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Integration of Intel's SATA AHCI and RAID drivers


Fernando 1

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ive slipstreamed two files i downloaded from the mobo manufacturer, "INF driver ver:9.0.0.1007" (Intel® Chipset Device Software) and "SATA RAID Driver" (iaStor, iaAHCI).
Both drivers are old and replaced by better ones.

If you will ever do a fresh XP installation, you should slipstream the actual Intel ICH10R SATA AHCI driver (as textmode driver) and the Intel Chipset =INF Drivers (as PnP driver). You will find the download links of both drivers (already prepared for the integration) within my guide.

hey, ive just installed xp64 slipstreaming the "Intel ICH10R SATA AHCI driver" found on the first post of this thread and it works, even tho my chipset is the ICH10, without the R.

im posting this just in case some other asrock p45ts owner fails to install the ICH10 driver, and wonders what to try next.

thx and laters.

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Once I have finished installing XP in AHCI mode, should I install "Intel Matrix Storage Manager"? Or that's only for RAID users?
Yes, I do not recommend to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Software for AHCI users, because - contrary to RAID users - they cannot really use the Console, but may suffer permanently under a longer boot time.
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  • 2 weeks later...
Possible updated INF utility (no .zip file as yet):

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Des...16〈=eng

Yeah well, you can always extract INF files out of exe (they have some special command line parameter to do that) I think its in read me.

I've a different problem here. It seems, my ICH7 AHCI driver is not inside official or modded version :unsure: But it does exist in the older official release 5.x modded and official 8.x claims to support AHCI... Oddly, VirtualBox always crashed with 8.7 version.

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Possible updated INF utility (no .zip file as yet):

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Des...16〈=eng

Thanks for the info.

I will update the download link very soon.

EDIT: Done!

By the way: The version of the "Intel INF Update Utility" (=Intel Chipset Device Software) is much less important than the AHCI/RAID driver version of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager or Intel Rapid Storage Technology.

Reason: The INF "drivers" do not contain any real driver and only a few INF files of the new package have been really updated.

I've a different problem here. It seems, my ICH7 AHCI driver is not inside official or modded version :unsure: But it does exist in the older official release 5.x modded and official 8.x claims to support AHCI... Oddly, VirtualBox always crashed with 8.7 version.
Which is the DeviceID of your Intel ICH7 SATA AHCI Controller? The DeviceID named DEV_xxxx is part of the HardwareID's.

You can get the HardwareID's by doing a right click onto the device within the Device Manager > "Properties" > "Details" > "Property" > "HardwareID's.

Edited by Fernando 1
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  • 2 weeks later...

I integrated both the AHCI and chipset drivers and Windows installed without a hitch, but I'm confused.

When I look at the hard disk controllers in Device Manager, I see Intel® ICH9 Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 2923,

but I was expecting to see Intel® ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller (added by Fernando).

I checked the file version and date of the IaStore.sys file and it's the same as the one I downloaded from the link on the first page of this topic. Obviously the driver got integrated or I would have never got Windows installed, but why don't I see the controller identified with the "added by Fernando" tag?

To confuse matters more, I did a second install and purposely didn't integrate the driver and used the F6 floppy method instead. Windows again installed without a hitch, and when I look at the controller in Device manager I DO see the "added by Fernando" tag.

Any thoughts?

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@ E-66:

Since you didn't mention the OS you have installed (just "Windows" is not enough) and did not add a screenshot of your Device Manager, it is not easy to answer your questions.

Nevertheless here are some additional informations for you:

  1. The "Intel® ICH9 Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 2923" is just a system management device and not supported by any real Intel driver. Real drivers have the extension ".SYS". This device is named by the file IBEXAHCI.INF as part of Intel's chipset "drivers".
  2. Contrary to the previous mentioned device the "Intel® ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller (added by Fernando)" is the real Intel mass storage controller device and supported by Intel's textmode driver named IASTOR.SYS.

Please do a right click onto the "Intel® ICH9 Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 2923" and check the driver name and details, if you find any. After having done that, compare it with the "Driver" > "Details" informations of the "Intel® ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller (added by Fernando)".

Additional questions:

  • Which Windows version did you install?
  • After having installed the OS with integrated Intel AHCI driver and Intel chipset "drivers", have you seen a section named "SCSI and RAID Controllers" or "Storage Controllers" within the Device Manager? If yes, have you done a look into that section?

Regards

Fernando

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Sorry for being sparse on information. I'm installing WinXP Pro SP3 on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (ICH9 & Intel SATA ports). I've attached 6 screen shots (2 sets of 3) to show what I see in 2 different installs.

The 3 shots on the left are from an install where both the AHCI drivers and chipset inf "drivers" were integrated.

This is the install where the hard disk controller is identified as an Intel® ICH9 Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 2923. We can call this the "4-port" install.

The 3 shots on the right are from an install where I only integrated the chipset "drivers" and used the F6 method to load the AHCI drivers during the install,

and the hard disk controller is identified as an Intel® ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller (added by Fernando). We can call this the "Fernando" install.

I only see one difference. In the second pair of screen shots on the Driver tab, the 4 Port install shows driver version 7.0.0.1013 for the hard disk controller, while the Fernando install shows driver version 8.9.0.1023.

That's it. On the Driver Details tab, both point to the iaStor.sys file

Your thoughts are appreciated.

post-107588-1262740788_thumb.png post-107588-1262740794_thumb.png

post-107588-1262740826_thumb.png post-107588-1262740833_thumb.png

post-107588-1262740839_thumb.png post-107588-1262740846_thumb.png

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@ E-66:

Thanks for your additional informations and screenshots.

Now everything is clear for me and there is nothing to worry about for you.

Conclusion:

Both XP installation methods you have tried are working fine and everything is running as it should.

The only difference between both Intel SATA AHCI Controllers, which are shown within the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section of the Device Manager, is the name and nothing else. Both are doing absolutely the same and are using exactly the same driver (IASTOR.SYS dated 06/04/2009). You can verify this by looking into the driver details of both Controllers.

I will try to explain the details, which caused the irritations:

  1. During the first (=TEXTMODE) part of the XP installation Windows Setup detected and "installed" the only appropriate Controller named "Intel® ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller (added by Fernando)" with the HardwareID "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2923&CC_0106", listed within the TXTSETUP.OEM and IAAHCI.INF files of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver v8.9.0.1023. This happened in both cases (driver integration and F6 method).
  2. It was the text file named IBEXAHCI.INF (v7.0.0.1013 and dated 06/04/2009), which is part of the integrated Intel Chipset "driver" set, which renamed the Controller during the Hardware detection (=GUIMODE) part of the XP installation. Since the Intel chipset "drivers" were not present while installing Windows XP by using the F6/floppy method, no renaming of the Controller happened in this case.
    By the way: AFAIK the renaming of the Intel AHCI Controller doesn't happen, if you install the Intel chipset "drivers" after having completed the XP installation.
  3. The "Property" tab entries of the "Intel® ICH9 Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 2923" are absolutely misleading, because the used driver is not v7.0.0.1013, but v8.9.0.1023.
  4. At first view the identical driver dates are irritating, but I checked it: Both files, the real driver named IASTOR.SYS and the text file named IBEXAHCI.INF have been released at 06/04/2009.

I hope, that everything is clear for you too.

Have fun with your XP installation and your SATA hdd running with the actual official Intel AHCI driver.

Regards

Fernando

Edited by Fernando 1
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I'm glad everything is working properly in both installation, but I do have a few questions...

2. It was the text file named IBEXAHCI.INF (v7.0.0.1013 and dated 06/04/2009), which is part of the integrated Intel Chipset "driver" set, which renamed the Controller during the Hardware detection (=GUIMODE) part of the XP installation. Since the Intel chipset "drivers" were not present while installing Windows XP by using the F6/floppy method, no renaming of the Controller happened in this case.
With regard to what I quoted in italics above... I don't understand why you said that the "drivers" weren't present in the F6 method of install? I integrated the chipset .infs in both installs.
By the way: AFAIK the renaming of the Intel AHCI Controller doesn't happen, if you install the Intel chipset "drivers" after having completed the XP installation.
I can verify that this is true. I did a 3rd install where I didn't integrate any drivers. I used F6 for the ACHI drivers, and after the install was complete the HDD controller in device manager had the "Fernando" tag. I then ran the chipset update exe (infinst911autol.exe v9.1.1.1025) and it didn't affect the name of the controller.

My other question is about optical drives. In the instructions on page 1 of this thread it says to make sure the CD/DVD device you boot your nLited CD from isn't connected to a SATA port because optical drives generally have problems with the enabled AHCI or RAID mode.

My question is, what about after the OS install is complete? Can you connect an optical drive to a SATA port then? I wasn't quite clear on whether the optical/SATA was an issue only at initial OS installation or if it was an issue even after the OS was successfully installed.

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2. It was the text file named IBEXAHCI.INF (v7.0.0.1013 and dated 06/04/2009), which is part of the integrated Intel Chipset "driver" set, which renamed the Controller during the Hardware detection (=GUIMODE) part of the XP installation. Since the Intel chipset "drivers" were not present while installing Windows XP by using the F6/floppy method, no renaming of the Controller happened in this case.
With regard to what I quoted in italics above... I don't understand why you said that the "drivers" weren't present in the F6 method of install? I integrated the chipset .infs in both installs.
So you created 2 different XP CD's by using nLite, both of them with integrated Intel chipset "drivers", but only one of them with integrated Intel AHCI driver? If yes, I cannot explain, why Windows Setup named the Intel AHCI Controller in a different way. Maybe it has something to do with the order of the hardware detection and the system managing within the GUIMODE part of the installation.

In any case this doesn't have any impact on the function of the devices.

My other question is about optical drives. In the instructions on page 1 of this thread it says to make sure the CD/DVD device you boot your nLited CD from isn't connected to a SATA port because optical drives generally have problems with the enabled AHCI or RAID mode.

My question is, what about after the OS install is complete? Can you connect an optical drive to a SATA port then? I wasn't quite clear on whether the optical/SATA was an issue only at initial OS installation or if it was an issue even after the OS was successfully installed.

The best solution is always to connect the optical drives to a SATA port, which is not running in RAID or AHCI Mode. That is why many mainboards have SATA Controllers from different vendors with different chips. This gives you the opportunity to split the SATA drives (hdd/optical drives) up to different SATA Controller types.

If you don't have on-board SATA Controllers from another vendor, you have to use the Intel ones even with your optical drives. The question, if you will get any problems, depends on the vendor of the optical drive and on the product itself. Once upon a time I owned a SATA connected DVD burner manufactured by LG, which did not boot at all. I gave this device back to the dealer, got a DVD burner from Samsung and everything worked fine.

Generally the most critical situation with optical drives, which are connected to a SATA Controller set to "AHCI" or "RAID" Mode, is the OS installation procedure. So if you don't use the optical drive for this purpose, you probably can use it without any problems.

Regards

Fernando

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So you created 2 different XP CD's by using nLite, both of them with integrated Intel chipset "drivers", but only one of them with integrated Intel AHCI driver?

Yes, but I didn't create CD's, I created 2 different nLited installs on a partition on the HDD and then installed straight from the HDD. That's how I've always installed XP, it's much faster that way. Both installs started with a clean source, and the only difference between them was what you stated above - both integrated the chipset "drivers", but one also included the AHCI driver. But as you said, if it doesn't affect the function of the devices then it's not really a big deal.

Regarding the optical drive, I'm not using one during the install, and the one I do have is an IDE model (my motherboard has 4 Intel SATA & 1 IDE). I asked the question for future reference in case I would ever need to replace the one I have. If I do have to replace it at some point I don't know if IDE optical drives will still be available, so I wanted to know if a SATA model would even work.

Thanks for your help with everything.

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