SATA RAID 0 problem

GA-8KNXP
P4 3.2
1 GB DDR400
3 x SATA Seagate 120 (2 on RAID 0 )
XPpro

Having finished this build for a friend I am having problems booting it up now that I have the RAID 0 configured. Everything is recognised by the system and all seems to be well. XP pro is loaded on both the RAID 0 and the single drive, all of which are SATA. On booting up it gets as far as the Windows XP logo with the blue bars moving across the middle of the screen as it is loading but then it gets stuck, resets itself and starts all over again. This loop occurs when either the RAID O is selected as first HD boot, or the single drive is selected. The only way I can get it to boot is by selecting SATA RAID DISABLE in the BIOS. It then boots up normally from either drive.
Anyone got any idea's ?
Regards
FBW

 

were the hard drives in a raid 0 array when it was instaled?
Does windows XP have the proper drivers installed to see the raid controller?

 

were the hard drives in a raid 0 array when it was instaled? Yes
Does windows XP have the proper drivers installed to see the raid controller? Yes

 

Ahh the joys of Windows!
Since you just finsihed you are not too far behind.

1) unplug everything except the RAIDed drives on the SATA connection and a CDROM on the IDE port
2) break (delete) the RAID and reboot, recreate the RAID
3) Boot the WinXP CD, hit F6 right away to install the drivers
4) format for NTFS (long format is best)
5) get XP fully installed and running with all drivers and updates
6) add everything but the hard drive, CD, DVD, whatever, reboot
7) if all that works, add other hard drive - this may have to go on an IDE port
8) sent hate mail to Gates

Windows install really tries hard to use that non-RAIDed drive, don't let it.
Windows does NOT want more than one copy of itself on a computer.

 

Thanks for your replies. Pleased to report that the re-installation of XP on the RAID array did the trick and everything is working fine. A few looks around some other sites shows that the loading XP on to a RAID array does not always go smoothly. In fact my initial problem with this build was the XP installation looping half way through the set up. Again others have had this problem with no real reason as to why.
One quick question.........my RAID utility tells me I have a "16K chunk size" what exactly does that mean ? Doesn't sound like very much, I thought the chunk would be the remainder of the disks ?
Thanks for all your help
Regards
FBW

 

Thanks for the explanation Halo.............
Regards
FBW