Stephane

It's now time for conclusion. After burning 15 cds and dvds, here is what I found: 1.- Post #1 oem method works great. 2.- You may actually copy only 3 files in OEMDIR (pataraid/nvatabus.inf, sataraid/nvatabus.sys and sataraid/idecoi.dll) and set [OemInfFiles]->OemInfName to "nvatabus.inf", it works too. 3.- Don't even think about changing the [unattended]->UnattendMode setting to anything else than FullUnattended, the installation will BSOD in the textmode part of the installation. 4.- During the nLite drivers integration process, you must choose IDE\WinXP\sataraid\nvraid.inf and then select both textmode entries displayed by nLite. You may also pick up the other nForce4 drivers: Network support: pick up Ethernet\nvenetfd.inf Audio support: pick up AudioDrv\nvmcp.inf SMBus support: pick up SMBus\nvsmbus.inf You do not need to add any other file in the OEMDIR for Network, Audio or SMBus support. 5.- It's perfectly safe, once the Windows XP installation is complete, to reinstall the 6.66 drivers from the original NVIDIA package (system reboot required at the end). It will install the audio systray apps that is not included in the drivers for example. 6.- As a reference, here is the I386\WINNT.SIF file I used: ---------- file begins on next line ; Generated by nLite 1.0 beta 6 [Data] Autopartition = 0 MsDosInitiated = 0 UnattendedInstall = Yes OemDrivers = OemInfFiles [unattended] UnattendMode = FullUnattended UnattendSwitch = No OemPreinstall = Yes OemSkipEula = Yes FileSystem = * WaitForReboot = No NoWaitAfterTextMode = 1 NoWaitAfterGUIMode = 1 TargetPath = WINDOWS DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore NonDriverSigningPolicy = Ignore [OemInfFiles] OemDriverFlags = 1 OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\OemDir" OemInfName = "nvraid.inf","nvatabus.inf" [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword = * ;OEMSkipRegional = 1 OemSkipWelcome = 1 [Components] msmsgs = Off Msnexplr = Off Zonegames = Off [userData] ComputerName = * FullName = * [Networking] ;InstallDefaultComponents = Yes ---------- file ends on previous line You may comment the AdminPassword, ComputerName and FullName lines BUT this will display an ugly non-fatal error during the graphical part of the setup that basically tells you: "Error, OEM settings missing, please enter a value now". It works but doesn't look too professional The [Components] section is parsed for a FullUnattended setup, so I decided to remove Windows Messenger (msmsgs), MSN Explorer (Msnexplr) and MSN Gaming Zone (Zonegames). 7.- Using a DVD to add more stuff on it (like applications) is fine. During my tests, however, I didn't create the iso with nLite. I've integrated the drivers and generated the full unattended setup with nLite, then I've added some apps and finally I used Nero to burn a bootable DVD, using a boot image (*.IMA) that I found on the net (but you might also extract it from your Windows XP setup cd). 8.- I'm not too sure about what to do with the raidtool directory. Even reinstalling the 6.66 drivers doesn't seem to help much. A shortcut to the nvraid manager (raidtool\NvRaidMan.exe) still has to be created manually. That's all I can think of. Cheers, - Stéphane

Fernando, Here are the results of my latest tests. I've burnt 2 CDs, 1 using the method described in my previous post (copying only 3 files to OEMDIR and having only nvatabus.inf in WINNT.SIF) and 1 using the oem method of post #1 (full sataraid + nvatabus.inf from pataraid in OEMDIR and nvatabus.inf + nvraid.inf in WINNT.SIF). Well... Both installations actually succeeded . It seems that my BSODs were only the consequence of the unattended mode changed from FullUnattended to either DefaultHide or ProvideDefault. My bad Now there was in fact one difference during the installation. With oem method from post #1, I got a window from the new hardware wizard just before the locale settings (graphical mode already). It said that a new device was found (disk drive), and that it would be ready to use after the next reboot. And the installation continued normally. I didn't get this message at all using the "light" OEMDIR method. What's different? No idea... Now concerning your last questions: 1.- I've never used the Driver Removal method, because I read several posts in other forums saying that you might have problems the next time you try update the nForce drivers. 2.- Why only 1 disk? I've also used 2 stripped disks, but I begun my tests with only 1, which is actually enough to get a fully functionnal stripped raid array. That was really just for initial testing. Cheers, - Stéphane

Hi Fernando, Well, not exactly. I selected only the nvraid.inf in the directory browsing window in nLite, but I actually selected both textmode drivers in the textmode selection box. I've edited my previous post to make it perfectly clear. That being said, I'm now burning my 14th dvd (it now includes all splipstreamed drivers + additionnal apps for quicker/easier setup) and I've identified a mistake I made during some of my early slipstreaming tests: I've sometimes tried to use the DefaultHide or ProvideDefault unattented mode in WINNT.SIF, which leads to the same exact BSOD failure right before the partionning textmode part. I now want to be 100% sure that the multiple BSOD I experienced were also due to the OEMDIR containing the nvraid.inf (and related) files, and not only to the wrong unattended mode. More news on this in a couple of hours Cheers, - Stéphane

dale5605 - You are pefectly right. In fact, I didn't realize that I was using my previously-slipstreamed-sp1 cd when I started to integrate the sp2 and the sata drivers. Anyway, it seems to work just fine. Cheers, - Stéphane

Hi all, I was finally able to create a working boot cd including sata raid drivers based on the following config: - Official NVIDIA nForce4 6.66 drivers - nLite 1.0 beta 6 - XP Pro cd with SP2 and latest hotfixes already slipstreamed - Motherboard MSI K8N Neo4-F with bios 1.6 - Raid 4.84 - 1 single Hitashi Deskstar 7K250 160Gb SATA disk on Channel 3 SATA - Raid enabled for Channel 3 in Spanning mode (JBOD) I started by applying the exact steps of post #1 by Fernando 1 using the OEM method. My installation always crashed right after loading the drivers, even before partionning the disk. I found post #133 by mjswooosh to be very helpful. Here are the exact steps that I used to build a working cd: 1.- Started from original XP Pro cd 2.- Slipstreamed (integrate) SP1 3.- Slipstreamed (integrate) SP2 + latest hotfixes 4.- Downloaded 6.66 nForce4 drivers from NVIDIA: here 5.- Renamed .exe to .zip and extracted all files using 7-zip (like WinZip) 6.- Started nLite, selecting "Integrate Drivers" + "Unattended Setup" (nothing else) [EDIT] 7.- When nLite asked me to choose the driver to integrate, I browsed my unzipped 6.66 driver directory structure and selected the IDE\WinXP\sataraid\nvraid.inf file. Then in the textmode driver select box, I picked up both drivers listed. [/EDIT] 8.- Finished nLite integration (without creating iso at this point, no parameter changed) 9.- In bootable cd root, created the $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directories 10.- Copied "nvatabus.sys" and "idecoi.dll" from original IDE\WinXP\sataraid\ directory into $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directory 11.- Copied "nvatabus.inf" from original IDE\WinXP\pataraid\ into $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directory (I didn't modify the file) 12.- In I386/WINNT.SIF, changed OemInfName = "nvraid.inf" to OemInfName = "nvatabus.inf" (yes, no nvraid.inf here) 13.- In I386/WINNT.SIF, changed OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\nldrv" to OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\OemDir" 14.- Restarted nLite, selected only "Create a Bootable ISO" 15.- ISO created by nLite 16.- Burnt ISO with Nero 17.- Installed XP successfully 18.- NVIDIA nForce™ RAID Class Controller visible in Device Manager 19.- Disks Manager now reports a 153Gb JBOD (raid spanning) device This was my 8th cd, after 7 failed attempts... Thanks a lot to Fernando 1 and mjswooosh for their detailed posts. Next step (9th!) will be a bootable dvd, not-so-fully-unattended-setup and slipstreamed with all the remaining drivers (SMBus, Ethernet, Audio, ...). I'll post the details if it works. Cheers, - Stéphane