Ga-ep45-ud3p RAID 5 on XP Pro install - please help!

pat@

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Mar 3, 2010
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18,510
I am trying to set up a RAID array on a new XP install, and I am at a bit of an impasse - I've followed the instructions in the manual, configured the BIOS, configured the array, but when I try to install windows XP Pro, it doesn't recognize the drives. I understand I am supposed to download the RAID driver from Gigabyte's website, correct? Problem is, how to get it on my computer? Windows asks for it to be installed on the A drive. I haven't been able to find anyone with a floppy drive I can install the drivers to. It doesn't accept a CD nor a flash drive instead. It wants something in the A drive. Lovely Windows.

Which do I download - the preinstall or just the regular driver?

Is it even possible to run a RAID 5 array on XP Pro? If not, can I do it on 7? I'd rather stick with RAID 5 on XP Pro as then I won't have to deal with potential compatibility issues with my existing programs (quickbooks, dreamweaver, etc). I have seen blogs that there is a method to run a fix on a software controller for XP Pro, but I really don't want to mess with patching a software controller. I'd much rather use the integrated controller and just have a working, stable RAID array.

I have run a RAID 1 on XP Pro before, and would do that again as a last resort, but I can't get XP to recognize that array either.
 

pat@

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Mar 3, 2010
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18,510
Research is always a good call, and I have been doing plenty of looking. The procedure for Windows 7 is different than for XP in that you can actually use something OTHER than a floppy 3.5, which is apparently the only way to get the drivers installed when doing an install of XP. Awesome. All the floppy drives I had access to - friends, family, hadn't been used in about 6 years or so, were probably saturated with dust, and were all not functioning properly enouth to write on any of the new floppies I purchased. Finally I went to an internet cafe, copied over the drivers from the installation DVD to a floppy, and voila! The drivers installed, and I was able to get the array working.

Not really a fan of Microsoft, though, and each day I think I become even less of a fan...

Either way, problem solved.
 

bilbat

Splendid
I didn't mean to be mean?[syntax error!]? I try, when I can remember (I'm a really old fart [:bilbat:6] !), to include 'basic' terms regarding the problems I write up at length, so that they will be 'searchable' the next (twenty) times - problems on these GBs are, to large degree, repetitive; likely, if we had a 'sticky' it'd take care of three quarters of 'em...