Windows Won't Recognize RAID Drive

[Xomphos]

Hi,

I just built my first system. It is a $350 budget box with an AMD Anthlon 64 X2 4200+ processor, 1GB of RAM, an MSI ATX motherboard, a IDE DVD+RW drive, and two IDE HDDS (80GB and 30GB). The motherboard I got has one IDE connector on it, so because of this I could connect my HDDs and not my DVD drive or vice-versa.
Today, I went out and bought what I believe to be a solution to this problem: a $30 PCI RAID card with an additional IDE connector and two SATA connectors. I don't really want to create a RAID setup, I just needed the extra connector. I go home, plug it in, plug my HDDs into the RAID card and the DVD drive into the motherboard. The BIOS recognizes the HDD fine, so I pop in the Windows XP Pro disc, and it can't find my HDD. I try again, this time saying I wanted to install a RAID driver because it came with a CD with drivers on it and it says I need a floppy disc. The thing is, I don't even have a floppy drive! I swapped the DVD drive and HDD cables seeing if it would work that way and it didn't.

What can I do to get Windows working without buying a floppy drive (budget can't afford it)?

Thanks!

 

[dude_se]

cant you disable raid in the bios if you are not using it?

 

[muz]

well tbh i can see no way you can manage it however other ppl may have an idea there ,
the only way i can see is plugging one hard drive into one ide plug on the cable and the dvd rom drive into the other ide plug however i dont know if this would work very well i know it will be realy slow if it does work
i dunno if someone wants to confirm this or not cos i am not 100% sure either way

if possible rma the raid card and just get a sata dvd burner instead as they arent much more than $30 either
or is there jumper settings on the card or a switch to turn raid off and just use as standard ide that may work
@dude_se i dont think the problem is that its just windows cant see the drives on the card as it needs drivers which can only be loaded by floppy
or if you could borrow a floppy drive then you can boot with a linux live CD and then put the drivers on a floppy and then you would be sorted

 

[dude_se]

oh soz i dont think i read it properly lol.
these late nights aint doing me any good.
anyway does windows ask you where you want to install the drivers from at all? or is the floppy drive the only option?

 

[DJ-CHRIS1]

Hi,

I just built my first system. It is a $350 budget box with an AMD Anthlon 64 X2 4200+ processor, 1GB of RAM, an MSI ATX motherboard, a IDE DVD+RW drive, and two IDE HDDS (80GB and 30GB). The motherboard I got has one IDE connector on it, so because of this I could connect my HDDs and not my DVD drive or vice-versa.
Today, I went out and bought what I believe to be a solution to this problem: a $30 PCI RAID card with an additional IDE connector and two SATA connectors. I don't really want to create a RAID setup, I just needed the extra connector. I go home, plug it in, plug my HDDs into the RAID card and the DVD drive into the motherboard. The BIOS recognizes the HDD fine, so I pop in the Windows XP Pro disc, and it can't find my HDD. I try again, this time saying I wanted to install a RAID driver because it came with a CD with drivers on it and it says I need a floppy disc. The thing is, I don't even have a floppy drive! I swapped the DVD drive and HDD cables seeing if it would work that way and it didn't.

What can I do to get Windows working without buying a floppy drive (budget can't afford it)?

Thanks!

Windows simply needs drivers to be able to read any device connected to your RAID controller. Usually the controller comes with a floppy disk containing the drivers. Everyone should still have a floppy drive or 2 laying around under the couch for problems like this