winxp + ATA66 drives = hell ?

[irios]

I use Win98SE with my Matrox G400-TV

and, now i just got my brand new Parhelia 128

so I need to install WinXP

but WinXP wont install on my system

I have Abit BX133-RAID mobo (P3 933MHz)
I also have a bunch of Western Digital harddrives .... some ATA66 and some ATA100 .. ranging from 45Gb to 120Gb
I also have anST Labs IDE raid controller


Problem is that the WinXP setup -refuses- to use my harddrives connected to the IDE controllers onboard the mobo

So, this results it in IMPOSSIBLE to install WinXP... it simply tells me I dont have ANY harddrives connected to my system


Some friends of mine told me WinXP has serious issues with ATA66 drives.
Anyone else have any experience with this ?
Any suggestions?

[Taz]

Are the drives connected to the on-board IDE or on-board RAID controller? If it's the RAID controller you have to press F6 during the install when prompted, (can't remember the exact wording but it's something about additional SCSI controllers ), and point it at the location for the RAID controllers driver.

[Greebe]

Sounds like on-board raid only...

[Taz]

Originally posted by Greebe
Sounds like on-board raid only...

That's what I was thinking

[UtwigMU]

Sounds like many examples of XP installs on RAID problems.

Your best bet is to:

- install XP on nonraid BX IDE controller
- install RAID drivers (ABIT has highpoint IIRC)
- transfer drive to RAID controller

[irios]

Well, I have my two 45Gb drives on the onboard hpt370 controller (primary master, and secondary master), and my two 120Gb drives are on the ST Labs controller (primary master, and secondary master)

I dont use the raid itself, I only have them connected this way so there is as little strain as possible on the two controllers when handling large amounts of data.

Problem is that I want to use one of the 45Gb drives as C: ... reason for this is because I dont feel like rearranging all the drive letters by repartitioning and stuff like that

When I run WinXP setup, it will ONLY detect the harddrives connected to the ST Labs controller. But unfortunately, this controller does not have the harddrive which I want to install XP onto.

I have even tried booting the winxp setup WITHOUT the ST Labs controller installed in the computer.

Weird thing is that the WinXP install cd boots from a cd-rom connected to the very same controller that the two 45Gb drives ALSO are connected to .... and STILL the WinXPsetup tells me there are no harddrives present on the system.

I have also tried doing a clean install of win98se, and then upgrading the system with winxp... but it only results in the installation to halt with some stupid error message telling me that i should scan for viruses and stuff like that LMAO

I have quite a sophisticated setup with various partitions and messing up my drive letters is something I really want to try to avoid... moving the harddrives around is last resort :-)

If I install WinXP to a 45Gb drive that has been temporary connected to the ST Labs controller, can I then move it back to the onboard hpt370 controller, and run WinXp in that way without any problems ?


Any help is appreciated

[3dfx]

I had the exact same problem when I installed XP for the first time and you fix it by installing your own Raid driver usually provided on a floppy with mobo as Taz mentioned. So you'll have to do a reinstall and press F6 when prompt

[irios]

okies
I copied my controllers' drivers to a couple of floppies, and installed them during the winxp setup

now I have XP running
but it's not runnin smoothly

everytime my harddrives have to do stuff, it will result in my mouseppointer freezing a few hundred millisecs

and if I play music in winamp, the sound will "freeze" a moment when stuff is being processes on my drives
(it sounds like a few frames of sounds are being looped -- sorta timestrechted effect -- weird)

I am running the newest drivers for both my CMD649 and HPT370 controllers

IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
IRQ 3 Communications Port (COM2) OK
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1) OK
IRQ 5 Intel(r) 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 5 Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller OK
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 10 SMC EZ Card 10/100 PCI (SMC1211 Series) OK
IRQ 10 HPT370 UDMA/ATA100 RAID Controller OK
IRQ 11 CMD PCI-0649 Ultra100 IDE Raid Controller OK
IRQ 12 Matrox Parhelia 128MB - English OK
IRQ 12 Creative SB Live! Value OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel OK




IRQ problems perhaps ?

I am used to having the simple setup of win98, and Im finding XP quite frustrating at this moment
Any help at all is appreciated.

Any suggestions ?

[Greebe]

Party on IRQ 12! Try your SBLive in another slot

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by Greebe
Party on IRQ 12!

Woohoo, I'll bring the beer!

[The PIT]

Highpoint controller and mouse stutter wasn't that an old issue???

[Guru]

BTW what BIOS version are you using?

[irios]

I have the newest bios (BIOS ID: 72 - 2001/12/03)

but I really dont see how the parhelia/sbLive IRQ sharing can cause problems

They were sharing irq in win98 too, and there were no problems whatsoever


I moved my sbLive to the only empty slot I have left, and this is the result:

IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
IRQ 3 Communications Port (COM2) OK
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1) OK
IRQ 5 Intel(r) 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 5 Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller OK
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 10 SMC EZ Card 10/100 PCI (SMC1211 Series) OK
IRQ 10 HPT370 UDMA/ATA100 RAID Controller OK
IRQ 11 Creative SB Live! (WDM) OK
IRQ 11 CMD PCI-0649 Ultra100 IDE Raid Controller OK
IRQ 12 Matrox Parhelia 128MB - English OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel OK

[Guru]

Just asking about the BIOS since the original had some probs with w2k/xp!

[The Sewer Rat]

if you can use win2k instead, then i recommend it!