Onboard Promise on OS drive?

[mycroftb]

I've been having this problem in various forms for over a year, and I'm frustrated that it hasn't been fixed yet. A quick googling of the web turned up nothing similar to it, and I find it hard to believe that no one else has run into this. Maybe there are techs having these problems, but just using workarounds and not actively persuing a real solution. But enough ranting, on to the problem.

Components:
Any motherboard with onboard Promise Fasttrack RAID controller
Any NT-based operating system
(it may also occur with add-in RAID controllers based on the Fasttrack chipset (no experience with them, not tested), but does not occur with the Ultra line of non-RAID add-in controllers)

Problem:
When installing Windows 2000/XP, when it gets to the point of copying files, Windows Setup reports that it cannot copy a certain file from the diskette.

Workarounds:
Method 1: (Easiest) Connect single drive to motherboard southbridge IDE, install Windows, install drivers for RAID controller (installed from the same diskette that Windows Setup claims it cannot read), then move the drive to the Promise controller, and continue normally
Method 2: (Harder) Attach a spare drive to motherboard southbridge IDE, install Windows, install drivers for the RAID controller. Create RAID array, if needed. Use symantec ghost to duplicate the windows install on the spare drive over to the attached drive or RAID array. Continue to install drivers and other software normally.

Details:
When first booting from the CD, Windows Setup prompts to hit F6 to install a third party SCSI or RAID adapter (if this is not done, Windows will say later that it cannot see any hard drives attached). Windows loads a few files, then prompts for the driver diskette. The correct driver must be selected (usually it'll have an entry for NT4, 2000, and XP, it may also list RAID-array and non-RAID-array versions for each OS). It then loads the rest of the setup files, and proceeds with hard drive partitioning and formatting. At this point, logically, it has used the driver and it's working properly, otherwise it wouldn't see the drive at all, but screw logic. After the partition is finished formatting, it starts to copy Windows setup files, then immediately reports an error message, stating that it cannot copy a file (previously something like 'fasttrak.sys', but in my current problem system, it's 'fasttx2k.sys'). If this file is skipped, it will contine to report problems copying the .cat and .inf versions of the file too. If they're all skipped, it will eventually be unable to find the hard drive.

I've had this problem on Asus and MSI motherboards, all with the Promise raid controller. From what I've found, the driver version is tied to the BIOS version, so they must be updated together. I've used the stock BIOS and bundled driver diskette. I've flashed the BIOS to all available versions, and used that version of the drivers. I've even used drivers from Promise's website (making sure to match the version of the RAID card's BIOS). And of course I've tried an older BIOS with newer driver and newer BIOS with older driver, not really expecting it to work, but just in case. None of it works the way it's supposed to, but I can get around it using the workarounds listed above.

I've emailed Asus about it a few times, with no response. Promise just says since they didn't manufacture it, talk to the mobo manufacturer. I just emailed MSI about it today, since this is the first encounter we've had with loading the OS on a RAID-attached drive with one of their motherboards.

A few of the guys around the shop have some onboard RAID controllers made by HighPoint (including me) and can install Windows on them the same way with no problems.

So, basically, I *can* work around it and have a good stable solution, but I'm not liking that much, as it's not doing the customer any good. End-users should be able, using only the provided equipment and software, to reinstall their OS or install a different OS. And I'd think most people who have a computer built for them wouldn't want to much around with rearranging cables and having spare equipment on-hand. (Those that would screw around with recabling and have spare equipment would generally build the computer themselves)

And that concludes my story. Any one have a similar problem, and been able to find a genuine fix for it?

(while I was typing this, a co-worker found a thread somewhere that someone had the same problem, but fixed it by renaming the drivers from uppercase to lowercase filenames. Just tried that, and that didn't work either.)


Update: I did receive a reply from MSI, the gist of which recommends I try a different pair of drives, a single drive by itself, or a new cable. I tried this (used a Seagate SATA drive with a SATA cable of a different brand) without success. I even attached a regular hard drive to the motherboard southbridge, with nothing attached to the Promise controller, and after loading the drivers as described above, I still get the "cannot copy file" error. Of course, this way, skipping all three files allows the installation to continue normally.