Problem installing Windows XP Home

[BlackRocket5]

Hi,

I cannot seem to install Windows XP Home. My computer currently has Windows 2000 installed with mirrored drives (Promise 1x2 Mirror/RAID1 SCSI Disk Device) (Win2000 Promise Fast Trak66(tm) Controller).

I want to disable the mirrored drives and have two separate drives and install Windows XP Home.

When the disk starts to load I get the message at the bottom of the screen "Press F6 if you need to set up a third party SCSI or RAID Driver".

I can get as far as "Unknown Disk <there is no disk in this drive>".

I have also received the "page_fault_in_nonpaged_area".

As well as, "Tech Information ***STOP: 0x00000050 0xE160AE90, 0x0000000, 0xFC44BF3E, 0x00000001"

***setupdd.sys -- address FC44BF3E base at FC427000, DateStamp 3d6dd67f"

I have tried several times to install WinXP. After the above msgs and a couple of attempts the only change I have made to the BIOS is under HDD S.M.A.R.T. I changed to "Enabled". After this change I still could not get past the "Unknown Disk ...". I have made no other changes.

I am not sure what changes I may have to make in BIOS, or if there is anything else I need to do.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

[ronallandottk]

First of all, if you want to change your RAID to a standard drive configuration, you have to disable it in BIOS. If your RAID controller is built in the motherboard, there's probably a BIOS setting there to turn it off. If it's on a PCI card, normally there's a key combination you press on bootup to enter the RAID setup.

Since you're not running RAID anymore, you don't have to insert a floppy with a RAID driver when you get prompted by the "Press F6 if you need to setup..."

If there's a problem with your BIOS settings somewhere, try setting all BIOS settings to default.

You didn't mention if your drives are IDE or SATA. If the drives you use are SATA, you need to use a XP installer slipstreamed with at least Service Pack 2. If you use the original release, you'll probably get a BSOD.

Oops. You mentioned a FastTrak 66 controller, so you must be using IDE.

By slipstreamed I mean an XP installer with SP2 already in the installation files.

If the drives you use are IDE, the original release of XP will work fine.

Just set your PC to boot from CD, and boot from the XP installer disc.

If your drives are all IDE, and for some reason you still can't install XP, try disconnecting the second drive, and reconnect it when XP has been installed.

[ronallandottk]

I re-read you query, and I may have missed something.

Is your RAID controller on your motherboard or on a PCI card?

Are your drives plugged in the motherboard's IDE connector or to a PCI RAID controller?

If your drives are plugged in a PCI RAID controller, you should make sure that the controller supports non-RAID operation, and the RAID should be turned off. Some older RAID controllers can't run in non-RAID mode, if memory serves me right.

Better yet, if you don't plan on using RAID, just yank the drives off it and just plug them in the motherboard's IDE controllers.

Because if you still use the external controller, even if it's not running in RAID mode, you may still have to load a driver for it via the "Press F6..." option. If XP doesn't have native support for your controller, you may get a BSOD.