XP Pro Installation with SATA RAID Hard Drive 1

[MikeKnooop]

Hi guys,

I'm actually quite new to hardware, which shouldn't surprise anyone that I'm running a pre-fab Dell XPS Gen 2 system. Anway I've had it for a few years and would like to re-install XP Pro on the machine, but there is a catch. Whenever I get to the Installation screen from the BIOS, the insaller tells me it can't locate a hard drive.

Research has told me I have one SATA RAID harddrive (120gb) hooked to my motherboard in SATA port 1 (of 2). I have also figured out that my solution lies somewhere with the F6 key during installation (the key that allows you to install RAID drivers before the installer looks for drives).

I have an 82801ER chipset from Intel as well. In fact, I have SATA RAID drivers that match perfectly to my hardware, but when I try to F6 Install them, I get the BSOD just before the installer gets the point of detecting harddrives. The BSOD return error is 0x0000007B (I may have missed a 0 in the middle somewhere...). Certain drivers do not cause the BSOD, however, these drivers simply don't work. I would receive the "No Hard Drive found" dialog.

Anyway I'm kind of looking for advice, maybe past experience, anything. I have all my original installer CD's that Dell gave to me - minus floppy disks.

Currently the hard drive still has an XP Pro OS on it, and I can boot normally just fine without any problems, just the installer won't recognize the drive.

Thanks for your time.
-Mike Knoop

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

You need to just find a driver for your raid. you already fingered that in your post, I guess you just need confirmation. If you don't have the driver you can usually find it online.

 

[MikeKnooop]

Will these drivers be coming from Intel (motherboard manufacture) or the Hard Drive manufacturer? I guess if the driver caused the installer to go BSOD, it wasn't the right one.

-Mike Knoop

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

it should be from Intel. what board do you have?

 

[MikeKnooop]

It is a proprietary one made by dell :-\

I actually found the exact file I was looking for on a Dell Resource CD. I installed that to a floppy to use at F6.

Get this, when I press F6 and select the driver, the installer tells me "It appears this file is older than the one on the CD". Well the CD didn't work be deafult in the past so I tried overriding it with this driver on my floppy. Caused a BSOD (again) STOP @ 0x0000007B. Aggitated, I tried it again, this time, on the screen where it asked me if I wanted to override the file with the floppy, or continue insatlling strictly from the CD, I chose the latter.

I've tried straight CD installations with no extra drivers several times, and the installer won't ID the hard drive. But somehow, this process forced the intaller to ID it.

So I insatlled XP Pro again, rebooted to boot for the first time back into the actual OS and I got a BSOD stop @ 0x0000007B. This screen is persistent, and appears every boot less than 1 second after the XP Boot Logo appears.

Any ideas from here?

Thanks a ton
- Mike knoop

 

[paparazi]

MikeKnooop
Well of course if you have a single hard drive you CANNOT setup a raid configuration, you need at least TWO drives to do this!!!!!!
What you need to be installing is the SATA controller driver (at F6) so that the hard drive is located further along in the XP installation.
These SATA controller drivers are normally supplied on disk but knowing Dell they will have to be downloaded.
You could alternatively carefully examine the motherboard for the SATA controller chip, once located write down the make and model number, eg: Silicon image Sil3112 is a common controller chip.
Once you have the make/model visit the manufacturers website not Dell.
Extract onto floppy
F6 when asked
Install SATA drivers for XP

The drive should now be recognised during XP install

Martin



We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[MikeKnooop]

Thank you your post has been very helpful so far. The chipset is the Intel 82801ER (ICH5R). On Intels website:

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/cs-015001.htm

While it mentions the 82801ER specifically in the footnotes, I've been unsucessful in determining what chipset the 82801ER belongs to. My intuition told me to try the 865 and 875P since they corresponded to the footnote, but none of the drivers in the download (both chipsets download the same file) have an F6 option for "82801ER SATA".

That kind of brings me to my second question, in the list of F6 drivers, I have basically two options for each chipset that is included with the download. For example:

"Intel(R) 82801FR SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH6R)"
"Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller (Desktop ICH6R)"

Now based on your previous post, I don't need RAID. Therefore I need AHCI correct? I'm going to do some further reaserch on the acronym.

Thank you
-Mike Knoop

 

[MikeKnooop]

As much as I dislike double posting, I couldn't find an edit button anywhere.

This wiki page perfectly describes my problem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AHCI

"Enabling AHCI mode in BIOS may cause problems with any already installed Operating System, and may require re-installing the OS. Microsoft Windows requires a separate driver diskette for installation on AHCI-enabled disks, using the F6 Installation method. Failure to do so will spawn a 0x7B BSOD STOP error. Switching to AHCI requires installing new drivers before changing BIOS settings."

Ok so AHCI is what I need. This solves that problem - however creates a whole mess of confusion.

For my chipset, 82801ER, SATA AHCI drivers -do not exist-. Only SATA RAID do. The reason this is extemely confusing is my machine only has 1 harddrive, and for the past 2 years it has been booting SATA RAID off of one harddrive. How is that possible?

In the BIOS, I only have an option for SATA RAID on or off. If I turn it off, it gives me IDE options. (I don't have an IDE HD).

The only thing I can think of is when I was able to format my harddrive, there were two partitions on it. Can RAID link partitions? Seems like it would defeat the purpose.

Am I missing a step here? I kind of feel like it.

Thanks
-Mike Knoop

 

[MikeKnooop]

I'm doing the ultimate sin on a forum... but I have good news. I have solved my problem.

For anyone reading this thread in the future, looking for an answer, my answer lie within the BIOS.

On my SATA RAID option (in the BIOS), if I turned it off, it spawned two new lines. Sata Primary Drive and Sata Secondary Drive. It only just dawned on me that I have two SATA ports on my motherboard, and that those settings correspond. I disabled the SATA RAID (not sure why it was on there to begin with), then saw my SATA port being used was #2 (this may have thrown me off earlier, too). I enabled port #2 to Auto and restarted.

Booted straight to the XP Install CD, and the installer recognized my harddrive without even needing F6.

Go figure.

Anyway thanks for all your help guys I'm bookmarking the site and I'll throw the recommendation to my friends who've got their own issues

Thank you!
-Mike Knoop

 

[PRPhx]

Good to hear you found a solution. I really wish MS would include SATA drivers in it's installation and make things soooo much easier. They already include a number of SCSI drivers and such, so adding SATA drivers shouldn't be a big deal. And would make life, at times, so much easier.

 

[paparazi]

PRPhx
Well they do for some controllers.
Looks like MikeKnooop's motherboard SATA controller drivers were generic as he didn't install anything at F6.
Eventually (retail XP with SP3? if it ever happen's) may well cover most SATA controllers nagating the need for third party install.
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[jurgen36]

Well XP sp2 does include a few Sata drivers. The Intel drivers are usually included, so no problems there. Anyway you found it out the hard way. The best way to learn for the future.
Regards

Jurgen

 

[PRPhx]

Well, I installed Vista Beta 2 on my desktop pc this past weekend. Didn't need SATA drivers. Installed Vista as a second OS with XP Pro.

Vista found my HD, no problem. The only problem was Vista would NOT allow me to install it in the same partition as XP Pro.

Very interesting!

 

[ysanchez]

Responding to Mikeknooop when he wrote:
"Enabling AHCI mode in BIOS may cause problems with any already installed Operating System, and may require re-installing the OS. Microsoft Windows requires a separate driver diskette for installation on AHCI-enabled disks, using the F6 Installation method. Failure to do so will spawn a 0x7B BSOD STOP error. Switching to AHCI requires installing new drivers before changing BIOS settings."

Here is a solution I successfully applied to resolve the issue when XP is already installed and you whan to enable AHCI afterwards. Boot your PX with the XP installation CD. Hit F6 providing the AHCI (or RAID) Matrix Storage Manager drivers (

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/Product_Filter.asp?ProductID=1809).

Select intall XP. Choose the already installed XP partition and finally select the repair option. Setup will copy the AHCI (or RAID) drivers at the right place.