MSI P965 Platinum, system won't boot only when ICH8R is in RAID

Question

So I couldn't get my system to boot properly when I have the ICH8R in RAID 1 mode. 
I have the boot drive on a single, non-raid Wester Digital 250gb Cavair HD on the ICH8R.
Installed XP Pro SP2 with the ICH8R in IDE mode.  I installed in IDE mode beceause I was unable to install XP on my single drive when ICH8R was in RAID mode.  I installed XP in IDE mode, did all driver updates, then put the ICH8R into RAID 1 mode for my other data drives and the system will post, start to boot and get to the Windows XP boot screen then the system just restarts before the boot completes.  It does it in normal boot mode and safe mode as well.
With the ICH8R in IDE mode everything boots/runs fine.
The problem is, I need the 6 SATA RAID controllers on the ICH8R as I have 3 RAID1 arrays.
I've done all the updates to windows, motherboard bios, Highpoint RocketRaid bios update, tried every mode on the ICH8R, unplugged the Highpoint Rocket Raid, left it plugged in with no drives plugged in, disabled the Jmicron controller, everything I can think of.
Any help would be appreciated.
I did not do the windows floppy driver install for the ICH8R when I installed XP, but I have not had to do that in the past with the ICH7 on my old motherboard so I assumed I wouldn't here as I've been told it's just if you are installing windows on a RAID.
System:
MSI P965  Platinum
Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 CPU
(4) 1gb OCZ Gamer Extreme DDR2 PC6400 RAM
Windows XP SP2
High Point Rocket RAID 2300 PCI Express x1 RAID card
Asus nVIDIA GS7300 PCI Express Video card
Drives on ICH8R Controller:
Boot Drive: WD Cavair 250gb SATA2
DVD: Some sony 16x DVD - SATA
RAID1: (2) Seagate Barracuda 320gb SATA2 HD's (setup on previous motherboard on Intel ICH7 Controller)
(2) Seagate Barracuda 500gb SATA2 HD's
High Point Rocket RAID 2300 Controller:
(2) Seagate Barracuda 500gb SATA2 HD's
 

Answer 1

The problem that you are having has nothing to do with your mainboard. 
Once you decide to install Windows XP SP2 when the ICH8R controller is in IDE mode, Windows will give you a bluescreen once you switch to RAID mode after the installation is done because it is to stupid to change to the proper driver.  Consider this as normal behaviour. 
You have basically three possibilities:
1. Reinstall XP with integrated SP2 and integrate the Intel ICH8R RAID drivers using a floppy disk
The latest drivers can be found here.
As I understand, you have already tried that.  I if you don't feel like trying this again, have a look at this:
2. Slipstream Intel ICH8R SATA RAID drivers using NLITE or XP ISO BUILDER and try to install again with a self-made install CD that already includes the proper drivers (no floppy needed)
Use google to find one of the tools I mentioned.  The procedure is free, perfectly legal and easy to do.  Guides for this can be found all over the internet
3. Switching to RAID mode without having to re-install Windows XP
If you are still using your existing installation, that was done when the controller was in IDE mode, the follwing trick may work for you.
I posted a little guide on how to switch from IDE to AHCI mode without having to re-install XP.  Have a look at the guide.  The procedure is essentially the same for RAID.  The only difference is the content of the REG-File that you have to make.
Guide: HOW TO switch from IDE to AHCI mode without having to reinstall Win XP (GUIDE)
Use the following content for the REG file instead of the one I put up in the above thread:
Quote
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2822&cc_0104]
"Service"="iaStor"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Group"="SCSI miniport"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\iaStor.sys"
"tag"=dword:00000019
"DisplayName"="Intel RAID Controller"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters]
"queuePriorityEnable"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters\oromVersion]
"MajorVersion"=dword:00000006
"MinorVersion"=dword:00000000
"HotfixNumber"=dword:00000000
"BuildNumber"=dword:000003fe
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum]
"0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&SUBSYS_B0001458&REV_02\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA"
"Count"=dword:00000001
"NextInstance"=dword:00000001
The procedure works perfectly well in most cases (but not always).
I hope one of these three "methods" will work for you.