[ClickCardo]

I'm preparing to buy Vista x86 Home Premium OEM and this forum has been quite the find for me.

I have an older ASUS A8V-Deluxe motherboard with 2 SATA controllers that I use. The main is a VIA VT8237 RAID that I have non-RAID drivers for I believe cuz I do not have RAID. I also use the Promise PDC20378 RAID controller (Promise 378) that I have to specifically set to non-RAID mode in the BIOS. I have XP drivers for each, but do not see any Vista drivers for this board on the ASUS support site. What do I use? Are they automatically loaded from the Vista install disk? For XP I have to put them on a floppy and hit F6 right off the bat.

Any help appreciated.

[Bilbo Baggins]

My MSI mother board uses the same VIA sata drivers that require pressing F6 as part of the Windows XP install. Vista Ultimate install them without doing anything, NO Pressing F6. I hope that helps. The Via drivers that I used to need were the same as yours VIA VT8237

[mowerman90]

You won't need any of the drivers for your Asus A8V Deluxe MB. I loaded Vista Business successfully onto that MB without pressing F6 and everything worked fine

[NT50]

Vista installed seemless on a MB that I have for testing with the VIA RAID. Drivers load no problem. BUT the RAID does not work at all. I can not get RAID 0 nor RAID 1 to work with the default drivers. The only way I got VISTA to see a RAID on this MB was to install XP and upgrade to Vista..

I have a Promise card also and I'm glad you mention this. I will try this weekend to install it on my Vista test machine, I only have a few days left on activation.

[ClickCardo]

Thanks everybody for your encouragement, but I feel I still do not have my definitive answers yet.

I have only TWO drives and I DO NOT want RAID.

I setup my pc to have 1 hdd on the via so I would not have to worry about RAID. I setup 1 hdd on the Promise in SATA IDE mode so I would not have to worry about RAID. This has worked just as I want.

I have read on the ASUS forum and elsewhere that there are no Promise SATA IDE drivers and none to come.

So mowerman, nt50 and everybody else are you SURE I can install Vista using ONE hdd ONLY on each controller without needing drivers on a disk?

If not do I have to move the 1 Promise drive to the VIA controller and if so how do I NOT make it a RAID setup? Also, please be sure to include in this explanation if I need to install drivers during installation and where I can find them.

Excuse my denseness but I really want to be sure before trying an install.

Thanks again.

[NT50]

I am not sure about the Promise drivers. As I have said, I have a Promise card but have not installed it yet. As for the VIA you will have no problems as long as you do not run RAID.

Now if you can not find the promise drivers just plug your drives in on the motherboard and don't worry about RAID. RAID will not setup unless you tell it to.

I have 8 sata connections on my MD and will have 5 sata hard drives in soon and all without a RAID if that is what i want.

You setup RAID when the computer boots and you enter the RAID setup menu.

[ClickCardo]

NT50, are you sure you have an ASUS A8V Deluxe MB (MD?)? Because it has ONLY FOUR SATA connectors so since you do not say you have an additional controller card I do not see how you get 8. Also, if you knew the Promise controller on that MB you would know you use the BIOS to put it into non-RAID mode so you aren't even prompted at startup for it. So are you sure you are talking about the ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard and it's 2 controllers each having 2 SATA connectors?

Just want to make sure we are on the same page.

Thanks.

[Bilbo Baggins]

On my MSI motherboard I have four SATA connectors. 2 are promise and 2 are Via, I have never used the Promis connections. My 2 HDD are not set up for Raid, you have to tell it to set that up, if you don't it will not.

[NT50]

NT50, are you sure you have an ASUS A8V Deluxe MB (MD?)? Because it has ONLY FOUR SATA connectors so since you do not say you have an additional controller card I do not see how you get 8. Also, if you knew the Promise controller on that MB you would know you use the BIOS to put it into non-RAID mode so you aren't even prompted at startup for it. So are you sure you are talking about the ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard and it's 2 controllers each having 2 SATA connectors?

Just want to make sure we are on the same page.

Thanks.

I have two different boards with different controllers:

1. ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe that has 8 connections (nVidia and Silicone).

2. PCCHIPS board that has the VIA RAID chipset

3. The PROMISE controller I have is a PCI addon card for RAID 0/1

I will be installing sometime in the next month Vista Home Premium on the PCChips board with VIA but I will not be running it in RAID.

I have already installed Longhorn Server beta, XP Pro, upgraded to Vista, install Vista Ultimate, CLean. Before I install VHP, I will be playing with Home Server beta (maybe if time allows).

[intellix]

I have a A8V motherboard, my brother has a deluxe, basically the same.

I have vista installed on the A8V that uses one of the RAID sata connections and another hard drive with IDE. Works fine without aanything needed. Im 100% certain you wont need to mess about with the installation of your drives.