Integration of Intel's SATA AHCI and RAID drivers

[Lancelot_Real]

AsRock_SD:

partition manager 8 is free, and also there are other free partition programs. Be sure the partition you are tryin to install is primary active.

also there are other utilities free for imagin (i use only ghost11, so i cant give a name but i see many around).

A friend had problem recent days to setup his os to his new nv chipsetted raid0 disks too , by luck he had a 3rd hdd so i gave him the solution, he suceed.

the method i described before is fast and accurate for you (not much classy but nice ), as all drivers are installed on the 7th disks os and 7th disks os see all hdd, it will work by transfer to raid disk-->40Gb partition. (practiced with success many times)

good luck.

[AsRock_SD]

What do you mean with "IMSM drivers"? I have never heard about this sort of drivers.

Intel Matrix Storage Manager.

Ahhhhhh, thanks.

That is why I have prepared the actual Intel textmode drivers for an easy integration and uploaded them separately. You will find all links within the first post of this thread.

I am trying them but there not working as needed.

What happened exactly?

Please explain, what exactly you have done.

What do you mean with "RAID setup"? When you have successfully created a RAID, it is a "healthy" RAID array, but no RAID setup.

I used to run a single drive and Raid 5 with the single drive being the one that the system boots the OS. Now i don't want to use the single drive no more and put it in another system and just use my 6 SATA drives.

I've been able to install the OS to the Raid 1 but had to format it and use the total size of the disk to install a fresh OS to it.

Maybe when i partitioned the Raid 1 in windows messed it up so the WINXP CD could not understand the drive correctly ?.

All your problems may be induced by the change of your boot partition from your single hdd to the RAID.

Before you created the RAID1, you should have done a low level format of both hdd's.

AsRock_SD:

partition manager 8 is free, and also there are other free partition programs. Be sure the partition you are tryin to install is primary active.

also there are other utilities free for imagin (i use only ghost11, so i cant give a name but i see many around).

A friend had problem recent days to setup his os to his new nv chipsetted raid0 disks too , by luck he had a 3rd hdd so i gave him the solution, he suceed.

the method i described before is fast and accurate for you (not much classy but nice ), as all drivers are installed on the 7th disks os and 7th disks os see all hdd, it will work by transfer to raid disk-->40Gb partition. (practiced with success many times)

good luck.

Well i went though making the nLite DVD once again re-added the drivers. Tested it and it worked .. My mistake was not to add all that is found by nLite ( about 12 of them ?.) i only picked 3 last time the ones at the bottom. Slight over look on my behalf as i did try adding them all another time but not with your modifide drivers lol..

Just thought i'd let you both know that it's all sorted out and many thanks to you both :).

[Fernando 1]

Well i went though making the nLite DVD once again re-added the drivers. Tested it and it worked .. My mistake was not to add all that is found by nLite ( about 12 of them ?.) i only picked 3 last time the ones at the bottom.

Thanks for your additional report.

Fine, that you succeeded at least with the integration of the Intel textmode drivers.

CU

Fernando

[Lancelot_Real]

AsRock_SD:

classy

your solution is already in Fernando 1's "2. Processing with nLite: preparation 5th step tip".

Have a niceday.

[AsRock_SD]

Well i went though making the nLite DVD once again re-added the drivers. Tested it and it worked .. My mistake was not to add all that is found by nLite ( about 12 of them ?.) i only picked 3 last time the ones at the bottom.

Thanks for your additional report.

Fine, that you succeeded at least with the integration of the Intel textmode drivers.

CU

Fernando

Yes, it's working great. Will these drivers work with Vista x64 too ?..

Thanks for all the time you put in making these drivers the way we need them too.

AsRock_SD:

classy

your solution is already in Fernando 1's "2. Processing with nLite: preparation 5th step tip".

Have a niceday.

Indeed, i did try that but with the wrong drivers LMAO.. Was just a case of taking a step back and trying again .

Edited July 21, 2008 by AsRock_SD

[Fernando 1]

Will these drivers work with Vista x64 too ?..

Yes, the 64bit driver version works with all 64bit Windows Operating Systems.

Thanks for all the time you put in making these drivers the way we need them too.

You are welcome.

Greetings

Fernando

[Guest random_gigs]

1. Preparation:

* 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" package v8.2.3.1001 dated 06/26/2008 (look here) is 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 original Intel textmode driver packages have a big size and are not easy to extract, I recommend to download one of the small driver packages I have already prepared for integration purposes.

a ) For Intel ICH7R/M, ICH8R/M, ICH9R/M or ICH10R S-ATA AHCI and RAID 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 actual 32bit Intel Controller driver package and unzip it.

What is the difference between those drivers and the current Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers found through this ...

Go To: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/

Navigate: Chipsets > Chipset Software > Intel Matrix Storage Manager

Select: Windows XP Pro

The latest version there is 8.2.0.1001 dated 6/2/2008.

[Lancelot_Real]

What is the difference between those drivers and the current Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers found through this ...

Go To: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/

Navigate: Chipsets > Chipset Software > Intel Matrix Storage Manager

Select: Windows XP Pro

The latest version there is 8.2.0.1001 dated 6/2/2008.

yes, get this driver from intel, and start to have some problems with some chipsets of intel .

Please search for intel ahci driver problems from google (or maybe read previous posts of this subject) than understand the difference....

[Fernando 1]

What is the difference between those drivers and the current Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers found through this ...

Go To: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/

Navigate: Chipsets > Chipset Software > Intel Matrix Storage Manager

Select: Windows XP Pro

The latest version there is 8.2.0.1001 dated 6/2/2008.

The drivers I have linked within my guide are as official and WHQL signed as those you have linked to, but the v8.2.3.1001 drivers are newer (dated 06/26/2008).

Furthermore they are better as Lancelot_Real has already pointed out.

[Guest random_gigs]

I did a search on "intel ahci driver problems" and found the same types of discussions going on in this thread (i.e. how to get AHCI working), but nothing about what is specifically wrong with the 8.2.0.1001 drivers.

I pulled the readme.txt for each of 8.2.0.1001 and 8.2.3.1001 and compared them. The only difference in the entire readme.txt is that 8.2.3.1001 adds support for one more AHCI Controller ... Intel® EP80579 SATA AHCI Controller. But, I can't find release notes for 8.2.3.1001 to see what has really changed.

I'm looking at this stuff in an attempt to install XP SP3 on a non-raid HD with a Gigabyte ICH9R board (that has RAID turned on). Configured like so:

ICH9R SATA Controller (RAID on)

- SATA boot HD (non-RAID)

- SATA CD/DVD

- SATA data HD (RAID0)

- SATA data HD (RAID0)

So far I tried slipstreaming the SATA drivers from Gigabyte's website (which are 8.2.0.1001). And the install can't detect the disk. I'll try the rest of this stuff tonight.

[Fernando 1]

I'm looking at this stuff in an attempt to install XP SP3 on a non-raid HD with a Gigabyte ICH9R board (that has RAID turned on). Configured like so:

ICH9R SATA Controller (RAID on)

- SATA boot HD (non-RAID)

- SATA CD/DVD

- SATA data HD (RAID0)

- SATA data HD (RAID0)

So far I tried slipstreaming the SATA drivers from Gigabyte's website (which are 8.2.0.1001). And the install can't detect the disk. I'll try the rest of this stuff tonight.

Which Controller(s) did you check while integrating the Intel textmode drivers?

Little side note:

It is not a good idea to use any Intel S-ATA Controller with enabled AHCI mode for your CD/DVD. If your mainboard has JMicron SATA Controllers, use one of them for your optical drive.

[Lancelot_Real]

Little side note:

It is not a good idea to use any Intel S-ATA Controller with enabled AHCI mode for your CD/DVD. If your mainboard has JMicron SATA Controllers, use one of them for your optical drive.

Fernando 1

random_gigs:

As an example of Fernando 1's explanation:

here is a solution of a friend of mine who use sata dvd/rw and coulnt install xp,

it writes turkish in there (i put this picture long time ago), simply, "connect dvd/rw to jmicron sata controller, and disable ahci of jmicron sata controller by making yellow squared settings in bios" http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6765/mo...algap35dbn5.png

ps: gigabyte dont write in its manuel pdf that it uses jmicron, but we all know it is jmicron, look google for more info. B)

[Chrysalis]

guys some more feedback on thse drivers, although the 8.x versions are much faster and utilise write caching for single drives, they have hit stability problems on my machine.

I first got random pauses when copying large files, sometimes the pauses became hangs and I had to reboot.

Upgraded to the very latest driver which fixed the pauses but then after a few days got a iastor has timed out in my event log, this coincided with another hang.

When I checked the intel website the latest driver they have for download is 7.8 so it seems these new drivers are not release quality but beta drivers, so if I am right can the OP please have links for the 7.8 and 8.x floppy files so can use the stable version if want to?

thanks

[Fernando 1]

When I checked the intel website the latest driver they have for download is 7.8 so it seems these new drivers are not release quality but beta drivers,...

The Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver package v8.2.3.1001 is not a Beta version. It has been officially released by Intel and digitally signed by Microsoft.

... so if I am right can the OP please have links for the 7.8 and 8.x floppy files so can use the stable version if want to?

If you want to use the older textmode drivers v7.8.0.1012, just look into my guide. Whithin the chapter "1. Preparation" take the drivers of point c) instead of a).

[Guest random_gigs]

Integrated the 8.2.3.1001 drivers into an XP SP3 disc. Selected the ICH9R textmode driver. (Gigabyte EP35 DS3R motherboard with the ICH9R southbridge.) Plugged my 3 hard drives into the Intel SATA ports with Native Mode on and RAID on. Plugged my CD/DVD into the Gigabyte SATA port with IDE mode selected. XP install starts up, I see the ICH9R driver being loaded. But, once all the drivers are loaded XP install reports that it can't find a hard disc.

I installed XP previously in IDE mode on those same hard drives, to check all the hardware when it was shipped to me. Works fine, that's what I'm using right now.

If I switch the Intel SATA ports to AHCI mode, I think XP install works.

Edit: AHCI works fine. But not RAID. I was thinking I needed to define volumes. But, for my XP install HD, it will be non-raid. BUT, controlled by the RAID controller because I have 2 other HDs that will be RAID 0.

Edited July 25, 2008 by random_gigs