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Only had to deal with few Giga-Byte mobos with on-board Promise controllers. However I've had no problem with NT4,2K and XP using the controller as either normal IDE or RAID. I also have some Promise external controllers on different mobos, no problems...
TripleRLtdQuote:
Originally posted by Ya_know
My best advice to you is to start your own thread, and perhaps reference this thread, but go over the short version of what you did, and what you want to achieve. I didn't read a lick of what went on above, the post are just to long, and a few months old...I bet a lot of people are over looking this thread for the same reasons...
As far as the Adaptec card...with NT it required hitting F6 to load additional drivers. I don't know if the XP setup has these drivers available, but it wouldn't take much to test that out...just booting off of the XP CD and let it go, see if it sees the array.
Since our last posts were deleted for “off color” remarks, I will try my best to keep this in the primary color spectrum...;)
I suggested that you start a new thread simply because you hadn’t explained your specific problem, you merely piggybacked. As a seasoned tech yourself you of all people should know that each circumstance, and specific skills of a tech, differ. That said, I am not going to read someone else’s problem, and their steps in an effort to understand your problem, unless they are brief.
If it took you three days of research before you came here, sounds like you might just possibly have an unsolvable issue. So, since time is money, and you can’t charge the customer 3 days worth of labor, (plus today if you haven’t reached a conclusion) then perhaps the first viable working solution you can think of might just be the best thing in mind. Charge for the expansion card, configure the system on a new array, and get it out the door. If it isn’t exactly the way you want it, spend another three days troubleshooting if you wish. Me, I have a weekend to plan…
As far as your standings…original member and all, so what. If you want respect here you have to earn it all over again. You cast aspersions to me, one member, but also implied that the “board” isn’t what it is cracked up to be. Well, if you were here helping out maybe it would be. But since you aren’t, you have no room to bitch. I certainly don’t want one, but you owe everyone else on the board an apology for denigrating their efforts.
Oh, I didn't mention configuring the RAID 'cuz nothing special was done about that. Either two drives setup in a mirroring or striping array, or a single drive by itself. Nothing was wrong with the hardware as Win9x would install just fine in the same configuration.Quote:
Originally posted by NooNoo
Huh? yaaaawwwwwwwwwwnnnn whats all the fuss about?
Edit: I have only played with promise ide controllers and boy those caused me some grief...turned out the 2k drivers were much more stable.
But two things strike me about these posts, 1, no one has mentioned configuring the raid bios and 2, the first posts says that "windows couldnt copy a certain file" Which file? is it the same one every time?
The exact files are mentioned in the Details in the first post, and varies depending on the model card used. With the earlier FastTrack add-in cards and chips, it was 'fasttrak.sys' for the main file, and in that particular problem it was a later model FastTrack chip, and was 'fasttx2k.sys'. It also had trouble copying the .cat and .inf versions of the file in question, too.
Sorry for the very detailed post, I tried to include as much information as possible to prevent a lot of "Oh, did you try (obvious thing 1)?", "Yes", "How about (obvious thing 2)?" posts that do nothing but prolong the problem. I was hoping to ensure that any replies would be useful information.
Since then, the shop's stopped building computers based on Promise cards and chips, at least for the OS drive. And I'm actually going to be leaving there in a few weeks, so I wouldn't have a chance to try something. But if you or anyone else can shed light on this problem, I could forward it to my coworker, who's just as mad at Promise as I am.
For reference, the files that it claims are corrupted can be read fine on another PC, and can be installed on the same machine if 9x is installed, or if 2000/XP is installed on a drive attached to the motherboard's IDE. They're only unreadable during initial setup (where it counts).
Also, I've only encountered this on the FastTrack series by Promise, the non-RAID cards (Ultra66, Ultra100, Ultra100 tx2, etc.) work fine when installing with this method.
:sad:
Did you try my listed workarounds? Those did appear to function. Leave the one drive attached to the onboard, install the drivers from the diskette and/or CD, make sure XP can recognize any old spare drive attached to the controller, (optional: make a ghost image of the 'working' drive with drivers installed, in case something goes wrong later), then reattach both drives to the RAID controller and use its BIOS to rebuild the array from the 'working' drive. That should do it. If that doesn't work, then I'm sad to say, I don't think it's related to my original problem, and you might be best served if you started a new thread explaining what's going on.Quote:
Originally posted by TripleRLtd
Ya-Know, that was part of the research: what other cards WOULD work? But as the original post states, how can we get it to work with what was already working before and SHOULD work now but doesn't? The board in question has onboard RAID. I did everything the original poster did to know avail. I suppose the easiest way is to get a card that works with original XP (built in) drivers which are autodetected. Is that the case with this card? Remember that this is an XP upgrade, and now I have to get his mirror back. Right now it is working off of the IDE sans mirror.:mad:
Oh, and I haven't used the Adaptec card that Ya_Know mentioned previously, but I have used integrated chips by Highpoint and Silicon Image, and they ran as advertised, without this problem. Unless I find otherwise, I'll assume that this is linked only to the Promise FastTrak series.
Enable in the bios? You mean, enter the main motherboard BIOS setup, and make sure the controller is enabled? Or do you mean change the boot order, so it tries add-in cards before giving up? Or do you mean entering the RAID controller's BIOS setup, and configuring the array?Quote:
Originally posted by crazyman
thats it,she has answered it ,I have a onboard promise controller,and I use win2k,and during the install the f6 and floppy drivers thing all has to be done,yes,
and I use the promise fastrak ide setup,so all four of my ide channels are working on my soyo mobo,and I use all four successfully,
but to what noo noo said,in order to make the promise controller work(atleast for my install) I had to enable the "raid/scsi" in the bios.
As far as my original problem, all three were done, to no avail. :(
OK, done a little more digging...
Mycroftb would you describe the floppy diskette you created please? What files when in what folders?
I am asking this way around because of a hunch... nothing more :)
I know this is an old post but I wanted to highlight this to everyone else who might read this later. Do not the winxp drivers for this topic, only the win2000 drivers regardless of what win os you are installing. You shouldn't have any problems then
Ok, I have the answer to the original post by "mycroftb" about the issue with the Promise Onboard Raid and there is no question about it.
Low and behold is isn't legal though.
I have tried countless versions of WinXP Pro, whether it was with Service pack 1 or 2 and I'm simply not able to by-pass the "cannot copy file" fasttrak.sys, fasttrak.cat, fasttrak.inf in the WinXP installation process.
The solution to not having this message pop up to me has nothing to with the bios of your motherboard or the bios of your raid controller, but it has everything to do with the version of WinXP Pro you are using.
The only version that doesn't prompt me saying "cannot copy fasttrak.sys... etc... is WinXP with no service packs. It's an older download of WinXP Pro but it's out there... I'll even go as far as saying the password of this copy of WINXP PRO starts with... FCKGW
Downside to all of this is you can't upgrade to service pack 1 let alone service pack 2.
The closest I have come to experiencing similar problems involved bad drives. I could sometimes get the array up and running, but got file copy errors during Windows installation, or got Windows installed, but had operational problems after such as lock-ups, or software installations which would trash Windows causing me to repeat the process from the beginning. Even manufacturers diagnostics didn't isolate the problem. Sometimes rebooting would generate an error message about a non-functional array in the controller's BIOS.
Eventually, I did a basic Windows installation on the individual drives, connected separately in turn to the RAID controller, and then ran them, installed software, etc. At some point, one of the two drives always puked up and I contacted the manufacturer about a replacement. After this happened a couple of times, I just made it a practice to RMA both drives (it is good to be a dealer, sometimes) and put in a new pair. I think the problem with Promise controllers is that they may run very rigorous hardware diagnostics without much in the way of an explanation if there is a failure in the array.
Sorry to be late to the party, and rest assured I have put on my Nomex.
Considering the extreme on-line vulnerability of XP without service packs & security updates, it would be wise to only experiment with this as a workaround on a system with no internet access.
I have in my hands an MSI K7N2 Delta ILSR mobo. I requires me to install this Promise Fasttrack 378 drivers and the SATA driver from the same company as well. The procedure is exactly the same as was described before: Windows XP install from scratch, press F6, choose the XP drivers, run the install, when it wants to copy the files from the diskette it won't budge. Windows crashes after this happens.
There are a few things I'm wondering if you guys tried.
-Since the Diskette is written in FAT12, a lot of support info to the files in there is not written to the disk - sometimes Windows actually creates a file with that supplementary info. Is it possible that the files are not being recognized by the Windows install? Could they be in "Read-only" mode? If this is the case, is there any way to rewrite the diskette's contents with downloaded files?
-would it be possible to do the first part of the install (partition, format, copy files, reboot) then load a Dos diskette, copy the files onto the SATA drive, then reboot and continue on with the install? (the Promise driver must be active during the copy of those files from DOS, otherwise Dos won't even see the destination HDs)
The procedure described previously, explaining how to connect and IDE drive at first and proceed from there, WILL NOT WORK. Here's why:
When installing Windows, if you decided to have 1 IDE drive and 2 SATA drives, then the IDE controller 1's master drive would be immediately prioritized by all BIOSES around the world (though I don't understand why, this has caused me many problems before) over the SATA drives. So you start installing Windows, say on D:. Windows will trick you and copy its NTLDR files on C:, which is the IDE. If you take out the IDE after having completed the install, Windows will never even load. Copying those files to the D: drive after the install won't work either - they are written specifically to not be copied. Windows would fail to see them.
So I need an install procedure that will work only when I have these 2 160G Seagate SATA drives, and both on their own Stripe 1+0 array (each are independant of the other, not running them in RAID). The files must be copied, and I need this PC to run ASAP.
If anyone has a good idea about this, please lemme know. I'd be more than happy to hear from you! Thanks!
Holy Thread Resurrection, Batman!
In the future you might want to create a new thread instead of tacking onto one that's several years old - it's more likely to get noticed widely.
Download the latest drivers from the MSI Web site and create your own driver diskette. I have installed Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 on the exact same motherboard using the RAID array with the downloaded drivers.
Thanks... will try your method.
BTW, I know the thead is old, my dear Robin, but I found no other occurences of this problem ever happening ANYWHERE... so I just wanted to keep this thread going, I guess.
In any case, thanks!
I have also downloaded these files, and they do appear different when loading them during install, but to no avail - Windows will NOT copy these files.Quote:
Originally Posted by rgharper
I will have to install another drive. Piece fo advice: don't choose anything but ASUS next time as a motherboard.
Thanks for the help!
Hi All
Have not posted for a while, been away, but this one caught my eye.
May be a OLD POST but on a very pertinant topic.
Could suggest you need a STICKY on this.
It seems to me that no one can resolve these issues with simple answers.
Taking my logic as a simple Engineer.
a)Bios settings must be correct. (SATA,RAID)
b)Often bios must be latest version
c) You download the latest driver and put it on floppy.
d) You install with your OEM Slipsteamed CD (OR DO YOU!)
e) F6 loads the Raid Controller and Storage Device.
f) Windows does not then recogninse the inf,cat and sys file when installing.
g) Job stopped.
OK Let me put in my 2cents
a) Sometimes it fails on both SATA and RAID
b) It is interesting to note that in the case of MSI K8M NEO-V Boards the bios has gone from being a V1.1 to 5.X so is it a bios issue?
c) There is talk of the software having to match the bios how true can this be?
d) I have often had more success with installs using a basic XP Disc when the OEM disc will not perform the install. Some suggest you should slipstream the RAID,SATA drivers into your OEM CD and it will then function - how sad is that.
e,f) Is it really a windows issue? and is billy keeping quiet?
A Workaround is a compromise
We pay for products that work
If I want Raid1 on a PC it should just work.
When it comes to detailed instructions about how the customer installs RAID or SATA many of the Mobos seriously lack details.
Lasty therefore would you build a PC on Raid 1 for a small business, with the Mobo controlling the RAID or do you go for a seperate RAID system to build into the PC?
Is it fair to say that we should not depend on Raid built into motherboards because it is still at the gimmick stage?
Comments Please