RAID 0 / 1 problem Asus P5Q Pro Intel Matrix RAID error in XP setup F6

[Steelercaz]

Hi all. This is a duplicate of a thread in the HD forum, as it mutated from an earlier HD question, but thought maybe this would get more relevant hits here. Basically I am adding x1 500Gb WD HD to a system which already has one of those drives, as well as a Seagate 250Gb drive for backup/other purposes. Advice received was to setup a 100Gb-ish RAID 0 for XP 32bit and apps, with rest as a RAID 1 for data.

I copied the Intel RAID drivers from my Mobo CD to a floppy, set up my SATA drives as RAID in Bios, then setup a 120Gb RAID O in the Ctrl+I utility on my x2 500Gb WD drives, followed by the rest taken up for the RAID 1. All seemed to work okay, both arrays then show up as 'healthy'. (I used the default stripe size, wasn't confident enough to fiddle!)

So I reboot from the Windows CD, press F6, push in the floppy, XP ticks away loading setup, I use the 's' key command to specify the floppy, select the relevent option of 4 that show up (the one that includes ICH10R, as specified by my mobo manual), and that's when it all goes wrong! (actually I got a couple of random errors before this point, but I only got each 1 once - I therefore used the non-Windows way of creating the RAID floppy from my mobo CD twice to create 2 new copies - using these new floppies I now always get to this point)

Whicever disk I use I get: "File iastor.sys caused an unexpected error (4099) at line 2113 in d:\xpsp\base\boat\setup\oemdisk.c."

Help! Any ideas anyone????

My only 2 thoughts (based on zero RAID experience and not even fully understanding what it is until this week), are either (a) that both RAID arrays showup when the PC is turning on as 'bootable' - is there a way I should have made the RAID 1 not bootable?, or, (b) the drivers from the mobo CD are duff - I know you can download some from the Intel site instead, would these solve the problem?

The only floppy drive I currently have access to is on the machine in questions, so in order to get to them I'll need to install XP on the 3rd (non RAID) HD and create floppies from them in there I guess. (If I do this, how do I take Windows off this 3rd drive before restarting the PC to install it on the RAID 0 array?)

Really appreciate your help, utterly lost with this one....

 

[Steelercaz]

bump.

Anyone?

 

[MRFS]

Start over with the RAID Option ROM,
and don't configure the RAID 1;
just configure the RAID 0 for now.

Then, Windows Setup should only see
one "logical partition".

Use that one logical partition as your C:
system partition, and then see if Windows Setup
will run to completion.

I assume your D: is your optical drive, yes?

You should be able to locate the file iastor.sys
on the Support CD that came with your motherboard.
There is also an iastor.cat and iastor.inf.
All 3 are needed for F6 to work properly.


If Windows Setup works with this approach,
you can re-boot into the RAID Option ROM
and configure your RAID 1 at that time.

MRFS

 

[rand_79]

another option would be to install to a single hard drive. install all the raid drivers etc in windows

then backup the hdd with a tool like acronis true image.. to a backup drive..

then setup your raid in raid bios .. then image back to the raid with the acronis boot cd from your usb hdd or whatever.

obiviously this way has alot of extra steps and work.. but if you are totally stuck and cant get it to work the normal way..

 

[tmania]

Ok Question 1. How can you backup the main drive to another, then create the raid in the Bios without deleting the information? Doesn't the Mobo give you a BIG warnings about all information being lost, then deletes everthing after the raid is setup?
2. Isn't acronis a program you have to pay for?
I believe, if I buy a mainboard for the raid feature, I do not want to have to buy another piece of software just to get the main reason i purchased the board working, if that was the case, I'd buy a cheaper board then buy the acronis. I believe the problem is faulty drivers provided by the manufacturer which I have come across too many times.
Try going to the website and dowloading the raid drivers, copy them to a new floppy and see if that works.
For me, if it doesn't work I'd take back the board, I build systems for clients and I do not use or recommend anything that doesn't work the way it's suppose to the first time because chances are you get even more problems down the line, but that's just me cause think quality means getting it right the first time.

 

[Preacher_im]

Hi there,

I don't know if you found a solution to your RAID problem, but I had the exact same problem with a P5Q board, trying to install XP on a RAID 1 2X500 HDD. when I was loading the F6 RAID drivers I was getting a "erreur inatendue (4099) ligne 2113 bla bla bla..."

Like almost all problem when you're installing some driversd with a floppy disk, it's 75% of the time faulty... when it's not the floppy itself it is the floppy drive, or the cable... try to swap the and you always find a good combination and it will install all good

thank