Abit ST6-Raid mobo

[staging2000]

I just upgraded to an Abit ST6-R with a PIII 800EB. I bought it because I have more than 4 IDE devices, not for the raid. Ideally I would like to have my two hard drives on the raid channels and my two CD's and my Zip on the main IDE channels. When I set it up this way I get a registry error on reboot and Win ME reloads a previous version. ScanDisk also reports an error after every reboot.

When the HDD's are on the main IDE channels there are no HDD problems but the raid channels cause my system to crash when I access my Zip drive. CD's are OK on the raid channels.

This creates the next problem... I use DriveImage to back up my system and when I boot from a floppy it will not see CD's on the raid channels but it will see HDD's if they are on the raid channel.

So I have one HDD, one CD and the Zip on the main channels and one HDD and one CD on the raid channels.

Any suggestions to optimize would be appreciated. I recall an article on MS knowledge base about Win ME shutting down before HDD's write cache to drives with a fast processor. Could this be the culprit for the registry error on restarts. I cant seem to find that article anymore.

Oh yeah, I have also done a complete clean install of ME and have tried every combination imaginable. What a way to spend the weekend.

Please help.

[Philip1952]

You sould load your OS while on the ide 1 or 2. Then after it is up and running good. Then switch it over to your ide 3 or 4. Then set your boot to ATA 100. Make sure raid is turned off. Abit says not to put none hard drives on the ata100 controller. I have seen where people do. But I haven't got it to work my self. I got the same problems you did.
Also it helps to only have one drive while you set it up. After everything is running good. Then add the other drive. Windows goes nuts sometimes if you do to much at once.
The way I set up my girls computer. IDE3 maxtor 15gig HD--IDE4 WD 20gig HD--IDE1 bus link burner-IDE2 52X cd-rom & zip drive. Just do everything one step at a time. Like I said if you try to do everything at once windows might get dumb and hate full on you.
The drive shut down fix sould be on the updates page for ME. If one was made for ME. It is a new enough OS that it might be in the OS it self.
It took me better part of a day to get my girls computer set up with everything. With this many items plus your add in cards. You will have all irq's used up.
I'll check back this evening. to see how your doing.

[Philip1952]

For some reason the raid boards are a little more of a problem to setup. If you are going to fill it up with a lot of items. It does pay off to work real slow on your setup.
I haven't heard of any soft ware that lets you backup when on an High Point controller system. If some one knows of one. I hope they find this post. I use eather a burner or a zip or a second hard drive my self.
I'll be watching. BTW my girls rig is based on an Abit BE6-2 board.

[staging2000]

Thanx for the advice. I did manage to find the hopeful fix for the shutdown problem.

Right now my boot drive is still on IDE1 and my system is back at the office. I can't afford to be down for a day so I will rearrange things and give them a test this weekend. I'll let you know how things work out.

I like your idea about doing a clean install with only one drive and a CD and then adding hardware after Win ME is happy.