xp and abit be-6 2 with HHPT366 won't go :(

[dancray]

I tried running xp to upg from win 98se, but I was told by Xp that the HPT366 driver was not good so it halted the install...how do I fix this...I tried installing the win2k hpt366 ide driver but no go there...I tried running xp setup from dos...no joy there either...is there a workaround for this problem....apart from chucking the mobo (has hpt366 integrated in it)...tia

[Dr Mordrid]

1. did you update the HPT bios?

2. XP is trying to tell you something useful: don't use a HPT equipped mainboard.

Dr. Mordrid

[Gurm]

Well, there's an HPT driver built into XP, why not try using that one?

Or, a much better idea - stop using the HPT controller. The BX U33 built into that board performs MUCH better than the HPT66 anyway.

- Gurm

[dancray]

Abit sent me the following email :

"Dear Mr/Mis,

Thanks for your mail.
We suggest you connect the system hard disk to IDE 1.
Then installed the Windows XP to IDE 1.
We have no longer provide the Hpt 366 driver for update.
So we just provide the HPT 366 driver for Win9x/WinNT/Win2000 driver."

So I guess my hd which is a ultra66 maxtor will have to be slowed down to ultra33...that sucks. I wonder what kind of performance hit I will lose... and I really don't want to buy a new card based hd controller just to get xp to work.


d

ps...on a side note...should I upgrade win98 direct to Xp...or do a dual boot install on the same c: drive...if so will I have to make a separate partition on the c: drive?

[TTCharon]

'Or, a much better idea - stop using the HPT controller. The BX U33 built into that board performs MUCH better than the HPT66 anyway. '

Gurm, you can't be serious, I agree that the HPT366's not the most stable controller but it outperforms the U33 controller by at least 30-35%!?!
It's nowhere near the HPT370 in stability and performance, but still...

Just get the prober BIOS and the corresponding driver and it'll perform well... It did on my former BE6-2 (rev. 1.01), allthough I didn't run XP.

dancray,

If you really like Abit & HPT controllers, then see if you can get a BE6-2 (rev. 1.2 or 2.0) with the HPT370 RAID. That controller rocks!
I was lucky because my rev. 1.01 broke and I got it swapped to a rev. 2.00.

You may have to use beta drivers, check this thread for directions:

http://pub54.ezboard.com/fbe6iifaqmessageboardfrm1.showMessage?topicID=47.topic

(it's me using the 'RovDyr' alias)

And check this Site:

http://home.earthlink.net/~strayman/BE6II.htm

Good luck

[dancray]

thanks for the info; but according to my win98se system driver info on the hpt366 it says it vers 1.25...but on the startup of windows when it scrolls thru the hpt screen it says vers. 1.22...why is there a difference...maybe because I have not flashed my mobo abit be6-2 in over a year...would that change it?

thanks

ps...it is not that I "Like" hpt366 or anything (it came with the abit board)...just want to get XP to work WITHOUT buying new hardware and hopefully without reducing my disk performance by downgrading from 66 too 33mbs.


ps2...with those beta 128 drivers....do you have to use both the mobo 128 flash AND the 128 hpt drivers; or will the mobo128 beta do the trick for both?

[omegaRED]

Ehhh ... i have the same mobo, HPT bios 1.25, drivers 1.25.2, win2k works only with those drivers for me ... when i had the 1.25 and 1.25.1 drivers it would fuxxored everything after the first full shutdown following the installation of win2k.

Back to the point, i have a Maxtor DiamondMAX VL20 (15gb, 5400) HDD, and the last time i benchmarked my sys, the HDD pulled of some 34-35MB/s WITH the HPT ... so in my case i would lose only 1mb/s (and that will happen rarely) ... i`m thinking of going back to the onboard UDMA33, since my HDD is making some funny noises on shutdown on the HPT366 ... i didnt hear any funny noises when i was using the UDMA33 ...

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/betadrivers.htm and http://www.highpoint-tech.com/366drivers.htm ( for the drivers)

http://www.abit.nl/eng/download/bios/bios-be6r2.htm and get BEHXU (the first, in the LOWER part of the page, the one that says only BE6 - II ... it will update the HPT bios to 1.25 ...

[Gurm]

Ok look, there are two points to what I'm saying.

1. The maximum throughput for the fastest available hard drives right now (commercially available, I'm not talking about theoretical or limited-run items here, guys!) is 25MB/sec. for consecutive reads. Average throughput is 12MB/sec., and PRACTICAL throughput is much lower. Therefore, a nice stable U33 connection is more than adequate for a single drive.

2. If you DO want to use the HPT, the trick is to find JUST THE RIGHT combination of BIOS and drivers. Here's a hint - it ISN'T the latest one. If I were you, I'd try BIOS 1.25 and drivers 1.22 (if you can even FIND 1.22) and DEFINITELY NOT drivers 1.25, those just suck.

- Gurm

[TTCharon]

dancray & OmegaRED

The 1.28 BIOS & Drivers are here:

ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/beta/be6-i...8/behxu128.exe

ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/beta/be6-i...28/366v128.zip

And the 'behxu128.exe' will upgrade both your MoBo BIOS and HPT BIOS.


And if you wanna try any combinations:

ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/beta/be6-ii(HPT366)/driver/

(1.22, 1.23.1, 1.25.1, 1.26 & 1.28)

ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/beta/be6-ii(HPT366)/bios/

(1.25, 1.26 & 1.28)

BTW. I used 1.28 Bios & 1.28 Drivers for Win98SE.


Gurm,

I don't wanna go into some theoretical discussion, all I can say is that your statement may be true for some systems/persons.
I agree that 'artificial' benchmarks doesn't actual reflect real world performance.
On the other hand me and a lot of other people have gained significant performance increases by using the HPT366 & 370.
Both in benchmark-progs and in real-life performance.
That said, I admit that the installation routines are some of the most sensitive procedures I have seen.
It is extremely important that nothing goes wrong during the first installation of the drivers, If anything goes wrong you'll have to start all over again with a fresh OS install.
And you can forget about upgrading your drivers, again you'll have to do a fresh OS install. (or manually remove every single trace of the old drivers while in safe-mode, and I mean EVERY trace). If you don't follow those guidelines (which sucks, I know) then you WON'T get the HPT to operate smoothly.

[Gurm]

Even if you DO follow those guidelines, you need the right combination of drivers and BIOS or it will <expletive deleted> up the rest of your system.

It's just piss-poor hardware. Honestly. Spend $20 and get a Promise U100 card.

- Gurm

[TTCharon]

Gurm,

As I said, It may be true for some users/systems.

I and many others however have had great success with the 1.28 Bios and 1.28 drivers with Win98SE.

And... If you have to compare controllers, then compare your Promise U100 card to a HPT370, not the HPT366. They're quite different you know!

Tell you what, choose your Benchmark prog(s), run some tests and post the result here and I'll do the same.
Then we can compare the performance of our HD's.
But remember I currently run without RAID.
It's not real life, but it might show a trend.

Btw I have never had any HD instability with my HPT370 in about 7 Months.

[dancray]

well ABIT got back to me and sent me some beta Xp HPT366 drivers..but I am still in a dilemma on how to apply them. Since I am still running Win98se when I try to install the drivers it asks for files which are not in the Xp drivers (obviously since the drivers are designed to work in the xp os not the win98)...so how to install the xp drivers if I keep getting error messages from xp installation prohibiting from continuing the install due conflicts with the hpt366 in the win98 environment I am installing from...whew. It's like the beta drivers will only work in xp os...sigh...any suggestions? I feel like I have all thumbs on this one.

tia

[TTCharon]

It sounds like you're 'upgrading' from Win98 to XP instead of making a fresh install. I wouldn't do that, make a fresh install instead.

Save your beta XP drivers on a floppy, so you have them ready at any time.

Ohh and I'm quite sure that the XP drivers only will work in an XP environment.

[dancray]

can I make a "fresh install" on my "c" drive which currently has win98? a dual boot that way? or do I need to create a totally new partition?

[omegaRED]

Keep it as clean as possible. Repartition your HDD (Partition Magic is a good tool, and you can keep your old stuff ... just resize your C: partition and create another, install XP on the new partition)