Via4in1429 Woes

[awwall]

Downloaded and tried to install lastest VIA driver. After installation and before Win2000 could reboot, got fatal exception error "Can't find boot device". Said to myself "oh ****". Thought "no problem", will reboot to last good configuration. Still got same error before Win2000 could finish booting. Here is senario of what I wnet thru.

Tried re-installing registry files. Keep current backup on Tape and another HD. No help, same error message.

Tried restore from tape of entire win2000 directory and all subs. Fixed "no boot device error", but while loading gave me "registry file "software" corrupt or missing". It was there, so it was not missing.

Tried restore of registry files from other HD, same error.

Final solution, complete format and reload of Win2000. What a bummer.

Final comment and question. Tape drives are nice, but sure are slow. Been backing up entire system to one tape file. Recommend backups be done by logical drive in separate tape files.

Question? What good does it do to backup registry files if they can't be used?

This process took 2 4hr nights of work.

aw

[socalgal]

Hi awwall

Are you on any KT7 /A /RAID flavor mobo?

Check out this site, there's alot of great info here (credit to jad1097 for the link)

http://www.icrontic.com/faqs/kt7faq/kt7faq.htm

[awwall]

No, have SOYO 6VBA+133 motherboard. Think entire problem was with VIA's new driver set.

aw

[AuraEdge]

Is the harddrive attached to the mainboard?

Im not sure if Via uses a different IDE Driver for the 686A and 686B southbridges. It was determined that the ATA/100 drivers (for the 686B) were somewhat buggy with a ATA/100+Win2k combo, but I didnt think it had any effect on the 686A (ATA/66, whats on the Soyo 6VBA133). This would point to the fact that it does use the same driver, and it is buggy for Win2k with either the 686A or 686B.
You can get away with installing it again if you uncheck the IDE drivers in the 4.29 drivers.
What 4in1 drivers are you using now?

[awwall]

I am using Win2000 default drivers for this board. Driver information says they are supplied by VIA to Microsoft. The drives are attached to the Main Board. I am extremely hesitant to try the 4in1 drivers again. Machine is working ok as it is, I thought maybe the new drivers would help some with disk transfer speed. But, after what I went through, I can live with a little slower drives. I primarily wanted to let others know what they may be in for by installing these drivers if they are using Win2000.

thanks for reply

aw