Rid of RAID

[Capmaster]

I recently did a repair install on my windows installation which caused the OS to lose track of my (non-bootable) SATA RAID 0. This was OK, since I had backed all of my data up, and kind of wanted to get rid of the array anyways. However, now whenever I boot up my computer it says that it has found new hardware (RAID Controller, and then NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller). At this point it then pops up an error saying: "Cannot install this hardware. There was a problem installing this hardware: NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller". Each of these messages occur two times and persist regardless of if the drives are actually plugged into the motherboard or not. This has somewhat slowed the boot time, but my main concern is that I would like to be able to use the two 250 GB Seagate Barracuda drives which were previously in the RAID configuration. Computer management does not currently recognize them as disk drives. I have disabled RAID in the BIOS, but to no avail. My motherboard is the Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4. I couldn't find any definitive information either on the forums or via Google, so any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Codesmith]

The problem is you did a repair install and now your dirvers are all screwed up.

You second problem is you are not backing up your OS regularly.

When you have the time Do a clean install and backup it up with True Image 9. Do regular backups before and after every major system change.

Keep at least you latest backup and at least one older one and the backup you did after a clean install.

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Renable RAID

Press F whatever to enter the RAID controller setup

Delete the array.

Restart

Enter the BIOS

Set all the Nvidia SATA ports to non-RAID mode.

Boot XP

Reinstall all you chipset drivers.

Run diskmgmt.msc and see if the drives appear.

 

[Capmaster]

I had already done everything but the first step you said (re-enable the array), so I thought I'd give that a shot. I enabled everything in the BIOS, and had a little trouble enabling it in the OS, but eventually I found the files it needed. However, when I restarted, Windows would not boot... it just hung on the Windows splash screen. I tried to reboot in safemode, but even that would not work. I guess now I'm just going to format everything and start over from scratch unless somebody else has a better idea.

 

[Mondoman]

Actually, he wrote "delete the array", not "re-enable the array".
What *exactly, step by step* did you do?

 

[Mondoman]

Also, if you remember back to when you originally set up Windows with the RAID array, you need to install a RAID driver from a floppy disk by pressing F6 during the Win install when it asks if you have any drivers to install. Without that driver, Win doesn't recognize the RAID/drive controller, and that's why you get the messages every time you boot up. That's the driver you need to install.

 

[Capmaster]

Ok, a couple of things:

When I installed the RAID, I did not do it when I set up windows... I installed windows, and then the array. I plugged in the two SATA drives, enabled RAID in the BIOS, and then initialized it in windows. No drivers were required at that time outside of the normal chipset drivers.

"----
Renable RAID

Press F whatever to enter the RAID controller setup

Delete the array..."

I took this to mean that I should Re-enable the array before I deleted it, which I did not do before. Like I said before, I had already done all of the other steps (excluding "Renable RAID"), and it didn't work. This time I, I enabled RAID on all SATA ports, and then in RAID controller setup (F10). I then rebooted into windows and installed the RAID, with the requested files, which I found in System32. These files could not be found on my motherboard's driver CD. I then continued on (as per the instructions), and disabled the array in RAID controller setup (F10) and then on each port. I rebooted, and Windows would not load. It just hangs on that splash screen that has the little green bars that scroll underneath the Windows logo. I don't think this makes any sense, but that is what it does. Thanks in advance for your help.