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Installing OEM Storage Drivers During Setup

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Installing OEM Storage Drivers During Setup
Last Updated: 19 Mar 2004
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*** PLEASE NOTE: Link(s), If Provided, May Be Wrapped ***


One of the most common errors that occurs during setup
of Windows NT/2000/XP boxes (and a frequent cause for a
STOP 0x7B error) is the lack of the proper driver for a
disk controller or other storage device.  This will occur
any time the storage controller that you have installed
requires drivers which are not on the OS installation CD.

(e.g. some SCSI, RAID or Serial ATA controllers)

To get around this, you need to press [F6] during the
initial part of setup.  Windows 2000/XP will actually
inform you when to do this (right at the bottom of the
screen), but in NT4, you needed to press it during the
2 second window that occurred as soon as they blue
"NT Setup" screen manifested itself.

For some unfathomable reason, if you wait until the OS
asks you for "Additional Storage Drivers", it will be
too late to add them.  Ironically, setup does not
immediately respond to your [F6] keypress, and will
actually continue to load a few drivers of its own
before asking you for the OEM drivers.

These OEM drivers will differ from drivers that you
provide to the OS after it is up and running, because
the critical file is TXTSETUP.OEM rather than the
usual OEMSETUP.INF

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NOTE:  If you have to provide multiple storage drivers
       during setup, be sure that the FIRST driver you
       provide is the one for the controller that will
       handle the disk that the OS is to be installed
       on.

       This means that if you have to add drivers for a
       CDROM and the RAID array that your installation
       will end up on, be sure to provide the RAID
       drivers FIRST, or you'll be starting the setup
       process all over again, as the OS will not find
       your intended system drives.
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DIRECTORY LISTING

The normal OEMSETUP.INF (or vendor supplied .INF) file,
which is used to install peripherals after the OS is
already up and running, can typically found in the
\OSVersion folder (e.g. \Win2000) rather than in the
root folder of the disk.

Here's an edited directory listing of the driver disk
provided by Tekram for one of their SCSI controllers:

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 Volume in drive A is DC-315U
 Volume Serial Number is 1C1C-18DA

 Directory of A:\

09/17/1999  05:12 PM    {DIR}          DOS
09/17/1999  05:12 PM    {DIR}          WIN2000
09/17/1999  05:12 PM    {DIR}          WIN95_98
09/17/1999  05:12 PM    {DIR}          WINNT
02/22/1999  09:30 AM                56 DCSCSI
09/17/1999  05:07 PM             2,825 README.TXT
06/23/1999  10:22 AM               694 TXTSETUP.OEM
               3 File(s)          3,575 bytes

 Directory of A:\WIN2000

09/17/1999  05:12 PM    {DIR}          .
09/17/1999  05:12 PM    {DIR}          ..
06/16/1999  05:26 PM            21,504 TRM3X5.SYS
06/23/1999  10:21 AM             2,685 TRM3X5.INF
               2 File(s)         24,189 bytes
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The root of the floppy contains the files necessary
for installation of drivers during the early portion
of the setup, whereas the \WIN2000 folder contains
the files necessary for driver installation after the
setup of the OS has been completed.


LARGE ATAPI DISK SUPPORT (>137GB)

• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=305098http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=303013


WHITEPAPERS & TECH DOCUMENTS

• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=216406http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=225125http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=220845http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=201863http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=122926http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsnt20002003faq/Article/ArticleID/13886/windowsnt20002003faq_13886.htmlhttp://www.jsiinc.com/sube/tip2100/rh2153.htm

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ADDITIONAL SEARCH OPTIONS (MS KB)

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/http://www.microsoft.com/technet/http://www.microsoft.com/

  ALL WORDS .............. "SCSI Drivers during setup"
  EXACT PHRASE ........... "F6"
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PERSONAL NOTES

• Always use the latest drivers for your storage
  devices.  Also ensure that the firmware of your
  controllers are up to par.

• If possible, keep CDROM, Tape Backups and other
  slower storage devices on secondary controllers.

• TXTSETUP.OEM must be in the root of the floppy.