Following DJB's recommendations for building a work stations,
http://cr.yp.to/hardware/advice.html, I'm having trouble getting the
Promise Raid function to work with Windows XP.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW+
Onboard Promise Controller: PDC 2076
HD: 2x WD Caviar WD20000BB 200GB drives

Here's what I've tried.
1. Fresh install of XP with 2 empty WD HD's
I set up the mirror array sucessfully, then hit f6 and S during
Windows XP setup.  It asks for a Manufacturer's Disk in drive a.  I
insert one of 2 provided diskettes (RAID driver disk, and ATA driver
disk) but XP just tries reading the disk then asking to insert again.

2. Install XP normally on regular IDE drive - this worked

3. Setup mirror array and copy disk image.
Tried to do this, but then realized I should have installed RAID
controller in step 2 when disks wouldn't boot.  Moved XP drive back
to regular IDE controller, installed RAID drive using the same
floppies that were rejected in step 1.  Moved XP drive back to RAID
controller, but of course now the array was out of sync by then and
wouldn't work.

4. Delete array, setup new one and copy disk image of XP drive.
Basically back to step 2.  It takes 4 hours to copy the image from
drive 1 to drive 2.  Is that too long?
When it's successful, then XP doesn't boot.  It flashes a few times,
and tries to run chkdsk and safe mode, but it keeps power cycling.
If I move the original XP drive back to onboard ide controller, it's fine.

Promise documentation says:
"IF OS no longer boots after creating a mirrored array using your
existing boot drive ....  this is due to Drive Geometry issues. 
[snip]  Promise recommends a clean install"

But if I try to clean install, I get the unrecognized A: drive
problem.  Note that the diskette worked fine when installing the
driver from within Windows XP.