Dear Fernando,

Please accept my sincerest appreciation for your post on integration of NVIDIA nForce RAID and SATA drivers. We recently bought a refurbished Dell XPS 720 running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with a 320-GB Seagate Barracuda HD. We installed a second identical HD and I foolishly thought the instructions in the XPS manual would allow me to reinstall the OS onto a RAID1 array. I tried it without "doing my homework" and succeeded only in rendering the machine inoperative. After scouring the Web for days trying to find a solution, I came across your post and I'm delighted to say it worked. However, I have a sort of followup question: I went to the file archive you pointed at and downloaded your zipped archives of the appropriate drivers. However, it seems to me that I used only a few files from the whole package. What are all the other files for, and should I have done something else with them?

Yours,
MAFinOKC
Oklahoma

Hello MAFinOKC,
thanks for your feedback.
Although I am not sure, that I did understand your question, I will try to answer:
Unfortunately users can't download simply the needed nForce SataRaid textmode drivers from NVIDIA's websites. They have to download the complete nForce chipset driver package. These driverpacks may contain nForce drivers, which are not needed by the user and drivers, which nobody would integrate. Furthermore the nForce chipset driverpacks usually contain tools (RAIDTOOL and NAM), which only a few users will need or want to install.

CU
Fernando

This post has been edited by Fernando 1: Sep 10 2008, 04:20 PM

Thank you! That's good enough.

Hey Fernando, I need some help, and I registered for this reason alone, I'm sick of Vista's performance crap, so I'm moving back to my s2k3, as it's blazing fast. I have a nVidia 8200 chipset, and I already have the drivers, I've tried all this integration stuff over 8 times, that's writing and rewriting dvd-rw's and cd-rw's. It's getting annoying, I don't wish to be insulting or rude, but your instructions are very unclear, one paragraph you state a MS IDE driver suppression, which is my main problem, since I can never get past the final hardware detection part of the installation, but in the rest of the instructions, you never mention it again. So, therefore I do not know how to bypass this problem.

Could you teach me how I could go about installing/integrating these drivers through nLite, so I can suppress the MS IDE drivers? As I've said, this is my main problem, as the hardware installation section works fine through and through, but when I restart I get the dreaded STOP errors which are obviously associated with mainly drivers in this scenario.

I have a SATA IDE system. No RAID as far as I know.

Thanks a billion in advance.

@ fgb:

Welcome at MSFN Forums!

Here is my reply:
1. My guide is intended for users, who want to integrate the nForce RAID drivers. Since you don't have a RAID system, you won't find much help within my guide to solve your problem.
2. nLite has a built-in "MS IDE driver suppression", which makes it possible to get even unsigned nForce S-ATA drivers installed. Since this method is already incorporated into nLite, the user has nothing to do. That is why you don't find any instructions within my guide about how to suppress the generic MS IDE drivers.
3. Since you obviously are not using your S-ATA Controllers in "AHCI mode" (BIOS settings will be "IDE mode"), you don't need to integrate any nForce textmode driver.
4. If you want to use the nForce S-ATA driver instead of the generic MS IDE drivers, you have to integrate the suitable SATA_IDE subfolder as PnP driver.

Unfortunately your post doesn't contain informations, which are needed to help you:

1. Which nForce driver package version did you use?
2. Which nForce IDE driver subfolder (SATA_IDE or SATARAID) did you integrate?
3. Which integration mode did you use (TEXTMODE or PnP)?
4. Are you running your nForce S-ATA Controllers in "AHCI mode" (according your mainboard BIOS settings)?

I'm using the "nforce_winxp_18.11_english_whql" distro, which is an older version, not the latest from nVidia, but the reason for using this pack is that it contains the SATA_IDE and SATARAID folders within it.

I have tried combinations of SATA_IDE and/or SATARAID, and it has done the trick from what I know, at least one of the combinations of textmode/PnP driver has worked for me. I apologize for my lack of information, and AHCI is not mentioned at all in my BIOS. Edit: BIOS starts up, "Detecting IDE drives..."

What my situation looks is pretty simple; when I start the installation with the right integration it reads the disks, and I can proceed with installation. If I don't integrate, no disk detection and this leads to an obvious lack of partition detection. However, after the "blue screen" installation, and the reboot, I get to the GUI part of the installation interface. At this point the installer detects hardware, and finishes successfully. When I restart, during the OS boot screen, I get cut off, and receive the STOP error BSOD messages.

I further apologize as I had documented the exact error code(s) it had given me, as I wanted to find out their meaning, but have lost them.

My confusion comes from the idea of nLite helping with the protection of my integrated drivers, regardless of proper (or what I thought was proper) integration of the nForce/GeForce drivers I get BSOD'd at the last reboot, which is mentioned in your guide.

I am quite troubled with this situation, and have (admittedly) done little research on this condition. To be more accurate, I've done days worth of research to solve this problem, yet have found no solid answers.

I greatly appreciate your time.

Edit: I'm going to reattempt to scrap together my OS build, and integrate precisely these drivers (which I used in the successful attempts) as PnP drivers. I will post my results here as well.

Thanks again!

This post has been edited by fgb: Sep 11 2008, 11:51 PM

All actual nForce chipset driver packages do contain SATA_IDE and SATARAID folders. You should take the package, which is suitable for the nForce chipset of your mainboard.

You can easily check, if your S-ATA Controllers are running in "IDE mode" or not by booting off the original (= not nLted) XP CD.
If your S-ATA hdd and its partitions will be detected by the OS Setup, the S-ATA Controllers are running in "IDE mode" and you will be able to get the OS installed without loading/integrating any drivers.
If your hdd will not be detected this way, either "AHCI mode" or "RAID mode" has been enabled (maybe as default setting, which cannot be changed).

It seems, that the RAID function has been enabled within the mainboard BIOS. You should check that and - if possible - disable the RAID Controllers.
If you really need to get XP installed with enabled RAID Controllers, you have to choose the following textmode driver combination:
1. SATARAID as TEXTMODE (automaticly set by nLite) and
2. SATA_IDE as PNP (you have to enable the "PnP Mode" manually, because nLite will automaticly enable the "TEXTMODE mode", if you point to a driver folder, which contains a file named TXTSETUP.OEM).

I'll try that, I had first tried SATA_IDE (full folder) as PnP drivers alone, and it wouldn't detect (did this this morning before I left for school). I wasn't thinking clearly and it became obvious when I was fully awake. I then rewrote the installation as SATA_IDE (full folder) PnP and SATA_IDE (floppy) for textmode, I got it to read the hdd and partitions during the "blue screen" install, and once again it was successful during the GUI hardware detection part however it gave me the STOP errors once again during the last reboot.

I never thought about using the RAID folder at all, since I never thought I would need it, but I'll try it out when I get home.

Don't mix the integration method with F6/floppy loading! That doesn't work.
You should either boot off the original OS CD and load the floppy drivers after hittig F6 or integrate all needed TEXTMODE and PnP drivers inrto the OS CD by using nLite, but you should never combine both methods.
Just for you to remember:
The normal way to get Windows XP installed onto an nForce chipset system with enabled AHCI mode is to integrate just the SATA_IDE driver folder of an AHCI supporting driver set as TEXTMODE driver. There is no additional PnP driver and no SATARAID driver folder needed!

Oh no, let me clarify as I have been dropping information vaguely.

I'm using an XP distro of these drivers for Server 2003 as they have compatible architecture. I'm not using the latest drivers straight from nVidia because they don't have the SATA_IDE, etc. folders. Never have I used a floppy disk. I DO NOT plan on using one, or else I doubt I would have any problem in the first place. No no, I was talking about the "floppy" folder within the SATA_IDE. Sorry for my lack of detail.

I am in the process of using your method, as I just got home.

Edit: I tried your method and it didn't even detect the hdd during the blue install, I'm doing to create my own method, and pray that it works.

SATARAID as TXT
SATARAID as PnP
SATA_IDE as TXT
SATA_IDE as PnP

My logic; load 'em all and everyway and hope it works.

Then the rest of my drivers such as ethernet display and what-not.

I'll post my progress here in a bit, and once again, I really appreciate your help, you're an amazing person for attending to this thread so often, I must say.

Progress: Still didn't work! Amazing, it must be something more than just these drivers. I was able to finish up everything save the GUI once again. I'm wondering what is going on, because it can restart and I can see the boot screen. If I can see "Windows Server 2003" and the little load animation bar, then shouldn't it be able to read from the disk? I mean, this is a part of the OS, correct? What could this be?

Rig:
Acer Aspire X1200
AMD Athlon x64 X2 5000+ 2.6 GHz
4GB DDR2 Memory
320GB Western Digital HDD SATA SCSI IDE
nVidia 8200 Chipset/Integrated Graphics (mGPU)

This post has been edited by fgb: Sep 12 2008, 07:49 PM

From whome did you get this information? You are totally wrong: All nForce driverpacks for Windows XP, which were released by NVIDIA within the last 3 years, have a SATA_IDE driver folder.
Nevertheless you cannot use any SATA_IDE driver folder. What you need to get your AHCI mode S-ATA Controllers detected, is a SATA_IDE driver, which does support AHCI. The driver name is NVGTS.SYS, the older nForce S-ATA drivers (without AHCI support) were named NVATA.SYS or NVATABUS.SYS.

Look into the SATA_IDE folder of the nForce chipset driver package you have used for files named NVGTS.SYS and TXTSETUP.OEM. If you should not find both of them, you simply took the wrong driver package.

This is what I suggest:
1. Download the brandnew nForce chipset driverpack 15.24 from NVIDIA's website and extract it.
2. Integrate the SATA_IDE driver folder as TEXTMODE driver by using nLite and burn the CD.
3. Boot off the CD and install XP.

D: Haha, ahh I see, so pretty much scrap Server 2003 on this one and use XP? Over the years I've bought 95, 98, XP, XP x64, 2003 x86 Web Server (I was BROKE after s2k3, but my goodness, it's the most responsive OS I've ever used, which is why I want to use it.), Vista x64/x86. I'm pretty much an OS junkie. Also, I'm off to DL the latest nForce package.

Edit: I've downloaded "15.24_nforce_winxp32_international_whql.exe" which is the latest nForce driver package for my 8200, and I'm in the process of DL'ing nLite again.

Edit: I had been downloading GeForce 8 drivers. Xl

Edit: Also, please remember I'm using Server 2003 for my OS, not XP.

This post has been edited by fgb: Sep 13 2008, 01:00 PM

I know that, but
1. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 do have a very similar kernel,
2. Windows XP drivers usually work fine with Windows Server 2003 too and
3. there are only a few nForce drivers which were especially designed for W2k3 and
4. AFAIK there are no special W2k3 nForce IDE drivers, which do support AHCI.

Hello Fernando,

seems your are the best in this kind of problem, and see lot of your post in lot of forum, but i still not find a solution to my problem.

Or maybe I am a little noob!

Ok so here it is :

I'm on a HyperSonic Aviator X20 with a Nvidia Nforce 4 motherboard, running on Vista Ultimate 64. I wanted to go back to xp x64, but as i have no floppy, I used the nlite version on a new Xp x64 + SP2 cd.
I try to add the latest driver in the nvidia website, the one in your thread, all i can find on internet and other forum, mix them all on 1 disc... after 16 burned cd, still the same problem.

"nvrdx64.sys is corrupted"....

I start to become crazy, did I do something wrong?




BTW xp32 work fine.

If you can help me on this, I will really appreciate.

Thanks in advance.


Simon.

1. Check, if you really have used the 64bit version of Windows XP (XPx64) as source. It seems, that you took the 32bit XP version and tried to integrate 64bit drivers - that doesn't work!
2. Do you have a RAID array? If not, you should only integrate the SATA_IDE driver folder and not the SATARAID one.
3. Don't mix any drivers, before you try to integrate them.