Vista doesn't like my RAID 0 :(

L31mr0d

Need some help here. I've been trying aimlessly to set up Vista Ultimate on my sig rig all weekend. It either hangs at the last stage of install or BSODs with a "kernal_inpage_error". But it will install fine when my drives aren't in RAID.

I've tried putting the RAID drivers on a USB stick and pointing Vista at them, it never picks them up. I've tried streamlining the RAID drivers onto the install DVD using vlite, didn't work.

I'm lost as to what to try next? Has anyone set up Vista on a RAID? If so did you encounter any problems? Did you have to use 3rd party drivers?

All help is appreciated

8T8

Is it NVIDIA RAID ?

I'm running a RAID 0 array on Vista 64 here with an Adaptec PCI-e controller and it's been rock solid using Adaptecs own drivers.

L31mr0d

yeah its nvidia *shakes fist* I hooked up a floppy drive to use the included driver disk. Vista finds the drivers on floppy but then proceeds to forget the RAID 0 array when the drivers are loaded. It won't even look at the drivers on the CD or USB stick I have them on.

8T8

NV's RAID drivers are just buggy on XP/Vista which is why I recommend using a third party controller instead of NV RAID.

Did the motherboard come with a third party chip integrated into it for extra SATA ports if so use that instead or get a PCI-e controller.

As for trying to make NV RAID work well all I can suggest is
* Updates bios to most recent version as it also updates NV RAID ROM.
* Clear CMOS after update
* Go to NV site and download whatever version driver is the most recent and official.
* If that still fails go to motherboards makers website and download whatever drivers version they offer and try that instead.

L31mr0d

8T8 wrote:

As for trying to make NV RAID work well all I can suggest is
* Updates bios to most recent version as it also updates NV RAID ROM. check
* Clear CMOS after update check
* Go to NV site and download whatever version driver is the most recent and official. check
* If that still fails go to motherboards makers website and download whatever drivers version they offer and try that instead. check

I've done all of the above. I got the latest drivers off of evga's site and threw them on a USB stick. For some reason it picks up the Vista 32bit drivers but not the 64bit ones. I tried installing Vista 64bit with the 32bit drivers and it didn't work. I then tried installing Vista 32bit with those drivers... it worked... but I don't want Vista 32bit

I also tried updating Vista from 32bit to 64bit from within Vista, this didn't work either. It also stopped me from rolling back to the 32bit version.

So at least this has narrowed down the problem. Its the 64bit drivers that's the problem. But Vista won't recognise evgas/nvidias latest drivers. So what now? Is there a repository somewhere of all the previous 64bit drivers for this board?

8T8

NVIDIA probably messed up the packing of the 64-bit drivers, I will download them and take a look.

Alright I downloaded the i6xx nForce 64-bit Vista drivers at this link and extracted to a folder with WinRAR.

The contents (not the folder) of IDE\WinVista64\sataraid are what should be copied to a USB stick or CD.

32-bit drivers wont work under 64-bit so thats the reason why they would not work, also format your USB stick before copying the files over to it in case their are any hidden files messing with.

L31mr0d

8T8 wrote:

NVIDIA probably messed up the packing of the 64-bit drivers, I will download them and take a look

I used these drivers

ftp://ftp.evga.com/bios/9.92_RAID_Vista.zip

8T8

Yeah they are missing one of the files in the official package I linked to above that might be the problem.

L31mr0d

what file is missing?

8T8

nvide.nvu is missing.