@ all owners of a computer with an Intel S-ATA AHCI or Raid system:

Many users with such system have problems, when they try to install Windows XP (32/64 bit) or Windows Server 2003 (32/64 bit), because the Setup of these Operating Systems will not automaticly detect the hdd's, which are connected to the Intel S-ATA AHCI or Intel SATA RAID ports of the mainboard.
Furthermore the traditional F6/floppy method often fails due to bad floppy media or the lack of a floppy drive.

The easiest and safest solution is the integration of the Intel Controller drivers into a bootable 32/64bit XP or W2k3 CD by using a tool like nLite.

Here is the way how to do it:

Integration of the

Intel SATA AHCI or SATA RAID drivers

by using nLite

Changelog:
- new official Intel Matrix Storage Manager v8.9.0.1023 dated 06/25/2009
- new official Intel textmode drivers v8.9.0.1023 (WHQL) dated 06/04/2009
- new modded Intel textmode drivers v8.9.0.1023 with enhanced compatibility (now even ICH10 supported)
- new download links to older Intel textmode drivers for ICH5/ICH6 Chipsets

Informations regarding the possibility and necessity of loading/integrating the Intel Controller drivers:

• None of the Windows Operating Systems which were released before Windows 2000 (Windows 3.11, Windows 95/98 and Windows ME) do support the actual Intel SATA and RAID Controllers (no working textmode drivers available).
• Even Windows 2000 does not really work with the actual Intel Controllers. There are some old Intel S-ATA drivers for Windows 2000, but they do not fully support the modern features AHCI (="Advanced Host Controller Interface") and RAID.
• The current versions of Windows XP (32/64bit) and Windows Server 2003 (32/64bit) are able to detect actual Intel S-ATA Controllers during the OS installation and will handle them as "normal" IDE Controllers, if the BIOS S-ATA settings are set to "IDE mode". In this case you don't need to load/integrate any Intel textmode drivers, but you have to abandon the features AHCI and RAID.
• Users who are going to install XP or W2k3 and want to get advantage of the Intel S-ATA Controller features AHCI or RAID, have to enable them within BIOS prior to the OS installation and additionally have to integrate the appropriate Intel textmode drivers into the OS CD or to load them via F6/floppy during the installation. Otherwise Windows Setup will not detect the Intel S-ATA Controller connected hard disk drives.
• According to Intel only the actual Intel S-ATA Controllers for Desktop PC's (ICH6R, ICH7R, ICH8R, ICH9R and ICH10R) and Mobile PC's (ICH6M, ICH7M, ICH8M and ICH9M) are fully supporting AHCI, but obviously it is possible to get the AHCI features even with some ICH7 Mobile and ICH8/ICH9 Desktop PC's (look here and here) and ICH9 chipsets. If you are not sure, look into your mainboard/laptop manual or ask the support of the mainboard/laptop manufacturer.

Preconditions for a successful integration of the Intel S-ATA AHCI/RAID drivers:

• The S-ATA hdd's have to be connected to the Intel S-ATA ports of the mainboard.
  Important: Many Intel chipset mainboards have Intel and JMicron S-ATA connectors. Before you continue with your preparations, you should check, if the S-ATA cables of your hdd's are really connected to the Intel ports. If you are using the JMicron S-ATA ports, you have to integrate/load the JMicron textmode drivers (you can get them here). Otherwise Windows Setup will not detect your S-ATA connected hdd(s) at all.
• The mainboard BIOS should be up-to-date.
• Very important are the correct BIOS settings regarding the wanted Intel S-ATA mode.
  These are the options:
  IDE Mode = no Intel textmode drivers necessary, but no AHCI/RAID available
  AHCI Mode = Intel SATA AHCI textmode driver necessary, no RAID available
  RAID Mode = Intel SATA RAID textmode driver necessary, RAID array must be created
• The Power Management (ACPI) should be enabled within BIOS.
• The source for the processing with nLite should be a clean (not modified) and error free OS CD.
• Only for Intel RAID users: Before you are going to install the nLited OS onto an Intel RAID array, you should check, if the RAID has been correctly created and set as bootable by the "Intel Matrix Storage Manager Option ROM Utility". Furthermore the Intel RAID has to be set on the first place of the HARD DISK BOOT PRIORITY within the mainboard BIOS.

1. Preparation:

What you need is the actual version of

1. nLite (you get it here) and
2. the suitable (=extracted) Intel textmode drivers you want/need to integrate.
   The choice of the correct textmode driver depends mainly on the OS you are going to install, whereas the exact name of the Intel Controller of your mainboard is less important for the driver choice, because the actual "Intel Matrix Storage Manager" packages are supporting all common INTEL ICH7-10 SATA AHCI and SATA RAID Controllers of all Intel chipset desktop and laptop mainboards (users with an Intel ICH5 or ICH6 SATA Controller have to use an older driver package).
   What you need for the later integration are the extracted necessary Intel S-ATA Controller drivers. Since the complete Intel Matrix Storage Manager packages have a big size and are not easy to extract, I recommend to download one of the small driver packages, which are already prepared for integration purposes.
   
   a ) For Intel ICH7R/M, ICH8R/M, ICH9R/M or ICH10R/D S-ATA AHCI and RAID Controllers:
   • If you are going to install the 32bit version of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you will just need the actual 32bit Intel textmode drivers.
     You can download Intel's latest official 32bit drivers v8.9.0.1023 dated 06/04/2009 from here:
     32bit Intel textmode driver v8.9.0.1023 WHQL (download link)
     Unzip and store the driver folder somewhere.
     
   • Users, who want to install the 64bit version of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, should download and unzip the actual 64bit Intel textmode drivers.
     You can get Intel's latest official 64bit drivers v8.9.0.1023 dated 06/04/2009 from here:
     64bit Intel textmode driver v8.9.0.1023 WHQL (download link)
     Unzip and store the driver folder somewhere.
   
   b ) Especially for desktop/notebook users with an Intel ICH8, ICH9 or ICH10 (without R or M) chipset mainboard, who want to use AHCI:
   • Intel ICH8/9/10 (without R or M) S-ATA AHCI Controllers are not supported by any official Intel textmode drivers. Users with such chipset, who want to use the AHCI features nevertheless, may use a special driver package I have prepared with the help of Lancelot_Real (big thanks to him!). You can get the 32bit version here:
     modded 32bit Intel textmode driver v8.9.0.1023 (download link)
     And here is the 64bit version:
     modded 64bit Intel textmode driver v8.9.0.1023 (download link)
     The 32/64bit packages contain the actual official Intel textmode drivers with modified INF and OEM files to make them compatible with originally not supported ICH8, ICH9 and ICH10 chipsets.
     Unzip and store the driver folder somewhere. Depending on the OS you are going to install, you will just need the 32bit or 64bit version.
     Attention:
     • Due to the modification these drivers have lost their WHQL certification. You may use them at own risk.
     • Please give me your feedback, if your Intel ICH8/9/10 Controller should not be supported by these modified drivers.
     • If you are going to integrate these modified drivers, you will get a slightly different popup window than shown below, because I have added the AHCI Controllers for originally not supported ICH8/9/10 chipsets. Nevertheless you will find the suitable Controller easily, if you search for the suffix "added by Fernando".
   
   c ) For Intel ICH6M S-ATA AHCI Controllers:
   • If you are going to install the 32bit version of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you should download and unzip this already prepared 32bit Intel Controller driver package and unzip it.
   • Users, who want to install the 64bit version of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, should download and unzip the latest 64bit Intel Controller driver package from here.
   
   d ) For Intel ICH6R SATA RAID/AHCI Controllers and ICH5R S-ATA RAID Controllers:
   • Users with such sort of Controller have to take an older Intel Controller driver version, which I have additionally prepared and uploaded. You can get the suitable 32bit textmode driver version from here and the 64bit version from here.
   
   e ) For Intel Server boards with Server RAID Technology:
   • Users will find the suitable textmode drivers here.
   
   
   Attention: Look into your mainboard manual, if your S-ATA hdd(s) are connected to any of the above mentioned Intel ICH5/6/7/8/9 ports. If your mainboard has an other (legacy type) Intel SATA AHCI/RAID Controller, you should integrate the Intel AHCI/RAID driver you will find within your mainboard driver CD.

2. Processing with nLite:

1. Copy the content of the clean source CD (XP, XP x64, W2k3 or W2k3 x64) onto your hdd.
2. Run nLite and point to the directory where you have copied the OS source.
3. You can use all nLite options, but you have to use the tasks "Integrate Drivers" and "Create Bootable CD".
4. When you come up to the task "Drivers", hit the "Insert" button, use the "Single driver" option and point to the content of the driver package you have downloaded and extracted at first step. Click onto one of the shown INF files (it doesn't matter which one).
5. If you have integrated the actual Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers (supporting ICH7-10 Controllers) you will get the following "Storage Device Textmode Driver" popup window with a big variety of different Intel Controllers:
    Intel_Textmode_Driver_Popup_with_nLite.jpg ( 117.28K ) Number of downloads: 287
   
   At this point you have to decide, which Intel Controller(s) you want to get installed by clicking onto the suitable Controller(s).
   Important:
   a ) Make sure, that the "Textmode driver" Mode is enabled.
   b ) You can and maybe have to highlight more than 1 Controller.
   Have a look into your mainboard manual to find the exact name of your S-ATA Controller and search for it within the list.
   Click onto the Intel SATA Controller(s), which is/are suitable for your mainboard BIOS settings regarding the Intel S-ATA ports (SATA RAID or SATA AHCI), your mainboard chipset (ICH7, ICH8, ICH9 or ICH10) and your system ("Desktop"=PC, "Mobile"=Laptop, Server or Workstation).
   Tip:
   If you are not sure, which of the listed Controllers are the suitable one(s) for your chipset, enable all of them (Windows Setup will find and install the correct driver).
6. Use the other options of nLite, if you want. It is a good idea to additionally integrate the Intel INF files drivers named Intel® Chipset Device Software as normal device (=PnP) driver. You can download the actual INF driver package from here.
   Tip:
   • Since Intel's EXE package is voluminous and not easy to be extracted, I have prepared and uploaded a small driverpack for you, which contains just the actual official driver files you will need for the integration of the Intel chipset "drivers" (Notice: they are not real drivers, but just information files).
   • You can download this small Intel INF "driver" package from here. Unzip it and integrate the "drivers" by pointing onto any of the various INF files you will find within the folder. It doesn't matter which one you choose - nLite will copy them all anyway.
7. Let nLite create the ISO file.
8. As last step the ISO file should be burned as bootable CD. You can either let nLite do this job or take a burning tool like Nero.
   Tips:
   • If you are using Nero, you should just choose "Recorder" (menu bar) > "Burn Image" and then point to the just created ISO file.
   • Burn at not more than 8x(DVD) or 24x(CD) and choose the "Verify" option to avoid any burning errors!
9. Have fun!

3. Additional advice for the later OS installation:

• Make sure, that the CD/DVD device where you want to boot off your nLited CD, is not connected to any of the Intel S-ATA ports. Optical drives generally have problems with the enabled AHCI or RAID mode.
  Solution: Connect the optical drive to another available S-ATA port (for example with JMicron Controller), which is running in IDE mode. Alternatively you may replace your S-ATA CD/DVD device by an IDE connected one.
• Don't hit F6 and don't insert any driver floppy during the installation using the CD with integrated Intel Controller drivers. Otherwise Windows Setup won't find the drivers at all!
• You might get a problem with the installation of a 32bit OS, if you are running your computer with 4 (or more) GB of RAM. It is a good idea to remove some RAM sticks while the installing procedure. Once the OS is up, you can reinsert the removed RAM sticks.

4. How to get access to the Intel Storage Manager Console:

Once your OS is up, you will have full access to all partitions and files of your Intel RAID array, but you will not be able to run the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Console, because the program files are still missing.
Solution:
• Users with an Intel ICH7-10 chipset mainboard should download and install the complete Intel Storage Manager application package.
  If you Intel's latest official v8.9.0.1023 should not yet be available here at Intel's homepage, you can download it directly from here.
  After having run the installer and a reboot you will have full access to the Intel Storage Manager Console from within the running Windows OS.
• All other users have to install a suitable older version of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager. They will find it here.

Good luck!

This post has been edited by Fernando 1: Oct 10 2009, 11:45 AM

Excellent write up.

I did this slipsream the other day, but just now came across this post.

I am running one drive, but trying to run AHCI mode and install XP Pro. Before slipstreaming, It would not detect the drive of course. I slipstreamed the drives exactly how you have in your guide, the only difference is the source cd was not a clean one, but a disc I slipstreamed SP2 in a few months ago. Does this matter that it was an nlite created disc even though the only thing changed was slipstreamed SP2 in?

OK, so here is my problem. The slipstream must have worked, becuase it recognized the drive during setup, I created and formatted a partition, and sucessfully copied all of the XP setup files to the BRAND NEW hard drive. Just before the reboot, it says cannot copy file Uknown.sys and lets me canel or skip. Next, it reboots your computer to finish the install. It reboots, but after the POST screen, it reboots again and continues this reboot cycle.

Any ideas? This computer was working fine with exact same configuration before I RMA'ed the drive, so I know it's not the bios or connectors or anything.

From reading around, it looks to me that it loads the controller driver during the initial start, allowing my SATA drive to work, but then it will not copy the driver to the hard drive, not allowing it to boot. I don't know what Unkown.sys is, but others have the same problem, only named different things .sys

I loaded used the drive as a slave an loaded up with my Vista drive and copied over the files iastor.inf iaahci.inf and iastor.sys over to the new hd that has the preinstall files copied on it into the i386 folder.

No dice. Still does the same thing.

Any one can help?

This post has been edited by hobiecatter: Nov 21 2007, 01:44 AM