Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers

[Booti]

Hi there

Firstly i am sorry if i am being a complete noob here and all this has probably been asked and explained before, but i have been trying to get my head around these SATA drivers for ages and have now found this software (nlite), but i still cant get it to work.

I have read thru the opening post of this thread and about the first 10 pages of this, but i'm sorry to say none of it is making sense to me.

I have managed to do the simple bits like slipstream SP2 and hotfixes into XP, but i just do not understand what you mean about copying these files into the SATARAID and PATARAID folders. I cannot find this OEM folder that is being talked about and really am at a complete loss. Also all the driver files you point us to are for nForce 4 board and mine is only nForce 3 (using 5.11 drivers)

System is

Shuttle (SN95G5 v3) yes i read that that also seems to cause a few problems needing 2 drivers !!

BIOS version 6.00PG (dated 14/10/2005, but i cannot find what version of RAID BIOS i have)

AMD 3700+ socket 939

2Gb RAM (crucial)

74Gb Raptor drive (single, so not using RAID, just the SATA port)

no floppy

If anyone could help me (with a complete idiots guide) i would be SO grateful

Many Thanks in advance

P.S. could anyone link me to a thread that explains how to intergrate the rest of the nVidia chipset drivers and the Graphics as well?

Edited May 19, 2006 by Booti

[Fernando 1]

System is

Shuttle (SN95G5 v3) yes i read that that also seems to cause a few problems needing 2 drivers !!

BIOS version 6.00PG (dated 14/10/2005, but i cannot find what version of RAID BIOS i have)

AMD 3700+ socket 939

2Gb RAM (crucial)

74Gb Raptor drive (single, so not using RAID, just the SATA port)

no floppy

If anyone could help me (with a complete idiots guide) i would be SO grateful

There is no cause for you to be irritated about this thread, because neither my guide (first post) nor all other posts of this thread are useful for you. Reason: You have a non-Raid system.

If you have read the first post of this thread, you must have seen this:

Attention: The following guide is only useful for users with an nForce Raid array!

If you have troubles with the integration of the nForce SATA drivers, don't do it. Windows XP can be installed without any third party IDE drivers onto a non-Raid system.

P.S. could anyone link me to a thread that explains how to intergrate the rest of the nVidia chipset drivers and the Graphics as well?

Here is the guide you probably are searching for:

http://www.nliteos.com/guide/index.html

CU

Fernando

[Booti]

thanks for that

i have to say i am a little bit puzzled as when i had an ASUS AV8 board, even though i only had the one drive in it (in fact it was all the same internals that i have moved to my shuttle) it would not see the hard drive unless i did the F6 trick and loaded the RAID driver disk

I have just checked with XP disk and you are quite right that it does not need the boot disk to see the hard drive on my shuttle

Is this a glitch with VIA chipsets? (or is this the wrong place to ask this question )

[Fernando 1]

Is this a glitch with VIA chipsets? (or is this the wrong place to ask this question )

That's really not the right place for this question, because I don't have any experience with VIA chipsets.

[piloteer]

Hi all. I thought it was too good to be true! I can't seem to get my floppy drive to work (tried a new one but it looks like it might be the actual port on my Asus A8N-sli and Windows needs to be installed). So I have no choice but to get this slipstream thing working!

I've managed to install windows and gte it to detect my RAID array but at the final stages of loading the files needed for the installation, it says it can't find any of the RAID drivers and proceeds to list them all giving the option of quitting, ignoring or retry. I try ignoring and when the installation is finished it reboots every time at the same point.

I've tried using 6.53 and 6.70 but I am confused over a few things. In the initial guide and a few posts after the PATA folder is mentioned, in particular copying the nvatabus.sys from this folder into the SATA folder. I don't have a PATA folder????? I only have RAID tool. legacy, sata_ide and sataraid.

There are lots of identical files in the SATA_ide and SATA raid, should I be replacing some with others? All I know is that I followed the beginning guide to the letter and it hasn't worked for me, and I don't relish the task of going through 40+ pages! Am I doing something wrong or is there another method I can try?

[Fernando 1]

I've managed to install windows and gte it to detect my RAID array but at the final stages of loading the files needed for the installation, it says it can't find any of the RAID drivers and proceeds to list them all giving the option of quitting, ignoring or retry. I try ignoring and when the installation is finished it reboots every time at the same point.

If the XP setup cannot find the necessary nForce SataRaid drivers although you have integrated them by nLite, you have either a CD problem (not correctly burned CD / not correctly working CD drive) or you did not exactly what I have written in the first post of this thread. If the XP setup only misses some CAT files (NVATA.CAT and NVRAID.CAT), there is nothing to warry about if you skip the install of these files, because they are useless.

I've tried using 6.53 and 6.70 but I am confused over a few things. In the initial guide and a few posts after the PATA folder is mentioned, in particular copying the nvatabus.sys from this folder into the SATA folder. I don't have a PATA folder????? I only have RAID tool. legacy, sata_ide and sataraid.

The LEGACY is nothing else as the former PATARAID subfolder. NVIDIA has just renamed this folder to LEGACY.

There are lots of identical files in the SATA_ide and SATA raid, should I be replacing some with others? All I know is that I followed the beginning guide to the letter and it hasn't worked for me, and I don't relish the task of going through 40+ pages! Am I doing something wrong or is there another method I can try?

You won't get your problem fixed by a mixture of files of several IDE\WinXP subfolders.

Make sure, that

a ) your hardware is OK (RAM, PSU and cables),

b ) your mainboard BIOS contains an actual nVRaid BIOS (v. 4.84 or higher),

c ) you have integrated the content of the IDE\WinXP\LEGACY subfolder of the 6.70 chipset driver package as TEXTMODE and have chosen both required drivers.

Then burn a new bootable XP CD with lower speed (8x or 16x) and retry the installation.

[hkccc]

hello~

i finally can solve my problem simply using the latest unofficial 9.16 WHQL driver

link:

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/nvidia%20nforce.htm

thanks very much

[Fernando 1]

i finally can solve my problem simply using the latest unofficial 9.16 WHQL driver

That is very interesting for all of us, because the chipset driver package 9.16 is designed for nForce5 and nForce430_410 chipsets.

How did you manage the integration? Which IDE\WinXP subfolder and which files did you integrate?

[calderstrake]

-- I realize that this is probably not the correct place to post this information, so please forgive me in advance. --

I am trying to install the nvRaid drivers using nLite, but nLite is crashing my windows install.

I have:

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe

BIOS 1016

nvRaid 4.84

Windows XP Pro SP2 and patches up to May 06

nForce 6.70

I tried for over 8 hours using every method described in post 1 (Legacy, combo sataraid splicing); nothing worked. At this point, I decded to try using just the chipset drivers to test if it was nLite causing the problem. Guess what, it is.

Here is what happens:

Windows boots to txtsetup. When it reaches the point of 'Loading Windows Executive', it halts to a screen that reads "Setup could not determine what type of computer you have..." with the only option in the middle as 'Other'. When you press Enter and select this, the following screen says: "The file txtsetup.oem could not be found..."

Any ideas?

Edited May 22, 2006 by calderstrake

[nowinscenario]

Just a stab in the dark: did you change the nLite entry concerning the type of computer (you know single processor, Advanced Power Management Interface, et al)? I scrolled too far by mistake once without noticing, and it took me forever to discover the error, but I seem to remember it causing an setup failure in the same ballpark as yours.

Also what mode did you answer the drivers as being?

[calderstrake]

Just a stab in the dark: did you change the nLite entry concerning the type of computer (you know single processor, Advanced Power Management Interface, et al)? I scrolled too far by mistake once without noticing, and it took me forever to discover the error, but I seem to remember it causing an setup failure in the same ballpark as yours.

The only thing I added was drivers, so I didn't even get to the selection screen you mention.

Also what mode did you answer the drivers as being?

I installed the RAID as txt and the others as PnP.

[calderstrake]

I am working on a fresh CD using RC8 of nLite to see if I can fix the problem this way. I will let you know how it goes.

**EDIT** It looks like the 'make from scratch' method works. I recommend this to anyone who thinks their Windows CD is good. Just do it again, only takes about an hour and you will be happy with the first result instead of spending enldess hours pulling your hair out.

Edited May 23, 2006 by calderstrake

[nowinscenario]

Good simple point. Don't keep messing with likely broken or otherwise corrupt base files.

[whimsical]

All this talk of RAID is a bit confusing. Which folder / files do I need if I'm not using a RAID array (ie. just 1 single SATAII in the appropriate nvidia port).

Motherboard, Asus A8n Premium, nForce 4 (6.70) (XPO Home)

If I had to guess I would use:

IDE\WinXP\legacy\nvatabus, and

IDE\WinXP\sata_ide\nvata

Would this be correct or do I need to install the Raid files regardless of whether i'm using a Raid array (as explained at the top of the thread)

As an afterthought I have my raid devices disabled in BIOS, will I need to enable them for the nvidia drivers to install. Ive had problems in the past with installing the nvidia drivers through the exe... yes I am a bit thick!

many thanks

Somebody help me plaese I can'nt do it!

Edited May 24, 2006 by whimsical

[Fernando 1]

All this talk of RAID is a bit confusing. Which folder / files do I need if I'm not using a RAID array (ie. just 1 single SATAII in the appropriate nvidia port).

Motherboard, Asus A8n Premium, nForce 4 (6.70) (XPO Home)

If I had to guess I would use:

IDE\WinXP\legacy\nvatabus, and

IDE\WinXP\sata_ide\nvata

Would this be correct or do I need to install the Raid files regardless of whether i'm using a Raid array (as explained at the top of the thread)

As an afterthought I have my raid devices disabled in BIOS, will I need to enable them for the nvidia drivers to install. Ive had problems in the past with installing the nvidia drivers through the exe... yes I am a bit thick!

As you have no Raid, this thread and the guide for the nForce SataRaid driver integration is not useful for you.

Normally non-Raid nForce Sata systems don't need any third party drivers at all for the proper install of Windows XP. You can check this by booting off the original XP CD without hitting F6. If your Sata hdd is detected, you don't need a special nForce driver for the installation.

If you want to integrate the nForce IDE drivers (S-ATA and P-ATA) into a bootable XP CD, you should integrate the SATA_IDE subfolder of the 6.70 driver package as PnP driver.

There are some Asus boards, where the Raid ports have to be enabled within BIOS even when no Raidarray is built. So you have to check this in the user's manual of your mobo.