RAID 1 Setup Problems

[rammstein1903]

I hope I am on the board.

First off this is the equipment I am working with...

Mobo: ABIT AN8 Ultra
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego
HD: 2 160GB Hitachi Deskstar 7200 3.0 Gb/s SATA II
Memory: 2 1GB Corsair XMS PC3200 sticks
Optical: ASUS DVDRW Drive
PSU: Thermaltake 430 W ATX
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5
Video: Just a radeon 9250 256MB (not used for gaming)
OS: Windows XP x64

The Problem:

I'll start at the beginning.
I set up an array to be mirrored, no big deal.
I started to install windows, hitting F6 at the beginning to implement the two files off of the floppy drive for the RAID setup (files downloaded from Abit website to a:, because x64 edition files did not come with the mobo).
Installed. It boots once okay, but right after windows starts i get a svchost.exe error, which then the process stops. Shortly there after windows starts to act as tho it is corrupted (taskbar changes colors...). I reboot, but on startup I got and had gotten errors including ntoskrnl.exe missing/corrupted, ntldr missing, and one other (i forgot) which also relates to the boot sequence. After much dismay and poking around recopying those files in the win recovery console, and playing with the boot.ini file; I then looked around in the raid options. Not entirely sure why or how this fixed the problem, but I rebuild for one of the disks, and then it booted fine into windows, and no more svchost.exe error, peachy keen. so then I decided to start installing drivers. I did the ethernet adaptor (inboard mobo) first, so I could download the other drivers. I installed it, it asked me to restart windows, no surprise, so I did. then on startup the next time, windows starts booting and it hangs up one of the blue windows screens with the logo, then nothing. jsut freezes, then after a while of waiting to see if it was thinking or something, I had to hit reset...just does the same thing. so deciding to see if it was the same problem I rebuilt the array again, no such luck. so, not sure why but i rebuilt the other disk, and then a new problem arose. On bootup, it stops on the screen where it usually shows the raid status screen and freezes saying "Detecting Array..." nothing happens. I hit (Ctrl+Alt+Del did nothing) reset, same thing happens. I try hitting del at beginning to shutoff raid controller in bios, that doesnt work, because the bios setup screen shows after the raid status screen. so I reset the cmos to make it stop. Okay so now I cant access the raid setup at all because each time i activate the controller it locks up on the detecting array crap. so how do I get it so it actually allows me to hit F10 and get to the raid setup screen?

I apologize for this post being so long, but just trying to make it that all of it is out on the table. I hope I didnt forget anything.

Can anyone help? ...with all 50 of these problems (sigh)

 

[defakto]

My personal guess would be it's an issue somewhere with running 64 bit. Alot of drivers still haven't matured enough to be stable in my opinion. I would try 32 xp *just* to see if the problem repeats its self, if it does, it may be bad hardware.

 

[rammstein1903]

well the thing is i tried installing windows on just one disk and works great, just apparently not so hot once i start installing drivers when mirrored. and these were drivers from the abit website for x64 edition.

and right now i cant even do anything related to the raid setup, cause once activated it locks up on that one screen. i cant even make an array now. I want to atleast get that setup back. i also updated the bios from version 17 to version 19. no help tho.

thanks for the quick reply.

 

[rammstein1903]

ok took the drives out, unplugged the cables to check each drive.

anyways summarized, i can get to the raid setup screen now. not sure what changed, but whatever.
now i just need to figure out those other problems.

 

[rammstein1903]

hmm, problem fixed, i reinstalled everything and now it works great, not sure what different tho, so whatever.