[Help] S-ATA HDD unique problem.

[EagerBeaver]

I have carefully searched for solutions using the forum search feature.

I have been using my MSI K8T Neo Mainboard for about a year with an P-IDE HDD. I recently just purchased a WD S-ATA Raptor - 36 GB and was beggining to install a fresh copy of WindowsXP SP2.

I swapped out the P-IDE for the S-ATA and verified connections through the bios. I also made sure to verify in the bios that the motherboard detected the SATA HDD. After that I set to boot from CD and booted into the WindowsXP setup making sure to hit F6. I popped in the floppy and everything seemed dandy. I saw my drive as a raw disk and formatted it successfully using NTFS.

This is where the problems came. After the disk was finished formatting I recieved an error that says "Cannot copy viamraid.sys. I retry and pop the disk in and out with no luck.

This is ultimately my end problem. Here is a list of troubleshooting efforts that I have already attempted with no success..

- Swapped the Floppy drive out with another. Niether drives have ever shown signs of trouble.

- Reformatted numerous floppy disks countless times using different types and trying many different drivers.

- Burned the files to a CD and fed the disc in at the error screen. [Yes, they were in the same/proper format as the floppy drives.]

-Skipping the install of the viamraid.sys file and the two others after it. [XP files are copied but when it attempts to restart/install I recieve the blue screen of death.]

-Loaded the defaults for the bios and reconfigured/tweaked them many different ways.

-Grabbed the latest drivers from the MSI site.

VIA PIDE/SATA RAID Drivers & Utility

here

I have pretty much exhausted myself for the evening trying to troubleshoot this issue. And so I've come here, to you, oh wise ones. In all your infinate wisdom do you have any ideas short slipstream XP discs with pre-loaded SATA drivers or is that the only way? I have performed this operation [sATA WinXP install] numerous times and this is the only time I have had issues like this.

It just baffles me because the WindowsXP setup clearly sees and utilizes the drivers to detect the SATA drive as well as its size [without hitting F6, the XP setup tells me it can't find any hard disks]. It just seems as though after it's done formatting, the XP setup chooses to not recognize the initial storage location of the pre-loaded SATA drivers.

To be honest, I am unsure where, when you hit F6 and load SCSI/RAID drivers, the XP setup stores those files from the floppy.

Thank you in advance for whoever attempts to help with this very detailed and tricky issue.

-Doug

[f14]

Did you try to copy the three files form "A:\RAID\winxp\" to "A:\". Copy, not move. Don't pop out the floppy untill the machine restart.

[EagerBeaver]

Could you specify what you mean exactly? "copy the three files form "A:\RAID\winxp\" to "A:\""

I have re-copied the SATA drivers off of the MSI site and created new disks as well as copied the original disk that came with my mobo with no luck.

I have tried both leaving the floppy disk in throughout the entire process and removing and popping it back at different times in the Windows XP setup.

I have asked around and most individuals I have asked said that when you pre-load [F6] SATA drivers it stores it to memory? So at the point where WindowsXP setup wants to copy over viamraid.sys for the actualy copying of the WindowsXP files, I recieve the error.

So it may be an issue with the XP setup unable to retrieve the stored viamraid.sys from the memory then?

[f14]

I mean the file structure in the floppy disk maybe should like this:

\

|--TXTSETUP.OEM

|--viamraid.cat

|--viamraid.inf

|--viamraid.sys

|--RAID

........|--WinXP

..............|--viamraid.cat

..............|--viamraid.inf

..............|--viamraid.sys

XP setup will read the floppy twice if you press F6 to add disk driver.

First, as you said, the driver will be copied to memory for finding the disk. The second time, it will be copied to the disk for the next boot. Forgive the stupid WinXP.

Edited December 14, 2005 by f14

[EagerBeaver]

Yes, I just tried copying the file format you suggested. It still gives me:

"Setup cannot copy the file: viamraid.sys"

You suggested copying it twice? When I hit F6 and load the SATA drivers it only allows me to load them once. If I try to load them more than once it says the drivers have already been loaded once and give me the option to stick with the preloaded drivers or the default XP drivers [default xp do not detect SATA HDD].

Good suggestion though. Thank you for your efforts as well.

[f14]

Yes, I just tried copying the file format you suggested. It still gives me:

"Setup cannot copy the file: viamraid.sys"

You suggested copying it twice? When I hit F6 and load the SATA drivers it only allows me to load them once. If I try to load them more than once it says the drivers have already been loaded once and give me the option to stick with the preloaded drivers or the default XP drivers [default xp do not detect SATA HDD].

Good suggestion though. Thank you for your efforts as well.

I mean system will copy the driver twice by itself.

last suggestion, could you please change the label of the floppy to "VIA RAID Driver" and try again? Even though I can't persuade myself. : )

Edited December 15, 2005 by f14