Problems with RAID 0 in XP Home

Hey guys!
I am having some problems with my setup.

DG965WH Intel Board
2GB (1X2) Kingston PX2 6400 DDR
E6300 Core 2 Duo
eVGA 7600 GT
Antec True Power 480W
2 x Maxtor 250 GB Sata II HDD

Here's my problem:
I just got the HDD's because my previous one failed. After installing the drives into the case, I used the RAID setup by pressing CTRL+I as prompted and setup the two drives as a RAID 0 (striped) array.
Then I booted from the XP setup disc, pressed F6 and chose the intel raid controller driver, did a normal format on the new partition I created and installed windows as normal.
Upon booting into windows XP for the very first time, I got a corrupt file already! "Windows/Inf is corrupt. Please use chkdsk" Oh man!
Also some applications that I try to install, for example the sound blaster driver installation utility, say the wierdest errors or just won't install OR have corrupt files! At one point the installer gave me the error "This application does not work on this operating system" ??? Really?
Now let me say that this is the third DG965WH board that I've gotten.
First shorted out the moment I put an aftermarket heatsink on it (which happened to 3 other friends on the same day when we all went home to put them together... all the same board but different heatsinks.)
Second was DOA POSTing with 3 long beeps not recognizing it's recommended memory.
Third Works, but the day I got it working my SATA drive died "windows/system cannot be found" I chkdsk /r with no results.
Come to think of it though, when I tried to boot into safe mode it would freeze on windows/inf which is the same file that I am being told is corrupt after a fresh install!!!
Now this issue!! I am going to remove the RAID array and install to each drive independantly to make sure both drives are OK, but I am almost worried that this Intel Board has a problem with the SATA ports or something. At this point I can't rule anything out with this board! 4 seperate computer techs from 3 diff companies and we went through 10 boards between us!
The worst part is we made sure to follow the recomended parts because we read that these boards are finicky.

What do you guys think?
Bad HDD's?
Bad Board?
Any and ALL suggestions are welcome!!!!!!

Thank you very much in advance

Randy O.

 

I should mention that the Corrupt windows/inf is no longer showing up as an error. Now I get "C:\$secure is corrupt and unreadable " every time I start or shutdown the computer, and anytime any installer tries to access a dynamically created temporary directory.
Wierd huh!?
Cmon Major Geeks: Only you can save me!
I will be researching and doing trial and error SATA positioning on my board (6 sata ports) and I will be also independantly installing XP per HD after removing the raid array. We'll see!

All the pros here, please chime in with your experience! I've seen you troubleshoot harder stuff than this

Randy O.

 

Well we certainly like watching someone who is a glutton for punishment. Keep us posted.
Oh and by the way why do you need the basic OS and apps on the raid? Sounds like the system you are building is big enough to separate data and apps.

Studio T

 

Well I suppose I could if I partitioned out the RAID array. There are only two sata drives being utilized and they are both (of course) in the RAID 0 array. The board I have DG965WH only has one IDE and it is being utilized by my two optical drives. Being that I only have the two SATA drives, I have to put it all on the RAID. Unless you are talking about software RAID rather than hardware raid? Once I have a little more cashflow I wll purchase another two SATA drives which I will promptly make a four disk RAID 0 (providing I can get this 2 disk version to work ) and after which I will get one more 500 GB sata drive to use as a storage means. Does this answer your question or am I misreading it? I am going to try to install XP Pro today and see if that still gives me these damned C:\$secure is corrupt business!
Thanks if anyone has any ideas!
Randy O.
P.s.) Don't buy an Intel DG965WH, it will make you a glutton for punishment

 

I asked because you are clearly building a powerful machine but gave no indication as to it's intended use. Also I wondered what you are doing as you seem to be getting through components at a rate of knots. Bad motherboards are easy to understand; there have been several threads lately reporting DOA or partly deadOA. But SATA hard drives?
A RAID 0 confers almost no benefits and several serious drawbacks on a system. Firstly there is no redundancy which means that failure of a single drive brings the whole system down and causes loss of data across all drives in the system. It does slightly increase the speed of read/write however. This facility is most of use if your machine is going to be used as a server and the disk subsystem is heavily used compared to the other parts. The extra speed has been used by some gamers but the extra benefit is questionable.
To sum up I think you need to address (hardware) reliability problems before launching into a RAID or you will be forever 'fixin the durn thing'

Studio T

 

Well, further research.
I tried loading xp onto the SATA drives seperately... no dice
After loading the drivers for the sata right before the EULA screen in the XP setup, BLUE SCREEN! It gives no error except for a couple generic stop error codes at the bottom. The gist of the Blue screen message is "check your hard drive, hard drive drivers, and jumpers"
My only guess is that the sata on this board is messed up. I am hoping that I can exchange it for a different brand of board. I am tired of messing with this thing! I fix one thing and then there are 2 other problems, etc...
The funny thing is that Intel gave me a reduced price on this board as a insentive to sell more of thier product. I am going to write them the nastiest letter ever
I am a very non-biased person but I have never had such a bad experience in my life! UGH
The worst part is that a fellow employee who was offered the same deal from intel had the same issues, same HDD...everything. Switched board and everything works perfectly now.
How wierd!

 

Interesting report thanks.

:wave

Studio T

 

UPDATE: After pulling one stick of RAM I am able to install XP Pro to a IDE drive. That is wierd because we tested the RAM out with PC Doctor and it checked out just fine! So with that conclusion out of the way I went on my way to install my XP pro onto the SATA drives / or RAID array. Xp pro installed perfectly with the RAM chip out, so out of curiosity I put the RAM chip back in and Xp pro installed fine! WTF!? How bizzare. SO! I went back and I tried to install XP onto Home the sata just to see the result and I am greeted with immediate "C:\$secure is corrupt" messages.
Defeated, with little fight left in me, I reinstall XP pro onto a single SATA drive and call it a day.
I can't believe I hose to do this as a living
My associate atributed it to bing a bad RAM stick which is entirely possible. I think it has something to do with the fact that XP Home does not like A) my RAID driver or B) my Kingston PC2 6400 RAM.

After getting XP pro intalled I ran 3dMark03 first edition and I scored n the low 13000's. Then I overclocked the video card and tweaked XP and got 14849 Which my board would alloy a aftermarket heatsink so I could overclock this E6300. On tomshardware website they got one up to a Front Side Bus of almost 500mhz!!!!!!! I can't risk another board to a AM heatsink. After seeing 6 boards die because of 3rd party HS I am no risking it. It's a shame really because I have a brand new Zalman beast of a heatsink sitting right in my closet. Poor little guy...