P5K Del. -> %^&$ing RAID1!

[v0x]

Hey folks,

I've been up all night trying to get on top of this, so sorry i'm sorry if I forget to mention anything important

I've been trying to get Raid1 up and running with a fresh install of XP SP2 on an Asus p5k. However, after sucsessfully loading the drivers using F6, it fails to copy them when the install starts to actually put files on the array.

The exact error is:
"Setup cannot copy the file: iaStor.sys"

This is EXACTLY the same mysterious problem described in the following places:
http://forums.pcworld.co.nz/archive/...p/t-63099.html
http://www.msfn.org/board/Loading_3_...F6_t26399.html
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum...fm/721560.html
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/forum-rep...fm/703911.html
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache...&client=safari
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/arch.../t-143657.html

I've tried everything, bios reset, different versions of xp, different disks, drivers. Heck, come 6am I even read the User Guide

.. Could this be the jMicron controller? Does anyone hve any definitive imformation about this error? A little googling seems to suggest its quite common, but nobody ever seems to really know whats going on.

Thanks,
v0x

[Clunk]

Have you tried a different bios?

Jmicron controllers are generally crap, use the intel raid if possible.

Its just a case of waiting for a new bios unfortunately.

[Supershanks]

have just had alook on the asus site & the raid drivers shown there are marked as jmicron. as clunk says these are sh*? well not so good . I'd certainly recommend using the intel ich9 drivers which you should find on Intels site.

another option is to slipstream the drivers into a new os cd using NLight although you need to know u have drivers that work 1st

luck

[v0x]

Heya,

Still no sleep, and still no raid!

Blasted thing. I've had a couple of attempts at slipstreaming the install, which so far haven't worked. I'm going to try some more tomorrow, when I can think a little more clearly.

Unfortunately, its little more than stabbing around in the dark at the moment. For the life of me, I can't find out what might cause this to happen, let alone a way around it.

I'll try updating the bios tomorrow, , still running first release at the moment.

I've made sure none of this is going near the jMicron gubbins, but I'll throw an SATA/IDE adapter in tomorrow and disable the jmicron controller altogether just to rule it out.

My gut says that slipstreaming /should/ be the best work around for this, as the problem seems to be more related to the windows install procedure. If anything, while the various forums suggest that while Asus boards are more prone to this bug, its far from vendor specific. So maybe a little more time spent understanding nLite will do the trick.

Has anyone got RAID1 (in any form!) up and running on a P5K yet?

Many thanks for the responses, I'll update further if I manage to dig any deeper.

v0x

[Supershanks]

are u using the intel drivers now??

[DratUK]

Hi
I had a google search to see if I could find any hint of what was going on. Found this
http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread...%3A+iaStor.sys
The possible answer lies towards the end of this thread, dont worry its a short one.

[Supershanks]

Think thats a bit old dated 2004. you need the ich9r set of drivers i think

This is the main intel raid page Intel® Matrix Storage Manager

if you scroll down to the

Utilities, Tools and Examples

section these files create a floppy to use with [f6] incorporate in slipstream.

Bad news - i see no mention of drivers using the p35 southbrifge ICH9R

But in the absence of owt else they may be worth a try

luck

[v0x]

Done it! (Edit: Well, not really.. see my next post)

This is almost definatly a problem best attributed to .. Slipstreamed/Unattended installs!

Having tried pretty much everything else, including the drivers linked above(Thankyou!) and a bios update(Thankyou!)and injecting the drivers manually, I gave Windows Server a go. The install went through fine.

Then I noticed.. They concluded the same thing at the thread here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=26399
.. But I ruled that out early on by using a Dell OEM CD. Which I now realize is, of course, slipstreamed with Dells drivers

I'm now completing an xp64 install, as I've got to wait a few days until I can get hold of a plain vanilla xp32 install. Its giving me the annoying acpitabl.dat error now but I think this one's gonna be another story, the joys of raid

..But anyway, thankyou once again! No more slipstreaming for me `.`

v0x

[Supershanks]

Glad u got sorted but it's strange i loaded both achi & raid to my slipstream & it worked well. Oh well, hopefully going p35 end of next weeek or so. Hope your around

cheers

[v0x]

Glad u got sorted but it's strange i loaded both achi & raid to my slipstream & it worked well. Oh well, hopefully going p35 end of next weeek or so. Hope your around

cheers

Well I hope your experience is better than mine, mate!

All in all, the ICH9R controller has been the most problematic raid controller I've ever dealt with. Following my last post I actually never managed to get a system running! I eventually popped in an Sil3112 PCI-SATA adapter, which has treated me very well so far with only a tiny performance hit.. but its far from ideal!

As far as I can tell, the ICH9R drivers are simply /broken/. There's nothing more for me to try, really.

After switching to a non-slipstreamed install, and getting past that hurdle.. I experienced the following:

Windows Server 2003: Never booted back in to setup, but I never tested this.. Assuming its similar to WinXp 64..

Win Xp64: Never booted after setup, always hung at acpitabl.dat Tried disabling and enabling various things in bios, and replacing the file.. No joy. Moved to my vanilla copy of

Win XP SP2: Initial 'file missing' problem solved with a non-slipstreamed install, upon restart, the setup failed to continue because it couldn't load ASMS - setup eventually loaded this file, but only when the machine was started with no cd in the drive, and then pointed to a DIFFERENT install cd in a DIFFERENT optical drive. Different cd in same drive would NOT work (WTH?!). After this, windows warns about one driver which it doesn't give any name or description about, then following that the ICH9R driver. Refusing the unnamed driver results in a blue screen, and allowing both causes startup to freeze on MUP.SYS. I tried removing all usb devices, turning usb and all the chipset devices off(Including the jmicron controller), and everything else I could think of to get past this, nothing worked.

After all that, I just gave up and went with my SiL3112 card.

This system was configured as so:
80Gb maxtor on SATA1
80Gb maxtor on SATA2
200Gb maxtor on SATA5

and two optical drives on the ide chain.

I'm about done trying to trouble shoot this now, I just want to enjoy my new build -- but maybe this will be helpful for someone more knowledgeable trying to troubleshoot.

I've seen a few folks on xtremesystems complaining about SATA oddities aswell, so perhaps this isn't so isolated.

cheers!
v0x

[Agrippa]

Isolated you ain't, there are people having trouble with this and similar stuff all over the place it seems.

In case you haven't done so already, have you tried setting the JM controller BIOS to RAID before installing? Slim chance, but maybe worth a try. If nothing will work, how about installing to a single drive off the JM controller and then see if you can successfully set up RAID 1 on the ICH9R from Windows? If that works, move your installation over to the RAID array using Acronis or some such tool.

[Supershanks]

Just got my new p5k up & running. Interesting but ultimately easy switch.

initillay had some other issues (see elswhere 4 story) but booted into xp to my emergency xp install, small non raid partition. bios & raid manger had onlty detected 3 of my 4 x80gb raid0 drives. This worried me as my backup images where on another drive which i'd killed((see elswhere 4 story)
Anyway fearing the worst i carried on upgrading xp install from 965 to p35 chipset updating drivers etc.,

updated the windows matrix storage manager & on rebooting the sun came out
Previous raids are seen & more importantly are ok.
I can't explain why updating windows app should have such a profound impact on a bios/rom based function. But it worked

so sorry for your experience the matrix continues to be the raid for me leaving nvidia in the dust in terms of both performance & reliabilty

JM controller BIOS to RAID before installing?

doesn't impact annything mine's disabled. makes more sense to set up xp on a single drive with sata access set to raid. install matrix storage manager, then create the raid you want. That is in effect what mine is.Then yes use acronis to copy install accoss.

luck