XP SP2 installation on RAID 0

[WC Annihilus]

Well, I recently got a pair of Hitachi Deckstar SATAII drives (160gb) and installed them in a RAID0 array. When I'm try to install my OS (Windows XP Pro w/ SP2) on them I get a problem. The initial setup, where it copies onto the HDD's, goes along fine. However, when I get into the actual installation process, I get the following error:

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Error:
SXS.DLL: Syntax error in manifest or policy file "D:\1386\asms\10\msft\windows\gdiplus\gdiplus.man" on line 4

***

Error:
Installation failed: D:\1386\asms.

Error Message: A component's file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest.

***

Fatal Error:
One of the components that windows needs to continue setup could not be installed.

A component's file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest

***

When I just install on one of the disks, the process goes along just fine (did this with both disks). So, the problem is occuring just when the drives are in RAID.

Any ideas? Thanks

[SpookyMoomin]

My guess is you need to find a driver for your RAID chipset (check motherboard disks / website if its an onboard chip)- put it on a floppy - and hit F6 during the intial boot up from the XP cd (you should see a "hit F6 now to specify additional drivers" type message on the bottom of screen). It should then ask for your driver disk. Throw the disk in, select suitable driver (eg might be one for windows 2000 on disk too) and see how you get on.

I would also suspect the XP cd but since it runs fine on a single drive no raid, I reckon its the F6 driver. Good luck,

Take it easy.

[WC Annihilus]

Where can I find another set of drivers? So far I've been using those on the disc that came with my motherboard.

[SpookyMoomin]

Check out the website for your motherboard, navigate to the downloads page for your specific board, and look for RAID drivers, sometimes they are actually labelled as "F6 drivers", or find specific instructions for installing XP on a RAID.

What board do you have - make and model? You need those drivers because XP doesn't know how to address the disks thru the raid until a driver is loaded and running - hence you can't install properly until you have the F6 drivers. Good luck.

[WC Annihilus]

I have an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe board. Yes, I do know that I need drivers (side note: if you don't have them, XP doesn't even recognize there are disks connected). So far I've been using the drivers that came on the motherboard support CD. If you check ASUS's download section, they don't have the Nvidia RAID drivers, only the Silicon RAID drivers. Do you know of anyplace I can get updated drivers?

[Nanometer]

You download the chipset drivers. 6.70 from Nvidia. Then you extract it with winwar and locate the raid drivers. You then create a floppy.