Creating an XP Setup Boot Disk with RAID support

[NiallW]

This is my first post so be gentle with me

I recently installed Vista (Beta 2) on my PC and as a consequence I've lost my XP (MCE 2005) system (I wont bore you with the details).

Anyway, I want to install XP Media Center Edition 2005 back on to my PC so I've created an XP boot disk and have the XP MCE Setup CDs all ready. My problem is that my system has two SATA disks in a RAID set so once I boot off the setup diskette, the system can't see any drives to install to.

I've had a look on the Dell website and Intel's too but can only find 32-bit and 64-bit drivers. What I'm after is a pointer to the DOS drivers and then info on how to update my boot diskette to loads the driver on boot so I can then progress my XP MCE installation.

TIA,
Niall

 

[Nodsu]

Why do you need DOS? You can boot straight off the CDs too you know

AFAIK you cannot use fakeraid with DOS because the drivers are supposed to do all the RAID fuctionality and this is too much for such a simplistic OS. If it was plain SATA or real hardware RAID, then it'd work.

 

[Sharkfood]

You're going to need to prepare/make an F6 set of disks for your RAID controller.

As you mentioned Intel & Dell, it's likely an ICHxR series raid controller (substiture x for 5,6,7, etc.). You can likely just use the intel reference matrix/raid driver tools from intel.com to prepare an F6 Windows floppy this way.

You'll have to determine this either from Dell, your machine specs, or if you know the precise make/model of your system, we might be able to look it up for you.

If you're unfamiliar with this, when windows XP (or MCE) setup first starts, you'll see at the bottom it will say ("Press F6 to load blah blah blah") this is your cue to hit F6 then pop in the floppy you made prior from Intel's site/drivers.

 

[NiallW]

well you guys haven't let me down :grinthumb

I've got drivers for the RAID controller which I used to load during the installation of Vista. So I guess what I need to do now is create a bootable Setup CD for XP. Sorry if this is a stupid question but how do I do that?

I've got the setup files (Disc 1) so do I need any specific software to burn the setup files AND have the CD bootable?

Many thanks for your continued support and assistance, it's invaluable (as is this forum).

 

[richie7000]

im sorry my friend but you must enable S/ATA from the start of your installation. it will say smthing like"press f5 if you like to install suppourt for raid drivers.

 

[Sharkfood]

Hi again Niallw,
Be sure the floppy with the VISTA raid drivers are indeed cool to use with XP/MCE. I'm pretty sure they will be though as Intel matrix drivers are just two or three .sys files for pre-install recognition of the RAID controller for setup. Once you get your first OS boot, you should immediately then install the Intel chipset drivers + IAA Raid Edition to redo the MCE drivers.

Just to recap to be sure we're on the same page:
1) You wish to install MCE, not XP.
2) You have some form of MCE "setup" CD's, but not a full install/oem set that is bootable.
3) You wish to INSTALL to a RAID volume.

If all of the above are correct, you'll definately need to make your setup cd bootable, but I'm unsure if an XP Home/Pro boot image will work. It's worth trying though.

I'd do a google/websearch on "slipstream windows" to see various sources on how to Service Pack and attach a boot image, then burn. If you do not have access to a full, bootable, setup MCE cd, you might try an XP boot.image on a slipstreamed MCE setup disk to see if this get's it off the ground.. then be sure to drink up a few cups of espresso... stand by with your Intel RAID driver floppy hot in hand... and smack F6 like no tomorrow in the 5 seconds you're allowed to do so during the MCE initial setup lol. If you miss it, just tag the RESET button and try again.. and maybe grab another espresso.

Good luck!

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

You can integrate the SATA & RAID drivers to XP with nLite.

 

[ew0054]

Perhaps I am at fault for failing to clarify the situation.

Once I get past the screen where I select the drive to install XP onto, it checks the floppy for the RAID drivers (in this case, iastor.sys).

I get the following message:

Setup cannot copy the file: iaStor.sys

To retry press ENTER

If you are installing from a CD make sure the WIndows XP CD is in the CD drive.

To skip this file press ESC

CAUTION if you skip this file setup may not complete and WIndows may not work properly.

To quite setup press F3

The disk is in and contains the files. I keep pressing ENTER and the above message repeats. The FDD light is on so it is polling the diskette, but refuses to actually copy the file.