New Vista RAID install

[dramsey]

This is frustrating, because I know I've done it at least once before. I'm trying to bring up Vista on an eVGA 680i motherboard, using two Raptor drives in a striped RAID as the boot volume.

I get to the point in the Vista where I click the "Load Drivers" button. I navigate to the driver folder, select it, and am presented with three drivers-- I believe they're a "RAID Controller", "RAID Device", and "IDE-SATA Driver"....but since all three show the same path to the same file, I'm guessing all three drivers are in the file and it doesn't matter which one I pick.

Not that I haven't tried each one individually. And in combination. Across three different driver releases, loading the driver from a USB key or a CD. With Vista 32 and Vista 64.

BSOD, every single time. IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, to be precise. Select the driver (any, all, or a combo), press load, wait a few seconds, and BOOM.

Obviously, I'm doing something wrong. What it is is hard to discern, though, since instructions for doing this do not exist anywhere in the world. Well, at least not on Microsoft or nVidia's web sites. Apparently bringing up a new Vista install on a RAID is so pitifully simply that nobody can be bothered to write down how to do it.

Do I sound grumpy? Sorry. This sort of crap really is trivial on my work machine, a Mac Pro. But I can't play Crysis on a Mac...

Suggestions appreciated.

[JTKWalesUK1981]

i had this problem with my board and XP continuously and it wasnt until i changed my drives from Western Digital to Seagate did they work ok.

The WD Drives work fine in my boyfriends PC which uses a MSN Nforce 550 chipset where mine is a Nforce 570 SLI chipset.

[dramsey]

Hm. I'd swap out my motherboard before I got rid of two Raptor X drives!

It was working fine with my previous drive array, which was two non-X Raptors.

[JTKWalesUK1981]

weird that we both had similar probs with WD Drives, then all i can say is try a different board and see if it works

[dramsey]

OK, this is...interesting.

I was able to install Vista without any RAID drivers at all...on a RAID.

Now, I'm pretty sure this isn't how I did it before. But it seems to work. Does Vista "know" about the RAID support in the 680i chipset? I suppose it could...

[mydian]

Did you follow the instructions in this guide?

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/vista-and-nvraid-installation-guide-and-troubleshooting-vt66299.html

[dramsey]

No, but that's because I didn't know the guide existed!

Sure could have used that this weekend. Hm. Installing from SATA optical drives is potentially bad, huh? As well as having other SATA drives online?

Now I know. I've made a permanent link to the article.

Is it possible to update the RAID drivers on a running system, or should I reinstall?

[qwertz]

I had the same problem. It turned out to be a version of the 4GB bug. Do you have 4GB installed? If so, please try to install vista with only 2GB, and put the other 2 in later.

Also, I think you must install ALL THREE drivers that pop up in the Vista setup (you can select them all simultaneously) - just because they all point to the same .inf file does not mean it is the same driver, as any .inf file can install multple driver (".sys") files.

If that all does not help, try another (later?) version of the driver.

Please post whether this works or not, I can otherwise look deeper into this.