When I wrote my last blog post on Black Velvet, the computer I recently built, I mentioned difficulties installing Windows XP. One month later, I am finally getting around to writing about it. The root of my problem would have been avoided had I installed Vista or a Windows 7 Release Candidate. However, I chose to install Windows XP on Black Velvet until Windows 7 was officially released, upon which I could get a free copy from the CS Department.
I bought three 500 GB HDDs to arrange into a RAID 5 array. In order for RAID to work properly with XP, you must install the drivers during installation of the OS. What I hadn’t considered until it came time for installation was that XP requires the RAID drivers to be installed from a floppy disk. Considering floppy disk drives are pretty much obsolete, I didn’t purchase one. But all was not lost. We have three old computers in my basement all have floppy drives… maybe I can cob a drive out of one of those. I decided to first try the floppy disk drive in a bare bones kit my mom bought for me after running 1200 minutes one summer. The computer had various issues and ended up being neglected. Unfortunately, two of the pins were bent. Hoping it could still be salvaged, I jammed the ribbon onto the pins, leaving the floppy drive straggling out the side of Black Velvet. Armed with a potentially working drive, I then needed to load the RAID drivers onto a floppy disk, which proved to be just as much of a struggle.
To do this, I need to use another old computer in the basement. I chose to use the Dell, which my dad and sisters still use occasionally. Dust bunnies were burrowing in the drive. After trying a whole plethora of floppy disks with various problems, I gave up and decided I would buy some from Wal-Mart. No such luck- floppy disks are so obsolete, even Wal-Mart doesn’t sell them! In desperation, I searched through our desk drawers some more, and finally found a potential candidate.
Next, I started installing XP from the .iso I burned from the CS Dept. Not much to my surprise, I ran into problems. The CD wouldn’t boot. I ended up using an old XP disc I found in our basement. When it came time to insert the floppy disk into the drive, it became apparent there was a problem with either the disk or the drive. First I decided to try another disk. I fired up our old Packard Bell running Windows 95 to attempt to properly format my floppy disk, but was unable to load the drivers because the CD drive was not working. So, I returned to the Dell, broke out the canned air, and finally got the RAID drivers on a floppy disk. Unfortunately, there were still problems with the floppy disk drive. I decided to try using nLite to slipstream drivers onto my XP CD, but the CD wouldn’t boot. I went back to the Dell and ripped the floppy disk drive out, which involved using a Shop Vac to get all the dust bunnies and spider nests out. Amazingly, both the floppy disk and CD drive worked! Now, for the next “gotcha”…
When I got to the point where I needed to enter the product key, UNI was in the middle of an e-mail upgrade, so I couldn’t get the product key out of an e-mail from CNS. When the upgrade was finished, I entered my product key, which didn’t work because the CD I burned and the CD I found in our basement were slightly different versions. Next I found an internet source for retrieving a key off the XP CD. I entered the key, which was invalid. That afternoon, I went back to Wright Hall to burn another .iso image, only to find out it wouldn’t boot either. I think there is something wrong with their .iso…
That night, I went back to the basement to search for another XP CD, and found one in the bare bones kit CD drive. Miraculously, the key worked. Victory at last! It’s amazing Black Velvet did not end up being defenestrated.