Fernando 1

I did try that. They just re-appear after rebooting.Have a look into the "properties" of the "unknown devices" to get some more informations about them.

Yes. They were not recognised.Try to delete the "unknown devices" and reboot.

Have you tried to manually install the drivers of the "unknown devices" by pointing to the Intel chipset (INF) drivers?

The "unknown devices" shown within your Device Manager have nothing to do with the Intel SataRaid drivers (of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager), but with the missing Intel chipset drivers.You should just install the actual "INF update utility" package.

Due to the big variety of different nForce3 chipsets and mainboard BIOS versions there are no "best" and "most stable" drivers for all of them.According to my knowledge the nForce IDE drivers v.6.99 generally are the best choice for nForce3 chipsets, but you probably need a nVRaid BIOS v.4.81 and you have to integrate them into the XP CD by using a tool like nLite. The F6/floppy method doesn't work with these unsigned textmode drivers. If you want to know the reason, look into my guide (first post of this thread). If you are not able to get the nVRaid BIOS v.4.81, you should take the nForce IDE drivers of the 5.11 chipset driver package.

Hi Jim,although you obviously have posted into the wrong thread, I try to help you. Since you don't have a RAID array (connection between more than 1 hdd) within your nForce 430 chipset computer, you will be able to get Windows XP installed without slipstreaming any driver. If you want to integrate the nForce chipset drivers nevertheless, download this package, unzip it by using a tool like WinRar or 7-zip and choose the "multiple driver integration" option of nLite. Additionally you can slipstream the other needed device drivers (graphics card, printer etc.).

Thanks for your reply.So I assume, that everything is fine now. CU Fernando

I have never heard about this procedural method and do not believe, that Windows Setup makes any difference between a lower and upper case of a character of any integrated driver package file.It seems more probable for me, that the used F6/floppy driver package was corrupt or poorly modded (the entries of the TXTSETUP.OEM did not correspond with the associated driver files).

That's a good decision. You are welcome!

It is not easy to give you any advice.If I were you, I would break the P-ATA RAID and create a S-ATA RAID0 and use the P-ATA hdd's for backups etc. Nevertheless you may get some troubles with any OS installation onto a RAID array as long as you are booting off the S-ATA connected optical drive. You will need an IDE connected CD/DVD-ROM during the OS installation (maybe borrowed from a friend).

What is the reason for taking Partition Magic and what is the reason for such a big partition size?My recommendation: Take a tool like Acronis Disk DirectorSuite for partitioning and formatting the RAID and choose a partition size of 2x150 GB or 3x100 GB. Before you began with the creation of the RAID, your BIOS should have detected each of the 4 P-ATA hdd's. A P-ATA-RAID array and a S-ATA connected optical drive is not a good combination at all. f you don't have any natively IDE connected CD/DVD-ROM drive, you probably will not succeed with the installation of any Windows OS onto your RAID array. Look into the pre-condition list of my guide. You have to start the OS installation off an IDE connected optical drive. Which other S-ATA devices than the DVD burner do you have?

I doubt, that you really got the right ones. Where did you find Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers suitable for Windows 2000? AFAIK these drivers are only usable for Windows XP and later Operating Systems. If you want the full performance of your S-ATA hdd's, you should not install Windows 2000. Windows 2000 has only poor support for S-ATA Controllers.My suggestion: You should install Windows XP. You are right and that is the reason why you don't need to integrate any Intel TEXTMODE driver, if you would use Windows XP instead of Windows 2000.

You have to select both and to integrate them as TEXTMODE driver. That is correct. The screenshot looks perfect and I nearly cannot believe, that Windows Setup doesn't detect your RAID device and your RAID partitions correctly with these slipstreamed drivers.Further questions: Are the 4 hard disk drives of your RAID completely detected within the BIOS? Have you set your RAID array as bootable within the RAID utility and the RAID as first bootable hard disk within the BIOS? Do you have partitioned and NTFS formatted the RAID array? Do you have slipstreamed SP2 into the OS CD?

I don't see any obvious mistake. I would recommend to take the nForce IDE drivers v.6.99. They are supporting nForce4 PataRaid and are designed to be used with Windows Server 2003.Try to integrate the WHQL signed nForce IDE drivers v.6.99 by loading the SATARAID folder as textmode and the SATA_IDE folder as PnP driver. If you don't succeed this way, take the modded LEGACY folder of the 6.99 drivers. You should do it, although I don't think, that this will have any influence on the detection of your RAID devices.Side note: You may have realised, that you have done a double post. Please save the space of this thread by editing one of the posts, deleting the whole text and just writing "double post".

Thanks for this additional remark. This may help other users with the same mainboard. You certainly mean the avatar, don't you?

If I were you, I would do exactly what you are thinking about. Hopefully all your troubles are gone after having done a fresh reinstall of the OS and selecting carefully the best suitable device drivers. I experienced this very often. Furthermore you will get this way more assurance, if all your devices are still working properly. Good luck! Fernando

You are welcome. It makes me happy, that my guide works and that I could help you! CU Fernando Just retry it.

Some ATI cards need the drivers 2 times.Try the following: 1. Right click onto the unknown PCI device. 2. Hit the "update driver software" option. 3. Point to the Omega driver again. After the driver install the yellow mark and the "Unknows PCI Device" hopefully will be eliminated and you will get 2 graphics adapter entries. That looks fine.CU Fernando

Everything seems to be fine.The MS and the JM36X Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controllers are managing your enabled native IDE ports (unused or for example connected with your optical drives), whereas the GIGABYTE GBB36X Controller manages the S-ATA hdd connected JMicron SATA AHCI Controller. Have an additional look into the "disk drives" section of the device manager (name and properties of the hdd). Your system is missing a driver (HDAudio?). Do a right click onto the unknown PCI device and check the details (Hardware ID).

Yes, the "old" Intel 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller is not supported anymore by Intel's actual textmode drivers (Intel Matrix Storage Manager). As a consequence it is possible, that your mainboard doesn't have the full AHCI features.If you want to get AHCI support for your Intel S-ATA Controller, you should take the Intel Raid/AHCI drivers from your Dell CD or download this driver package (it is not easy to extract it without a floppy drive). If you don't have RAID, you shouldn't set the BIOS to "Raid". The "autodetect/AHCI" BIOS option should detect your Intel SATA AHCI Controller. Try to load the Dell Intel drivers (from the Dell CD or from the download link I gave you) and look what happens. If it doesn't work this way, you should integrate the drivers into a bootable XP XD and do a fresh install.

I suppose, that your issue has somethiing to do with your handling of the 2 hdd's.If you have connected more than 1 hdd, you have to make sure, a ) that there is only 1 boot partition with the necessary boot files (MBR) on one of the hdd's (it seems to me, that each of your hdd's has an own MBR, otherwise you would not be able to boot into each OS separately, if you disconnect the other hdd) and b ) that you choose the correct HARD DISK BOOT PRIORITY settings within your BIOS.

Look here.It has nothing to do with nLite and your nLited CD.

How did you realise, that the wrong boot.ini is the reason for the reboot cycle?Have you tried to boot in safe mode? If this doesn't work either, hit F8 while booting and enable the "No reboot at system failure" option. Then you can read the error message.

The BOOT.INI as a part of the MBR is created by Windows Setup and not influenced by any nLite processing.Is it possible, that you installed XP onto a not empty partition? If yes, you should redo the XP installation, but format the destination partion before starting the real installation. Other options: a ) Boot off the XP CD, use the "Repair" function and create a new MBR or boot sector by running FIXBOOT and FIXMBR (for details do a google search for "FIXBOOT" or FIXMBR"). b ) If you get any direct access to the MBR files (for example by booting off a DOS or Win95 start floppy), try to edit the BOOT.INI. It should look like: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

You are right. This result shows, that no AHCI feature was enabled for the S-ATA port, which was connected to the hdd. You can try it, if you want.Update: After having a deeper look into Gigabyte's informations about your mainboard, I found this statement within the FAQ section. So it is obviously true, that only the JMicron S-ATA ports of your board are supporting AHCI. Furthermore your mainboard has only an Intel ICH8 and no ICH8R southbridge. Intel ICH8 southbridges (without any letter behind the 8) do not support AHCI. I am sorry about the confusion, but normally it is not my task to find out the details and features of a special mainboard, which I have never used.