I've had to flash my BIOS with an update. I kept getting a postcode 2A and it would hang on boot. Finally got that going. A buddy of mine really helped out. He also assisted with locating where to enable SATA RAID 5, after figuring out how to disable IDE RAID (why it's enabled I have no idea...). So I'm through most of the hurdles before I can start installing Windows XP Pro 64 Bit.
BIOS is now version 15, from Abit's site.
Current problem is during the initial loading of software components for a Windows install, I have to hit F6 to tell it I have a driver for RAID. It goes through it's process of loading drivers for basic stuff, then says it can't find a driver for RAID. It prompts me to put a floppy in Drive A: and press Enter. The driver floppy, which was created using the CD that came with the mobo, seems to have an error. Some item in the configuration on the floppy is making something on the CD crap out. Windows install hangs up at that point, and if I hit continue, it says it cannot find any hard drives to install to.
Loved the "Setup RAID Floppy" program: it says "make driver. put floopy disk."
My current configuration:
Abit AW9D-Max LGA 775
C2D e6600 Conroe 2.5GHz
4 GB (2x2GB) G.Skill PC2 6400
(3) Maxtor DiamondMax 500GB SATA in RAID5 (on SATA1, 2 and 3)
GeForce 8800GTS (soon to be 2 in SLI)
Thermaltake Toughpower W0117RU 750W PSU
If anybody's been through this before, any assist would be much appreciated.
I was sitting here earlier today, playing WoW on my 17" P4 laptop sitting next to my blank 30" Dell flat screen. It's a little depressing. $2,000 worth of hardware and a $1,500 monitor and I'm still using the junker.
Bad RAID driver on Abit AW9D-Max 
Linear Mode
