RC2005

Fresh Installations from Plextor’s 712SA and 716SA SATAs Several weeks ago I ordered and received a Plextor 712-SA SATA DVD. I love it. It works really well with my installed XP PRO (SP2) systems. One of those systems had a small glitch with Word™ and my HP scanner. It began to look more and more like a software corruption problem so I went to do an installation of XP with my Asus P4P800-E Deluxe. The installation proceeded smoothly through the text portion of the installation, However, almost immediately as soon as the GUI system loaded I received a corrupt HAL message. I have seen an unbelievable number of those in the last several weeks and have discovered this world, the world of sleepless nights, Autopatching slip, streaming, DVD ROM burning and unattended installations, hardware IDs and device codes. So I have the fix for Plextor’s 712SA and 716SA SATA fresh installations working in conjunction with an ICH5-R. ALL of my floppies are awful. Any time I need one I end up going through a pile and discarding a large number before I find a usable one. I’d not find an F6 solution truly acceptable. So here is the fix. It’s very straight forward from what you pioneers have done. Source disk Structure: (People here are not really overly explicit on this at times and there has been ambiguity at times. Disk: H:\ Root Directory: H:\XPCD\ [Contains all contents of the target CVD to be, not just i386] Directory Structure: H:\XPCD\ I386….. $OEM$\$1\Drivers\001\IaStor Obtain the driver and its INF Kit and catalogue file, and Drivers: IaStor. Sys, IaStore.inf, IaStor.cat These files are available from the CDROM supplied by Asus in <Disk Drive>:\Drivers\Chipset\IAA from and executable called MakeDiske.exe. This will make a floppy. Or the files are available from Intel (described here:) http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/...b/CS-009325.htmhere and can be found in the following kit: here This kit has a file called f6flpy.exe that includes support for: - Core PCI and ISAPNP Services - IDE/ATA33/ATA66/ATA100 Storage Support - SATA Storage Support So we have the ingredients. Here’s the recipe. 1.) Add one slipstreamed SP2 XP Pro (or equivalent to distribution) to : <Disk Drive>:\xpcd\i386 . For convenience I create a scratch directory called H:\Work 2.) Extract to IaStor. Sys, IaStore.inf, IaStor.cat to $OEM$\$1\Drivers\001\IaStor\ 3.) Start | Run | <enter> Cmd | OK c:\>H: H:\> copy A:\IaStor.Sys f:\work\*.* H:\>cd work H:\cd work> H:\Work> Makecab IaStor.sys h:\xpcd\i386\IaStor.sy_ (I was surprised to see that files compressed with Compress.exe were seen to be corrupt by the installation process) 4.) Winnt.sif (H:\xpcd\i386\ Winnt.sif) [Data] AutoPartition=0 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" [Unattended] UnattendMode=ProvideDefault OemPreinstall=Yes OemSkipEula=Yes NoWaitAfterTextMode=1 NoWaitAfterGUIMode=1 TargetPath=\WINDOWS DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore OemPnPDriversPath=\Drivers\001\IaStor [GuiUnattended] OEMSkipWelcome = 1 [UserData] ProductKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx FullName=":)" OrgName="" 5.) Changes to TXTSETUP.SIF (H:\xpcd\i386\ TXTSETUP.SIF Version = 8/4/2004 - 1:44 AM (SP2)) 5a.) At approximately line 189 add: 239 = system32\wbem\Logs 240 = ehome [SourceDisksFiles] iaStor.sys = 100,,,,,,3_,4,1,,,1,4; <<<<<<<<< bootvid.dll = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2 kdcom.dll = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2 c_1252.nls = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2 c_437.nls = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2 5b.) At approximately line: 18809 and the bolded lines: GenFloppyDisk = "flpydisk" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1230 = "intelide" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7010 = "intelide" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7111 = "intelide" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2411 = "intelide" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2421 = "intelide" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7199 = "intelide" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_244A = "intelide" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_244B = "intelide" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_248A = "intelide" PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24d1 = "intelide"; <<<<<<<<< PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_25a2 = "intelide"; <<<<<<<<< PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_25a3 = "intelide"; <<<<<<<<< PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24DF = "Iastor"; <<<<<<<<< PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7601 = "intelide" PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_0571 = "viaide" PCI\VEN_1179&DEV_0105 = "toside" PCI\VEN_1095&DEV_0648 = "cmdide" PCI\VEN_1095&DEV_0649 = "cmdide" Of these additions, I believe that the only necessary one was: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24DF = "Iastor" 5c.) At approximately line 19235 insert the lin shown below atapi = "ISA" atapi = "IDE" ql1080 = "QL1080" ql1280 = "QL1280" i2omp = "I2OMP" [SCSI.Load] IaStor = IaStor.sys,4; <<<<<<<<< cpqarray = cpqarray.sys,4 atapi = atapi.sys,4 aha154x = aha154x.sys,4 sparrow = sparrow.sys,4 5d.) At approximately line 21580: [SCSI] IaStor = "Intel(R) 82801ER SATA RAID Controller"; <<<<<<<<< sparrow = "Adaptec AHA-151X/AHA-152X/AIC-6X60 SCSI Adapter" aha154x = "Adaptec AHA-154X/AHA-164X SCSI Host Adapter" aic78xx = "Adaptec AHA-294X/AHA-394X/AIC-78XX SCSI Controller" aic78u2 = "Adaptec AHA-294XU2/AIC-7890 SCSI Controller" This line must be copied exactly. Accept no imitations. 6.) Unantipated changes on Installation behavior There are documented references on the net to a couple of INF file copy failures due to file names and possibly different code paths excuted by unattended installation. At any rate, these files will not process correctly. Both Textsetup and the GUIsetup will allow you to skip them, skipping them is not a fatal error. But, it’s messy. I looked at the files in question and know I’ll never need them so I renamed them simply to make them compatible with the installation. These files seem to be legacy files for legacy device and all have hyphens in their file names. The files are located in XPCD\I386\ They are CYCLAD-Y.INF, CYCLAD-Z.INF, CYCLOM-Y.SYS and CYCLAD-Z.SYS In XPCD\I386\, I renamed them to CYCLADY.INF, CYCLADZ.INF, CYCLOMY.SYS, CYCLADZ.SYS and made the following changes to TXTSETUP.SIF: At approximately line 2220, I made the following changes to TXTSETUP.SIF: cyclad-z.inf = 1,,,,,,,20,0,0 cyclad-z.sys = 1,,,,,,,4,1,3 cyclom-y.inf = 1,,,,,,,20,0,0 cyclom-y.sys = 1,,,,,,,4,1,3 cycladz.inf = 1,,,,,,,20,0,0 cycladz.sys = 1,,,,,,,4,1,3 cyclomy.inf = 1,,,,,,,20,0,0 cyclomy.sys = 1,,,,,,,4,1,3 Then there were three others in H:\XPCD\i386 which were: SV-262E1.PNG, SV-262E3.PNG and SV-262E3.PNG Which were renamed to: SV262E1.PNG, SV262E3.PNG and SV262E3.PNG At approximately line 9130, I made the following changes to TXTSETUP.SIF: Sv-262e1.png = 1,,,,,,,,3,3 Sv-262e3.png = 1,,,,,,,,3,3 Sv-262e4.png = 1,,,,,,,,3,3 was changed to: Sv262e1.png = 1,,,,,,,,3,3 Sv262e3.png = 1,,,,,,,,3,3 Sv262e4.png = 1,,,,,,,,3,3 These are DirectX files. If I ever have troubles with a direct-X image in the future I’ll look here, but I’m not holding my breath. 7.) Save your new TXTSETUP.INF in H:\XPCD\i386 8.) Make a bootable CD 9.) Boot your new system and enjoy the new install. I didn’t make it to be totally unattended. My Plextor 716SA is also doing wonderfully. Enjoy.

I can get a slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 system, to boot and go through a full build oaded from the Plextor 712-SA. (at times) with the Promise F6 Floppy., l This is what the inf looks like: [Version] CatalogFile=viaraid.cat signature="$CHICAGO$" Class=SCSIAdapter ClassGUID={4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Provider=%VIA% DriverVer=10/17/2003,5.1.2600.210 [DestinationDirs] DefaultDestDir = 12 ; DIRID_DRIVERS CopyRAID.NT = 12; [ControlFlags] [Manufacturer] %VIA%=VIA [VIA] %PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3164.DeviceDesc% = VIARAID , PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3164 [VIARAID.NT] CopyFiles=CopyRAID.NT Reboot [VIARAID.NT.Services] AddService = viaraid, 2, VIARAID_Service_Inst, Miniport_EventLog_Inst [VIARAID_Service_Inst] ServiceType = 1 ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER StartType = 0 ; SERVICE_BOOT_START ErrorControl = 1 ; SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL ServiceBinary = %12%\viaraid.sys LoadOrderGroup = SCSI Miniport AddReg = pnp_pci_addreg [pnp_pci_addreg] HKR, "Parameters\PnpInterface", "5", 0x00010001, 0x00000001 [Miniport_EventLog_Inst] AddReg = Miniport_EventLog_AddReg [Miniport_EventLog_AddReg] HKR,,EventMessageFile,%REG_EXPAND_SZ%,%11%%IOLOGMSGDLL% HKR,,TypesSupported,%REG_DWORD%,7 [CopyRAID.NT] viaraid.sys [sourceDisksFiles] viaraid.inf = 1 viaraid.sys = 1 [sourceDisksNames] 1 = %DISKNAME1%,,,, 2 = %DISKNAME2%,,,, [strings] VIA="VIA Technologies, Inc." PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3164.DeviceDesc="VIA VT6410 IDE RAID Controller" REG_EXPAND_SZ=0x00020000 REG_DWORD=0x00010001 IOLOGMSGDLL="\IoLogMsg.dll" DISKNAME1="VIA IDE RAID Driver Diskette" DISKNAME2="Windows system" This is pro-forma. It loads a driver for the promise (the non-preferred controller on my board) and creates a scsi miniport. If anyone is interested... I'll supply registry and setupact.log information tomorrow.

Hi, I’m an experienced programmer with about thirty years experience. I run an Asus P4P800-E Deluxe with the ich5 and a Promise SATA Raid controller on it. I just replaced an Asus PT4-E with this board which went smoothly. Recently, I’ve purchased a Plextor 712SA and have a 716SA on the way. I run two XP pro systems. One is the system I use and the other is for emergencies. There is a glitch in the main system with Word and I was playing around with running tests on the emergency system. I went to do an install (It’s no news to you’all) much to my amazement there’s not SATA support in an Autostreamed SP2 distribution. How many times have you’all seen the “Hal is corrupted message” at the beginning of the GUI setup? In the last two weeks I’ve had the rudest introduction into to Machine.inf, Winnt.sif, pre-installations and slipstreaming plus the internals of XP plug and play. I’m really fortunate that I have two systems because I’d be dead in the water if I didn’t. The Plextors are software installed through CD Creator Lite, intended for running systems, not fresh installs. There are massive CDCreator CAB files which I’ve examined, looking for drivers and CAB files and there don’t appear to be any (other than cdrp_4K.sys and storeport.sys) nor are there any apparent INF files. To a large extent, I think the 712SA would already be supported under the GENcdrom device id. Whatever is needed is installed by EzyCreator. That doesn’t mean that there is XP support for all of the underlying hardware on my board, such as either the Promise or the ichr5, both of which I believe will support the 712SA depending upon how the bios and software are configured. It’s also interesting that XP Pro installation goes smoothly through the textsetup phase and falls apart at the very beginning (that means very beginning) of the GUI setup. I’m full of questions and also inundated by information overload. I know there are device codes that my system doesn’t know what to do with such as pci\ven_8086&DEV_24D1. I believe there are an awful lot of codes that my system doesn’t know what to do with which makes two of us. (I have a mild understanding of INF files.) There is no F6 installation floppy for this. Plextor pretends not to know anything about this. I have a feeling that they will soon, with certain combinations of boards. I’ve seen the labors here of people who have only one driver to install. I wish. They good news is that at least I have a Plextor up and running on this system and have the registry to look at. The only trouble is that I can’t see all the things I need to see at once. There are so many layers and the hardware is so abstracted that it’s even difficult to tell whether my system is using the ich5-r or the Promise controller when it runs. I have a goal. I am seeking help. What I’d like at the end would be to have an intact installation disk without F6 for the Plextors. I hope I’ve come to the right place. I’m sure you’ve all seen a lot of this. I’m happy that I’ve researched and researched and have experimented. I’m set up to burn roms and I have target disks for experimentation. I do have some questions. I take it that Machine.inf is the “brains” of pnp. It is a database of codes and acts as a callable class or end action routine which does a variety of functions when it sees new codes or a new device. The other INF files act as objects called by Machine.inf. These INFs establish ports, set up bus paths by installing drivers and if need be, modify the registry dynamically when a new pnp device is seen. One difficulty I’m having is that there is very little in the registry of the target system prior to the crash. I have little information other then device codes remain unhandled, I suspect as the hal enumerates the device database. Could we make it a learning experience to get these plextors installable? I’d be really appreciatiative. Renee