New RAID setup and a crash at boot

[herzzreh]

Hi,

Put in a pair of new drivers, Windows installed fine - no errors, formatted fine as well but during start-up it gets stuck at mup.sys or it goes past mup.sys, give blue screen for half-a-second and then restarts.

System is on OCed.

I'm stumbled. Heeelp pls!

[justin_c]

Take the OC out of the factor. You are running RAID off of....(which chip). More details.
May not necessarily be the RAID.

[herzzreh]

Take the OC out of the factor. You are running RAID off of....(which chip). More details.
May not necessarily be the RAID.

Sorry... It's MSI 975x, ICH7DH. I've disabled JBD controller, took out one of the memory sticks, heck, I've even tried different cables! Nothing works...

[big poppa pump]

Is the copy of windows you are installing a legit one? Is it a copy of windows burned on a CD? If so, are any of the files on the windows installation cd modified/altered such as customized bootscreens, or slimmed down using tools like nlite?

[Serra]

mup.sys fsck'd me up for a good while myself for no good reason. My RAID was being on on my DFI SLI-D's NF4 controller. I had a number of XP CD's and basically the issue was that all of them would install with RAID drivers just fine, but only *1* of the disks would actually get past mup.sys every time. Huuuuge annoyance. I never did find out why for sure, and I searched it up *a lot*. Same install procedure every time, but no-go in the end. With that being the case, I ended up trying to slipstream using nLite too... again, of 9 DVDs with the image on them, only 1 was consistently good. Wish I knew why.

My eventual workaround was to do my install on a single-disk platform, install all RAID drivers, then use Acronis to backup the disk and then put the backup on the array. Don't ask me why, but this worked consistently when regular installing would not.

It's a crappy answer, but it's the best I could really find myself. To this day I absolutely cannot fathom why some XP CD's would work where others wouldn't, why one slipstream of the working disk worked and none of the others did, and why Acronis works *every time*. It frankly doesn't make sense in my case, but there you have it.

Edit: As an afterthought though, it *did* teach me of the benefits of programs like Acronis... much shorter install times, you can restore to a configuration with some programs installed and set up the way you like it, etc. Although there was a ton of hassle getting to this point, Acronis has since then saved me a lot of time.

[herzzreh]

Is the copy of windows you are installing a legit one? Is it a copy of windows burned on a CD? If so, are any of the files on the windows installation cd modified/altered such as customized bootscreens, or slimmed down using tools like nlite?

It is a legit copy. Using a custom install (with RAID drivers put in) - it works fine alone. Got the RAID drivers from MSI's site, also tried the ones from Intel's site.

[herzzreh]

"My eventual workaround was to do my install on a single-disk platform, install all RAID drivers, then use Acronis to backup the disk and then put the backup on the array. Don't ask me why, but this worked consistently when regular installing would not."

I've tried that but it won't boot as long as RAID is activated in BIOS.

[Serra]

"My eventual workaround was to do my install on a single-disk platform, install all RAID drivers, then use Acronis to backup the disk and then put the backup on the array. Don't ask me why, but this worked consistently when regular installing would not."

I've tried that but it won't boot as long as RAID is activated in BIOS.

Have you tried disabling RAID, installing your OS to a fresh drive, then installing the RAID drivers (if you have the option in the GUI, if not using the F6 method when first installing)? If that doesn't work, sorry to say it but I think you're even worse off than I was...

[herzzreh]

Have you tried disabling RAID, installing your OS to a fresh drive, then installing the RAID drivers (if you have the option in the GUI, if not using the F6 method when first installing)? If that doesn't work, sorry to say it but I think you're even worse off than I was...

Yup. Everything works peachy as long as RAID is not active in BIOS.

[big poppa pump]

Looks more to me like an IRQ conflict! Post your complete hardware specs including any additional PCI cards installed, as it makes easier for other members to help you with your problem, else we are all just taking a stab in the dark!