Installing Vista Ult 32 On Raid using SATA -Crosshair

[Kneichion]

Hi all please excuse me if this has already been posted and replied to:

The last two builds I have used Asus motherboards, on my last machine I could not use a SATA drive as a boot drive, and ended up using ATA.

This March I made move over too Asus Crosshair, thinking this would solve the problems.

It’s now Oct some 6 months later, I am still having problems and constant niggles. I have to say I am a very experienced engineer and builder but there is a level beyond what I know at the moment, thus this post.

Let me start with the first problem, I should not have to reinstall every month or two as the system comes to a major slow down, In this new machine Apart from a few hard drives Every single component has been replaced even the case not that it would make a problem other than cooling.

So I am running an AMD2 dual core 5000, I haven’t even over clocked it yet as I cannot get it running sharp. I have 4g of OCZ High end ram with heat coolers in Matched Pairs on dual channel, Not that my os will Run 4g, been reading up on that one Hmm. An Asus EN7900GS graphics and nearly 2T of storage.

Despite I spend my life building computers for people only my machine will not work sharp, The New Build with ASUS Crosshair simply would not run Win XP pro sharp at all, So I invested in Vista Ultimate, Got a brand new SATA2 250g to run the new OS, It would not run what so ever I would not even install, Why I don’t know, All I know is I had the same problem on the last ASUS motherboard, I have never in the hundreds of machines I have built ever had this problem.

As it stands at the moment, My Vista OS will not boot at all without the DVD Install disc in the DVD writer drive again Any Idea’s? I keep doing Google searches for any advice and cannot find specific answers to my individual problem.

Next Stage, I set up a Raid 0 configuration on two 500g SATA2 drives all worked well till yesterday morning till it flagged up ERROR on Raid! I was like please no I have vast amounts of Data and on a raid if it goes down its gone.

So impressed with the speed of this Raid, I decided to go for a Raid Boot for Vista, and ordered Two Matched SATA2 specifically termed for Raid, These arrive all being well tomorrow.

I figured out how to set them up to boot in the Nvida Bios, I am praying this time The Crosshair will let me Install Vista Ultimate 32bit and Run.

The basic Question is does anyone have any answers or suggestions WHY ASUS motherboard will not work with SATA Drives being SATA1 or SATA2 Hard Drives?

And why when I do install the OS do I have to keep the Install DVD in the DVD writer?

It also flags up that I have a previous Install and that Drive isn’t even in the computer anymore, Also I want to remove my IDE ATA drive That has My OS on, But I need to run my current Version to set up and format the New drives tomorrow if they arrive, I know this is a long post I would really appreciate any help or Advice.

Cheers

Andy ALA (Kneichion)

[DL.]

Welcome to MSFN!

That was a long post with lots of text making it difficult to know what you want to do.

How many drives do you have and how do you want to set them up? If you write a short list it will be easier to figure out what you want.

You should not keep massive amounts of data on a RAID0 array, use RAID10 instead!

You should not have to reinstall very often, if you experience slowdowns it may be because of incorrect drivers, settings, malware or you simply need to defrag.

Do you add drivers for the SATA-controller during OS installation?

The installation DVD might provide basic drivers to see the drive, but you need to install the correct ones.

Make sure the BIOS-settings for SATA-mode (SATA, RAID, IDE) are correct for what you want to do. Read the mainboard manual and the BIOS guide.

Flashing the BIOS probably won't hurt, but maybe it doesn't do much for your problem.

[Kneichion]

Thanks for your reply.

At the moment I am trying to Install Vista Ultamate on a Raid Drive.

I have downloaded what i belive to be the correct drivers and when asked to load them, The raid drive dose not show up in the options for install.

The raid config works from the crosshair bios, I have downloaded from ASUS Crosshair drivers Nvidia Raid Drivers for Vista 32.

I am not sure if this is the same as the Bios system?

Maybe these drivers are for the OS when its running and not the correct drivers.

NOt haveing any luck with google searches or on ASUS website.

Thanks any pointers would be of great value, I will read the manual.

All the best

[DL.]

I searched Google for "asus crosshair" and the third link sent me directly to the Asus product site for that particular board, selecting "Download" in the menu to the left will reveal a list of all categories available.

Your board has two different SATA controllers, both supporting RAID. Check your manual to see which SATA ports are controlled by each controller.

You may have the drives hooked up to the other one (not nVidia) and therefore you won't see the drives until supplying the correct driver.

These are the drivers you need:

Silicon Image

nVIDIA

(Slow download speeds and the second one is 45 MB.)

Open them and copy the contents of the folder named "32bit" or similar to an USB pen drive, a portable HDD or whatever. Point to this one when you can select drivers in the Vista setup.

As I said in my last post, don't put lots of important data on a RAID0 array.

This is optional and requires you to reconfigure the BIOS afterwards, but can be useful for improved SATA compatibility:

1. Download this file and unzip it to the root of an USB pen drive or a floppy.

2. Reboot and hit Alt+F2 or something like that to get to the EZ BIOS flash utility, put "0804.bin" (without quotes) in the box and follow the instructions to flash the BIOS.

[Kneichion]

I found this link http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/vista-beta...5500dfd10ae7215

As you say it should be a simple case of installing the new drivers in the Install.

Really cant see why its so trouble some.

If I update the Bios I am sure it will reset my Raid Array's and I am worried that I will loose the data on the Storage Raid Drive.

I have 2.5T of storage and i think your right not really a good idea to use Raid 0 on a large Volume.

I have a mix of drives and the Storage Raid is 2 x 500g Brand new drives. I might pull that apart again and run it as two drives.

I really wanted to experiment to see if i could Raid Them up, Some careful reading it whent smoothly even if it was scary lol

One thing I will try is a Cold Boot.

At the moment I have downloaded the Raid Drivers from ASUS for Vista 32, Put them on my USB 1G, I ran the compleate Install for all drivers and It Killed my Boot drive, Why one asks, Lucky Last known Good Config Booted it back into life, I always keep a back up so its not a major deal, I am a bit hot on backups.

So when Vista Asks for a Drive I browse to the USB drive and locate the .inf files, it loads them then it refreshes the page and the Raid still dose not show.

I assume i have this correct the drivers for the Install to see the Raid Drives.

I set up the Raid Drives in the Bios using the Nvidia, Then I used the Windows Manage Drives to set up the new Raid as Dynamic then Simple Disk and formatted the drive ready to use, In Vista These are fully usable and seen as a drive letter and Discription.

Thanks a great deal for looking for me, The ASUS site is really slow and downloads are terrible.

I enabled the Silicon Image in the Bios Incase, This didnt work, then i have read that you need to turn that off.

One article says to make your own DVD and add drivers in the folders etc, That sound way to complicated, not that i wouldnt try, It should Just Install from the USB when you load up drivers, Not sure what goes on in the background when the power is to the motherboard, so i am going to try a cold boot.

I grabbed the Update Bios, Just need to know what will happen to the Raids I have set up and the data on the storage Raid drive if i reset the system.?

Thanks for your help its much appreciated.

All the best

Andy

Going to keep trying

[DL.]

Are you sure you have enough power to start all drives? The problem may be that some of the drives just won't start and thereby causing errors or missing drives! I've experienced that with a RAID1 array where the array sometimes was reported as degraded at boot. Getting a powerful and high-end PSU is essential when using lots of components and/or many HDD:s, that may be a solution to you entire problem!

It may indeed be a bit risky playing around too much when you already have some RAID array(s?) set up. I cannot guarantee that updating the BIOS won't reset the RAID array too, it may very well do. Having many RAID (primarily 0) arrays on a mainboard which is also used for experimentation is probably not a good idea.

I currently don't have the components to try any of the things you want to do, so I cannot test it.

I can only suggest you to keep trying different things; re-read the manual, read more on RAID configuration, go through the ASUS site for that product (and/or contact their support), browse/search these forums.

Try to use less text when asking questions in for example forums, many people just skip the thread when they see it. One should not have to re-read your post in detail to figure out what you want and what your problem really is. You should rather write a short summary or list of the important things:

-A list of your computer specs:

Mainboard, CPU, RAM, Graphics, OS, PSU and whatever else that may be of importance.

-I have:

## xxxGB, ## xxxGB and ## xxxGB HDD:s (including type and maybe model)

## in RAIDX and ## in RAIDY, A as my current boot device

-What you want to do (short description)

-What's the problem(s)

-When/how did the problem(s) occur

-What you have tried that didn't work

-If it's relevant to the subject you may add some background story (short)

Those things I say above are not meant to be negative or offending, I'm just trying to help you.

Report back here when you find a solution to you problem, it may help others in the same situation (and I want to know)!

[Kneichion]

Thanks for that.

I think i need to contact Nvida and Asus see what they say.

Powersupply isnt a problem, I have a brand new CoolMaster Power Pro 850w man it was expencive.

I think i will brake the Raid Storage like you say too risky.

I have looked at many forums, It seems a common problem trying to boot from Raid using XP or Vista. Lots of Idea's which helps. non so far work.

I am learning a great deal which is always good.

When i find a solution i will post it, then hopfully it may help some one also.

Thanks for your time, much appreciated.

Will keep you informed.

All the best Andy