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[Martinchris23]

Windows Me is possibly the worst Operating System ever released by Microsoft. Although the card states it's supported in Me, there could be a number of factors stopping it from booting. I guess if you were to install an Operating System from scratch with the card already in place (note - you should NEVER hot-plug PCI cards, even though earlier versions of Windows told you that you could!) it would probably be ok.

The only reason you need the card connected for Windows is to get the device and port IDs. Have you a spare HDD laying around that you can install a fresh OS just for this purpose? This would be the best way forward.

[Scan-C]

That's just wrong. Your mainboard may not support RAID but that's why you can buy extension cards. They will work even in the oldest computer. I have a HP Compaq Vario with 500 MHz P3 sitting right next to me. It's my fileserver which runs at 2xRAID1 SATA on a VIA 6421 and no one did know about RAID when this board was build

If Windows starts up but stops at some point there's most likely a problem how the ports are numbered. Check your BIOS for an option to set the internal IDE-Channels before any external onces.

[Martinchris23]

I have to agree with Scan-C here. Regardless of what your motherboard supports, a RAID PCI card should work fine as the controller chip for the function is on the board itself. One of my PCs didn't support LBA HDDs over 137GB so I just bought an IDE controller card which did.

Have you thought about doing a motherboard BIOS update? It's possible this is stopping it from booting too.

I would however try a clean install of Windows on a spare HDD first, as this is pretty much risk free.

[Cliffdawg]

btw, the new card should come this thurs. or fri. so I'll give this all a try then and thanks Martinchris23 and Scan-C for the useful info.  I never thought using my sata card would be the hardest part to flash my 360 MS38 drive LOL!      

[Martinchris23]

Cool - let us know how that goes. Personally I'd look into putting on Windows 98SE which was 100 times more stable than Me ever was .....

As for Compaq Technicians, I have a very valid reason NEVER to listen to them again. My Presario laptop developed a noisy GPU fan so I merely phoned to see if it was still in warranty to get it replaced and if not, how much it would cost to get a spare.

The so-called Technical Support department which sounded as broken-English (if you get what I mean!) as the initial call centre advised me that I needed to do a BIOS update - apparently on their planet, BIOS updates rejuvinate noisy fans, which have been working fine since purchase 15 months previous.

I eventually gave up and opened the thing myself. A small blob of electrical grease on the spindle resolved the problem and has been fine for over a year since.

[Cliffdawg]

LOL ya those compaq support guys aren't all they're cracked up to be.  When I was talking to them every 2 minutes it was like, "You have an old system. How about buying a new compaq computer, Cliff?" And I was all: "ya i'm using my compaq R4000 as we speak and its fine..." and they're like: "have you checked our new lineup?" and I'm like "you do realize that this is going nowhere, right? Oh but thanks for the help! "

[Martinchris23]

You shouldn't need to change the PCI slot at all - Windows saw it and installed drivers, enough so the device could be identified and port information logged. This is the information that was injected into MTKFlash.

Try all ports on your SATA card before doing anything else. If it's still a no-go  and you don't see 'XTREME Pri Master' or something to that effect, let me know.

[Cliffdawg]

Okay guys I can't get my drive recognized at all in DOS it sooo frustrating.  Is there any way I can get this working in your experience?  MS28 connected with VIA Sata non-raid card using bootable DOS cd and iPrep v006 (which I heard has problems recognizing the drive) and ixtreme 1.4

[Martinchris23]

QUOTE(Cliffdawg @ Jan 11 2008, 12:23 AM)

Gottcha ya i've been checking online there's apparantly many possible problems that are easy to fix, and right now All i can see is
                                   1. Xtreme Sec Master
                                   2. Xtreme Sec Slave

I've tried to disable the other IDE controllers, but I don't think thats a go with the DOS bootable cd
and ya i'll let you know if I can't find a solution.

btw, does it really matter if you turn on the 360 at any time, or should it be at the beginning along with turning on the pc?  Or do you have to plug the sata cable in at any time or can you just leave it in? (i think i can) but there have been different opinions? (these questions are sooo noobish they hurt to write lol)

These two options is exactly what you're looking for!! The clue is in the name 'Xtreme' as this is what MTKFlash was edited to say.

When these options come up, turn OFF your Xbox. Select option 1 and wait 10 seconds. Then turn the Xbox on. It should start reading the firmware. If it doesn't, repeat this for option 2.

A separate note (which I've typed elsewhere too) - don't get DOS and Windows confused. DOS is an Operating System in the same way that Windows is. DOS does not need drivers for your VIA card, nor does it even know that Windows has anything installed. Therefore messing around with Windows drivers to get this working is pointless!!!!

[Scan-C]

Got it working by now?

Everything Martinchris23 says is exactly right but I noticed that sometimes the drive hangs at D1 and never gets to 0x73. I've solved this several times by plugging the SATA-Cable to the drive when the computer was booted to DOS. Shouldn't matter because the drive has no power when you boot up but for some reason it works for me Hope you get it done!

[Cliffdawg]

oh my god, wait i'm soo sorry about that last post.  I was tired and wrote the wrong thing.  ACTUALLY it says:

1. IDE Sec Master
2. IDE Sec Slave

I'm really sorry for confusing you, but ya apparantly there's no "XTREME" anywhere.  My bad, but yah back to step numero uno.

DO you think I should reinstall ME as previously prescribed?  I didn't do it earlier because the new non-raid card apparantly worked when booting in Windows. But everything else is not showing up.  You prescribed reinstalling windows with the card already in it (probably put in in the 1 PCI port)?

Or maybe should I try like another version of iPrep (v006 I heard has some problems) or xtremebootmaker?

OOOR should I try using a floppy and not the NTFS disc (this would allow me to shut off the IDE devices (hard drive on pc) and the IDE Sec Master/Slave wouldn't show up.  Maybe that would hep, but I'm having trouble making a bootable floppy in iPrep (maybe my floopies aren't bootable?).  Weird! (note: booting from usb doesn't work on my pc!)

OOOOOOOOR should I try something else? what do you think? And thanks again for your help and sorry agian for the XTREME/IDE mistake gees I'm such an idiot  The journey is a long and arduous one my friends

[Martinchris23]

Do me a favour - go to Start/Run and type msinfo32 (although it may be called sysinfo in Me) .

In here, go to Components/Storage/SCSI and paste the full contents here.

[Martinchris23]

So when you run iPrep and it detects the device and ports of your card, does it match up with what you've posted here? I think that iPrep isn't getting the data correctly.

If you've got a copy of XP you could install onto another HDD, it would be an ideal solution. Not having used Windows Me in over 6 years, I can't say what information it's going to report to iPrep.

Have you tried Xtreme Bootmaker too - they do the same thing by the way!

[Cliffdawg]

Hey guys, alrighty then here's the deally yo  

1) Xtremebootmaker and it doesn't work with ME!!!

2) Ya it says RAID there because the instruction manual for the non-raid card told me to use the same install
package as the Raid card I previously had on the disc. (both cards came with same disc(CHEAP     ))

3)MartinChris said: "So when you run iPrep and it detects the device and ports of your card..." When I run iPrep  it only detects 2 things, "IDE Sec Master" and "IDE Sec Slave." Therefore, I believe that is not my pci card and rather the IDE devices.  However, I don't think I can remove them because the NTFS boot disc I'm using requires them (or at least the one with the iPrep folder) to run iPrep!  (maybe the Sata Cable doesn't work? see below for more info)

4) And to follow #3, my iPrep v006 does NOT make a bootable floppy but just reports an error.  Also I can't boot from a usb device because my Legacy computer doesn't support that, So i'm stuck with the cd, unless I can make a booting floppy from maybe another iPrep (Remember: xtremebootmaker does not on ME operating system           )

5) Important question: when using iPrep and I select my SCIS device (VIA VT 6421L PCI SATA Card Non-Raid) and check "patch mtkflash," an error is reported so I have to do it without checking the box to "patch iPrep".  However, the tutorials say that my PCI card requires "Hexedited mtkflash" to work.  Uhhh, does that mean I somehow got to get that patch to work. Do you think that could be my problem?
And to Scan-C: Hey I know you said that reinstalling windows would not do anything to help, but juuuuust maybe this would help the patching function to work on iPrep so that I could patch mtkflash, and juuuuust maybe that might do something.  What do you think?

Also to Scan-C: Hey thanks for the IRQ 11 tip I didn't know what that was and have been fooling around with IRQ 11, 3, and 5 settings like.... uh, a fool ,  but ya I'll try the bootable floppy method.  Btw, is method w/o iPrep, or if so, could I do it w/o iPrep? Just make the floppy bootable with windows and copy over dosflash ought to work (i think).  I say this because as previously mentioned, when I check the box to make floppy bootable, all I get is an error.  mmm... if I have to use iPrep maybe I'll try making a bootable usb on my lappy, and then copy over the files to a bootable floppy on my pc! (wow i'm desperate lolololllolooll )

To MartinChris: Thank you for the iPrep observation (I think its alittle srewy on ME myself) and the xtremebootmaker reference.  About xtremebootmaker (since it doesn't work on ME), do you think I could just make the local disc preparations folder for the NTFS disc on my lappy, then put it in the root of my pc and try that out?  It says hex-editing mtkflash is automatic in xtremebootmaker so that may work...  
And more importantly, thanks for the info about using another hard drive w/ xp to try this stuff on.  About the hdd, can it be any cheap, internal hdd (my pc has a second hdd slot), or maybe can I just use the same one that was for ME (since I'm probably gonna reinstall that one anyways!)?

Futhermore guys, do you think maybe my Sata Cable just isn't functioning? it so small and crappy, and I heard a little tinny snaps when bending it.  What see thee, merry gentlemen?  To make sure maybe I should purchase another cheap one? I already know the card works, but maybe the cable doesn't mmmm...
Also, I might just reinstall ME anyways to see if iPrep will do its thing then or probably xp (I have an xp reinstallation disc for my lappy, i'm sure I could just use that, and if not get another xp disc)

Thanks agains,  cheers to all, i get another message in soon thanks thanks for reading all this its like a novel!      

[Martinchris23]

I would install XP if you can on the first instance - you'll be surprised how little hardware you need to run this and will run better than Me.

Once you've got XP up and running, try it all again with either Xtreme Boot Maker or iPrep.