Problem
When installing SATA Raid with the Nforce3 Chipset motherboard, users complain that they cannot setup the raid properly because Windows XP detects the drives as 2 physical and separate HDD’s instead of one raid array. When using the Silicon Images RAID, this does not happen.
Reason
When setting up the Nvidia Nforce 3 Raid, the users do not install the drivers correctly when pressing the F6 option for adding additional drivers during the Windows XP installation. There are two drivers that need to be installed and most users only choose to install one, which is incorrect. The location that the drivers are copied from may also be incorrect and may not install correctly or may not install at all.
Solution
To install the drivers correctly please follow the following procedure.
- Configure Nvidia Raid Array for mirroring or striping
- Copy the contents from the following location to a formatted stiffy disk
2.1 For Windows XP the location is CDROM: \Chipset\ck8s\xp\IDE\WinXP.2.2 For Windows 2000 the location is CDROM: \Chipset\ck8s\xp\IDE\Win2K_nouse. These are the RAID Drivers
- Start the Windows 2000/XP installation
- When the Windows 2000/XP installation starts up, press the F6 option to add additional drivers
- When the setup prompts for the additional drivers, please insert the floppy disk with the relevant Windows OS RAID Drivers on it and press the “S” KEY to specify additional drivers.
- A list of drivers will be seen. Choose the first driver to install which is "RAID Class driver" and press “ENTER”. This allows your RAID controller to be initialised.
- After the driver is chosen, press the “S” KEY again to choose the second driver which is "Storage controller driver". This allows the drives to be seen as a raid array and as one HDD.
- Proceed with the Windows 2000/XP installation
- After the Windows 2000/XP installation is complete, install DirectX 9.0b or 9.0c. The DirectX 9.0b or 9.0c version must be installed for the RAID to function properly and must be done so before any other driver is installed in the system.
This affects the following products and combinations…Nvidia SATA Raid 0 or Raid 1 configurationWindows 2000/XPnForce 3 series motherboards with NVIDIA SATA Raid…K8NSK8NS Pro
K8NSNXPK8NS Ultra-939K8NSNXP Ultra-939Reference:SoneilP-RCT DBNDanielK-RCT CT |