Installing Windows onto RAID array

[Bytemaster34]

Hi

My motherboard is the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe, and I have two hard drives connected to the RAID controller, one is a WD 120GB parallel ATA drive and the other a WD 120GB serial ATA drive. The motherboard has an AMI BIOS and uses the Fast-Trak Fast-Build RAID utility.

The store that built my system did a great job and installed Windows onto the RAID array for me. But the problem is- I don't know how to do it myself.

My Windows installation has been infected by a virus or somehow otherwise plagued by a problem that causes programs not to run. I would like to format and re-install. It's the simplest thing and it doesn't hurt to start afresh sometimes anyway.

When I insert my Windows install disc (Windows XP Professional with SP1 OEM) and boot to it, the Windows install screen (blue) appears. When I hit enter to go to the next screen, which normally lists partitions that you can use, it just tells me that there are no drives on my system.

I tried hitting "F6" to install a 3rd party RAID controller while it was loading, but it just asks for a floppy disk containing the driver. I didn't receive a floppy disk with my system.

I know the array is fine, because I can still boot to my old XP installation no problem. Any attempt to run the Windows install from the old installation just messes up because of the virus or whatever it is.

Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[micgla]

Not sure what the problem is. However, I would boot to a Win 98 floppy and do a format of the drive(s). Then try booting to the XP CD again. Then delete the partitions and reformat with NTFS. This should solve the issue unless there is a problem with the Cd itself.

 

[Bytemaster34]

Hi. Booting to Win98 disk would not see the hard drive. It's because it is a RAID array. It is not seen as a drive by the system.

A friend suggested I go to the motherboard's website and download their driver onto a floppy disk. I did get it working. I should have thought of doing that myself.

I think the system should have included that floppy disk... it shouldn't be necessary to download something on a different system just to install an operating system.

Thanks for your suggestion