HELP: P4C800-E Deluxe, Intel RAID and Windows detection pr..

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

Michail Pappas wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> searched around for the following problem in Google, yet was not able to
> find some good answers, so here I am (apologies in advance for the lengthy
> post).
>
> A couple of months ago I bought a brand new P4C800-E motherboard. Flashed
> the BIOS to the latest version (1.016 IIRC at the time) and then
> proceeded to tune the BIOS settings. I had (and still have) the following
> devices:
> - Maxtor 120Gb SATA hdd installed on the Intel ICH controller
> - NEC 2500 DVD-R (PATA) installed also as an Ultra-ATA (PATA) device on
> the same controller. IOW, I did not use the promise controller at all.
>
> In the BIOS I configured the IDE settings to use:
> - Enhanced mode, on
> - S-ATA
> - (Intel) RAID disabled
> - Promise controller fully disabled
>
> After that I installed Windows XP Home on the system and have been living
> happily with it, till the introduction of some demanding applications
> demanding on disk (plus the XP SP2, what a memory/disk hog). So I was
> seeking ways to improve my disk transfer.
>
> Then I stumbled upon the Intel application accelerator. As a test, I
> installed version 2.2.2 on my portable computer, to find out that the
> improvement in disk loading was immense. I wanted the same performance
> boost on my Asus P4C800 system as well!
>
> Alas, the Intel app accel was not available for Intel 875P-based mobos
> (like the Asus one above). _BUT_ the Intel _RAID_ app accel _was_.
>
> Downloaded the thingie and tried to install it in XP. No go. It was
> complaining about "unsupported platform". A closer look indicated that in
> order for this to run, an Intel RAID BIOS should be operating.
>
> And here is where my trouble starts. Went into BIOS and performed the
> following changes in IDE config:
> - Set (Intel) RAID to enabled (from disabled)
> - Doing so, makes an another option appear "Intel RAID BIOS" (or something
> like that). Also enabled that one.
>
> Tried to reboot. The initial XP boot screen came up and a couple of
> seconds later the system rebooted for no reason. After some (yet more)
> searching, I've found that I should possibly _first_ have enabled RAID
> functionality BEFORE formatting/fdisk'ing the disk and installing Win
> XP...   And something else: according to what I've read (even in the
> mobo manual), enabling the Intel RAID BIOS, should allow me to press
> CTRL+I during the bios post, in order to invoke the intel raid bios
> application. This does not happen!!! Kept pressing CTRL+I yet nothing
> happened.
>
> In any case, I don't have a RAID and definitely won't have one. Just
> wanted Intel RAID app accel to improve hdd performance (I've seen other
> systems in a similar setup: Intel RAID BIOS active, intel raid app accel
> installed and operating, but no raids, only a single disk, with very good
> hdd performance).
>
> My questions (and need all the help I can get here guys):
> 1) Why doesn't CTRL+I work? Something else I should do in the BIOS or
> elsewhere? My guess is that I've already prepared the HDD, with the BIOS
> setting for RAID set to off. Now it is set to on, the Intel BIOS does
> not see any "RAID-Ready" disks and does not come into play. Ideas?
>
> 2) Assuming that I have to reformat the disk and start from scratch here,
> having the Intel BIOS set to "enable", I wouldn't like to have to start
> from scratch. I'd like to move my entire XP installation (lotsa files and
> apps) to the new setup, can't stand to reinstall all these things. So was
> thinking something like: borrowing a large disk, installing it on the
> promise controller, using ghost to copy my xp disk to a ghost image on the
> borrowed disk, set BIOS option for the intel controller to "RAID"+"Enable
> RAID BIOS", format/fdisk my own disk, ghost restore my data back to my
> disk. Will it work? Will the system boot allright in this case, or should
> I expect problems of some sort? If the CTRL+I does work in this case,
> should I do something in the Intel RAID BIOS application?
>
> My specs are P4@3.2, with HT enabled in bios, single 512 DDR mem stick,
> the two storage devices I mentioned...
>
> Once more apologies for this lengthy post, I really don't know what to do
>  
>
> Best Regards and thanks in advance,
>
> Michail.-
>
>
IAA is for raid systems, you'll need a raid setup to install it. I
suspect the same is true for the Intel raid bios, it needs to detect a
raid setup to run.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

"Michail Pappas" <this@is.invalid> wrote in message
news:cng29b$sma$1@nic.grnet.gr...
> Hello all,
>
> searched around for the following problem in Google, yet was not able to
> find some good answers, so here I am (apologies in advance for the lengthy
> post).
>
> A couple of months ago I bought a brand new P4C800-E motherboard. Flashed
> the BIOS to the latest version (1.016 IIRC at the time) and then
> proceeded to tune the BIOS settings. I had (and still have) the following
> devices:
> - Maxtor 120Gb SATA hdd installed on the Intel ICH controller
> - NEC 2500 DVD-R (PATA) installed also as an Ultra-ATA (PATA) device on
> the same controller. IOW, I did not use the promise controller at all.
>
> In the BIOS I configured the IDE settings to use:
> - Enhanced mode, on
> - S-ATA
> - (Intel) RAID disabled
> - Promise controller fully disabled
>
> After that I installed Windows XP Home on the system and have been living
> happily with it, till the introduction of some demanding applications
> demanding on disk (plus the XP SP2, what a memory/disk hog). So I was
> seeking ways to improve my disk transfer.
>
> Then I stumbled upon the Intel application accelerator. As a test, I
> installed version 2.2.2 on my portable computer, to find out that the
> improvement in disk loading was immense. I wanted the same performance
> boost on my Asus P4C800 system as well!
>
> Alas, the Intel app accel was not available for Intel 875P-based mobos
> (like the Asus one above). _BUT_ the Intel _RAID_ app accel _was_.
>
> Downloaded the thingie and tried to install it in XP. No go. It was
> complaining about "unsupported platform". A closer look indicated that in
> order for this to run, an Intel RAID BIOS should be operating.
>
> And here is where my trouble starts. Went into BIOS and performed the
> following changes in IDE config:
> - Set (Intel) RAID to enabled (from disabled)
> - Doing so, makes an another option appear "Intel RAID BIOS" (or something
> like that). Also enabled that one.
>
> Tried to reboot. The initial XP boot screen came up and a couple of
> seconds later the system rebooted for no reason. After some (yet more)
> searching, I've found that I should possibly _first_ have enabled RAID
> functionality BEFORE formatting/fdisk'ing the disk and installing Win
> XP...   And something else: according to what I've read (even in the
> mobo manual), enabling the Intel RAID BIOS, should allow me to press
> CTRL+I during the bios post, in order to invoke the intel raid bios
> application. This does not happen!!! Kept pressing CTRL+I yet nothing
> happened.
>
> In any case, I don't have a RAID and definitely won't have one. Just
> wanted Intel RAID app accel to improve hdd performance (I've seen other
> systems in a similar setup: Intel RAID BIOS active, intel raid app accel
> installed and operating, but no raids, only a single disk, with very good
> hdd performance).
>
> My questions (and need all the help I can get here guys):
> 1) Why doesn't CTRL+I work? Something else I should do in the BIOS or
> elsewhere? My guess is that I've already prepared the HDD, with the BIOS
> setting for RAID set to off. Now it is set to on, the Intel BIOS does
> not see any "RAID-Ready" disks and does not come into play. Ideas?
>
> 2) Assuming that I have to reformat the disk and start from scratch here,
> having the Intel BIOS set to "enable", I wouldn't like to have to start
> from scratch. I'd like to move my entire XP installation (lotsa files and
> apps) to the new setup, can't stand to reinstall all these things. So was
> thinking something like: borrowing a large disk, installing it on the
> promise controller, using ghost to copy my xp disk to a ghost image on the
> borrowed disk, set BIOS option for the intel controller to "RAID"+"Enable
> RAID BIOS", format/fdisk my own disk, ghost restore my data back to my
> disk. Will it work? Will the system boot allright in this case, or should
> I expect problems of some sort? If the CTRL+I does work in this case,
> should I do something in the Intel RAID BIOS application?
>
> My specs are P4@3.2, with HT enabled in bios, single 512 DDR mem stick,
> the two storage devices I mentioned...
>
> Once more apologies for this lengthy post, I really don't know what to do
>  
>
> Best Regards and thanks in advance,
>
> Michail.-
>
Did you install windows raid controller drivers BEFORE swithing to raid in
bios?
Fisshead