it seems to be working now. i will post again after everything is said and done. thank you so much for your help.

Did you realize, that you have written post No 1000 of this thread (what an amazing interest!)? So you will succeed!
Please report here, if I am right.

CU
Fernando

well, sadly the first attempt using the 6.85 drivers seems to have failed. it did show up correctly in partition selection process. after it formatted the drive and rebooted, the system stalls.

i will make an attempt using the 6.70 drivers next...

btw, so far i've tried the legacy drivers under the 2k folder rather than the xp folder. should i be using the xp even though i'm installing 2k3?

Use the XP folder. XP and W2k3 have a similar kernel.

i made a bit of progress... this time i used the XP 6.85 drivers and got a little more than a lockup...

after the "Press any key to boot from CD..." prompt, i got about 8 lines of the following character: â

aka:

ââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ
ââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ
ââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ
ââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ
ââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ
ââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ
ââââââââââââââââââââââââ

both 6.70 and 6.85 failed... i'm trying 6.70 one more time by rebuilding the array and trying again. but i don't really have high hopes at this point.

uh.......... very strange. for a minute there i gave up. i disabled the array and attempted to install a plain SP1 unattended slipstream install of 2k3. but for some reason, i got a very similar error "error loading operating system"

crud. what have i done?

I don't know.
When you tried to boot off the W2k3 SP1 CD, did you press any key when you were prompted to do it?
After having disabled your P-ATA RAID array, did you readapt your BIOS settings, especially the RAID settings and the boot order of your hard disk devices?
What about the MBR? Is it healthy and still on your first IDE hdd?
My suggestion, when everything else fails: Unplug all not needed hdd's during the W2k3 installation and reconnect them, when you got a perfect running OS.

After racking my brain for three days now, I've finally tried everything I can think of. First, let me begin with what I'm trying to do, and what I have tried so far.

I have Windows XP MCE (Media Center V3.0), which for this purpose is basically XP Pro SP2 (correct me if I'm wrong). I want to integrate the nVidia SATARAID drivers to my CD, but every time I attempt to do so, I get a "Parameter is incorrect" error (at least twice, when it's trying to integrate the SATARAID drivers).

I have tried using various drivers from 6.70, 6.85, and 6.86 to no avail.
I have tried using nLite 1.3RC2 as well as nLite 1.2.1.
I have tried to integrate only using the SATARAID drivers (no other integration/modification).
I have tried using the LEGACY directory.
I have tried using the old method (Driver-Suppression/Removal-Method) where I use various files from the LEGACY and SATAIDE folders to supplement the SATARAID folder.

No matter what I've done, I keep getting these errors "Parameter is incorrect" when nLite reaches the 'driver integration' step.

I have an A8N-SLI Premium motherboard with the latest BIOS and up-to-date RAID BIOS.

Please HELP!!!!!!!

Did you get this error message while creating the nLited CD or did you get it during MCE setup?
Maybe your problem is caused by the fact, that your MCE CD is already modified. If you want to create an nLited CD, your source should be a clean OS CD.

While creating the nLited CD, and what do you mean by the fact that the MCE CD is already modified... it's a clean copy with no additions other than the SATARAID drivers...

You should never nLite a Cd which was already nLited or modified by another tool.
Take a clean OS source and copy the CD content into a directory of your hard disk drive, then create an nLited CD with integrated drivers etc.

The CD I am using is a clean install... no modification whatsoever, just a clean copy from the CD to directory and then using nLite on it... still getting the "Parameter is incorrect" error....

Thanks for the clarification.
Here I found the description of a similar problem: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;hl=Parameter
It obviously has something to do with your driver choice.
Did you use the multiple driver or the single driver integration method during the driver integration part of nLite?
Try to integrate just the LEGACY subfolder of the 6.85 chipset driver package (no SATARAID and no SATA_IDE) and report, if you get the same message.

If you look at my first post, I've mentioned everything I[ve done, including using only the Legacy folder, using various driver revisions (6.85, 6.86, 6.70) as well as the Vista Beta and doing the old method of integrating everything into one OEMDIR folder... still getting the same error....

I am sorry, I didn't remember that.
Your problem has obviously nothing to do with the driver choice and integration method, but with nLite's processing itself. Maybe it's a bug of version 1.3 RC2.
Please try nLite 1.2.1 Final. You will get it here: http://nuhi.olmik.net/old/nLite-1.2.1.installer.exe

Good luck!
Fernando

LOL, if you see the above quote I've used 1.2.1 final as well, same issue...

I really have no idea concerning the reason for your message, but I found some links that might help you solving your problem:
1. http://consumer.installshield.com/kb.asp?id=Q108488
2. http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7590_102-0.htm...ssageID=1429873
If you want further help, please post your experiences within this thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;hl=Parameter
Maybe Nuhi or someone else can help you.
CU
Fernando

good！！！

Another idea: From which source did you grab the drivers when you integrated them?
Maybe the source drive was not OK or at least the driver path was too long (too many characters).
Create a directory C:\SATARAID and put your favorite nForce SataRaid driver folders into that directory. Then run nLite again and try to integrate those drivers. After having created your nLited CD you can delete the driver folder.

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum and need a hand w/ a fresh install of XP on a SATA drive.
The system recognizes the drive within windows, but when doing an installation to the new SATA I get an error that XP cannot find the drive.

I tried using Nlite to integrate the SATA drivers. I followed all the steps, but the XP installation is still giving me the same error. Any help w/ this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Please give us more informations:
Which mainboard and which nForce chipset S-ATA ports are you using?
Do you have a RAID array?
Which driver did you integrate?

I had a striped raid array on an nVidia nForce4 chipset on my Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe. One of the two drives died and I sent out for a warranty replacement drives. Being cautious, I decided to do a web search for my hardware to identify any trouble spots dealing with installing XP on a new striped array. I was horrified when I read about all the endless reboots people were experiencing in this forum and elsewhere. After reading this forum, I was under the impression that I had to slipstream a new disk and do a host of other things I had no experience doing.

In the end, I decided to take my chances. I built the new stripe array in the bios and when installing windows I hit F6 and used the drivers from the 6.85 package (nForce4_x16_6.85_winxp2k_english.exe). It worked very smoothly. No endless restarts. No problems.

The only catch was the fact that I have another raid array on a raid card on my machine, and when I installed both sets of drivers my data drive was C: instead of my windows drive. That was annoying to me, so I installed fresh again, this time only loading the nForce drivers with F6 and waiting for windows to be installed before installing the drivers for the raid card. Now my windows drive is C: and all is right with the world.

So, for anyone out there with the same board and a raid array, fear not. F6 works just fine with the 6.85 drivers on a floppy, specifically the contents of the sataraid folder. I hope this information saves somebody some time.

(Oh yeah, in case it makes a difference, the drives are identical 74Gb 10,000 RPM SATA 2 Western Digital Raptors.)

Thanks for your report.
As you have realised, not all owners of a mainboard with an nForce RAID system will get endless reboots at the end of the installation, when they are using the F6/floppy method and load actual nForce SataRaid drivers.
Nevertheless the integration of the nForce SataRaid drivers into a bootable CD by using a tool like nLite is an easy, safe and comfortable method for all users with such hardware configuration.

Hello,

I stumbled upon this wonderful thread when trying to google some help with my installation.

I have following configuration:
ASUS A8N-E mobo, nForce4 Ultra chipset, with latest (1.13) BIOS, forgot to write down nvraid version as I am at work now
AMD A64 x2 4600+ CPU
Some Asus 7600GT GFX
Apacer memory module 1GB (tested OK with memtest)
2x Seagate Barracuda 120GB 7200 RPM, sata 1 in RAID0 (stripe)

So far the story:
Last summer I bought it, put it together, and tried to install Windows XP Pro 32bit SP2 edition. Created new array, and proceeded with installation. Back then I had 1.12 BIOS and 3000+ single core Athlon 64. After few trial-error attempts I managed to successfully partition and install windows XP on striped disks. Howerer, I found that ONLY with drivers provided on installation CD ... cannot remember correct version now, will edit and fill in later. Other drivers I downloaded, unpacked and put on diskette did not work: If I was not getting BSOD prior to partition select, then I got error stating "Cannot read disk or CD, may be damaged ... insert vendor disk labeled so-and-so and press enter to continue" when it started to copy actual files from WXP cd.

Then I got dualcore, played with some HAL seatings resulting in need to reinstall windows XP

Yestersay I tried it ... well several times ... whole afternoon and evening. I created various floppies, made sure they are OK few times etc. Still got the same message stating "cannot read from disk or CD" when windows start to copy files on hard drive. Tried different version of XP (from mom's computer with integrated slovak MUI pack), tried 6.53 6.65 6.66 6.70 6.86 nvidia drivers, supplied either from nvidia download ssection or ASUS dowload site. Plus the original drivers from CD I used successfully first time, are not working too. Tried "hacks" with txtsetup.oem, putting nvatabus.inf to that diskette ... no success so far

Atop of that I would like to keep current raid intact, it's not funny to loose 180 GB of data again ... no big damage, but it would take ages to retrieve it from backups and various other computers.

Final questions:
Do you think going through process of nLiting the install disk with drivers, possibly several variations as I follow this thread, would lead to success? I am starting to be pesimistic when not even one attempt I did yesterday led to success ...
Is anybody here that successfully installed WXP this way on A8N-E board with raid0 already created?
Are there any special things I should pay attention to? (check versions - 6.86 is said is not working, + will need to get the nvraid bios revision)


Little note: modified CD would actually help me ... I did not figure out yet how to press F5 for HAL options (I want select ACPI multiprocessor) and F6 to install custom drivers simultaneosly

Thank you very mcuh.

Are you sure,
a ) that you have set the correct BIOS settings after the last BIOS update (after flashing a new BIOS, you always get the "default" settings) and
b ) that your floppy drive is working correctly?
There is no need to rebuild the RAID array, if the RAID utility says it's "healthy".
Yes - >300.00 users cannot be wrong!
It is not necessary to create more than 1 nLited CD. If your nVRAID BIOS version is 4.84 or higher, you should integrate the SATARAID+SATA_IDE subfolder of the 32bit nForce chipset driver package 6.86.

a ) Yes, those windows were running several days without problem. Until I decided that when I bought dualcore, I want to actually see both of them and broke windows
b ) Yes, I can boot partition magic or slackware install floppies just fine

Good, thank you.

Got 4.84 BIOS version.
300.000 users got problems with nvraid too? Ewww ... shouldn't nvidia start thinking about some re-edition of those drivers?

Allrighty, I will make the CD and then report how it works. Won't be probably immediately, if not during this week, then weekend hopefully when I find some more spare time.

Not all viewers of this thread had problems with NVIDIA's nForce RAID drivers, but at least nearly all of them succeeded with the creation of a bootable XP CD with integrated nForce SataRaid drivers.

It worked
I just had to add the driver as text, and it asked me if I want to add also SATA_IDE. I confirmed, burned CD, booted and ... no BSOD, no "disk failure" errors, no reboots, that was beautiful clean install.

Thank you very very much, yay I am sooo happy!!!11one!!eleven1337!!!!!

First, thank you for keeping this up for so long. It is sincerely appreciated by all. You are reducing stress in the world!

I have followed your detailed instructions, with no luck. I had no problems creating the nLite CD, adding the proper drivers, and getting through the format and copy-file process of installing WindowsXP. However, upon restart when I'm expecting the HD to fire up and continue the Windows install process, I'm caught in the endless re-boot loop.

Prior to creating the nLite CD, I updated my BIOS, used a floppy (the f6 method) and installed WinXP that way, read about and changed various settings on my BIOS configuration relating to SATA/RAID, and verified that all cables, jumpers, etc are fine.

Here are my specs:
- Gigabyte mobo, GA-M61P-S3
- NVIDIA® GeForce 6100 / nForce 430
- 320GB SATA Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Windsor 2.8GHz Socket AM2 Processor
- Windows XP Professional (32 bit)

I used drivers from: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_wi...8.26_11.09.html The machine has only the cdrom, floppy, and one hard drive. No other peripheral cards or anything else is installed.

Any ideas you might have would be wonderful. Thanks!

Which nForce chipset driver IDE subfolder did you load?
Why did you create a RAID with just one single hard disk drive?

Answer 1: \nForceWinXP\11.09\MCP61\IDE\WinXP\sata_ide
\nForceWinXP\11.09\MCP61\IDE\WinXP\sata_raid

Answer 2: I don't want to create a RAID. I want my SATA drive to run Windows XP. It appears that SATA and RAID are very closely related when it comes to nForce chipsets, but my goal is to get WinXP to recognize and use my SATA drive.

Thanks for the help.

Solution for you: Don't integrate the SATARAID, but only the SATA_IDE subfolder of your nForce chipset driver package.

This did not work. I tried one disk with just the sata_ide folder added in, and I tried another disk having the sata_ide plus the ethernet and smbus drivers. The result is the same. After WinXP formats and copies files over, it restarts and gets hung in a re-boot loop.

I was also able to verify that the drivers provided on the Gigabyte web site are identical in version to the ones provided via the nVidia web site.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

As you have no RAID, normally you don't need to load or integrate any textmode driver, when you want to install XP with integrated SP2.
Your issue probably has another reason, but it is not easy to detect from far away.
Questions:
Are you sure, that your RAM sticks are ok? Check them with MemTest and try to remove one of them during the XP installation.
Which driver did you load via F6 when you have successfully installed XP Pro?
Did you add any new hardware since that time?

The BIOS is able to see and count the full size of the RAM. Everything is brand new, including RAM.

I have never successfully installed XP pro on this computer/drive. I have successfully ran through the blue DOS screen setup part of the installation, which consists of formatting the drive and copying files to it. I loaded the SATA RAID drivers from Gigabyte's website found here: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherb...Name=GA-M61P-S3

I have not added any new hardware. I ordered and installed a case, mobo, processor, cd-rom, RAM, and hdd. I plugged in a floppy temporarily during the F6 attempt. The WinXP copy is new and legal, with SP2.

Some questions I have:

- Could the HDD be bad? BIOS can recognize it, WinXP can format and copy initial files to it. I'd think it's fine.
- Could there be a conflict between the CD-ROM being the only IDE device on board, ie. the primary IDE device? I've read that SATA drives are really considered IDE by some BIOS.

Thanks. Any other ideas you might have are welcomed. I realize this is abnormal.

Since you don't have a RAID array, you should be able to install Windows XP SP2 without hitting F6 and loading any special drivers.
Look into your BIOS and check all IDE, S-ATA and RAID settings. Your S-ATA hdd and your IDE drive (CD-ROM) should be correctly recognized, RAID should be disabled.
1. You can check it by using the SeaTools from Seagate.
2. No, this is very implausible as you don't have any IDE hdd.

My suggestion: Check the BIOS settings and then try to install XP by booting off CD without hitting F6.

I used SeaTools from Seagate and the short and long tests both passed successfully. The drive is solid. I also went through another series of various tricks. I tried different SATA ports on the motherboard, I tried different combinations of nVidia drivers (including the Vista ones), I took out a memory chip and ran off of just one, I went back and tried the basic WinXP install without including drivers, and I tried the F6 floppy trick again.

Same result.

At this point I guess I have to decide whether I want to RMA the motherboard and try something different, or go with a slower IDE drive as my primary.

What exactly happened?
I don't agree with you.
I believe, that something else is responsable for your trouble.
Check your BIOS settings (S-ATA ports should run in IDE and not in RAID mode), your S-ATA cables and the MBR of your hard disk drive.

As to "what happened?" in your previous post, the answer is that I was again caught in an endless re-boot loop. Each time I change something, I change only that one thing and then run the WinXP setup. I then get caught in the endless re-boots and I try something else.

I'll take pictures for you tonight to show you the options, but this is basically how it goes on my BIOS. The ATA/RAID settings are as so:
Enable = enable RAID on ATA
Disable = run as ATA only, without RAID
port0 disabled
port1 disabled
port2 disabled
port3 disabled

I've tried all four SATA ports on the motherboard. They all work the same. The drive is recognized, can be formatted, can be copied to. I have borrowed a different SATA drive to test out this process on a different drive tonight.

So your installation ends always at the point of the first reboot (after Setup had loaded all files, but before the real installation and hardware detection begins). Is that right?
That was a good idea.

If you can get access to your broken XP installation (for example by booting with an MS-DOS or Windows Start floppy disk), you should look into 2 files of the WINDOWS directory: SETUPERR.LOG (has it any entry?) and SETUPLOG.TXT (interesting are only the last lines).

Yes.


A breakthrough tonight. I removed the 320Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 and put in a 80Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 drive. The slipstreamed WinXP disk I created worked like a charm and Windows was set up in no time.

SO. Hm. In doing some research in the difference between 7200.10 and 7200.9, there is actually quite a bit of difference. The 7200.10 uses "perpendicular technology" which is a fancy way of saying that data is organized differently on the drive. I don't know, but I'm guessing that we've ran into a driver issue for the new 7200.10 drives.

Thank you for all of your help and suggestions. If you have more, please add them. I'll be reading. I plan on returning the drive... but am unsure what to replace it with. Go with the same drive to prove that I'm right? Or go with a different model/make and avoid the situation altogether?

Thanks for your reply clearing up the device which was responsable for your problems. It is probably not a driver issue, but a hardware or firmware one. Your example shows, that it is not always a good idea to buy newest hardware technology.

My advice: Ask the Seagate support for a solution.

CU
Fernando

No dice with either the cdrom or just F6 and floppy. Setup gets as far as loading drivers, then says "starting windows 2000" and bluescreens with inaccessible boot device. I'm not even using a SATA drive though, so it puzzles me why it won't work ! (obviously if the cdrom boots it can access the IDE channel just fine).

Update: Turns out it was a fault cd-rom the whole time.. used a different cd-rom drive and it installed fine. I now have everything ready for when I switch to SATA though !

Hi Fernando,
I'm really tryin'not to disturb you, because I found your guide very useful, clear and well-written, too.
But as far as my problem goes on, I just feel the need to tell you my "story", 'cause I want to understand what's happening to my new PC.
Here are the tech specs:

AMD 64 X2 5600+
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe (nVidia 590 chipset)
2 x 1Gb CORSAIR Dominator DDR2 6400c4 EPP
ASUS Nvidia GF8800GTX
Creative X-Fi Gamer
and
2 x WESTERN DIGITAL WD3200YS 320Gb SATA2 in RAID 0 (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=233&language=en)

This is meant to be my high-end new PC, I assembled it myself just as I did with every PC I owned.
One last introduction:
From the first moment the PC was ready, I was unable to install Win XP because of the problems I will soon describe, so I tried VISTA 64 that works great with RAID 0...
But let's get back to XP.
There is no way to install XP with the "F6 + floppy" method, cause the installation freezes when it should detect the HDD.
So I checked for a solution and got on your great post.
Hooray, I partitioned the RAID-under-vista disk in two (C:/ vista and D:/ where XP should go...and I know I'm goin' to face other problems with the boot.ini there but ot's another story...) and "nlited" the Nvidia RAID drivers in the XP cdrom (I only got the SP1 cd so I had to slipstream SP2 into it together with nvidia drivers).
Wow, It works.
Booting the system from the nlited XPcd, it finally detect the RAID HDD and the two partitions!!!
Then in the very moment I have to choose on which partition XP have to go, I realized that the installation is frozen again...
Now I feel I'm stuck.
I'm an hardcore gamer and (after a slight overclok) I really need to have a dual-boot PC with XP.
I tried a couple of new games on Vista 64 and even patched they crash again and again...
Bad bad bad XP, what I have to do with you?!?!?

It should be no problem to get a dual-boot PC with Vista x64 and Windows XP.
My advices regarding the XP installation:
1. You should use default BIOS settings (no overclocking) while installing an OS.
2. Take/borrow an original untouched XP CD (without SP) or with integrated SP2 as source for creating a CD with integrated nForce SataRaid drivers.
3. Try to remove the X-Fi card during the XP installation.

Concerning Vista x64 you should wait for better nForce chipset drivers.

Thank you, I'll try this weekend without audiocard, then I'll search for a SP2-native cd.
Obviously enough, I always run default BIOS options while installing OSs. I'll let you know.
Thanx a lot!!!

First of all, let me thanx Fernando for this guide.
Whithout him I would be stuck forever.
Now I will post my successful experience, and *ONLY* the successful one.
This do not mean that I made at the first try. Things went wrong lots of times but I hope this can help anyone with the same problem.
I used my new mobo, an ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe, based on the nVidia Nforce 590 chipset and
two Western Digital Caviar II HDD in RAID 0 configuration and the latest release of nVidia drivers (9.35).
I used a WinXP SP 0 version as "base" to build my new setup cd with Nlite and the latest Nlite version (1.3) available.
First of all, in the same Nlite session, I slipstreamed a clean SP2 (i.e. without OS) in the SP0 folder.
Then I integrated *ONLY* (this was very important!!!) textmode SATARAID drivers (one by one and not together). I have *NOT* instegrated the SATA_IDE drivers even if you will need it soon after the OS installation, nor I have integrated any other driver.
I created the ISO image and then I've burn it into a CD-RW with the same Nlite 1.3 burner (other tries with Nero resulted in an
unreadable setup cd around the 75-83% of XP setup drivers copy).
Now, here we are.
The brand new setup cd detects nVidia RAID controllers and let you install XP SP2 even if you won't be sure that all will be right until the very end of the setup process.
After the first installation, XP was still a lot unstable. I strongly suggest to "re-run" a new Nforce Drivers Setup within the OS to overwrite RAID controllers and install fresh SATA_IDE drivers. Also, do not try to install eventual other components detcted by the OS (like audio cards, etc.) before Nforce drivers.
Now all works and it's alive and well but I was lost without this guide.
Thanks again Fernando, it's because of people like you that communities like this will grow stronger and stronger.
Thank you.

Thank you, Tommaso, for your helpful and friendly report.
According to your experience I have modified my guide (first post of this thread) to avoid similar problems of other users with the same nForce chipset.

Thanks again!
Fernando