No, if you really want to erase all datas (especially the hidden datas written by any OS), you have to do a special way of formatting ("low format"). This takes more time than the "normal" formatting.
But as you have already written, you obviously have done a "low format" before you created the RAID array.
It is not a problem to use the "quick format" option, when you are going to install a new OS replacing an already existing Windows partition, but you should not take this option, when you are going to install an OS the first time.
Another idea: Did you really unplug all storage devices outside your RAID array (USB stick, Floppy, Card Reader etc.) before you begin with the XP installation? The XP setup routine does not like RAID arrays. If it finds any other possibility to get the OS installed, it tries there first.

Yeah I did already do a low level format, but only the once as it takes a small part of my life up! However, I did do it before I started slipstreaming Windows, so might give that a try to, or could use WesternDigital's tools to write 0's to the drives. I will do a low level format, and add that to my list

Literally everything that is connected is the 2 drives and a DVD-RW, nothing else is outside the RAID erray. I might take the jumper out the DVD-RW tho, as it's coming up as 2ndary IDE (which is what it was before the RAID erray, as I had an IDE hard drive and 2xSATA drives.

What I'll do when I get back, is create another slipstreamed CD using only the driver in the SATARAID folder, and burn that. Check that everything in the bios is setup correctly, and redo the raid erray in NVRaid. Then do a low level format when I run the windows installation.

If needs be, I might try another Windows CD.

I'll let you know how I get on! Cheers mate.

*EDIT* I've had another random thought actually...a couple of things have changed since my last format a while ago
a) A new monitor, which is connected via DVi. During windows installation, the screen does literally move halfway down the monitor so I can't see it. I think I'll temporarily go back to analogue, just to be careful.
1.3 bios flash, which seems to have sorted an issue during windows installation, I think anyway. Last time I installed windows it'd stop with 37mins to go asking for the HD audio drivers for my soundcard, but pressing cancel is enough and it will carry on without them. So I'm guessing they've solved that issue.

I might even take out a GFX card, as it's in SLi.

Only another 5 hours to go....

I've had problems with my disks, when I make one, works great on all nforce series with sata,(AMD) but the last Nforce416X intel machine I built, it would boot loop during the install.
(ASUS P5N32-SLI SE DELUXE)

any suggestions?

I'm going to try to use the latest Intel Nforce 590 driver for my next disk set and hope it works.

Try to integrate just the SATARAID subfolder of your used chipset driver package (without additionally integrating the SATA_IDE subfolder). To prevent the automaticly running integration of the SATA_IDE subfolder by nLite you should store the SATARAID subfolder outside the chipset driver package.

sucessfully installed windows nforce 3 250gb using new method no f6 drivers needed.

That's very interesting.
Which chipset driver package did you take for the nForce SataRaid driver integration?

I used the MIE'S Nware and extrackted only the SATARAID as text mode
And automaticly the SATA_IDE was inported as IPE ALSO I ADDED THE NEWEST nvidia 93.71 video driver.
I did have the setup fail whenI tried to add other drivers in network and sw driver. Also make sure you take the cd out for the re boots and than put it back in. For some reason, My system dosent like to boot properly if the cd is in thr cd rom after the initial install.

Thank you for the clarification. So it is obviously possible to get the newest nForce SataRaid drivers installed onto an nForce3 chipset system.

So this is what other users with an nForce3 SataRaid system should do:

• Download Mei's latest nWare Release (x86), which is a "Unified Driver Package" and contains the newest nForce SataRaid drivers modded for nForce2 and nForce3 chipsets. You can get this driver package here. To get the driver subfolders ready for the later integration, you have to "install" the package somewhere or to extract it with 7z.
• Then start nLite and integrate the IDE\WinXP\SATARAID subfolder of Mei's driver package as TEXTMODE driver and the IDE\WinXP\SATA_IDE subfolder as PnP driver (will be automaticly done by nLite v. 1.2 or higher).

Yes exactly , this works.
I still am not sure what driver caused me the problem when I added the sw, network. and audio driver.
I am gonna try removing, I think, the audio driver and see what happens later today.

OK, (nforce 3 250 gb sata raid no f6 needed)
removed the audio driver
inserted the IDE\WinXP\SATARAID subfolder of Mei's driver package as TEXTMODE driver and the IDE\WinXP\SATA_IDE subfolder as PnP driver. sm driver, mem controler driver, Gart driver, network driver, and video driver.(all from Mei's driver package accept the video driver.)
Setup installed sucessfully and is running perfictly.

Just wanted to post a quick thank you to Fernando and other users on this forum. The method outlined in the first post (and some subsequent notes) worked flawlessly the first time out. Saved me a headache, some $ for an external SATA RAID card, and intro'ed me to a few new tools. Thanks!!!!

Using a Tyan Tomcat K8E-SLI (S2866) motherboard, NForce4 Ultra chipset

I have tried just about every option with nLite

1) Fully customized with options and drivers integrated as outlined in the OP - blue screened at 100% of files copied over with error BAD_POOL_HEADER
2) Didn't remove any components from Windows (in nLite) and kept everything else the same - gave an error copying a file over but I hit retry and it worked. Blue screened at 100% of files copied over with IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN blah blah
3) Only added NVRaid drivers to Windows - line 12185 of txtsetup.sif is invalid. (the line says PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9622&SUBSYS_00018086 = "i2omp" )

I only have my 2 SATA RAIDed drives hooked up, 2 memory sticks (removed the extra stick), and DVD-RW and DVDROM drive hooked up. I've removed my sound card, my TV tuner, my IDE drives - trying just to get Windows installed.

System specs:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT
RAM: 3 GB (2 x 1 GB + 2 x 512 MB) Dual Channel DDR400 SDRAM
Motherboard: ABIT KN8 Ultra NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
Video Card: XFX Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
Sound Card: X-FI XtremeMusic
Monitor: Dual 19" @ 1600x1200
PSU: Antec True Power 430W

Software versions:
nLite 1.2.1
Windows XP with SP2
nForce 6.86

My disks have gone bad and I can't remake them without access to the PC - it's the only one with a floppy drive in the house. This is a headache!

Which subfolder of the 6.86 package did you integrate?

I did just as you wrote in the OP

I added the SATAraid folder in textmode and nLite automatically added the Sata_IDE folder
A total of 3 entries in the driver list in nLite

What's funny is that the NVRaid drivers are working fine - it recognizes the JBOD array and I can format the smaller partition meant for Windows, but the rest of the Windows installation is screwing up.

You may try to remove the automaticly integrated SATA_IDE driver.
Another idea: Do you have a S-ATA connected CDROM/DVD?

Alright, I'll try that

Nope, my CD drives are standard IDE

Your reported problems are very unusual, especially the error message about the TXTSETUP.SIF file. The BSOD with the message "IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_EQUAL" is very common and must not be a real hardware issue.
My advice: Check your RAM, use default timings (no overclocking during the XP installation) and try your nLited CD again.

I just tried without the Sata_ide and it blue screened without an error message - stop 0x000007e was the only thing identifying the message. It blue screened right after the setup screen loaded FAT and NTFS and said Now starting windows...

Did you try it once more with your first nLited CD (using SATARAID+SATA_IDE of the 6.86 package) and failed it again?
If yes, try to take the LEGACY subfolder of the 6.70 or 6.85 package.

EDIT: It might be a good idea to uncheck "Oem preinstall" within nLite processing.

i tried with legacy of 6.7 and a fresh winxp copy and unchecked oem preinstall

it froze and bluescreened at the same point videoprt.sys

I am really at a loss with your problem.

Another question: Which hdd's are you using (manufacturer, SATA1/2)?
Another idea: Maybe your 430 W PSU is not powerful enough for your system.

guten morgen

i'm using 2 western digital 250gb sata2 drives RAIDed as JBOD
i've been running the system on the 430w PSU for a few months now with no problems at all - gaming, rendering, etc.

Hi AJPatel,
I am really sorry, but I can't help you.
Your problem has obviously nothing to do with the integration of the SataRaid drivers, but with your hardware.
If you have a multiboot system and you have access to the partition where the XP installation failed, search for the files SETUPERR.LOG and SETUPAPI.LOG. You can find them both within the WINDOWS directory. Look into both files (within SETUPAPI.LOG only the last lines are interesting).
More tips:
1. Control your SATA cables.
2. Test your RAM sticks with MEMTEST, try to install XP with 1 stick.
3. Unplug all unneeded devices (COM, USB etc.) during the XP install.
4. Don't integrate any other drivers unless the nForce SataRaid ones.

Good luck!
Fernando

I have been trying to get Windows XP w/SP2 Installed on the this new system in a RAID 0 config for over a week now. Specs:

AMD FX55
Abit A8N SLI x32
2gig Adata RAM
GForce 7600 GT
Cooler MAster 500W PSU
Samsung DVD/CD RW
2 X 150Gig Raptor HDs

I have used Nlite to make the disk with the newest sata_RAid and the 6.70 package
I seem to get windows installed ok, and everything is ok for a while and running (almost) great. OF course there are unistalled devices in teh device manager, so I install those, and I always end up with one 'unknown' device.. and a raid controller.. which I now learned this is the SIL controller.. I am not sure what the unknown is.. this current installation I was able to get rid of it.. I am guessing it is part of the SIL driver or ACPI.

Anyways after many installations the same thing happens after a couple hours, things start to 'lag' a little bit... Internet explorer starts crashing ..normally this expected to a point with MS, i know.. but this happens A LOT!! then a blue screen comes.. goes really fast... then I reboot sometimes it goes to windows, but iut usually wont take to blue screen again.. nvXXX files amongst others (i dont have them all.. this pc is for a friend, and i do not have a log of all of them

Currently I am using the system and it very slow to respond.. also I can not open IE at all, or any type of folder or anything that uses the EXPLORER.exe shell

1. what is the best driver package to use from NVidia?
2. Should I or SHould I not use the IDE PnP driver than Nlite adds automatically
3. Do I need to remove any windows components
4. What steps are required after the install?

1. There is no "best driver package" useful for every nForce chipset and mainboard. For your system I would try either the 6.86 or the 6.91 chipset driver package.
2. You may try to install Windows XP by just loading (F6) or integrating the SATARAID subfolder of the nForce chipset driver package, but I think, that you will probably need the NVATABUS.INF/NVATA.INF (only available with LEGACY subfolder or with the combination SATARAID+SATA_IDE) to get XP installed onto your nForce RAID array.
3. No.
4. Nothing is required.

Combination SATARAID+SATA_IDE folders is the same as taking the legacy folder or no? ...

Isnt doing that combination the same as using NLite to do the adding the SATARAID as textmode and it automatically taking the IDE as PnP? (which I have tried)

It is not really the same.
Differences:
1. The combination SATARAID+SATA_IDE does not work with some nForce chipsets.
2. You won't get WHQL-certified drivers by using the LEGACY subfolder.
3. The combination SATARAID+SATA_IDE prevents the installation of the nForce P-ATA (=sw/IDE) driver. You will get the MS Dual Channel PCI-IDE Controller driver. When you integrate the LEGACY subfolder, you will get the nForce P-ATA driver installed.
Yes, nLite v. 1.2.1 integrates automaticly the SATA_IDE subfolder as PnP, if you are going to integrate the SATARAID subfolder of an nForce chipset package.

Thank You Very Much Fernando for helping me out, along with everyone else too.

I just copied the contents of the SATARAID folder of 6.86 and loaded an original XP PRo w/SP2 CD then tried loading drivers VIA F6 and it says:

File nvatabus.sys caused an unexpected error (4096) at line 2113 ib d:\xpsprtm\base\setup\oemdisk.c.
Press any key to continue.


EDIT: THAT WAS A BAD FLOPPY DISK... waiting on results


This is extreemly frustrating, its been almost 2 weeks of trying 100 different things... I am wondering if there is some hardware that is failing somewhere(Motherboard), not because of this error, but the fact I have had it working great for several hours and then it falls apart with nvraid and dcom errors in the event viewer)

Alos Ive seen people say putting the Raptors on SATA 1 and 3 instead of 1 and 2.. does that really help?

I am thinking about putting the memory in my machine (2 x RAID 0 arrays, 2 * segate 80gig and 2x 300gig segates.. xp pro on the 80s vista on the 300s) but I dont want to screw up my arrays!

1. Did you test your RAM with Memtest?
2. What is about your PSU? With your system you need much and extremely constant power.
I don't know.

OK so the RAID installed again fine Lst night (or at least it seemed that way) using 6.86 SATARAID Drivers only and doing a standard F6 install.

I then installed the whole 6.86 package WITHOUT SW DRIVERS (is this correct or no.. i found conflicting information about these... and I think I hit yes to install this previous times, so I hit no this time)

I installed 93.71 Video Drivers

Everything OK at this point.. I shut the computer down and then left for the night so I did not do anything else to it.

Got home after working today(and golfing ) turned on the computer got it hooked up to the internet (ICS - Xover cable through my wirless on My computer..works great actually)... Everything seems OK

I installed firefox, Azureus downloaded 2 Small torrents.. Everything still fine... I was just surfing the web, and boom "Internet Explorer has to close" ...Ok its windows... then again.. Went back to FireFox.. even that got a simular error.
so now im like Crap..
Realized I did not do windows updates yet.. so I do this (custom) Downloaded everything OK, then started installing updates ... I got another error

"Generic Host Process for WIN 32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close"

I rebooted the machine, and it looks like it is starting the whole update process over again.. checked EVENT VIEWER:

NVRAID Erros:
-"The device , , hasa bad block"
Event ID 7
Source NVRAID

DISK Errors:
The Device \Device\HardDisk0\D, has a bad block
Event ID 7
Source DISk
Symbolic NAme: IO_ERR_BAD_BLOCK
Explanation: The device has a bad block of memory, which Windows was unable to read. Data might be missing or corrupted


OK.. Well w/o running memtest yet, according to this the Harddrive(s) is bad!..PowerSupply is 500W CoolerMaster CPT 500T Rock Solid Reviews ( LINK http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817159040 ) But I do not know if this actually meens the physical drive is bad, or the drivers for the RAID are not properly working... DO I RMA the hard Drives or what?!

JSUT DL western digital diags.. installed checked the box to run the app... and the machine rebooted!.. then got stuck at the Windows XP loading screen..this is not looking good!

Exactly that would I do.
Everything you reported indicates, that one of your hdd drives is defective. Find out which one by using a hdd checking utility like Drive Fitness Test (Hitachi) or Data Lifeguard (Western Digital).

I was using Nvidia RAID 1 for 2 Hitachi drives with my new 680i chipset board from Asus... However I had 2 SATA drives formatted through (Partition-Magic) running off the same mobo controller, on the primary/secondary SATA slots... Anyways I installed windows fine, and everything seemed to be working, except when IN windows, installing any drivers across or from drives OTHER than my ROOT C:\ partition, kept rebootnig my computer, until finally a BSOD cycle, and couldn't any longer boot into windows.

ie) I install a sounddriver from e:\ reboot.
I install Maya from C:\ and try to place it into e:\ or d:\ reboot

So i'm not running a RAID for my main system... SHOULD I? Maybe i'll try, perhaps this method will help me as well,,, I also heard I should ONLY connect the SATA drive i'm going to install my system on, do that, then when windows is installed/setup, THEN I can connect the other drives/connect the RAID 1 array, however I certainly don't want to go through all of that to ONLY have MORE reboots after.

Any ideas, or anyone else had an issue of this nature?

Oh I forgot to mention, after my windows installtion, each time I would try to reboot from windows, it seemed to shut down my computer in a strange abrupt way...
Then each time wnidows was BOOTING up, it would run CHECKDISK for 2 of my SATA partitions but never my main C: partition... MADE no sense. EACH time it rebooted, this would happen!

Althgough I have no experience with your new nForce 680i chipset, here are some notes:
If you have RAID devices and non-RAID devices within your system, it is very important, that you don't get more than 1 Master Boot Record (MBR).
Each Windows Operating Systems tries to get installed onto a non-Raid hdd and tries to name it drive C.
This would be a good idea.
If you want to get any Windows OS installed onto your RAID array, you should unplug all other (non-Raid) storage devices during the installation. As your RAID array is build with more than 1 hdd, you may not unplug the other hdd, because you would break your RAID array this way.

This might have already been answered, but what if I just want SATA and not Raid? I have an AN8 SLI Nforce 4 setup. Right now I'm on IDE and I'd like to install on my SATA. I do not want raid. The guid mentioned something of only working with Riad??

Thanks,

Robert

Look at the bottom of my guide (first post of this thread). There you will find something about non-RAID S-ATA systems.

High! Respect!
Please help me anyware?
I'm use about ~2 years nLite 1.0 beta 5...
I not burning it as iso! Only with batch prompt ->
I386\WINNT /S:I386 /U:WINNT.SIF
there is I placed SIF in root of disk usaly.
But I have some gluck then I trying integer any drivers...
Reason ->
DOSNET.INF
[Directories]
d9 = \i386\nldrv ; \i386 - this must be deleted!
===============
DOSNET.INF
[Directories]
d9 = \nldrv ; Ok! Worked!
================
And now I try use nLite-1.2.1.installer.exe
And could the same problem this?
nvraid.sys - not found.... Why?
It file realy is present into C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\I386\NLDRV\001
as NVRAID.SY_
maybe trouble is in extention .SY_
?
or it trouble within not iso using
I starting it always in ms-dos promptly.

PS I'm not problem with installing nforce4 raid with nlite1.0,
but it need editing DOSNET.INF promptly always. Why?

I don't mean to be too off topic but I have been following this thread since September, and now that I am done building my system I believe I am ready to set up my raptors in raid 0 on my a8n32 sli dlx using only the information in red along with the new version of nlite. However not completely confident as there are still many who are having problems, I am still concerned. With this said, does the recently released nlite ver. 1.2.1 make selecting the drivers from the chipset package and integrating them easier. Also information regarding the option of updating your nforce drivers after your successful raid creation seems seem ambiguous. I have read that it can be dangerous and I have also read that it is a good option to make integrating sataraid drivers easier using older driver packages ex. 6.66. Then update to the newer drivers on the successfully created raid array. Could some one please clarify these few things for me, I would be most grateful and I am sure it would be a great help for all us raid noobs.

Within the NLDRV folder all files are compressed to save space on your CD.
You will find the uncompressed NVRAID.SYS file within the I386 directory.

I you are able to get the actual nForce SataRaid drivers installed from scratch, you should do it.
It is not really dangerous to install an OS with old mass storage controller drivers and to update them later (the update takes place after the reboot), but you might get problems, if you want a later upgrade from XP to Vista.

I see, so when the time comes if there are any available updates I’ll create a new boot disk. Thank you. Is there any way to install linux on raid array from scratch.

Hi Guys, Help me here. I have been trying to install windows on my Father-In-Law's computer for several months. Every time I call Asus they tell me the MB must be bad and it has been replaced 4 times. With the same problem ever time I assume it can't really be that many bad MB's or everyone on the internet would be complaining!
Still I cannot believe that 1) I can't find that many instances of the same problem, and 2) that Asus is unaware or anable to help me with this! The only way I found this thread is because I searched for “nforce4 reboot” rather than A8N32.
It’s an Asus A8N32-SLI deluxe and I am having the same problem you describe, where once all the files are installed and it tries to boot for the first time it goes into a reboot cycle.
Unfortunately your solution is not working for me. I followed all your steps as best I could but when the installation is copying files it keeps telling me that it can’t find at least 75 different files, including nvraid.cat and many other nv files. If I hit escape to skip those files, well, you can guess the result. I tried redoing the iso adding files from the different nforce folders into the i386 folder in the nlite folder, but that doesn’t work either.

Tia

Jim Fain

Thx Fernando for everything you have done.
You see, I live in a crap country were alot of uploading website are blocked. Unfortinatly, Vista drivers are uploaded to Megaupload.
I know what I'm asking is too much but this is my only way to get my hand on that ripped driver.
I'm sending my email privatly.
BTY, the drivers I need is this one:
http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=W4BBMD1G

Please look at you Private inbox

Update: Looks like I got it guys. I was trying to use nlite 1.1 and it apparently doesn't work as well as nlite 1.2. I added the drivers like the instructions in the first post said and voila! Success! Yaaaay! Thank you, Thank you, Thank You Mr. Fernando! You ROCK!

EDIT: OK, I got to Windows but then it asks to update the IDE channel drivers. If I let it update the drivers automatically it apparently installs the wrong ones because it almost immediately goes to a blue screen "machine_check_error." Back to the drawing board!

EDIT #2: OK, I fixed it by adding the nvatabus.inf file from the legacy folder. It now boots to Windows and I can install all the other devices!

Thanks again Fernando! You ROCK!

Edit Again: OK, now I have everything working. I unplug the PS2 mouse and plugged in a USB mouse and once again I get continuous rebooting when trying to get to windows. I am serious. If I plug in the other mouse it boots just fine. What's the deal there? Is there another incompatible device or driver?

EDIT AGAIN: I hope someone somewhere reads this and saves themselves the anguish I went thru trying to get this *&%$# computer running. I called Asus support several times about this and they were useless. USB won’t work properly unless you leave certain devices enabled in bios. Any of you nerds out there know that you traditionally disable unused on-board devices to conserve IRQ’s which promotes stability. With this board it makes USB unstable, causing crashing when you plug certain devices in. I am specifically talking about the onboard serial and parallel ports. If you leave them enabled your USB will work properly. If not, Windows won’t boot with a USB mouse plugged in; I kid you not. I have gone thru four motherboards with this issue. Asus themselves thought they were bad and had me RMA them.

I know about it! But why I get gluk when I try starting from dos net installaton?
Directly: I386\WINNT.EXE /S:I386 /U:WINNT.SIF
...
How I may integrated two distributive nLite OS to my CD - other way?
From DOS I get it as:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/Folder1/i386 + WINNT.SIF + WIN51IP + WINN.BAT
/Folder2/i386 + WINNT.SIF + WIN51IP + WINN.BAT
/WIN51IP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How it make with boot.bin loader or SETUPLDR.BIN?
for use nLite with project http://bootcd.narod.ru/

so i've been trying to make this work for the last two days now and still haven't been able to figure it out. the instructions seem so simple, yet after the installation of windows, i'm still getting the dreaded BSOD. I'm using nLite v1.2.1, windows XP (no SP) and nvidia drivers v6.86 on a DFI Expert with 2 Raptor 74GB RAID 0.

1. i put my xp cd in the cd-rom and start nlite
2. nlite asks for the location of windows xp and i point it at the cd-rom
3. nlite then asks where to store the new xp files, so i create a temp folder on my desktop and point nlite to the directory
4. i choose to include the service pack, drivers and create an iso
5. i point nlite at the XP SP2 file, which extracts and integrates the files into windows
6. nlite then asks for the drivers
6a. in preparation for this step, i downloaded platform driver 6.86 and extract the content into a temp folder on my desktop
6b. i choose 'single driver' in nlite and point it at the IDE\WinXP\SATARAID folder from the extracted platform drivers
6c. i pick both drivers nlite shows (nvatabus and nvraid) in TXT format
7. i created the iso file and burned a CD for installation
8. windows xp installation recognizes the raid drive, formats and installs files
9. windows reboots and begins installation, asking for user information
10. windows has final reboot to enter new installation, and then i get BSOD

if the drivers weren't working, would i see the raid drive in the installation? plus, it reboots and continues on with the second part of the installation flawlessly, which i thought meant everything was working. but when it reboots for the final login, it fails.

i know this works when i do it manually. when i hit F6 and installa the drivers off a floppy, windows installs and runs just fine. i just can't get it to work using nlite. any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks!

douirc, to make mine work I had to also add the nvatabus.inf driver from the legacy folder (using the most recent chipset driver from nvidia, not sure which). Once I did that my driver problems were solved.

If you look at my previous post you'll note that there is another issue, and that involves disabling some of the drivers in the bios. With at least the Asus A8N32 board, and possibly other nforce4 boards, if you disable the parallel port because it’s not going to be used it messes up the USB. Mine was so bad it caused a brief BSOD and then reboot on the first windows boot after all the driver loads, and each subsequent boot attempt. If there is nothing plugged into ANY USB ports then you’re fine. All it took to crash mine was a single USB mouse.

If yours is working with an F6 floppy load why are you attempting this method?

hmm...so first i did single driver and pointed to IDE\WinXP\legacy and chose nvatabus.inf, which nlite returned nForce Storage Controller (required) and RAID Class Driver (required). I chose only the first (nForce Storage Controller) in textmode driver and hit ok. This then filled the driver window with a single entry called Mode: TXT - BUSDRV with Type: HDC. Then I chose single driver again, this time going to IDE\WinXP\sataraid and chose nvraid.inf, which nlite returned the same two options: nForce Storage Controller (required) and RAID Class Driver (required). I chose only RAID Class Driver (required), which updated my driver list to include two more entries: Mode: PNP Type: HDC and Mode: TXT-RAIDCLASS Type: SCSI Adapter. Is that right?

I have two device plugged into USB: My external CD-ROM and my USB Hub in my MSFT keyboard (that my mouse plugs into). I can definately try unplugging the hub and mouse for installation purposes.

Ever since I've put watercooling in my system I've lost all room for devices like CD-ROM and Floppy. The CD-ROM was easy since it's sitting on my desk and connected via USB, but my floppy is hanging out of the case while i'm trying to get raid working. i'd rather put it back in the closet and just use a CD every time i need to reinstall the OS (which happens often with me).

sadly, it didn't work .

quick question...anyone able to make this work using a USB CD-ROM? I'm wondering if this only works with an IDE drive, not USB?!?

i FINALLY figured it out! unlike what the instructions say, i didn't slipstream SP2 and it finally worked! i made a copy of the floppy that came with the mobo, ran nlite and skipped the service pack option. i then pointed to the nvidia folder on the floppy using the 'single driver' option and choose the nvatabus.inf file, which listed every raid driver on the floppy. i only chose the first two: NVIDIA NForce Storage Controller and NVIDIA RAID CLASS DRIVER. I created the iso file, burned it to disk and everything worked fine.

so...what can't i get it to work with SP2? I know my SP2 file is good 'cause i use it all the time when upgrading my XP to XP-SP2. The filename is WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe. I'd love to know how to make this work WITH sp2 instead of without it.

This was not correct. You should have taken both required Controller drivers.

well, i took both the first time and it failed. then i read above someone suggesting to take the nvatabus.inf from IDE\WinXP\legacy and take nvraid.inf from the IDE\WinXP\sataraid directory, which also failed. i've tried numerous combinations, all of which failed.

what's shocking to me is the method that worked without sp2 doesn't work with sp2. you would think it shouldn't matter, but somehow sp2 is throwing off my slipstream and crashing my installation. next i was going to try using an already slipstreamed sp2 disk and adding the raid drivers to that, instead of starting with a bare xp disk and adding sp2 followed by the drivers. maybe that will do the trick. i'm quickly running out of combinations, so any suggestions on how to do this to include sp2 using the method mentioned above that worked for me is greatly appreciated.