thread starter Thread starter pcmangler2000
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pcmangler2000

Hi,

I'm trying to install XP on a Fujitsu Scenic P300, using a PCI SATA
Raid card. I've got the right drivers on floppy, press F6, load the
drivers, choose partition etc, XP starts to install. Gets as far as
the first reboot - then it can't see the drive anymore ! Anyone seen
this behaviour before ?

Thanks !
 
If the motherboard BIOS detects the drive, then it should be able to
boot from the drive.
 
Previously said:
Hi,
Click to expand...
I'm trying to install XP on a Fujitsu Scenic P300, using a PCI SATA
Raid card. I've got the right drivers on floppy, press F6, load the
drivers, choose partition etc, XP starts to install. Gets as far as
the first reboot - then it can't see the drive anymore ! Anyone seen
this behaviour before ?
Click to expand...

A friend of mine very recently. Took him two days to get
the installation done. XP really has a design flaw here.

Arno
 
Does the SATA Raid board have ROM (in other words, is it accessible through
INT 13)?
 
I'm trying to install XP on a Fujitsu Scenic P300, using a PCI SATA
Raid card. I've got the right drivers on floppy, press F6, load the
drivers, choose partition etc, XP starts to install. Gets as far as
the first reboot - then it can't see the drive anymore ! Anyone seen
this behaviour before ?
Click to expand...

You need to go into the RAID card's setup and build an array and initialize
it prior to even thinking about loading any OS on it.






Rita
 
You need to go into the RAID card's setup and build an array and initialize
it prior to even thinking about loading any OS on it.

Rita
Click to expand...

Hmmm - not so sure about that. If that was truly the case, surely I
wouldn't have been able to install windows on the single drive
attached to the card ?. Once Windows had the right driver, it was
happy to allow me to partition, format & install - it was only on the
reboot that it failed to see the drive. The array I am planning on
creating is Raid 1, but I only have one drive at present, so at this
stage, there is no Raid array - the volume is a single HDD attached to
a raid card, BUT it's set to 'Passthrough' in the card's bios. I know
that it will work in single drive mode as I've tested it on another PC
- but that was testing booting off either drive in an already
configured raid 1 setup - and I installed XP on that one *after* I'd
created the mirrored array, so I've never actually tried installing XP
on a single drive on this card - only booting off a single drive (i.e.
a broken mirror) once it was all setup.

What it's doing in more detail is this:- From scratch, I boot the pc,
the raid card bios messages appear, showing a single drive detected,
then stating the pnp bios is loaded, then it boots from the XP CD, I
hit F6, load the card drivers from floppy, choose where to install
windows etc, and off it goes, copying all the files etc. When it gets
to the first reboot, instead of getting the raid card bios messages, I
get the PCs bios reporting that it's detected TWO identical drives,
then it sits there at that screen for about five minutes, then
eventually moves onto the raid card bios messages, showing the single
drive detected and that the pnp bios is installed - holds here for
five minutes more then gives a PC bios messages about HDD 0 failed -
twice.

If you cold-boot it, you get the raid card bios messages up, then
straight to 'OS not found' - no PC bios messages about two drives etc,
or delays.

So, maybe you are right... does anyone else know if it's possible to
install an OS onto a *single* drive attached to a raid card (even if
the card is set to 'passthough' mode for that drive) - or whether this
is just impossible and I really need to have the mirrored array
established before anything will behave ? ...and if so, how does it
then manage to work if you pull a drive afterwards ?
 
The issue is to make BIOS to see the drive the same way as Windows driver
sees it. If they don't, it won't start on the first boot.
 
Well, after some experimentation, I have established that the problem
is something to do with the Bios of the Fujitsu PC.
I took the same drives, raid card & driver floppy and successfully
installed XP on another PC. I have also done this on a single drive
connected to the raid card. When they go in the Fujitsu, all the
problems start. The BIOS on the PC is the very latest, so I don't
think downgrading is going to make any difference. The only hope I
have is of playing about with the BOS settings - but I think I'll just
give up at this point !
 
Hi,

I'm trying to install XP on a Fujitsu Scenic P300, using a PCI SATA
Raid card. I've got the right drivers on floppy, press F6, load the
drivers, choose partition etc, XP starts to install. Gets as far as
the first reboot - then it can't see the drive anymore ! Anyone seen
this behaviour before ?

Thanks !
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm wrong but a real RAID system does not need drivers to install the
OS. The OS should see it as one physical hard drive. The only thing you need
RAID drivers for is to talk to some sort of monitor software which talks to
the RAID controller and alerts you when a drive has a problem, and usually
this is installed after the OS is up and running.

This is from many years of working with RAID on enterprise-class windows
servers which may not be the same with XP, but I can't think of why it
shouldn't be the same.
 
just said:
Maybe I'm wrong but a real RAID system does not need drivers to
install the OS. The OS should see it as one physical hard drive. The
only thing you need RAID drivers for is to talk to some sort of
monitor software which talks to the RAID controller and alerts you
when a drive has a problem, and usually this is installed after the
OS is up and running.
Click to expand...

You are wrong. Look at it this way. You need the drivers to control the
RAID card not the drives themselves. Even a simple Adaptec SCSI card needs
drivers. These drives might already be included in the OS of your choice,
maybe not.
This is from many years of working with RAID on enterprise-class
windows servers which may not be the same with XP, but I can't think
of why it shouldn't be the same.
Click to expand...

Didn't do much hardware configuration, did you?






Rita
 
Rita Ä Berkowitz said:
You are wrong. Look at it this way. You need the drivers to control the
RAID card not the drives themselves. Even a simple Adaptec SCSI card
needs
drivers. These drives might already be included in the OS of your choice,
maybe not.


Didn't do much hardware configuration, did you?
Click to expand...

Never worked with enterprise class servers, did you?

Embedded raid controllers - all setup is in the BIOS. No drivers required. I
feel for you guys working with consumer crap.
 
just said:
Never worked with enterprise class servers, did you?

Embedded raid controllers - all setup is in the BIOS. No drivers
required. I feel for you guys working with consumer crap.
Click to expand...

Like I said, "Didn't do much hardware configuration, did you?"






Rita
 
just bob said:
Never worked with enterprise class servers, did you?
Click to expand...

Yep. Lots.
Embedded raid controllers - all setup is in the BIOS.
Click to expand...

You configure the RAID arrays and LUNs in the controller BIOS, as you do
with most 'consumer crap'.
No drivers required.
Click to expand...

That's where you are wrong. It's just that most enterprise OS's already
contain the required drivers for the RAID controllers. Either that or you
use the OEM CD (HP Smartstart etc.) to bootstrap the installer, in which
case the OEM disk contains the drivers.
Try installing Windows 2000 (or even 2003) server on a fairly new server
without using the OEM disk and you will fall flat on your face.
 
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