Error whilst trying to load xp onto sata hd with new mobo

[mbellenie]

I had to change my motherboard as my original one had failed. I purchased a Asrock K7VT4A Pro and also deceided to put a new sata hd on as well. When I try to load XP home on i get this error:-

File \winxp\viamraid.sys caused an unexpected error (18) at line 2113 in d:\xpsprtm\base\boot\setup\oemdisk.c.

This happens right after i have put the floppy in selected the raid controller and then selected enter. The floppy runs for a second and then the error comes up.

I am trying this with just the sata hd connected to the sata 1 position with no other hd attached. I have searched google and have tried the different ways of loading the drivers onto the floppy that were suggested and double checked the instructions on the mobo cd. I have tried different sources of drivers and even some older ones but every time I get the same error.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[mjhmjh2]

Have you got an ide disc you can build the system on?

If so, go ahead and build the system then add the sata drivers there. If you don't get an error you should be able ghost/image the system to the sata drive and then run from there.

OK it's a workaround but should be able to get you going.

Matthew

[mbellenie]

Thanks for the suggestion mjhmjh2. I don't have a spare one and am trying to contact a friend who might. If not I will have to buy one. I understood that sata was a straight forward way to use a hd. Perhaps it is if your drivers work! There must be a way of checking out the driver or the instructions to see if there are any mistakes. Unfortunately that is beyond my knowledge.

Cheers Mark

[Andromeda43]

SATA is fairly new. All mobo's don't handle it the same.

I too am using an ASRock mobo only because it has SATA support built in. (and I got it for just $69)

I accessed my new SATA drive from a DOS disk first and partitioned and formatted my Hd before ever trying to install Windows XP on it. That way, I was sure that it was being properly addressed by the mobo and bios.

If you have a DOS boot disk, you might want to give that a try.

I used my own Custom Windows ME boot disk to do the trick.

It easily partitioned and formatted my 160 gig drive.

Let me know if you'd like a copy.

Live long and prosper!

B)

Edited June 9, 2006 by Andromeda43

[janus zeal]

go into bios setup and find a setting for the sata controler. most bios's have a setting for useing sata as raid or ide. try setting it to ide.

look around in setup for the option, or look at the mobo manual.

[mbellenie]

Thankyou for your replies to my problem.

Andomeda43 I am not quite sure if I have a dos disk. Perhaps if you could describe it a little more for me I can work out if I do have one. If I do I would be grateful if you could send me a copy and perhaps a guide to using it.

Janus Zeal I have gone into setup and trawled through every menu and selection but cannot find anywhere a setting for switching sata on or off or switching between ide and sata. The manual is no help either and I have read the readme on the mobo cd as well. I dont want to confuse the issue but when I select tab on startup of the computer to access the raid bios I get the screen up but am unable to select anything. Wether there is anything in there I dont know.I guess if I can load xp I will then be able to load the drivers to get access to the sata raid bios screen.

[pmshah]

Generally the mobo manufacturers include a floppy disk with the sata drivers on it. If you are doing a fresh install on a fresh harddisk and have youe CD rom connected to an ide port you should get a message asking you to insert your driver floppy. This should load the specific mobo sata driver and then should go ahead wothout problem.

I have built a number of WinXP Pro systems with sata drives - without using these driver floppies - with a variety of mobos but never once had problem.

What I was wondering is where do you find the "\winxp\viamraid.sys " on the CD? Unless perhaps the Home edition is a different animal.

[mbellenie]

Have solved the problem.

I looked into trying to format the drive with a dos disk and found one.I then got the disk formatted ok. I then went for an xp load and when I got to the f6 bit I selected 3rd party drivers.Xp carried on then asked for my disk into A: which I did and selected the raid controller. I then get a message from xp saying it has a copy of viamraid.sys and which one would I prefer to use. I selected the one I was supplied. Xp then said I could not do that I had to use its one. (so why ask?) So i selected continue and off xp went and finally loaded it self. So I am now up and running at last. It would seem there was some kind of conflict or whatever between the 2 versions of viamraid.sys but after formatting the drive it seemed to make it easier for xp to sort itself out.

Thanks again for the suggestions.