Asus a7n8x-e deluxe raid driver problem

[sithavenger]

Hello,
I am trying to instal a sata HD (seagate barracuda) into my a7n8x-e mobo as a boot drive (there are no other drives present), but when I try to instal XP and hit F6 then S to install the raid driver for this board, XP doesn't recognise and keeps telling me to insert manufaturer disk into drive A.
I copied the files straight form the mobo CD (Drivers/SATA/Disk 1).

Is there something that I am missing? I have also DL'd the files from the ASUS site but that didn't work either. Any advice would be very welcome.

 

[saint19]

Hi newcomer and welcome to the Tom's hardware forum.

The drive A that the installation process ask to u is the Floppy drive. XP don't support the RAID drivers load from a CD/DVD.

 

[badge]

Is there something that I am missing?

I have the A7N8X-E socket A board running for many years. It has been a while since I loaded up a SATA drive on the board. Does the XP installation disk you are using include XP S2? If loading the SATA driver at the F6 prompt, you need the SATA driver, not the RAID drver. I have specific instructions on my main computer at home. I'll try and post instruction for making a suitable floppy disk capable of loading the needed SATA driver at the F6 prompt.

 

[sithavenger]

Hi newcomer and welcome to the Tom's hardware forum.

The drive A that the installation process ask to u is the Floppy drive. XP don't support the RAID drivers load from a CD/DVD.

Yes I realise that. That is what I meant when I said that I copied the drivers from the asus CD, I copied them onto floppy and inserted into drive A, yet the OS still won't recognise the drivers.

Thanks for welcome BTW

 

[badge]

You can not just copy ALL the files from the folder to the floppy and expect it load the SATA driver at the F6 prompt.

 

[sithavenger]

You can not just copy ALL the files from the folder to the floppy and expect it load the SATA driver at the F6 prompt.

Ok well that's a step in the right direction Any ideas which files I need to copy?

 

[sithavenger]

Is there something that I am missing?

I have the A7N8X-E socket A board running for many years. It has been a while since I loaded up a SATA drive on the board. Does the XP installation disk you are using include XP S2? If loading the SATA driver at the F6 prompt, you need the SATA driver, not the RAID drver. I have specific instructions on my main computer at home. I'll try and post instruction for making a suitable floppy disk capable of loading the needed SATA driver at the F6 prompt.

Hi,
I am using SP1 (I read on asus manual that it needs to be sp1 to instal sata). It is the sata driver that I am trying to load. I have the original asus disk that comes with the mobo, and under drivers/sata/gui/Diskettes, you then have a disk 1 folder and a disk 2 folder. I copied the disk 1 folder (1.39mb) onto floppy. These are also available from the asus site as a DL. I really am at a loss as to why XP won't read the drivers

 

[badge]

I'll be on the computer I have the specific instruction with the specific files needed in a bit. I have already been there and done that years ago. Copying the files from the folder from the installation disk to floppy. Didn't work for me either. I got the instructions from ASUS support many years ago. It was like pulling teeth trying to understand what the tech typed. I managed to translate it and looked to the sky and asked, 'How'd I do that?" LOL.!

 

[badge]

Open the support cd on another machines "My Computer" then open Drivers folder, then Sata and copy everything from the Sata folder to a floppy except the GUI and the Readme file.

 

[pat]

IIRC, you may have two different brand of controller on that board. The standard nvidia and a Sil third party onboard controller. So, just make sure you are using the right drivers for the right controller.. you manual (or Asus support site) will tell you hoe to locate them.

 

[badge]

The MB did not have a SATA floppy driver disk included, I bought it new and still have everything. ASUS has no dowload or instruction for making a SATA floppy driver disk. The only thing to work with is the SATA driver folder on the installation CD. If you just copy all the files from that SATA folder onto a floppy disk, it will fail at the F6 prompt and not load the SATA driver. Of courrse SATA drive technology was in it's infancy when the board was released.

 

[badge]

IIRC, you may have two different brand of controller on that board. The standard nvidia and a Sil third party onboard controller. So, just make sure you are using the right drivers for the right controller.. you manual (or Asus support site) will tell you hoe to locate them.

No. ASUS has no download or instructions for making a Floppy SATA driver for this board. The ASUS product page forum is full of people asking about it. XP SP2 is where SATA driver support was added and the F6 prompt with floppy driver disk was no longer need to load up system SATA drivers. I can not remember, but I think the SATA controller for this Socket A board was not included with SP2. Not sure. That's why I asked OP if his XP installaion disk has SP2 included.

 

[badge]

I am using SP1 (I read on asus manual that it needs to be sp1 to instal sata).

XP with SP1 doesn't have sign of a SATA driver. There was no such thing as a SATA hard drive then. Besides providing XP's 'Security Center' SP2 brought SATA driver support to the XP installation. That's why I asked. It's possible an XP installation disk with SP2 would load up a suitable SATA driver without the use of the F6 prompt. It's been a while since I've tried and I can't remember if an SP2 equipped disk works without the need of F6 load of SATA drivers on this MB. If you have an installation disk with SP2 try it.

 

[sithavenger]

OK well I have tried copying the files you mentioned but found there was a Linux folder which is too large to copy to floppy disk. I removed that and copied all the other files, tried booting my other pc and am still gettin the message telling me to insert the manufacturers disk, even though the disk is slready in the drive.

These are the files etc under drivers/sata:

GUI, LINUX, driver language, read-me, si3112r security catalog, si3112r setup info, si3112r serial ata miniport driver (beta), si3112r.mpd, SIISUPP.vxd, SIWinAcc, TextSetup.oem.

So basically I dropped gui, linux and read-me and copied the rest and it didn't work

Any Ideas?

 

[sithavenger]

I am using SP1 (I read on asus manual that it needs to be sp1 to instal sata).

XP with SP1 doesn't have sign of a SATA driver. There was no such thing as a SATA hard drive then. Besides providing XP's 'Security Center' SP2 brought SATA driver support to the XP installation. That's why I asked. It's possible an XP installation disk with SP2 would load up a suitable SATA driver without the use of the F6 prompt. It's been a while since I've tried and I can't remember if an SP2 equipped disk works without the need of F6 load of SATA drivers on this MB. If you have an installation disk with SP2 try it.

Thanks for that! I don't have sp2 but I have an sp3 disk floating around somewhere. Will try to dig it out tomorrow and give it a try with that. Thanks a million for all your help I really appreciate it
Will let you know how I get on.

 

[badge]

Thanks for that! I don't have sp2 but I have an sp3 disk floating around somewhere. Will try to dig it out tomorrow and give it a try with that. Thanks a million for all your help I really appreciate it
Will let you know how I get on.

I opened my Floppy SATA driver disk I made as described. I used this floppy to successfully load the SATA driver at F6. Here are the files copied onto my working floppy SATA driver disk from the SATA folder:

Driverlanguagu
si3112r
si3112r
si3112r
si3112r.mpd
SIISUPP.VXD
SIWINACC
TxSetup.OEM

*The Linex file is not copied to the floppy. Also the GUI and Readme files are not copied to the floppy.

note: the three si311r files are differnt file formats with the same name.

 

[sithavenger]

Hi,
OK so I found my XP SP3 disk and tried to boot with that. Unfortunately I get the same results. I insert the floppy with the 8 files you mentioned on it and it checks the disk and then tells me to insert the manufacturer disk again...
I have tried switching the SATA cable from port 1 to port 2 and that makes no difference. I have swapped out the sata cable for a new one and no joy.
I noticed under bios for the option "RAID or SCSI Card" it was set for SCSI and I changed the option to raid but that made no difference either.
The onboard serial ports 1 and 2 are set to "auto" (I set them to that, they were originally set to 3f8/irq4 for port 1 and 2f8/irq3 for port 2) Should they be set to auto to auto detect the new drive?

Any other suggestions?

 

[badge]

Is the floppy drive in good working order? Also, in BIOS the floppy controller is enabled right? I have loaded a SATA hard drive at the F6 prompt with the floppy disk SATA driver disk I made as described no problem.

When the installation files are asking for the 'system disk' it sounds like the floppy disk is not being read at all. Perhaps try a different floppy drive and even floppy cable. I can tell you the disk you made using my instruction is absolutely correct and can be used to load up the system SATA driver at the F6 prompt. I have everything sitting right here in front of me and it works.

 

[sithavenger]

Yes I can hear the floppy drive kick in when I hit enter at the prompt, so I don't think the problem is with the A drive. TBH Badge I think probably the best thing I can do is take it into a PC repair shop and let them diagnose it/detect the drive (I hope).
Thanks once again for all your help it has been very useful and enlightening

I will let you know the results.

 

[badge]

Let me know how it goes. It was ASUS support who instructed me how to make that floppy SATA driver disk and it absolutely works at the F6 prompt. The problem has to lie elsewhere on the system. The only thing I would do is be sure to have a freshly formatted floppy disk. You might be sure the floppy cable is plugged in correctly and possible try a different floppy cable. The drive will make noise and can be hooked up incorrectly. The system is asking for the disk like the floppy can not be read.

 

[sithavenger]

Haha Badge I love you you're a genius. The Floppy cable was VERY slightly dis-lodged. Pushed it back into place and VOILA!
I can't believe it finally worked
Next question, it is asking me if I want to partition the drive, I have never done that and have no idea how much to partition. The range is 8mb min 238gb max...

 

[badge]

Well, you could not partition the drive and Windows XP would install on the entire hard drive space which would be fine. Or, you can choose a space ofr XP to install and the rest of the drive would be available for data storage and such. Depending on how much space you need for your personal software apps and any games and other software you installed on the Operating system partition, choose the amount of GB's you will need.

About 1/4 of the way down on this link it discusses creating partitions. If you are not sure, just install XP on the drive and don't partition.

http://tweakhound.com/xp/installxp/installXP1.htm

 

[badge]

Note, some of my XP installations are as large as 20GB, maybe a little more. Depends on the Apps needed and their size. Also, some game installations can get big in terms of GB needed with all the patches and such.

 

[sithavenger]

Hey it's up and running Wow it was a long slog but also a steep learning curve! I gave the HD a 50gb partition. There was some complications for a while with my graphics card: it went all fuzzy on me and then didn't work at all, but then I powered the PC down for a couple of mins and re-started and is now up and running. And it's all thanks to you. So thank you for being so patient and so tenacious. If you live in London I will definitely buy you a few beers lol..

Thanks Badge...

Sith

 

[badge]

Hey, your welcome. Glad to hear it!