SATA Drive on A8N-SLI nforce 4 - cannot install windows XP

[Darksaber]

I have been trying to install Windows on a SATA drive on NVRAID (a single drive: JBOD or on disabled SATA connector making it appear directly in the BIOS)

No matter how I set it up I get a "SETUP CANNOT COPY FILE: nvraid.sys"

What the hell...its an A8N-SLI board. No matter which drivers I use.

This is the precondition:
1. Place floppy in drive
2. Place Windows CD
3. Boot from CD
4. Start Installer
5. Hit F6 when asked for RAID/SCSI disk
6. Windows does the initial install
7. Asks for drivers of floppy. Hit S load the nVRaid and the nforce4 SATA drivers.
7. All drives are found (3 Span RAID array and single 80GB SATA drive)
8. I take the single 80 SATA drive
9. The drive is formatted
10. Then I get the above error...

WHAT THE HELL...

using IDE drives works flawlessly...

anyone know what to do?

cheers
DS

[jcdenton21]

What windows XP are you installing?
I think SP2 solves some problems
I also recommand to run full format not quick or just installation to formated drive in past

[Darksaber]

Only tried win XP with SP2.
Full format did not yield different results.

I even slipstreamed the NVIDIA drivers into the WinXP SP2 install, but then it does not find any drives. Will try it again tonight.

cheers
DS

[malware]

Do not eject the FDD disk after formating the hard drives. After the format process, windows is copying the .sys files from the FDD disk during first 2-6%. Remove the disk after the first restart. If that does not help, try with another new formated fdd disk.

[Darksaber]

Do not eject the FDD disk after formating the hard drives. After the format process, windows is copying the .sys files from the FDD disk during first 2-6%. Remove the disk after the first restart. If that does not help, try with another new formated fdd disk.

Yes I am aware of that :)
And if you slipstream the drivers into the CD, it will not need the floppy disk at all, as it loads the drivers from the windows CD.

I am going to try it again with a slipstreamed CD right now.

cheers
DS

[WarEagleAU]

good luck DS.

[Alec§taar]

Hi Saber...

I have a motherboard of that type myself. It doesn't sound like you've done anything wrong @ this point that I can see... which IS weird, I agree!

Maybe a BIOS flash, to the "latest/greatest", would help - prior to attempting installation of the OS?

(I am PRETTY SURE there's been an update/upgrade there @ that level, & maybe it's something to try here?)

* GOOD LUCK MAN!

APK

P.S.=> I run "JBOD" now, instead of RAID 0, but I do it via a specialized 3rd party caching RAID controller... I have no hassles this way.

I went from RAID 0 to JBOD, because I tried Windows Server 2003 SP2 RC2 & figured it was solid enough, until a few weeks into it, it began lagging various operations & more (bugging out), & it hosed up a 3 yr. long installation I had running here, so I had to redo things... my bad, & I don't recommend it anymore for folks to try where I did initially (some added "FYI").