I've been searching for a long time to solve my Nforce4 problems.
I was really excited finding a possible solution, but after burning 5 setup CD'S I started wondering does this solution actually works?

Well perhaps I am doing something wrong....?

My system:
Motherboard: Asus A8N SLI Deluxe Nforce 4 (newest BIOS)
Processor: AMD Opteron 165
Memory: 4x 512MB
RAID: 4x 160 PATA RAID 0+1 Array (Healthy)


Hopefully somebody can tell me what I do wrong if I explain all steps I took creating a setup CD.

01. Downloaded Nlite (newest version)
02. Downloaded Vistabeta2 drivers (also tried other drivers mentioned in the tutorial)
03. Copied all content of my Windows 2003 installation CD by using Nlite
04. Selected "insert drivers" and "create bookable Setup CD"

Inserted "nforce_vista32beta2_english\IDE\driver\legacÿ" "Textmode driver" (in my last attempt)

05. verified changes and burned the CD directly by using Nlite.
06. insert CD, run setup

The result, the 4 hard disk drives installed are still shown separately. (it should be one partition of 300GB)
One thing I have to mention, is it really necessary to slipstream SP2 into the Windows 2003 setup CD? So far I haven't done.

Can somebody give me tell me what I am doing wrong?

"double post"

This post has been edited by FLiPPie: Dec 16 2007, 12:54 PM

I don't see any obvious mistake.

I would recommend to take the nForce IDE drivers v.6.99. They are supporting nForce4 PataRaid and are designed to be used with Windows Server 2003.
Try to integrate the WHQL signed nForce IDE drivers v.6.99 by loading the SATARAID folder as textmode and the SATA_IDE folder as PnP driver.
If you don't succeed this way, take the modded LEGACY folder of the 6.99 drivers.

You should do it, although I don't think, that this will have any influence on the detection of your RAID devices.

Side note: You may have realised, that you have done a double post. Please save the space of this thread by editing one of the posts, deleting the whole text and just writing "double post".

The FSC_NVIDIA_SATA_RAID folder contains:
ATABUSDRV (textmode) type SCSI
RAIDCLASS (textmode) type SCSI

I can only select them to be both either TEXT MODE or PNP MODE.

The FSC_NVIDIA_SATA_IDE folder contains:
PNP type HDC

By selecting these drivers the problems still exists.
The Windows setup shows my hard drives separately.

Please have a look at this screen shot:



Tomorrow I will try the Legacy modded drivers.

This post has been edited by FLiPPie: Dec 16 2007, 01:47 PM

You have to select both and to integrate them as TEXTMODE driver.

That is correct.

The screenshot looks perfect and I nearly cannot believe, that Windows Setup doesn't detect your RAID device and your RAID partitions correctly with these slipstreamed drivers.

Further questions:
Are the 4 hard disk drives of your RAID completely detected within the BIOS?
Have you set your RAID array as bootable within the RAID utility and the RAID as first bootable hard disk within the BIOS?
Do you have partitioned and NTFS formatted the RAID array?
Do you have slipstreamed SP2 into the OS CD?

Further questions:

Are the 4 hard disk drives of your RAID completely detected within the BIOS?
If I remember right, after I enabled NV-RAID in the BIOS
the actual BIOS didn't show my 4 drivers anymore. I can only check my drives by entering the NV-RAID SETUP (F10 on startup)

Have you set your RAID array as bootable within the RAID utility and the RAID as first bootable hard disk within the BIOS?
The RAID array I made is set boot able within the RAID utility.

Do you have partitioned and NTFS formatted the RAID array?
I used Partition Magic to create a 300GB NTFS partition

Do you have slipstreamed SP2 into the OS CD?
I haven't slipstreamed SP2 into the OS yet!

What do you mean by "completely detected"?
The fact that the drives aren't shown within the BIOS can be the cause of my problem.
Only my SATA DVD-Writer is shown. and I have unplugged the cables of my other SATA devices.

I can't figure out which setting makes the drivers visible.

This post has been edited by FLiPPie: Dec 17 2007, 06:33 PM

What is the reason for taking Partition Magic and what is the reason for such a big partition size?
My recommendation: Take a tool like Acronis Disk DirectorSuite for partitioning and formatting the RAID and choose a partition size of 2x150 GB or 3x100 GB.

Before you began with the creation of the RAID, your BIOS should have detected each of the 4 P-ATA hdd's.

A P-ATA-RAID array and a S-ATA connected optical drive is not a good combination at all. f you don't have any natively IDE connected CD/DVD-ROM drive, you probably will not succeed with the installation of any Windows OS onto your RAID array. Look into the pre-condition list of my guide. You have to start the OS installation off an IDE connected optical drive.

Which other S-ATA devices than the DVD burner do you have?

This post has been edited by Fernando 1: Dec 18 2007, 03:20 AM

The other SATA devices are 2x 500GB hard drives.

It is not easy to give you any advice.
If I were you, I would break the P-ATA RAID and create a S-ATA RAID0 and use the P-ATA hdd's for backups etc.
Nevertheless you may get some troubles with any OS installation onto a RAID array as long as you are booting off the S-ATA connected optical drive. You will need an IDE connected CD/DVD-ROM during the OS installation (maybe borrowed from a friend).

Before I decided to use 4x 160GB PATA drives I transfered all data to the (new) 2x 500GB SATA drives.
Since I have a lot of spare parts I installed a PATA DVD-writer but also in this setup the drives are separately shown.

Anyway I have decided not to use any RAID setup.
I will install windows 2003 on a 50GB partition.

Within a few months I am thinking about buying a new computer and use the 2x 500GB SATA drives. (after I transfered all data)
Hopefully my future motherboard will be able to run 4x 500GB RAID 0+1 (or a RAID 5 setup)

Thanks for your help!

That's a good decision.

You are welcome!

I was having this same problem... It would go through the whole installation process.... then stop, dead at the missing idecoi.dll..
I was ready to pull the board back out and send it back.
A friend of mine, who has forgotten more about these beasts, than I will ever know, asked if he could take a look at it...
This is what he did, and it fixed my issue.
On my F6 floppy (Nvidia SATA RAID DRIVER Disc) he changed the attributes of the idecoi.dll to "read and write", then changed it to: Idecoi.dll
All he did was change the lower case "i" to an upper case "I"
It worked like a charm...
I hope this helps somebody/anybody..

I have never heard about this procedural method and do not believe, that Windows Setup makes any difference between a lower and upper case of a character of any integrated driver package file.
It seems more probable for me, that the used F6/floppy driver package was corrupt or poorly modded (the entries of the TXTSETUP.OEM did not correspond with the associated driver files).

This post has been edited by Fernando 1: Dec 26 2007, 02:02 PM

I am a neophyte to this but I thought I understood what was needed to build a slipstream disc. I have an HP a6230n computer with AMD Athlon 64 x2, NVIDIA Ge Force 6150 Se Graphics card, NForce serial ATA controller and network controller, ATAPI DVD A DH16A3L SCSI CD ROM, I have tried to download drivers from HP they won't support XP, the drivers I downloaded from NVIDIA are executable programs that Nlite won't accept it seems that only drivers in .inf file format are acceptable. If anyone could steer me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate. I read the articles here but there are technically over my head. Thanksto all who try to help. JIM

Hi Jim,
although you obviously have posted into the wrong thread, I try to help you.
Since you don't have a RAID array (connection between more than 1 hdd) within your nForce 430 chipset computer, you will be able to get Windows XP installed without slipstreaming any driver.
If you want to integrate the nForce chipset drivers nevertheless, download this package, unzip it by using a tool like WinRar or 7-zip and choose the "multiple driver integration" option of nLite. Additionally you can slipstream the other needed device drivers (graphics card, printer etc.).