# asus a8v deluxe sata problem



## thesaint (Aug 14, 2004)

hi everybody.....okay here goes. i have two sata Hd and i have them connected to the two sata sockets...i don't want the raid just the normal sata setup...the Hd are Maxtor and samsung both serial Hd. the manual says set the operating mode as raid but i don't want raid only normal sata....i finally got the setting i want...when i look in bios my Hd Does not show but when i boot to start installing windows xp they come on screen..(after the bios started) windows xp loads from cd rom so i can install windows xp on my sata Hd. screen come up to press enter. i press enter then i get a message that windows xp cant not find Hd. my bios can see them but windows xp cant....do i need to do anything so windows xp can see my discs....i am not using raid just the normal sata sockets. i also have 1GB ddr 3200 memory. any help would be grateful and thanks for reading my problem.


Regards

Daniel.


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## Orbital911 (Aug 17, 2004)

I have the same board as you, and am having the same problem. I think I have the solution however, and will be trying it tonight. You will need to go into the BIOS, and under ADVANCED, set the SATA Mode to NOT use RAID. It is set to use RAID by default. Then you will need to use the ASUS CD that came with the mobo, and in the \drivers\Promise\378ATA directory, run the MAKEDISK.exe utility. Unless I am mistaken the Promise SATA connectors are the red ones on the mobo, and the VIA connectors are black. Use the red ones. Then run the Windows XP blue screen setup, and press F6 to specify additional drivers. Use the disk you just made, and it *should* work....like I said..i think this is the solution and I am going to try it tonight. I am trying to use just 1 Western Digital SATA drive....no RAID, no other disks....if anyone else has a solution, please let me know. Thanks!


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## MOMO (Aug 28, 2004)

Ok, I have the same problem as you two, but tit didn't work. I wasn't sure if I found the right option in bios, but I went and took a look. Under advanced, there was an option to enable Promise controller, and under that there was this options to choose RAID or IDE.

I changed to IDE but it didn't work at all. I was on another forum and there this guy said that the problem surely was that my SATA hardrive was put as RAID 0+1 and not 0, which should work. Right now I am trying to put my SATA harddrive to RAID 0. Anyone here that knows how?


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## Orbital911 (Aug 17, 2004)

gents...i hate to say it...but i had this same mbo..and almost the same setup..and after 5 days of messing with it, i gave up and sent it back and got the MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum and I must say...it is AWESOME.....i had no issues what so ever..and my system runs like a dream.....props to ASUS for putting out a sweet board....but it is just way to picky.....this MSI board is great however...and i am now playing doom 3 and far cry in 1600x1200 full detail and running like a dream...if anybody has any questions or concerns..please contact me....


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## smajere (Aug 31, 2004)

dear thesaint and momo (& Orbital 911 I guess too),

I will admit that the setup support for the Raid controllers (both the Promise HW and VIA software) on the Asus A8V Deluxe aren't very detailed, I think I may know where you have been going wrong on your install.

If you set the RAID mode to IDE (which will make these SATA IDE ports rather than capable of supporting a RAID 0 / 1 / 0+1 mode), you still have to install the proper RAID driver when installing WinXP for the first time -- the reason your MB doesn't see the HD in the bios, even when you are connected is because the Promise controller (the _RED_ SATA connections) and the VIA designed controller (the _BLACK_ SATA connections) still require their own drivers in order for Windows to see them. They are not a part of the normal EIDE array on the MB.. 

MOMO, if you are trying to run RAID 0, you must have both HDs be the same size, same model -- it is practically impossible to running STRIPPING (Raid 0) for enhanced speed without identically sized HDs, and in most cases it is just best to purchase two of the same HD from the same manufacturer. After you have set in the bios that you want RAID 0, you still have to press Ctrl-F (on the Promise, _RED_ SATA controller) to define the RAID array. If you use the Auto setup mode, it should automatically add both HDs to the same array and will set a default block size of 64K.

Once you have built the array, you should be able to go back in to your bios, tab over to the BOOT tab and you should now be able to select your RAID array as one of the bootable devices (depending on whether you are using the Promise controller or the VIA it will list it differently).

When you install WinXp to this new array, the first few seconds of Winxp setup, you will have to push F6 in order to alert windows that you are going to install raid drivers -- unfortunately, WinXp is a pain in the rear because it will ONLY let you install these drivers from an A: drive (so whip out that old 1.44 floppy, dust it off and install it just for this!).


So you guys know, I am running two Western Digital 74 GB Raptors in my Raid 0 (speed version) array and OMG! is it fast!! The boot up for my mb takes LONGER than the 5 seconds it takes WinXp to run and for me to be logged in!!! very nice...


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## Orbital911 (Aug 17, 2004)

Thanks for the help Smajere, but youre about a week too late =) I know I was performing every step of the necessary procedures correctly, and it actually all boiled down to issues with the memory settings in the BIOS. After 2 days or so of trying to tweak the memory settings so I could at least get XP installed (It would hang everytime during the format) I took the ASUS board back and got the MSI NEO2 Platinum, and I must say MSI has done it again. This board is blazing fast, I kept *all* of the same components minus the ASUS board, so I am sure it was the board. POST to XP Desktop is about 15 seconds.....and I've been playing Far Cry 1600x1200 Full AA and AF with not a single stutter...not to mention Doom 3 in 1600x1200 in Ultra detail...same results...props to you on getting that ASUS board to work, I read alot of great things about it too, but I read alot of people were incredibly frustrated with how finicky the board seemed to be with memory timings. If I left them at the default, the system would rarely even post....maybe it just didnt like my memory? I was under the impression Crucial mem is supported almost everywhere...but it mightve been my 2 1GB sticks, I couldnt find anyone using anything more than 2 512MB sticks... But who knows, all I know is my system is smokin now, and I drool everytime Far Cry starts..hehe....cant wait for HL2!! Also I know this would prolly need to go in a different forum, but there was alot of concern the 6800 Ultras needed 450W+ to run efficiently, and in my opinion, as long as you have your power cables setup correctly, (the card MUST have 2 totally unused molex connectors, dont even connect a floppy to them!!) and decent cooling, it runs great...heat isnt even a concern for me....let me know if anyone has any questions, or more suggestions, I'm always open for recommendations, and questions!!

Antec SX1040BII 400W SmartPower
2 GB Crucial DDR400 (2x1GB DIMMs)
AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 939-pin 2.4Ghz
MSI Neo2 Platinum
eVGA nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB
Sound Blaster Audigy
Lite-On 8x Dual Layer DVD-RW
Western Digital SATA 200GB HDD
21.3inch Samsung SyncMaster LCD (my baby) hehehe


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## smajere (Aug 31, 2004)

Orbital911,

I too had (am having) memory issues with the A8V deluxe MB (in fact, I was trolling this forum for threads on my issue when I saw this one about the SATA controller!).

I have Corsair 512Meg dimms (bought in tested pairs), running 4 to give me 2 gigs, that are on the list of approved memory for this MB, and I cannot for the life of me get them to run at DDR400 -- if I let the MB go auto select, I get DDR333, even though the all are PC3200..

For about 8 hours (seriously) me and a friend tried installing WinXP on a brand new raid 0 array with errors over and over, making changes to the array, or which controller we used, only to find out that if I set the ONE setting I changed in the bios back to autoselect (I didnt even override the latency / timing settings), WinXP installed / ran like a champ!

I still have not confirmed yet that it is the MB that as screwed me, or that I have a bad set of dimms or there is something about DDR400 with using two pairs of 512 meggers vs 1 pair of 1 gig dimms that I just dont understand yet.. Will be posting my own thread on this after a little more research.

Back to this threads topic (for those others viewing), yes, there is a SMALL approved list of dimms with the Asus A8V right now, and for EIGHT FREAKIN HOURS I too thought that my raid controllers were hosed, or the HDs were or something else, and it all turned out to be memory settings (ie DONT MESS WITH THEM LET THE MB DO IT'S OWN THANG!).. I can't complain too much because my new 3500+ with 2 gigs running at DDR333, w/ WD Raptors in a Raid 0 array is SOOOO MUCH _FASTER_ than my 750 Mhz Slot A Athlon in an K7V that I dont know what I am missing without DDR400 right now...


To all of those trying to install Raid Arrays on this A8V Deluxe MB, I HIGHLY suggest you make sure you buy / bought dimms approved by Asus (see this link ASUS a8V Deluxe specs ) and leave everything on AUTOSELECT, at least while you are trying to set up your RAID array / install winXP for the first time..


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## E.NEXUS (Sep 3, 2004)

smajere said:


> Orbital911,
> 
> I still have not confirmed yet that it is the MB that as screwed me, or that I have a bad set of dimms or there is something about DDR400 with using two pairs of 512 meggers vs 1 pair of 1 gig dimms that I just dont understand yet.. Will be posting my own thread on this after a little more research.



Smajere,

The problem you are have with RAM is because the board 9 times out of 10 will not let the memory run at 400mhz when you are using all 4 memory slots. Take 2 of your 512's out and I'm sure you will be pleased with the result. 
:wink:


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## hawkinsa21 (Sep 3, 2004)

smajere said:


> If you set the RAID mode to IDE (which will make these SATA IDE ports rather than capable of supporting a RAID 0 / 1 / 0+1 mode), you still have to install the proper RAID driver when installing WinXP for the first time -- the reason your MB doesn't see the HD in the bios, even when you are connected is because the Promise controller (the _RED_ SATA connections) and the VIA designed controller (the _BLACK_ SATA connections) still require their own drivers in order for Windows to see them. They are not a part of the normal EIDE array on the MB..


When you mention about the SATA and VIA designed controllers needing their own drivers to work when set RAID mode to IDE, are these drivers on the MOBO supplied CD?

Thanks
Alex


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## smajere (Aug 31, 2004)

E.NEXUS,

Uh, no, I will be very unhappy having to run only one half of the ram I bought _just for this PC_... Unfortunately, I don't have another PC in the house that can use / support the extra 1 GIG I got.. However, I think I might try pulling out a pair of DIMMS to see if that is indeed the issue.. The machine actually runs stable (in the BIOS mode) at 400Mhz DDR; it's just when I try to run Windows apps that I get all sorts of stability issues -- then again, BIOS isn't exactly a tasking app either..

hawkinsa21,

Yes, the drivers for both the VIA and the Promise Fasttrack RAID are on the MB cd (they each have their own directory). There is a makedisk.exe proggy even on the CD you can run (on another PC obviously) that will make the floopydisk for you after you specify which controller you are trying to use.


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## E.NEXUS (Sep 3, 2004)

Smajere,

You seem to have designed your system around speed, and I agree with you that is a very fast system, I have a similar setup myself. But all those $$ you spent on the mobo/cpu/hdd are being wasted because for some reason you think you need 2 gig of ram. If you are running a server then sure 2 gig is fine, what applications are you running that use over 1 gig? .
I own an online gaming center and my main server has 2 gig, the gaming pc's have 512mb, and my admin pc has 1 gig. I do everything from pacman to video editing to hosting a temporary games server on my pc and have never needed more than 1 gig. I mean no disrespect I would just like to see you get the most out of your system, and the $ u paid.


MOMO,

Since your hdd is registering as raid 0+1 this means a raid array has already been setup on the drive on one of your previous attempts, as far as I know raid 0+1 is the default setting. To get it to raid 0 you first need to go in and delete the raid 0+1 array, then define new array as raid 0.


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## smajere (Aug 31, 2004)

E.NEXUS,

Yes, my rig was designed for gaming, and no, not the games of today. I have yet to come close running any one app that uses over 1 gig of memory so far; however, as we all know, these specs on the newest games get more and more obscene every year, and one day, someone is gonna push out a beast that requires more than 1 gig of ram, which is why I figured I'd fill out the dimms now with the same type of memory (brand & size) so I can avoid tracking down specific dimms in the future when I need them. I'll try yanking out a pair over the weekend and see if I can get it to run at 400Mhz DDR -- if so, I will probably take your advice and run that way for a while.. thanks.


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## Meadow (Sep 15, 2004)

Smajere

Just ran accross the RAID controller issue after building my new system last night. In response to your memory problem, if you still want to run with 2GB take a look at Anandtech's Socket 939 roundup and check the Asus review. 

"We see a very interesting result with all 4 dimm banks filled. The Asus A8V was able to run with all 4 dimm slots at more aggressive 2-2-2-10 settings than the 2-2-3-10 required for 2 dimms. Please keep in mind, though, that the Command Rate must be reduced to 2T when filling both Dual Channels, and the memory is actually a bit slower even though the other timings are slightly faster. The A8V Deluxe is also very picky about the settings that are used with 4 dimms in the 'Enable 2T' option in BIOS. If an Auto setting is used with 4 dimms the board tries to set 1T and single channel memory at a lower memory speed. If 'Auto' is selected and memory timings are forced to DDR400 the board would not boot. With 4 dimms, you will need to set the 2T option to 'Enable 2T' for proper Dual-Channel operation at DDR400. "


http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2128&p=5


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## AnthonyC (Sep 15, 2004)

Hi All,

I'm getting similar problems, I have 1 HD which I want set up as a SATA drive, not raid at all, and as a bit of a noob I'm pretty lost as to where to go.

Im trying to install an upgrade from win98.. on a brand new build, I can get 98 installed but whenever i try to then upgrade to the XP home version, I get a failure, cant see hard disk.

Looking at the posts made previously, all I have to do is make sure the raid controller drivers are installed after installing win98 (assume these are on the mobo CD), create a floppy disk with the createdisk.exe programme on another machine.. and then key f6 when given the prompt on the XP install to use that floppy. Is this correct, or have I completely failed to understand something.

thanks for any help

Anthony


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## Meadow (Sep 15, 2004)

When I first read section 5.6 bottom page 5-18 in the Asus mobo manual, I believed that the drivers needed to be created using Makedisk.exe from XP/Win2K albeit I couldn't understand the logic. Read in conjunction with section 5.7, I think this assumption is incorrect. 

5.7 states that drivers are required for XP/2000 and that you should run 

\Drivers\Promise\378RAID\Makedisk
\Drivers\VIARAID\6420RAID\DriverDisk\Makedisk.exe

Depending upon which RAID controller you're going to use. I believe you should be able to do this from 98.

BTW: There is more information on installation and configuration on the support CD albeit I haven't read this yet.... when all else fails RTFM :bgrin:


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## Meadow (Sep 15, 2004)

BTW AnthonyC

Don't get confused by the RAID controllers. They are disk controllers that just happen to support a redundant array of disks. They are however the only way to get at Serial ATA disks so like it or not you need the RAID (chip)drivers even if you don't use the RAID capability.


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## smajere (Aug 31, 2004)

Meadow,

Thanks for the tip. I had not tried changing the memory timings and the Enabling 2T versus the default 1T.. As it is, I'm not sure that DDR400 with 2T would actually be faster that DDR333 with 1T, as the anandtech link alludes.

In case anyone else is reading this thread for Memory help on the A8V deluxe, a word of caution: Messing with your memory timings using the Limit option and forcing DDR400 for 4 dimms can cause your PC to not boot at all -- Every time I have made a change that was too aggressive, I ended up having to open the case, pop out the CMOS battery, and reconfiguring my BIOS in order to get back to the BIOS setup to correct memory timings, etc..

Again, thanks for the link, Meadow. I will try one-more-time tonight when I get home and post my results back on the board here.


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## tenkisan (Sep 28, 2004)

*SATA Saga continues*

Hi all, thanks for the great forum discussion. I am building my system from the ground up and I had the same problem as the first guy in this thread. I have three SATA drives 2x Maxtor 250gig and 1x WD Raptor 74gig. The Maxtors I wanted in RAID 0 and the Raptor I wanted alone (no RAID). I followed the recomendations of a another poster and it solved at least part of my problems. The rest I'll have to continue playing with. I agree the manual was bland as far as the SATA drive installation was concerned. My Windows XP Pro would give me the blue screen of death at the point where it wants you to choose which drive to put the OS on because there was no drives recognized, yet all were recognized in the BIOS. Making the driver disks using the A8V MOBO software CD did the trick. Just remember to use the F6 option at the initial software load, then use the "S" option at the point where windows asks if you want to add additional drivers. It will prompt you for the disks that you made earlier.

What I haven't figured out yet is how to get XP to recognize the two SATA drives as one drive (RAID 0). I have RAID option turned on in the BIOS as well as the Array set up within the RAID software. It says it's functional but when I boot into Windows, the drives show as two seperate removable drives, one full, and one empty. Both drives are brand new and have been formated. I ran out of time troubleshooting it last night but will continue tonight. Any inputs would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks


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## jamesrockey (Oct 6, 2004)

*Problems with SATA, IDE resolved but windows only sees half 2gb of ram*

I have recently bought a A8V MB with a athlon 64 3500 and 2gb ram, i eventually figured out that 2 make my 2 hds work (one ide one sata) they both had to be connected to the raid sockets and configured as single drive raid 0+1 arrays, setting the promise controller to raid mode and using the drivers on the cd during xp install. But windows still only thinks that I have 1Gb ram, am I being particularly obtuse or do I need to change something with the whole 2T thing, or is there a patch i need?


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## Sneaky (Oct 6, 2004)

*hdd not recognised*

i too got no harddisk connected, disabling controller stopped that warning, 
also the standard sata drivers dont work you have to use drivers on the motherboard cd, i clicked make diskette. i had to repair my xp pro windows,press F6 whilst windows repairs/installs then put the diskette ie floppy with via drivers on, hey presto i now have my hard drive back

exellent forums here guys, keep up the good work


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## supern0va (Oct 17, 2004)

Hi there,

i'm having problems that are similar to those of the others.

specs:
Athlon 64 3500+ on an asus a8v deluxe
1 gb ram
2 sata disks: a 250 gb maxtor and a 36 gb raptor.

I want to install xp prof on the raptor drive.
Now, i discovered i had to install separate drivers for my sata disks. 
I made a floppy with the create disk file on the mobo CD.
I hit F6 during install and installed the drivers on the floppy.
After i did that, windows recognised that there were harddisks in the system, so windows could be installed.
I selected the raptor drive and hit enter. In the screen that followed, i chose to format the partition as an NTFS filesystem. (I didn't choose the 'quick format' option.) 
Windows formatted the raptor drive and began copying files to the disk ("windows installatin folders"). So far so good.
After the system had copied the files, the pc rebooted.

That's where things went wrong.
Instead of starting the installation of windows, i got a black screen. After about FIVE minutes of waiting, the windows setup bootscreen popped up AGAIN. 
(It took about two minutes to load the required files, which is abnormally long, I think.) 
After that, i once again got to the screen where i could install windows, repair an existing install or quit the setup. Which means that all the file-copying had zero effect. :s

I'm out of options, angry and frustrated. SOS! HELP!

thanks a billion!


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## Anul (Oct 29, 2004)

*Problems with fasttx2k.sys*

I've tried to use the utility makedisk.exe in ASUS CD-ROM in a first installation of Windows XP 64 AMD operating system.
After pressing F6 in Win XP 64 for AMD, I inserted the disk previously done by makedisk.exe utility, and then after selecting the operating system in the white and blue combo box of Windows enviroment, I obtained the following error message:
file fasttx2k.sys corrupted

Anyone can help me?
The file is corrupted due to makedisk utility or due to Windows XP 64 AMD?

Thanks in advance.


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## Boo Boo Bunny (Oct 31, 2004)

*SATA Not Detected*

I have all of the same problems. I have one SATA drive. My system likes to just shut off. I have had blue screens. Do I use the via makedisk or the promise makedisk?


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## Chainsaw (Nov 1, 2004)

*Promise 0+1?*

A little bit off the flow of this thread, but the title led me to post here;
AV8 deluxe w/promise 378...as previously stated in this post, the ASUS & the Promise documentation is minimal at best. Here's my problem, and thanks in advance for the help.
I want to do RAID 0+1 with just the Promise controller, using 4 Samsung 120GB drives; 2 SATA & 2 PATA.
I have been successful in building a RAID0 using the 2 PATA connections. 
I have been successful in building a RAID0 using the 2 SATA connections.
I have not yet been able to get the two RAID0 arrarys to mirror.

The PATAs are jumpered as master/slave, as they are on the same IDE cable.
The SATAs seem to work jumpered as master/slave or not jumered at all.

Anyone been able to do this yet? Am I jumpering the elements of this array properly? Am I limited to using the 378 for the RAID 0s only & mirroring them thru the OS (software), using dynamic drives? Would I be better off with using the PATAs in CableSelect mode, rather than master/slave? 
Thanks.


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## Chainsaw (Nov 1, 2004)

Anul
I had the same problem with loading the 2000Pro OS.
That error message is, of course bogus, as the OS has already read the floppy once...

What I was doing, was attempting to install the OS as "standard PC", and it spit out that same message about corrupted data. How I fixed it was to let the default OS install, as "ACPI compatible". This read the disk properly, and the OS is installed & is running OK.
What I'd imagine your problem is, is that the XP-64 bit OS is still at the developers release...it is NOT a mature, released product yet. You might want to load up regular XP-32 bit & give that a try. Or 2000Pro...just wait it out until XP-64 is "officially" released. Hopefully this helps.


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## Anul (Oct 29, 2004)

I solved the problem using Win XP 32bit.
Now I'm waiting for new drivers for Win XP 64bit...
:smile: 
I suppose that even more problems can arise with audio and lan drivers...
Let's see when Win XP 64 will be an official release product.
:smile:


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## Chainsaw (Nov 1, 2004)

*Reromise 0+1?*

OK...I was able to fix this problem, after scouring the web & reading alot about Promise controllers.

The Promise documentation that came supplied with the MB, leads one to believe that a 0+1 array can be constructed with using an existing data drive. In reality, after a week of thrashing this idea, I've discovered that this is not possible. The way I was ultimately successful was to do a 100% disk backup, wipe the 4 drives of the array, and boot into <ctrl f> the promise controller. When it interrogates the 4 virgin drives, it now offers a third option in the "auto" setups, of a 4 drive "stripe/mirror". Select that & allow it to build & initialize, and you will then see a 4-drive array after you re-boot in array 1. One can easily plug the backup drive into one of the on-board IDEs, and transfer the saved data to this array. A couple boots later, you should be able to boot into the OS...you may need to load another driver or two, to get the array fully-functional, but you are on your way! Just remember to keep a 5th (large capacity) drive available.

BTW, I was able to keep the MAS/SLA jumpers as they were on the PATA drives...the jumper arrangement seemed to have nothing to do with the resolution to this problem.


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## Broken Sword (Nov 12, 2004)

*Found the solution*

Ok I got it... I also had the same problem as Saint in the original post... and when I tried to use the drivers that came with the cd I got the fasttx error.

But I went to the Asus site and in there Drivers section I found this link...

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/down...id=1&m_id=1&f_name=378raid_100137.zip~zaqwedc

It must be an updated driver because it work like a dream... XP is now installing on my SATA Raid 0 - 240 gig array


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