Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers

[99Percent]

I just want to point out that after I spent countless hours trying to integrate these drivers, I discovered that it doesn't work with nlite rc7 (would get bsod when staring windows for first time). It finally worked using nlite rc5. I would still get a lot of 'setup cannot find x file' but can still work hitting esc.

It would be helpful, if you give us some informations about your system (mainboard, chipset, hdd's) and the name of the files, which could not be found by the XP setup.

CU

Fernando

I was trying to install Windows XP Prof Service Pack 2 on a Shuttle XPC SN25P, with Nvidia Nforce4 AMD drivers on a nvraid with two 74GB Raptors.

The files that wouldn't copy were the ones related to the nvraid driver itself (nvata/cat. odecoi.dll, nvatabus.inf, etc). The strange thing is, is that the system worked fine even after ignoring with cancel (ESC) the files that wanted setup to copy.

[Fernando 1]

The files that wouldn't copy were the ones related to the nvraid driver itself (nvata/cat. odecoi.dll, nvatabus.inf, etc). The strange thing is, is that the system worked fine even after ignoring with cancel (ESC) the files that wanted setup to copy.

That is really strange, because the files IDECOI.DLL and NVATABUS.INF (not the NVATA.CAT) are absolutely needed for the successful install of the SataRaid drivers.

Is it possible, that you installed the SataRaid drivers twice (as TEXTMODE and PnP)?

[99Percent]

The files that wouldn't copy were the ones related to the nvraid driver itself (nvata/cat. odecoi.dll, nvatabus.inf, etc). The strange thing is, is that the system worked fine even after ignoring with cancel (ESC) the files that wanted setup to copy.

That is really strange, because the files IDECOI.DLL and NVATABUS.INF (not the NVATA.CAT) are absolutely needed for the successful install of the SataRaid drivers.

Is it possible, that you installed the SataRaid drivers twice (as TEXTMODE and PnP)?

I really can't say, I just added the drivers looking up the directory. I am not a nlite expert. As far as I can tell it added the drivers as Textmode.

Windows Setup detected the nvidia raid before asking whether to partition or format the drive. It was after this while copying the files over to the new installation that setup said it could not find the files. Again, just hitting ESC for all the "missing" files would still work. In nlite RC7 the resulting installation would result in an endless bsod reboot cycle, in RC5 it would startup fine. Hope this helps.

As a BTW, in RC5 I got the annoying undeletable c:/program files/xerox, netmeeting, etc directories, while in RC4 and below this did not happen. I wish someone could tell me whats up with that.

[Fernando 1]

Windows Setup detected the nvidia raid before asking whether to partition or format the drive. It was after this while copying the files over to the new installation that setup said it could not find the files. Again, just hitting ESC for all the "missing" files would still work. In nlite RC7 the resulting installation would result in an endless bsod reboot cycle, in RC5 it would startup fine. Hope this helps.

As a BTW, in RC5 I got the annoying undeletable c:/program files/xerox, netmeeting, etc directories, while in RC4 and below this did not happen. I wish someone could tell me whats up with that.

Each new nLite release included a lot of changes with positive and negative influences on the big varietry of pc systems.

That is the reason why Nuhi as the "composer" of nLite should know about your findings.

As Nuhi normally does not look into this thread (which is mostly moderated by me as the starter of this thread), I want to encourage you to report about your experiences with the different RC versions within another thread (for example here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=69223) or to start a new thread within the nLite forum.

Thanks!

CU

Fernando

[hip]

Just want to add how great this program is. Prior to accidently discovering it I was spending weeks trying to manually confiure an unattended Windows 2000/XP install using a tutorial I found at PCStats, what a nightmare!

Anyway, here is my question - I've just put together a new system with the following hardware:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ / Scythe Ninja Plus / OCZ (1GBx2) PC3200 DDR DIMM Dual Channel Platinum / Asus A8N-SLI Premium / Phoenix-Award v1008 /eVGA 7800 GT CO / WD Raptor 74GB / 2X WD CaviarRE2 400GB / Plextor PX-716A / NEC ND-3550A / Mitsumi 7-in-1 + Floppy FD-FA404M / Thermaltake 680W W0049RUC / NZXT LEXA / Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

According to the Asus/Nvidia manuals, Nvidia only supports Raid-0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD. If I want to setup a Raid-5 array, I need to use the Silicon Image (Marvel) drivers which I understand from a number of sources are less desirable. Be that as it may, it leaves me with little choice. So the big question is has anyone successfully integrated these into a slipstream WinXP install?

Thanks

[Fernando 1]

I've just put together a new system with the following hardware:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ / Scythe Ninja Plus / OCZ (1GBx2) PC3200 DDR DIMM Dual Channel Platinum / Asus A8N-SLI Premium / Phoenix-Award v1008 /eVGA 7800 GT CO / WD Raptor 74GB / 2X WD CaviarRE2 400GB / Plextor PX-716A / NEC ND-3550A / Mitsumi 7-in-1 + Floppy FD-FA404M / Thermaltake 680W W0049RUC / NZXT LEXA / Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

According to the Asus/Nvidia manuals, Nvidia only supports Raid-0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD. If I want to setup a Raid-5 array, I need to use the Silicon Image (Marvel) drivers which I understand from a number of sources are less desirable. Be that as it may, it leaves me with little choice. So the big question is has anyone successfully integrated these into a slipstream WinXP install?

I am afraid, that you will not get an answer, because only a few users of this thread are reading more than the first post (with the guide for the integration of the nForce SataRaid drivers).

So I give you the advice just to try to build your Sil Raid5 array and to create a bootable XP CD with integrated Sil SataRaid drivers. It is much easier to slipstream the Sil SataRaid drivers than the nForce ones.

Things to pay attention on:

a ) Assure yourself, that your hdd's are connected to the correct Sil controllers.

b ) Format (low format level) all hdd's, before you build the Raid array.

c ) The Raid bust be correctly created (shown as "healthy" in the boot screen) and set as bootable.

d ) The boot partition should be C:\.

e ) Take the correct Raid5 drivers.

f ) Integrate the Sil Raid5 and the SATA drivers as TEXTMODE drivers.

Good luck!

Fernando

[hip]

Thanks Fernando,

I have an order in for additional drives and will let you know how it works out.

BTW, regarding the screen prompt at the begining of WinXP requesting the user to hit F6 and have a floppy available with the drivers. Even during an unattended install using the "Default/Hide" setting this should be ignored, correct?

Thanks again for your help

Edited April 30, 2006 by hip

[Fernando 1]

BTW, regarding the screen prompt at the begining of WinXP requesting the user to hit F6 and have a floppy available with the drivers. Even during an unattended install using the "Default/Hide" setting this should be ignored, correct?

That is totally correct. You should it ignore as the message "hit any key", which you get several times during the installation of an OS (each time when it reboots).

[pingwax]

Thanks to all you folks for taking the time to find and support this solution. Fernando, your ongoing support of this has been fantastic to read and I really appreciate how it has helped me.

This solution worked for me. I have an MSI Neo2 Platinum Ultra nforce3 based motherboard. With the latest main BIOS, my nvraid shows up with bios version 4.81.

I ended up using the legacy drivers from the 6.70 nforce drivers. To be honest, I have read the instructions on the main page regarding the steps for users with an nvraid BIOS older than 4.84 and I still don't quite follow them. I'm think they are instructing users to copy the legacy files from 6.70 into the sataraid folder of 6.53, but I'm not sure to what advantage since the legacy files themselves appear to work on my BIOS and also appear to be a newer version than those in the 6.53 folders.

One thing that I have observed is that going back to make any kind of changes to a previous nlite session resulted in either errors copying files during the Windows installation process or the blue screen problem returning. I was never able to go back and get a previously created session to work properly. However, starting a completely new session always got things back on track. While it is more time consuming, it seems much more reliable.

If it helps others, I ultimately integrated the following drivers into my nlite install:

From the nforce3 5.11 package from Nvidia I included:

GART

MEMCTL

SMBUS

From the nforce4 6.70 package from nvidia I included:

IDE/WINXP/legacy

AudioDrv

Ethernet

From RealTek's website, I downloaded a driver package named "ndis51-pci(641).zip" for the second onboard NIC and included that.

The Ethernet and Audio drivers from 5.11 seemed to be buggy, the ethernet driver in particular which is astonishingly bad, causing blue screens when you do pretty much anything with the driver, including install the adapter, disable the adapter and uninstall the adapter. The nforce4 versions of drivers for these components worked much better for me.

Thanks again to everybody for putting this together!

Edited April 30, 2006 by pingwax

[Fernando 1]

@ Pingwax,

thank you very much for your interesting post, which could be very helpful for other users with an nForce3 chipset mainboard.

I'm think they are instructing users to copy the legacy files from 6.70 into the sataraid folder of 6.53, but I'm not sure to what advantage since the legacy files themselves appear to work on my BIOS and also appear to be a newer version than those in the 6.53 folders.

There is something you have misunderstood. Within my guide (the first post of this thread) you don't find such a recommendation.

The "normal" way is to integrate just the LEGACY subfolder of the 6.70 package (even for users with an nForce3 mainboard), but if you don't succeed with this driver version (because of your low BIOS version) you have to take the 6.53 or the 5.11 driver package (instead of the 6.70 one). There is nothing said about something to copy from the 6.70 into the 6.53 package!

Thanks again!

Fernando

Edited April 30, 2006 by Fernando 1

[sjec]

Fernando, Thanks for your great work.

But I still have some problem about it.

Do you have experience with NF 430/410 mobo?

I just bought a MSI k8ngm2-fid mobo which use 6150/430 chipset.

I am trying to integrate Sata raid driver from the latest driver package 8.22 to my windows xp!

I following your setps as per the first post. But it do not work?

I got fail message "setup cannot copy the file: nvsata.sys". when I use floppy disk.

the setup programe can not recognize my raid0 when I use the integrated CD.

I compare the sata driver in NF4 driver 6.7 and 430/6150 driver. they are same.

Sould I use the driver from NF4 driver 6.7?

BTW I have two seagate 7200.9 250G 8M harddriven and want install system to raid 0 on this mobo.

Looks like you are the only expert in this area. So please help me!!

Thanks again

Edited May 1, 2006 by sjec

[Thorgal]

hej ther i have made a sata raid windows xp like (Fernando 1) tolde but my windows whont restart ore shut down i have 2 puhs the booten 2 restart ore shut it down WHAT DO I DO HELP

[Fernando 1]

my windows whont restart ore shut down i have 2 puhs the booten 2 restart ore shut it down

Can you please explain what you mean?

If the installation failed, I need some informations about your system (mainboard and chipset, hdd details etc.) and a description at what point the installation stopped.

[Thorgal]

my install of windows workt but i wont restart when i wont it 2 restart ore a program whonts it 2 restart i have 2 push the butten on the computor 2 make it restart ore shut down

[Fernando 1]

my install of windows workt but i wont restart when i wont it 2 restart ore a program whonts it 2 restart i have 2 push the butten on the computor 2 make it restart ore shut down

Your problem has nothing to do with the nForceSataRaid driver integration and probably not with nLite.

Did you get any error message?

What is about your device manager? Everything ok there (no yellow marks)?

Have you tried to reboot or to hit the Reset button? Normally these issues disappear after a reboot of the OS. If not, you should "google" a little bit and see if other users have a tip for you to solve the problem.