Raptor and XP installation issues

[Tufnel]

I have an interesting situation that i just can't get figured out on my own. In summary i am building a new PC for the first time. Parts are high end (gigabyte ga-k8nxp-sli, amd 4000, corsair, a 200 gig storage drive and a 74 g raptor for OS and applications). For installation, i only have the Raptor with jumpers set at cable select and into S ATA on the motherboard (i dont think it matters which port, but it is 0). When installing windows xp pro, i get through inital phase of finding the drive, copying the files and when its done, the list tells you to remove the disk from a and then it restarts). At this point the machine hangs up on a black screen with a prompt (effectively a dead prompt). this hangs up the installation procedure. Of course, if i leave the install disc in, it just starts all over again.

I have done many clean installs using an ide drive and never had this sort of issue. Since windows wants to put files up onto the raptor, there would be no sense in needing additional driver install.

Well, i am just stuck on this one. Any help, or even just a different was to look at the problem would be greatly appreciated.

-cory

 

[Crashman]

It sounds like your boot order might not be set correctly in BIOS.

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[Codesmith]

1) I belive your board has two SATA controllers.
If you are connecting to the sil 3114 SATA ports then you will probably need to press f6 durring install and load the proper drivers.

The SATA ports provided by the NF4 chipset should not need any special drivesr to install windows.

Check your manual anyway.

2) I am curious as to how you managed to set the jumpers to cable select when there is no master/slave/cable select setting on the 74 GB Raptor? SATA is one drive per cable.

Maybe you memorized the positions used by PATA WD drives?

If you moved the jumper from pins 1 & 2 (closest to the molex power connector) you should move them back.

 

[Tufnel]

Sorry for the confusion on the jumpers, that is for the secondary IDE drive and not the raptor itself.

For the purposes of installing the OS, i removed the secondary for obvious reasons.

The drivers were not the problem, and the fix was quite interesting. I am not sure exactly why it worked, but it did (ideas?). Essentially, in order to boot from the SATA drive, i set up a single drive array in the raid config. Then i was able to install the OS onto the drive. This might be helpful to some, if anyone could better describe what that actually did, i would appreciate it. So you are right, nforce4 does not need sata drivers.

The boot up sequence was fine, it just was not going to the sata drive.

This whole process has evolved into another problem that may be of interest. So, when i hook up my secondary IDE drive back up and restart, windows recognize it and operates just fine with two main concerns. The first, with the second drive plugged in, i can not get to the bios. weird, i know. The second thing is that the boot time is horrifically long (compared to the 12 sec raptor boot anyway, 1 day and i am spoiled). I have a letter into gigabyte support, but don't expect to hear anything until summer. Any ideas?

 

[Codesmith]

Many integrated controllers operate in two modes, normal and RAID, which can be switched in the BIOS. If you are not using RAID then it is best to set it to normal.

If you have the controller set to RAID, or it only operates in RAID mode then you often have to enter RAID setup and tell it what to do with every hard drive.
---
So your new problems is
1) With just the RAPTOR everthing works fine.
2) Add 2nd drive and you cannot enter BIOS, but somehow system boots into Windows XP anyway, but with a delay.

Something is definately wrong here.

Are you sure that you cannot enter the BIOS, maybe you can if you press the button at the right time.

If the system hangs while it is trying solve a configuration problem, it might ignore all keyboard input until that problem is solved.

Try switching the 2nd drive from cable select to master (or sinlge) and see what happens. (In my option cable select should never be used)

Also which of the 2 SATA controllers are you using?

Try switching from one to the other and see what happens.

Exactly how long does it take to boot? Does it POST fast but take long for windows to load or does it take unusually long to POST?

Check the boot order in the BIOS.

Could it be that you are really booting from the PATA drive and just not noticing? When windows XP finally loads check to see if C: is actually the Raptor.

 

[Tufnel]

Thanks for getting back to me, I really appreciate it as this has gotten a bit beyond my abilities to say the least.

I am very certain that i did not miss the bios oppurtunity as i tried consecutivly for maybe 30 times or so. Even picked up a cheapo corded keyboard (which along with a cheapo corded mouse to be quite handy) to try.

The post appears to take the same amount of time and the time is lost on the windows loading, i.e. the windows now loading screen is up for quite a while.

I am using the serial ata (essentially the 1.5 that agrees with the rapter specs--yellow chord). I tried the sataII originally, but never achieved anything. Keep in mind that was prior to OS install.

The only drive with an OS is the raptor, so the sequence is right and no PATA drive is there.

Tonight after work, i am going to adjust the jumpers on the IDE drive and get back into the raid config and bios look a little closer for something funny.

 

[lonewolf1215]

I agree that you should probably not use CS. I have a Raptor drive as my main drive and 2 - 300GB maxtor Ultra/16 drives as a secondary set (which I software raided together.) Whenever I deal with SATA drives that have IDE drives connected I have to go into bios and change the order in which the drives are initialized. Making the SATA drive boot first. Usually when I'm installing the OS I usually disconnect the IDE drives and then after installation allow the system to boot into windows. Then I shut down the system and add the IDE drives. The system works fine after I do that.

 

[Codesmith]

You might want to give the SATA II ports another shot.

Those are the ones provide by the Nvidia chipset and should be your safest bet.

The BIOS should treat those SATA ports just like the other PATA IDE channels.