XP pro install problems (ATA driver)

I also ran into this problem, but I was installing XP Pro using RAID0 and could never get past that point. I instead created a slipstreamed CD of XP Pro, adding the Service Pack 1a and all of the Sager drivers in the INF's. This booted up fine, installed automatically and I now have a RAID0 at hardware level with XP running. There are several good resources on the net for slipstreaming an install CD.

Reset the RAID switches. I think that it is in Chapter 7 of the user manual. It appears as if your configuration was set as RAID (default) when it was shipped.

It looks like the RAID switches are DIP switches located between or under the HDDs.

What is the ATA disk for? Do I need to use it if I don't use RAID?

That's the problem, I'm not using RAID, I only have ONE hard drive. So do I need to get a USB floppy drive to load the ATA drivers? Sager Tech support kept telling me that I won't need them for RAID, but I'm not running RAID. They are beginning to piss me off.

So what do I use the ATA driver floppy for? How do I use it and when (before, during, after install Windows)?

I'm not using RAID either, I didn't need this ATA driver to install Win XP Pro.

I tried learning how to slipstream files, but no luck. The easy part is simply applying service packs to the OEM disk and creating a new installation CD, but what I really want is are the RAID, Sound, Video, and NIC drivers included as well. I looked up "how to" stuff and found lots of ways to integrate various SP's into Windows, but nothing on adding drivers. Well, there was this one site that went on and on about editing the $OEM$\$1 folder, $OEM$\$$ folder and adding folders to the Settings folder (doesn't exist), editing .ini files, unattend files [I know what this is, but not how to use it], and many, many other custom entries.

Here:
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8892

Unfortunately, I still can't make sense of the instructions. If someone could point me to a detailed instruction page that they have personally used. Please. I can slipstream service packs fine, it's the drivers I want to know how to add.

Thanks for the info on the disk. So, have you had any luck getting 2K Pro installed? I'm beginning to believe that re-installation of Windows is almost impossible. I have major issues with my machine. It won't recognize my hard drive and my Web Cam won't recognize my USB ports.

Just wondering, but has anyone tried putting the drivers on the card reader media (flash, sd, etc in the 7-1 reader?)? May work better than unknown floppies.

RAID drivers at install

To answer SEMC's question, Windows XP install has hard coded to look at A: for external mass drivers or 3rd party driver support...you have to use a floppy. I had bought a SONY USB floppy and it was recognized at boot time, but would freeze during the copying of files portion of install - asking for the RAID disk, and subsequently, just sitting there stuck at that spot. That is why I slipstreamed the CD.

(1) You really do want to create a directory called $OEM$\$1\Drivers and put all of your sager drivers there. Specifically for RAID $OEM$\$1\Drivers\RAID\DRIVERS\FASTTRAK\WinXP.

(2) You will create a file from scratch called WINNT.SIF and you will edit the existing TXTSETUP.SIF.

(3)The WINNT.SIF is for unattended stuff, but the most important line for us SAGER RAID installers is the following:

OemPnPDriversPath=Drivers\GN-WIAG\Inf\WinXP;Drivers\LAN\WINXP\OEMA;Drivers\Modem\WINXP;Drivers\PCCAM;Drivers\RA ID\DRIVERS\FASTTRAK\WinXP;Drivers\TOUCHPAD\WINXP;Drivers\VIDEO\Driver\2KXP_INF

The default for this is the $OEM$\$1 path you hopefull have created by now. This tells WinXP where to look FIRST for drivers...it then looks at I386 after searching this line.

(4) Add the following to TXTSETUP.SIF:

[SourceDisksFiles]
fasttrak.sys = 1,,,,,,_x,4,1

[HardwareIdsDatabase]
PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_0D30 = "fasttrak"

[SCSI.Load]
fasttrak = fasttrak.sys,4

[SCSI]
fasttrak = "WinXP Promise FastTrak100 (tm) Lite Controller"

(5) Copy FASTTRAK.INF, fasttrak.sys from the floppy disk to the \I386 directory - and voila, you are done. Burn the CD with the ISO image from your original extracted and you have a slipstreamed CD you can install with and not need any floppy.

Let me know if this is not clear enough!

1) Where do you put the $OEM$ directories?

"The default for this is the $OEM$\$1 path you hopefull have created by now."

2) How do you tell the WINNT.sif where to find the files? You can't tell it to find them on the hard drive, and there's no telling which drive letter the optical drive will be assigned at any given installation. How do you tell it to look for the files on the CD?

3) What are these commas for? "fasttrak.sys = 1,,,,,,_x,4,1" Are they blanks or place holders, or are they there exactly as written?

4) Where do you put the other system drivers (sound, video, NIC [wired/wirless])? How do you refrence them in the files?

Appreciate your help so far, still trying to make sense of it. I'm not dumb, but our 2K Server teacher really glossed over this part of the installation process. He didn't think it was important enough. I am slightly familiar with modifying the unattend.txt file, but I don't recognize any of the other files listed.

The $OEM$ directory is at the same level as I386...at the root of your install CD. It is precisely that windows will not know the mapped optical drive, that it uses $OEM$\$1 as the root for drivers. The drivers software goes into the $OEM$\$1\Drivers tree as is.

The WINNT.sif goes into the I386 directory along with the fasttrak.sys and fasttrak.inf. You have the option of using the cab maker to make them compressed .cab files...but why bother.

The additional lines I quoted earlier are cut and pasted from my TEXTSETUP.sif file in the I386 directory as is.