neo 4 platinum raid boot problem

[frost_fenix]

i am new to the msi and nforce setup... i usually buy asus. now i am trying to setup a raid with my two raptor sata drives.

so far i have managed to setup a raid on the silicon image and intstall windows but when it finishes copying files and is supposed to go to the xp install screen (after it reboots) the computer boots to a black screen. i did the same thing on the nforce chipset where i set up raid and enabled it in bios on the sata ports, copied windows files and rebooted only to be greeted again by a black screen.

everything in bios can see the raid and on all the posts it shows up as being functional.

do i have to use the nforce raid? or can i use the silicon raid first? one other thing... im installing xp pro from a disk that came with a dell and it says something to the nature of "dell reinstall os disk" or somthing... anyone know off the top of their heads if that is a problem? i can try installing with a regular windows xp home disk but if anyone knows it could save me a few minutes

 

[Hawkeye22]

I have a bootable raid 1 array on this board. I used the nvidia controller as it supports 300mb/s (which my drives are) and the silicon image only supports 150mb/s.

In the raid controller setup, make sure the array is set to bootable. Once this is done, go into the bios and set the boot order to use the array. It shouldn't matter if it's the the second or 3rd device in the order as long as it's in there. I have mine set to CD first, array second.

The board should have come with 2 floppies, one for nvidia sata/raid and the other for the silicon image sata/raid. During the install of XP, you will get to a section where it says to hit F6 to add scsi devices. Put the correct floppy in your drive and press F6. Not sure about the silicon image, but for nvidia you need to select the "raid class controller" and "sata raid". You'll need to press F6 a second time to get back in and add the second driver. Leave the floppy in the drive for now and continue with the XP installation.

Also, depending on how old that XP install disk is, you may need SP2. You can always create a slipstream CD of XP that contains SP2. Just google for slipstream and you'll find lots of info on how to do it.

 

[frost_fenix]

i guess im going with the nforce raid then... i have the raid set to bootable and i did press f6 and load both drivers when installing windows. i have successfully copied the windows files to the hdds but havent been able to boot from them to get to the windows setup screen. :? it copies the windows folders and then when it reboots it posts and the screen goes black.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Hrmmm... worked with no problems for me. After using F6 to install both drivers, I continued on at which point it saw the array and it formatted the drives before continuing on with the install. I'm not sure what all is on your Dell CD, but perhaps you should try your XP Home CD.

 

[frost_fenix]

sounds like thats what im gunna do... i never really trusted all of those cd's.... well at least i have the COA and key for it so i can still use the xp pro! :lol: thanks for the input!

 

[Hawkeye22]

I thought I had read somewhere that some of the driver floppies didn't contain the correct WHQL drivers so windows would replace the drivers with windows PATA drivers or something like that. You can get the latest raid drivers from from nvidia's web site. I think there are instructions on how to create a driver disk that can be used when installing XP. The mobo manual also describes how to create a floppy driver disk.

Good luck!

 

[frost_fenix]

turned out to be the windows disk... i hate dells even more now. and i couldnt even use the cd key that was on the case of the old dell i was trying to take the windows xp pro from!! anyway i got it running just fine on the nforce raid with the included drivers disks. thanks for the suggestions. its always good to get a second opinion.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Glad you figured it out. It's a great board and runs solid.

 

[crazy032]

How do you select the raid array in the bootable devices? I can't seem to find it in there. It just says: Hard drive, cd rom, floppy, LS-120, etc...I did set the array to bootable when I created it.

 

[Hawkeye22]

How do you select the raid array in the bootable devices? I can't seem to find it in there. It just says: Hard drive, cd rom, floppy, LS-120, etc...I did set the array to bootable when I created it.

Assuming you created the array properly and successfully installed the OS onto it, go into the "Advanced BIOS features" then "boot sequence". The array will appear as one of the options.