New build - new install - XP Pro SP2- SATA drive, floppy and OD - wanted to install drives as ACHI - Early in the install pressed F6 and then the install asked for the floppy and loaded - it then loaded other drivers and booted windows (text mode ofr the rest of the install - it then reported "cannot find iastor.sys" the floppy drive lights and it doesn't find the drive. If you bypass the driver you get BSOD, If you don't the install fails.

The SATA drive was set as "Enhanced" and SATA as "ACHI"

Have done a web search and many have reported this problem, but a solution is not found - Anyone have this issue and find a way around. ( Would rather not have to slipstream the driver- I've never done it)- Why does it happen?
Others seem to be able to load ACHI and RAID without difficulty.

P5B Deluxe, 500gb SATA seagate, x1950xt, E6600, NEC SATA OD, floppy

Any help appreciated

Steve

You should not need to press F6. No need to load RAID drivers with a single SATA Hard drive. Default the BIOS and restart. Go back into BIOS and set the first boot device to CD/DVD Rom. Place the Win XP CD in the tray. Restart and 'Press any key' to boot from CD.

I have the same problem.
Badge, thx for trying to help us. I'm trying to install XP on the RAID(0). I have done so many windowsXP installations on SATA non-RAID without any problem. This is the first time I'm trying to install windowsXP on a RAID.

Like srock says, I too use F6 to install RAID driver from floppy. If this option is not used then it wont find RAID drives.
So after pressing F6, It starts readings all the necessary files from Windows XP CD for installation then asks to put in floppy with RAID driver.
It reads the driver ok.
It finds the RAID disk ok.
It partitions ok.
It formats the new partition OK.
But then just when it starts to install windows on to the newly formatted partition, it says "can not find iastor.sys" and it’s looking for it on the floppy(?). Even though the driver is on the floppy it’s not reading it. It says make sure Windows XP disk is in the CD drive, but not reading anything from CD drive after that. Floppy starts up but can’t read the file “iastor.sys" which is in the floppy. Surely the driver file is not corrupted because it was already read once and found the RAID, even partitioned and formatted the RAID drive.
I have tried defferent versions of Intel RAID driver, Tried to make it read the RAID driver from CD...nothing worked.

1) Why is it trying to read “iastor.sys" again
2) Why can’t/wont it read the file “iastor.sys" from floppy.
3) Is there any other way I can make the installation read this file.

On a different configuration I have 1xSATA with WindowsXP, 2xSATA on RAID for DATA works fine. Installing windowsXP on RAID(0) partition is my problem. Help help help.....

Like srock said so many people came across this problem but no solution or those who solved the problem didn't share it with the rest ((

In BIOS, IDE configuration set as "Enhanced” and SATA as "RAID".
RAID0 was created using CTRL+I without any problem.

Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks again.
Mobo: Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi, Intel Core2 Quad 2.4, 2GB RAM, SATA=2x320GB.

Found this on the Intel site doing a iastor.sys search. The first link includes a download of the most recent version. What's interesting is this seems to be a Dell problem though obviously not limited to Dell

http://mysearch.intel.com/support/ [...] s&local-br owsebyproduct-searchsupport-submit.x=14&local-browsebyproduct-searchsupport- submit.y=12&local-browsebyproduct-searchsupport-submit=Search&id=&la ng=eng&hidProductAlias=&as_q=

I have a GA-P35-DS4 and am having exactly the same problem as Peeper. The DS4 had both Intel and Gsata controllers and I've tried the Raid on both. I get identical results...eventually either iastor.sys or graid.sys cannot be read from the floppy (even though as Peeper mentioned the system had previously read the floppy fine).

SOLUTION:

Copy drivers to floppy root directory A AND to A$OEM$/TEXTMODE directory.