Intel HDC driver for ICH8

[j7n]

I plan to install a new OS on a 965G PC with ICH8 (without R). Its device IDs are 2025 in compatible mode and 2024 in AHCI mode. I downloaded and integrated driver 10.1.0.1008, but could not detect any harddisks in Windows Setup. This driver doesn't have my IDs and only supports ICH8R/DH/DO/M-E/M. I also downloaded a series of other versions, and none had my ID.

The stickified and closed thread claims that an official, good driver exists for XP. But the link for that driver is no longer valid on Intel's site. Does a signed driver exist for this part? (I also want to install an NT6 64-bit with the awful driver signing.) If I understand the instructions right, the modification involves adding an entry without any device ID, but with CC_0106 ?

Is there a reason why the Intel driver shouldn't be used, or the ACHI mode shouldn't be used?

[ED_Sln]

I've only seen the ICH8 AHCI driver in Fernando's tweaked drivers. Is there nothing on the motherboard manufacturer's website either? Usually there is an AHCI driver there.

[RainyShadow]

I think you need the Intel Matrix storage (or Rapid storage, or whatever the name is currently) drivers.

The motherboard/system manufacturer support site should have a copy of those.

[j7n]

I looked into a few versions of Rapid/Matrix and they don't have this device ID number. And neither does Fernando 11.2.0.1006. His set includes a lot of spam of his name in place of models. I can see attached discs in Hiren's Boot CD Mini-XP, which means that one of the included drivers is probably working. The support site for GA-965G-DS3 only offers a JMicron driver for supplementary ports where I don't want to connect the system disk to. At the time of making this motherboard there wasn't a working driver.

I hope that I might be able to connect a disk with over 2 TB capacity if I have a 3rd party driver. I'll burn a disc and try an unsigned driver, and maybe forget about NT6.1.

[RainyShadow]

There are a few IASTOR?.sys drivers in HBCD, loaded through txtsetup.sif

Check which one gets running on your system, find the driver version from the .SYS file properties, then look up the full package for that version.

 

As for NT6/6.1 (what are you installing, Vista or Win7?), the generic AHCI driver should work fine. I think it was also backported to XP, may be mistaken though. Try searching at the win-raid forums.

 

Or you may skip all that driver hunting and try the Easy2Boot solution.

[j7n]

Thank you for the hints. I see that Hiren's has associated an old 6.1.0.1002 with ICH8. E2B has several drivers with correct chipset names, but they are not signed.

Fernando's driver actually does contain DEV_2824 and probably can be used. I was confused and did not see it. My modified driver was finally able to detect discs.

Win-Raid talks about their own certificate. Do I need to integrate it for Windows 64-bit to accept the driver? I will probably install 2008 R2 after an SSD arrives and XP is working well. I don't know much about new Windows.

I wonder if the following method could work to skip the driver integration and messing with text files. Install Windows on Intel in legacy mode, install JMicron AHCI via Device Manager, plug disk into JMicron, install Intel AHCI, plug into Intel. I previously did this with VIA VT6410 before nLite existed.

[RainyShadow]

On 6/12/2021 at 11:09 PM, j7n said:

Its device IDs are 2025 in compatible mode and 2024 in AHCI mode.

 

9 hours ago, j7n said:

Fernando's driver actually does contain DEV_2824

And there i go looking for 2024, heh...

 

About driver signing, maybe this could be useful.

 

9 hours ago, j7n said:

Install Windows on Intel in legacy mode, install JMicron AHCI via Device Manager, plug disk into JMicron, install Intel AHCI, plug into Intel.

It should work, as long as the interfaces used for booting get marked as critical and loaded early enough. You can check in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\ after installing each next driver.

[j7n]

The drivers work. However I am not able to boot from ICH8 after installing on JMicron. I wanted to avoid disturbing the existing disks. I get the error ""Error loading operating system"". I believe this message comes from the "disk" itself. But it does not parse the boot.ini. It fails to boot on any port, and with BIOS boot order set to prefer this disk. I haven't experienced this before when moving disks. How to fix without reinstall? The partition layout is unusual 3 primary NTFS partitions aligned to 2048s: 4G(system), 24G, 91G.

My old installation of XP SP1 was picked up, but of course didn't go past the logo without a hdc driver.

The JMicron JMB363 driver is useless. Speed is the same SATA I at 120 MB/s. No SMART unlike in IDE mode. Apparently no NCQ. And the disk is considered removable, and shows in the system tray. Any way to hide it from there?

The Intel driver with a HDD also doesn't bring any benefit. Random 4K reads with HDD rose from 0.8 to 1.4 MB/s. I've not a chance to measure XRayDisk flash memory yet, except the sequential speed of 240 MB/s on Intel.

[j7n]

This is strange. I tried writing a boot sector with bootsect.exe /nt52 C: /mbr. No go. Then tried installing Windows while connected to ICH8. It would not boot from either port after this, until I ran an installation another time now connected to JM. I don't believe there is data in the bootsector about the connection method. But the second installation made some change that allowed booting. The error loading operating system definitely comes from the disk.

mbr-xray.bin pbr-xray.bin

[j7n]

I researched this problem some more and found a SOLUTION. It has to do with sector addresses in CHS that exist alongside LBA. The workaround is to set the end sector of the system partition to the highest possible value FE FF FF.

For LBA 8388608 I had h,s,c: 42,32,522. I am not sure if the sector value was correct, or if it should have been 33.

I used BootIce, which is able to commit edits to bootsectors. The speed of the flash memory has much improved.

https://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=8585.0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scenario 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error
-------
- BIOS is set to AHCI native SATA Mode
  BIOS > Integrated Peripherals >
  SATA AHCI Mode = AHCI
  SATA Port0-1 Native Mode = Enabled
- HDD is connected
- the primary partition start offset is 2048 sectors, which is equal to 1.048.576 bytes (1 * 1024 * 1024),
  this is an alignment value normally used for SSDs to improve read / write speed
- Windows 2003 Server x86 with integrated SP2 is used to install the HDD
- you press F6 to choose an AHCI driver floppy disk during setup
- we use the already present partition and do only a quick NTFS format or we choose "Leave the current file
  system intact (no changes)" if available
- the OS installs and on the 1st reboot directly after the AHCI Controller device scan you read one of the
  following error messages:
  - A disk read error occurred
  - Unable to load operating system
  - Error loading operating system
	Solution
----------
- turn computer off
- connect the HDD which caused the problem and a 2nd HDD for launching XP
- turn computer on
- set BIOS to IDE Legacy Mode for XP to start
- in XP use a hex editor and open the PhysicalDrive of the HDD that you installed Windows Server 2003 on
- in the MBR set the 3 bytes starting at offset 0x1C3 to FE FF FF and save the changes to the PhysicalDrive
- turn computer off
- disconnect XP HDD
- turn on computer
- switch BIOS to native AHCI Mode
- now Windows 2003 Server / Windows XP Setup will boot and continue
- you will now have a properly aligned partition starting at sector 2048