Vista Startup Problem on Intel RAID controller

[aghuvi]

I am facing startup issue with Windows Vista. The RAID controller fails to install and I think due to which the system is crashing. I am not able to find any possible way to deal with the issue. I tried to locate the right chipset drivers which would help to fix the startup problem but that does not worked. The RAID looks to be working, but somehow Vista is interrupting its proper functioning.

[SMichael]

I am too facing the same thing. I am also trying to install Vista on a RAID on ICH8R but that is not working. The setup simply fails on the loading bar and the IDE mode also does not looks to be working well. It is necessary that you must check the compatibility options first and then go for the configuration.

[rblevow]

I've experienced the issue with a 4-drive RAID-5 on the ICH8R. From what I can tell, the Vista installation environment does a low-level write to the disks in a control block during its start-up that corrupts the RAID array. When it happens on my system, two drives get corrupted. The first drive needs to be rebuild but the second just needs to be reset. Given the behavior, it's not surprising that users have no problem with RAID-0; in that configuration the two disks don't match but each is okay. With higher levels, the disk is actually corrupted and fails. I have been able to get Vista working on the RAID array by installing on a single, non-RAID drive and then cloning it with Norton Ghost 12 to the array. However, I end up with drive letter problems because the drive letters in use point to the original partition. I think I know how to resolve that issue but haven't gotten around to it. Both Microsoft and Intel seem disinterested in the issue which is either with the driver or installation environment.