Technology, Support, and News Forum

[tb57 Profile]

Here comes another newbie with dual-boot installation probs . I've been studying this board quite a while, but must have missed something !

Set up = RAID 0/1 on a Gigabyte P965-DQ6 board (see sig.) Whatever I do, the installation always gets to the same point (Completing Installation) and freezes. I'm trying to install it to a D: partition on the same RAID0 volume as XP. After instal attempts, I have to switch the disks back to "Normal" using the Matrix Storage Manager, and sometimes wait for the RAID1 to reconstitute itself .

My question boils down to this: since it always freezes where it does,
- does this mean all the files are copied and I just have to tweak the boot manager (correctly, tho' !) to get the install to continue? i.e. switch off, boot from DVD, repair with bootsect & bcdedit and hope the install continues?
or
- is it likely to be a driver or hardware incompatibility problem? Maybe it's just that it can't find the SATA/RAID driver for ICH8R on rebooting?

I think I've tried just about every variant except returning the PC to its virgin state. If it weren't for this Forum, VistaBootPro, I'd be in the loony bin by now .

Sorry if this question's been answered a thousand times already here, but somehow I haven't found it yet

I dig the smilies - hoping to post a soon


Edit by NT50: Change the subject line

[The Phoenix Profile]

Welcome to PROnetworks tb57, please bear with us while some of our Members come along with a few ideas, should not be too long lol

[Grav!ty Profile]

Tell us more about your drive configuration please tb57. Do you have both RAID0 and RAID1 arrays configured? Are there other drives on your system not included in the RAID arrays?

By the way welcome to PROnetworks

[JabbaPapa Profile]

This is a tough one, and it would certainly be a good idea to provide as much insight as possible into your configuration (both hardware and software)

[tb57 Profile]

Jeez, you guys are quick off the mark. Thanks!
The following might be relevant:
The workstation is a member computer of a W2K server domain. I have domain administrator rights, but group policy (about which I know sorta like nothing) is known to get in the way sometimes. So I've been installing as the administrator of the workstation, not the domain, usually with network cable unplugged. Have also disconnected a USB printer that has a card reader in it.

2 HDs, 360 GB Raid0, rest = 2x300 Raid1. Raid0 is XP on c:, 120GB for Vista on d: primary partition, rest = empty or for media files. Raid1 is for data only, but gets corrupted of course by the install because it's a primary partition. An idea would be to create a small primary partition on Raid1 and call the rest extended?

I've taken the 2 SATA DVD drives (Samsung) off the onboard SATA ports, disabled the onboard chip. Now they're on ports 5&6 of the onchip SATA controller. No IDE anything.

Floppy was only temporary, the latest ICH8R driver files from Intel are now stashed on root c: It doesn't seem to make any difference whether they get loaded or not, unlike the F6 trick with WinXP instals, which makes it all the curioser. When Vista has installed 7+ gigs of stuff to D:, I can't find any iastor etc. drivers anywhere, so that makes little sense.....

OS is WinXP Pro SP2 plus all the latest security updates.
Other pesky software? Just my basic Office2003/CAT tools/database engine stuff, nothing that would interfere with the system.
The graphics cards could theoretically be an issue - MSI 7600GS (passively cooled) nVidia things with 512 MB. I have 2x21" Samsung TFTs and a dear old NEC 19" TFT attached (I like real estate )

Haven't messed with the BIOS much: have tried native/legacy enabled/disabled, turning SMART on, PCI/PEG, ummm, what else?
Killing the RAID1 array and creating a separate new RAID0 volume for Vista - no good either.

Yep, no matter what I do, "Completing Installation" doesn't....
Seems to me that SATA/RAID drivers or a drive or a location of some description isn't getting found, and to be honest I think it's Bill's fault, not mine (but you never know!).

Sometimes I pine for the "PATH= " days....

Bit long-winded, I'm afraid...

[tb57 Profile]

Well, JabbaPappa & Gravity, it does seem like a device failure
- at least that's what the repair console says:
Sig01 External Media,
Sig2 6.0.6000.16386.6.0.6000.16386
... Sig6 Failure during setup

I'm amazed that the combination of WD5000YS RE2 drives, Gigabyte DQ6 board and latest Intel SATA RAID drivers won't collaborate.
Wonder if 2 cheap Samsung SpinPoints would solve the problem...

Anyways, I deleted partitions and the RAID1 array again, leaving just c: and d: on RAID0, booted the DVD from XP, got as far as "Completing Installation", then booted from DVD and got to the rescue & recovery options.

The only installation recognised was the Rollback. The proposed solution was to re-create an XP entry and run the rollback, I think.
Tried to load the SATA/RAID drivers from c: and there was a complaint about that (message saying the problem can't be solved), then
went into the command window and played with bcdedit. There was no legacy/XP/ntldr entry when I ran /enum all, so tried to create a boot menu manually. At the end of the day I just let the rollback do its job and boot me back to XP again. Memtests were OK.

It would be interesting to reinstall XP and Vista on ACHI drives with no RAID, or to try a simpler kind of HD in a RAID array, but experiments like that will have to wait, I think. It's time I started earning with this machine!

Will let you know if any experiments point the finger more precisely...

[JabbaPapa Profile]

You may be having the same problem we discussed HERE :

http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=88497

Direct link to the solution that was found :

http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewt ... c&start=45

Whether you upgrade or downgrade, using a different BIOS may (or may not) provide a solution.

[tb57 Profile]

Thanks, JabbaPapa,
mmace's "early adopter hell" with a baby on the way sure takes me back 20 years! (trying to attach an electronic typewriter to my first XT PC). In the end I was so happy to get a dot matrix printer and a 20MB harddisk (for more than a high-end gamer's PC costs today).

I'm awestruck at the service to mankind you guys are making here

I don't have quite the same hassles as mmace - here's an update.
Bought a 160GB SATA II disk last night before the shops shut, disconnected the WD5000YSs and installed Vista with barely a hiccup, leaving the BIOS on RAID.

No drivers needed.... post-install nvidia driver update over Internet failed - not sure of the implications, but will whack all the latest driver files onto a CD before the next set of experiments.

Got back to XP and made the PC a dual-boot machine using the know-how gained from this Forum. Thanks all round

So the graphics cards ain't really the problem, nor the RAID setting on BIOS, but something to do with the dual-boot plus dual-disk thingy, or the firmware on the WD5000YS.

So next step will be start all over again,
- check that Vista can install to a simple RAID0 volume,
- then remove one RAID disk and see if XP and Vista can be installed on two partitions of a single disk.

I'm optimistic. If so, a second disk can be added and raid arrays created.

If not, I'll dispense with dual-boot RAID arrays 'n stuff until I can migrate completely to Vista after the summer.

Vista NTFS doesn't seem to be quite the same as XP NTFS, and even Vista Ultimate seems to be overtaxed by dual-boot SATA/RAID setups..

Thanks again - hope this can be marked "resolved" soon

[JabbaPapa Profile]

post-install nvidia driver update over Internet failed - not sure of the implications

None at all --- many of us have experienced this, it's just a glitch.

[tb57 Profile]

Like many others, the install times out on "Competing Installation".
Rebooting in safe mode gave me the classic "crcdisk.sys" as last driver.
I'm trying to set up a dual-boot XP RAID 0/1 system on a Gigabye 965P-DQ6 board with 2 Western Digital 5000YS RE2 drives.

Must've installed XP and Vista a total of 30 times and this is what finally worked :
- Gave Vista a 200 GB partition.
- Booted from DVD.
- Disabled USB keyboard and mouse in BIOS
- Disconnected anything remotely to do with other drives and/or USB (including a printer with a memory disk slot!)
- Loaded latest Intel driver from floppy, latest BIOS installed also (F9)
- Had the Vista boot manager installed on XP drive
- DISABLED the Onboard LAN, installed a old Realtek NIC instead
- Removed the DVD and floppy after expanding files & during the reboot

My theory is that the installation times out writing to the raid volume because it's scouring the system AND THE NETWORK for other bootable volumes and simply times out, wrecking RAID1 completely and messing up the MBR on the first volume.

Maybe it was just the onboard Marvell gigabit device and all the rest is irrelevant.

In any case, I can now try and recover the $$ thousands in lost work this Vista thing has cost me! The Western Digital drives are wonderfully quiet, but none of these problems occurred when I shoved a 160GB Samsung drive in instead - Vista installed without a hitch.

Hope this helps one or two others being driven crazy by "crcdisk.sys".

At least we understand the Vista boot manager !

Good luck everybody

-