please help - can't add new HD to system

[MoonSafari]

i have recently bought a 2nd hard drive to expand my storage capabilities. i also want to refortat my current hard drive and reinstall XP as it has become bogged down with software i no longer use. i am trying to install this new hard drive so that i can back my current one up before reformatting. but there are issues...

for one reason or another my current drive was installed onto the onboard promise RAID controller, despite the fact that i did not have a 2nd HD at the time and the RAID setup is therefore incomplete. since i want to backup my current drive onto my new drive i do not want the new one added to the RAID array but i can not get windows to recognize it on the other onboard SATA controller. plugging it into SATA port 2 results in regular boot up from the drive on the RAID controller but the drive is not seen by XP. plugging in into SATA port 1 results in the computer trying to boot from it and asking for a boot disk. plugging it into the RAID 2 slot on the promise controller means i have to add the drive to the RAID array which i'm guessing will result in the current drive being mirrored or striped onto it...which is not what i want.

please help me understand what i'm doing wrong. i just want to back up my drive, take both drives off the RAID controller and put them onto the normal SATA controller and reinstall XP with 2 seperate and distinct drives.

help would be most appreciated.

 

[choirbass]

even after reading, im still a tad confused about what the problem is exactly, though i do get that theres difficulty detecting a new hard drive... ...i guess mainly because in order for a raid array to even begin to work, you need at least 2 drives present from the start... what would happen if you were to disable the onboard raid controller?, technically that shouldnt cause any problems with what you have already on your hdd, because there was never a 'real' raid array to begin with, as you said... ...also, if the drive isnt being detected in windows, it might still show up as an unformatted and unmounted partition in 'diskmgmt.msc' through the run option on the start menu, and you would be able to format and mount it that way.

...im not sure how a raid array could even be created, without at least 2 drives involved from the time the array is created

all i can suggest to do then... if you cant 'break' your hdd from the raid array, and if trying to recognize your new drive through 'diskmgmt.msc' wont work, is to then just install windows onto your new drive and do everything from there... copy all the stuff you have on your old drive to your new windows drive then... then after copying everything you want to your new windows drive... reboot and break the raid array, then reformat your old drive... you *should* then be able to work with 2 seperate drives.

edit: if you have a cd burner, burning your data to some cds might be much less of a hassle to deal with, IMO (and then you would be able to have 2 seperate drives without shuffling windows installations between hdds like that)

hope this helps anyhow

 

[MoonSafari]

thank you for the reply...i realize that my first post was a bit confusing but i think you were able to decipher it. here it is again...hopefully a bit more clearly.

this is what i want to do:

- my current HD is plugged into the SATA 1 slot on the onboard promise RAID controller of my Asus A8V Deluxe mobo. according to the fastBuild utility it currently has a RAID 0 array on it...despite the fact that there is no 2nd drive present.

- i now wish to reformat XP and therefore want to backup files onto a 2nd hard drive that i have just purchased before reinstalling XP. there are 40GB+ that i need to keep, so i would hope to avoid burning DVDs

- i want the reconfigured system to have 2 distinct hard drives with no RAID configuration. one for running XP and all software. the other for backup and storage.

here is the problem and what i've tried.

- plugged the new drive into SATA slot 1 on the mobo. machine tried to boot from it, asks for windows disc.

- plugged the new drive into SATA slot 2 on the mobo. machine boots up but drive is not seen. ran 'diskmgmt.msc' as you suggested but the drive is not listed

- unplugged primary drive from promise RAID controller and plugged it into SATA slot 1. starts to boot up, flashes blue screen for a split second, and then reboots.

- after the above error i headed over to tomshardware.

thanks again

 

[choirbass]

- unplugged primary drive from promise RAID controller and plugged it into SATA slot 1. starts to boot up, flashes blue screen for a split second, and then reboots.

im still slightly puzzled about the drive not being detected in windows (it seems like its more of a bios setting thats possibly conflicting, cuz windows should detect the drive automatically, since windows probably contains compatible drivers anyhow), but the blue screen you mentioned definetly sticks out abit more as a potential lead to whats wrong, or at least something that shouldnt be happening anyhow... since you said its only showing briefly before restarting, try booting into windows how you normally do, right click on my computer, go to properties, advanced tab, startup and recovery settings, and where it says system failure, uncheck the automatically restart checkbox... then plug your hdd back into the other sata connector how you had it, and the stop error should come up again, but hopefully wont restart before you get a chance to read it... ...finding out what the error is might not be of any help though, but its a start.

edit: im probably getting ahead of myself... but when you plug the new drive into sata port 2, and the drive still isnt coming up in windows (which is on your raid controller)... ...its definetly seeming like a bios setting, because with the raid controller active, the standard sata controller might be getting disabled somehow... resulting in your drive not being detected in windows... are all the sata ports still active when you use your raid controller?

 

[MoonSafari]

how do i check if the SATA ports are active?

also, i'm not sure if this is related but in the device manager i see a yellow '?' next to Other Devices > RAID controller. the promise RAID controller is listed under SCSI and RAID Controllers. so perhaps this is why the drive is not being detected.

 

[choirbass]

it could very possibly be why... i would go to asus' site and download their drivers, because the yellow questionmark youre seeing in device manager is showing an unidentified device, but windows cant identify and make use of the device without the proper drivers installed... ...so, i would imagine that after installing the correct drivers, that your new hdd would show up as well... because its probably connected to the 'unrecognized raid controller'

actually, as far as updating drivers goes... i would go so far as to say to update all of your drivers when you get the chance to, or rather, after you install windows again.

 

[MoonSafari]

ok, sounds like a possible solution could be emerging. i really appreciate all the help so far.

i went to the asus website and took a look at the available downloads. there are a few different options and i'm not sure exactly what i need. there were downloads for RAID and downloads for Bios Utilities as well. here is the link to the page:

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

i the selected motherboard, socket 99 and A8V Deluxe from the 3 drop down menus. again, there are several sections in the download page and i'm not sure what to look for.

 

[choirbass]

not sure of which version of windows you have... but this is their link to download the raid drivers for windows 2000, which is also compatible with windows xp

ftp://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/ide/via/VIARAID220d.zip

if you have a different version of windows, other than 2k or xp, click on the 'raid' option, and then when it expands, select based on which other os you have

 

[MoonSafari]

brilliant! i installed the drivers and things are looking up. when i run 'diskmgmt.msc' the 2nd drive is listed (although not displayed in My Computer). i activated the drive and i guess all i now need to do is create a primary partition on it. i believe the partition wizard will ask me to assign a drive letter to it...does it matter what letter i give it right now? of will the drive letter be changed to the proper order (HD drives then disc drives) once i reformat and reinstall XP?

thanks again for all the help. it is really appreciated.

 

[choirbass]

youre welcome , im glad i was able to help... yeah, it wont matter which letter you assign to the drive, you can choose any letter thats not already used (such as L: X: Z: etc), you dont even have to mount it as a drive partition if you dont want to, instead choosing to have it be shown as a folder inside of an already existing partition (or not mounted at all even)... though i suppose to minimize complications, itd be best to just have it assigned a drive letter, so you can just copy stuff over easily... when you go to reinstall windows on your old drive, your new storage drive and your optical drive will automatically be assigned new letters by windows anyhow (first hdds, then drives with removable storage)

 

[440bx]

brilliant! i installed the drivers and things are looking up. when i run 'diskmgmt.msc' the 2nd drive is listed (although not displayed in My Computer). i activated the drive and i guess all i now need to do is create a primary partition on it. i believe the partition wizard will ask me to assign a drive letter to it...does it matter what letter i give it right now? of will the drive letter be changed to the proper order (HD drives then disc drives) once i reformat and reinstall XP?

thanks again for all the help. it is really appreciated.

Presuming that you want to install XP on the new drive, the best you thing you could do is unplug the drive that is currently on the RAID controller. Install Windows on the new drive (this is the only way to guarantee Windows will install on drive letter "C"). Once Windows is installed on the new drive, reconnect the old drive to the RAID array and backup your data onto the new drive. After that, connect the old drive to whatever interface you want and reformat it.

HTH

 

[MoonSafari]

so you think it's better to install XP on the new drive? i was thinking of installing it on the older one as it is "battle tested" so to speak and hasn't had any problems. if i install on XP on the new drive, i then also have to copy all my files twice, once ont onto the new drive while i format the old one and then back over again. seems a bit redundant.

thanks again for all the help. what would i have done without you!

 

[choirbass]

well, as far as the new drive being better, that i cant say... it may very well be faster, especially if its a larger drive, what drive is it anyhow?... also, if windows exists on neither drive (due to your old drive containing windows having been formatted), the C: lettering will automatically be applied to the new windows installation (which ever drive its on), because the existing drive letterings would have been erased from registry settings... ...the only way you would run into problems installing windows on a non C: partition, is if, for instance, some 3rd party application youre trying to install, requires it to be located on the C:, other than that though... windows can be installed on any letter drive, without consequence really; all registry settings are directed to the current boot drive then (R:\windows\system32\web is the same as C:\windows\system32\web), it makes no difference, as long as the drive letter is where windows was installed to

as far as having to copy the files back over to your old drive, again, the only reason i can see installing windows on your newer drive, is if its faster... with hdds being as slow as they are, every little bit helps

 

[MoonSafari]

the drives are 2 matching seagate baracuda drives (120GBs ea.)

so i was planning on doing the following:
- copying everything over to the new drive
- unplugging the new drive
- moving old drive off of RAID controller to SATA port 1
- format and reinstall XP
- reattach new drive with all my saved files
- start long, arduous process of reinstalling software

if i do the above, will i run into the problems you mentioned with windows not being on C:? do i even need to unplug the new drive if i put it on SATA port 2? or is it better just to be on the safe side? if i do unplug it while i reinstall XP, will i run into drive lettering issues?

 

[choirbass]

to completely avoid lettering complications beyond all doubt, such as wanting your boot drive to be the C:... before you go to format your old drive, i would disconnect your new drive (of coarse, after copying everything you want to keep to it)... after copying the files to your new drive, disconnect it from your sata port...

you may have to make a floppy with the sata drivers you downloaded lastnight, if it cant detect any hdds installed in your computer (it says something like 'press F6 to install raid or scsi drivers'... you may not be able to install windows otherwise, cuz it might not be able to find any hdds installed, such as the case you were having with your new hdd not being detected by windows

THEN switch your old drive, from your raid controller, to the regular sata port, formatting your old drive then... next, completely install windows, and after the windows installation, power down, reconnect your new drive, and windows will detect it... then youll have the hdd arrangement you want

 

[440bx]

so you think it's better to install XP on the new drive? i was thinking of installing it on the older one as it is "battle tested" so to speak and hasn't had any problems. if i install on XP on the new drive, i then also have to copy all my files twice, once ont onto the new drive while i format the old one and then back over again. seems a bit redundant.

thanks again for all the help. what would i have done without you!

Yes, I would install Windows on the new drive while having the second drive disconnected. The reasons for that are,

1. It guarantees that your Windows installation will be assigned the letter "C". With more than one drive attached the Windows setup will generally assign some other letter.

2. If anything goes wrong, you still have the original drive to boot from if need be.

You do have a point that the old drive is "battle tested". If I were you, once I'd have Windows installed on the new drive I'd do a "chkdsk c: /r" to force Windows to scan and test the entire drive. If no errors and no bad sectors are found then the new drive looks pretty good.

You may want to consider having Windows installed on *both* drives. That way if something happens to the Windows installation you normally boot from, you have the option of booting from the other installation to repair the one that is no longer working.

Also, as Choirbass mentioned, you should have a disk (floppy or CD) with any SATA drivers required by the Windows setup. As he pointed out, those missing drivers were most likely the source of the problems you were originally experiencing.

HTH.

 

[MoonSafari]

thanks very much for all the help. i've backed up all my files, downloaded drivers, and burned the SATA drivers to a CD. now onto formatting...

again, all the help is much appreciated.

 

[choirbass]

hmm... ...are you sure windows will be able to install the drivers from a cd after he hits F6?... ive only ever tried from a floppy, might work though from a cd...

 

[MoonSafari]

i'll make a floppy too! can't be too sure.

 

[440bx]

hmm... ...are you sure windows will be able to install the drivers from a cd after he hits F6?... ive only ever tried from a floppy, might work though from a cd...

To be honest, I don't know if it can be done from a CD. Like you I've always done it from a floppy. It's worth a try.

 

[AlexKidd]

You can slipstream the drivers to an iso file with the xp cd files. Then burn the iso to cd. Use xppro burner and nlite for these tasks (can both be downloaded for free - google!).

 

[440bx]

You can slipstream the drivers to an iso file with the xp cd files. Then burn the iso to cd. Use xppro burner and nlite for these tasks (can both be downloaded for free - google!).

I know how to slipstream a service pack but I don't know how to slipstream just a set of drivers.

Would you post the steps to follow ? Thank you.

 

[harmonica]

http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/01/how_to_slipstre.html

 

[440bx]

http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/01/how_to_slipstre.html

Thank you!

 

[AlexKidd]

Use Nlite to slipstream the drivers. You do not have to edit ANY files at all. Just sit back, spark a can and watch the program do it all for you.