I just spend 3 sleepless weeks setting up a new system. I use the SINXP1394 mainboard, 4 GB of memory and 2 IDE drives as well as 4 IDE raid drives and 2 Sata raid drives. The problem was as follows. The original drives were 2 40 GB seagates on IDE, 4 80 GB seagates on IDE raid and 2 80 GB seagates on the SATA raid. With the setup all raid channels were slower as a simple IDE ATA133 drive. Also the system crashed on numerous occasions. I must have reinstalled WIN XP and WIN ME at least 50 times. It is configured as a dual boot for backup purposes.
After I ripped my few remaining hairs I decided to change to Maxtor Diamond AT133 drives. This time the installation went without any problems at all. I now use 2 40 GB Maxtors for the IDE and 4 80 GB Maxtors for the IDE raid. Another 2 80 GB SATA drives for the SATA raid. My WINME boots up from the Raid 0 Sata array, my WINXP boots up from the IDE raid 0+1 array. It appears that Seagate drives do not like raid systems. I do Use the two IDE drives as a backup and transfer the total drive contents from SATA or IDE raid with Totalcommander. I also found out that the WINME floppy boot disk recognises all my drives, this makes it very easy for using Fdisk. To format new drives I do that from within WINME, no problems at all. I hope this might help somebody.
Jurgen
After I ripped my few remaining hairs I decided to change to Maxtor Diamond AT133 drives. This time the installation went without any problems at all. I now use 2 40 GB Maxtors for the IDE and 4 80 GB Maxtors for the IDE raid. Another 2 80 GB SATA drives for the SATA raid. My WINME boots up from the Raid 0 Sata array, my WINXP boots up from the IDE raid 0+1 array. It appears that Seagate drives do not like raid systems. I do Use the two IDE drives as a backup and transfer the total drive contents from SATA or IDE raid with Totalcommander. I also found out that the WINME floppy boot disk recognises all my drives, this makes it very easy for using Fdisk. To format new drives I do that from within WINME, no problems at all. I hope this might help somebody.
Jurgen