Asus A7V133 and Win2k Problems

[akiraxtc]

Hi,

I also have problem with my A7V133 board... not that it's a big problem... it's been perfectly stable when i'm in Windows ME.
Here's the problem:
I understand that when you install Win2k, you need to press F6 at the installation to install necessary promise's UDMA 100 controller drivers. I did that... and it detects the Device correctly. It went on and copied the drivers files, and on the "Setup is starting windows 2000" phase, it throws me up a "Inaccessible Boot Device" blue screen. I saw the other threads and notice that this problem is usually caused by improperly installed UDMA Controller driver. However what puzzles me is that there is no problem in the driver installation. Any of you have this problem and any idea on how to solve it?
By the way, here's my hdd is configured on the controllers:
Primary UDMA 100 - 1 x Maxtor 80 GB and 1 x IBM 30 GB (Where the OS resides)
Secondary UDMA 100 - Pioneer 16x and Plextor 12/10/32
Primary RAID (Not in Raid mode) - 1 x IBM 25 GB

Thanks in advance

 

[Quad]

hmm, i'm not an expert, but i've heard that the f6 thingy installs the scsi drivers so that you can access the drives on the promise controllers.

apparently, there are no drivers for the promise controller (the raid ports), so windows needs to installed them to access any devices on those channels (in your case the 25gb ibm hdd).

my reccomendation would be the following (please double check with someone, because i may be wrong): remove your ibm 25 gb. installing win2k normally with your drives only on the regular via controller. once installed, go to asus.com and dload the latest promise drivers. install them. add your ibm25gb to the promise controller. hopefully it'll work, but i may be wrong.

good luck

btw, if worst comes to worst, you can disregard the promise channels completely and stick both hdd's on the same channel.

 

[jamesbond007]

Ok. Move all of your HDDs to the Promise controller. Put your CDRW on the normal IDE chain. Go here and download those drivers, unzip them ALL onto a clean floppy. Boot up the CDROM, press F6, when needed. Now, be sure to set your BIOS BOOT options so they read something like:
1: Legacy Floppy
2: None
3: Your Plextor CDRW should be here.
4: Int18 Device (Network)

That's what mine looks like. Also, in the BIOS, under Chip configuration, I believe, you set your ATA100 to AUTO. You should see a screen before your Win2k setup CDROM is initialized that says "Promise FastTrak...." And then it should detect all of your HDDs. It should find all three of them, boot your Win2k CD and press F6 to install the drivers. Put the floppy disk in that has the drivers you just downloaded and unzipped. You should get a selection screen that says Either NT drivers or Win2k. Select "Win2000". It should find them and install the drivers accordingly. Don't remove the floppy until Win2k is about to reboot after it finishes copying the files. If you encounter any more problems or have any questions about what I just wrote, PM me or reply here.

Good luck!

 

[ogn]

From what I've been able to find out, the Promise controller on our boards cannot be used as a boot drive for Win2K and is only meant for additional storage. I've tried the F6 thing with the Asus Promise drivers and get that message. The only way I got around that is to add another hard drive to the regular IDE controller to load Win2K on and I use the RAID just for additional storage. I wish I could just boot off the Promise controller. Please tell me if you find out otherwise.

Thanks,
ogn

 

[ogn]

So here's what I've been able to find since my last message and my last install of Win2K on A7V133.

It is possible but not easy...look here:
A7V133 Win2K RAID0 Install

The only problem is the drive conversion to NTFS. Now I'm not sure if that's the main part but it would destroy your 98 side. Well actually it might not. Microsoft recommends that these two OSes be installed on separate partitions, so you can make multiple partitions and have Win98 on C and Win2K on D with NTFS. Now I'm not sure how this will affect the above install method. And on the Win98 side, you can install a NTFS for 98 program that will let you read/write to NTFS. I don't have my A7V133 right now, loaned it to a friend, but once I do, I'll try it along with some Whistler beta builds and see how it all works out.

Good Luck.

 

[jamesbond007]

Yo, I boot from my Promise controller. I do not have a RAID 0 setup yet, but I'd assume it'd be just as easy as it would if you were to install it on the Promise controller, set to ATA100. I mean, you set the RAID array within the Promise Controller BIOS, so that it would appear as a single drive to Win2k. That's how that would work. I know several people who use RAID 0, boot from RAID 0, and have no problems using the Promise controller on the Asus A7V133. As I described above, that's how they have it setup. So, in short, it IS possible to boot Win2k off of the RAID controller. Yes, I do reccomend that people dual boot using separate partitions for the OSes. I tried Win98SE and Win2k on the same partition, and ran into many problems. One of them was that IE was installed in the same directory, making some functions work differently in the OS as they normally would. Also, you can use FAT32 with Win9x and NTFS for your Win2k partition, if need be. Hope this clears things up!

 

[Dug]

To solve all of your problems-

Do not use any drivers downloaded from Asus or Promise!

Use the drivers off of the cd that came with your motherboard.

Open up the cd and copy the Win2k folder, fastrack, and txtsetup.oem to a blank 3 1/2in. disk. (Be sure to use the one's from Ultra100 for 1 drive and use the one's from RAID for RAID)

Boot up Win2k disk and hit F6, hit s to load driver from the 3 1/2in. you just made. Hit enter to continue installation.

This is all done assuming you have already set up your drives in the Promise bios.

I spent 3 hours trying to figure out why Win2k wasn't seeing my hd's. I could set up WinME no problem.

The problem was, I was trying to use driver's I downloaded from Asus or Promise. For some reason neither of these worked.

 

[jamesbond007]

I use the ones downloaded from Asus's site. Works like a charm!

 

[Dulanic]

I extracted the Build32 drivers to a floppy and it works 100% ok. Also you dont want to put a CDRW on the Promise Controller...

 

[ogn]

Can you please specify if you are running RAID0? I think that seems to be the issue here.

Thanks,
ogn

 

[akiraxtc]

NO i wasn't running Raid 0... i just use the Raid channel because i don't have anymore space in the onboard IDE...

 

[Dulanic]

<< NO i wasn't running Raid 0... i just use the Raid channel because i don't have anymore space in the onboard IDE... >>



Private message me your email and ill zip up my floppy I use and send it to you.

 

[akiraxtc]

Dulanic, YGPM
By the wayi tried Both Promise's Drivers and Asus' Drivers for the Promise controller... both actually work and WIndows 2000 setup is detecting them and had finished installing the drivers... it's just that when it's doing &quot;Setup is starting windows 2000&quot; it turns to a blue screen.

 

[Dug]

Sorry, I was specifically speaking of a raid setup. The reason you need the driver disk is because Asus' onboard controller (Promise) is a lite version. So even though Win2k will recognize Promise's drivers on their website and install them, they won't work.

I couldn't personally speak for just a 1 drive setup on the controller.

I would personally put 1 drive on each of the Promise controllers, and 1 drive on the Via controller. (Because the promise controller seems to be faster and you can put 2 drives as master)

 

[cjhrph]

All you have to do is connect the HD to the regular IDE controller and install W2K. Then, once installed load the promise drivers. Shut down the machine, change the cable over to the promise and reboot. Enter the bios and configure it to boot from the Promise. It works just fine for me.

 

[ZeroBurn]

i just actually had this problem, runnning a search on AT i found this thread and my golden answer, AT's saved me once again

i was running RAID 0 and trying to install win2k on the a7v133 but it just kept blue-screening when i used the Promise controller drivers downloaded from Asus' site. Went to the CD and copied the RAID dir to the floppy and it worked like a charm, not a single hitch. the promise drivers from asus' site are bunk, the ones on the cd are the only ones that work when installing win2k from scratch.