How To Install Windows Vista Ultimate With RAID

Intallation Continued

Next, you have to agree to the Microsoft Software License Terms before you can continue. My lawyers said it would take a few months to read them over, so I went ahead and accepted them.

No option of an upgrade as no previous installation was detected, so you must install a clean copy of Windows.

After starting our ‘advanced’ custom install, we were asked where we want to install Windows to. Windows correctly detected the RAID 0 array, but before you hit next make sure you install the latest RAID drivers by clicking the ‘Load Driver’ button on the lower left hand side of this window. For those that have installed a RAID Array on Windows XP, this step will be familiar as this is where you would have to hit ‘F6’ and install the RAID drivers from a floppy disc. My personal system doesn’t have a floppy drive as I use flash drives for all my file transfers and the great folks over at Microsoft allow the drivers to be loaded from floppy, cd-rom or usb key!

Since I am using an Intel D975XBX motherboard, I went to the downloadfinder.intel.com to make sure I got the latest Floppy Configuration Utility and it’s a good thing I did as version 6.2.1.1002 came out on 1/4/2007, which is a version that was much newer than the floppy that came with my board. The downside of this is that the utility will only install to a floppy, so I had to use another computer to make the floppy. Once the ‘F6 floppy’ was made, I then had to transfer the data from the floppy to the USB key so I could load it onto my computer that doesn’t have a floppy drive. This is a complete pain in the ass and I seriously hope that Intel updates their utility to not require the use of a floppy! Once the USB key is detected all you have to do is load the driver and the installation will continue.