Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers

[Fernando 1]

if i may i have integrated the SATA driver into my install CD but am wondering - in order for the SATA drive to work in windows it needs the controller driver installed to be seen by windows. you know the silicon image driver, do i need to integrate it also??

The method I have described is only suitable for NVIDIA nForce Sata or Raid Controllers. If you have a Serial ATA Controller from Silicon Image, you may not use the NVIDIA nForce chipset package 6.66, but the SATA drivers from Silicon Image for integrating the correct Sata drivers for your board.

For all other Controllers you have on your nForce2 board (IDE, LAN, GART etc), you can use the NVIDIA driver chipset package 5.10 (don't try the package 6.66 for these controllers, they don't work with nForce2 boards).

[hclarkjr]

yes, the silicon image controller is built into my AN7. thank you for you help. much apreciated as is nuhi for taking the time to make nlite.

[TwoDogs]

G'day Fernando

Just wanted to say thanks, I've had the nVidia RAID problem for a few days and found your site and app. Followed your directions and everythings seems to be working fine (fingers crossed).

I'll get back if have any troubles or can contribute anything to the thread to help others.

AMD 64 3800

GA KN8F-9

1Gb Corsair DDR

2 x 250Gb Seagate SATA (striping RAID)

XP SP2 and nVidia 6.66 drivers

[javs1979]

Hi guys and gals,

For the past 4 days I had lots of problems installing RAID 0 with a friend of mine, on his brand-new machine.

I found this topic (refered by Short-Media.com forums) and FINALLY managed to install my RAID 0 setup without a single hiccup. Thanks to you guys, especially Fernando ;-)

I :

- Updated my BIOS to the latest release (1009.001, September 13th 2005 release)

- Enabled ACPI (it was on by default)

- Installed XP using the special unattended install CD, using the FIRST method mentionned in the first message of the thread (modified version of WINNT.SIF).

One thing though : make sure that you include these lines in the WINNT.SIF file :

[Data]
OemDrivers=OemInfFiles

[OemInfFiles]
OemDriverFlags=1
OemDriverPathName="%SystemRoot%\OemDir"
OemInfName="whatever_driver_inf_file","any_other_driver_inf_file"

My WINNT.SIF did not have "Data" section and I almost omitted the "OemDriverFlags=1"

Also, I have a question : what is the better driver to use ? I only tried the one from the nVidia nForce drivers package but I wonder if the Silicon Image 3114 works better... I did not compare the two 'cause I only wanted RAID 0 to work and since then, I don't touch anything else ;-)

What you think ?

The configuration :

- Athlon 64 X2 3800+

- Asus A8N-E, BIOS 1009.001

- 2 * 512 Mo DDR400 Corsair Value (eventually 2 * 512 DDR400 Corsair XMS TwinX)

- 2 * 80 GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA in a RAID 0 configuration

- Windows XP w/Service Pack 2 and nForce 6.66 Drivers

Edited September 20, 2005 by javs1979

[Fernando 1]

Also, I have a question : what is the better driver to use ? I only tried the one from the nVidia nForce drivers package but I wonder if the Silicon Image 3114 works better... I did not compare the two 'cause I only wanted RAID 0 to work and since then, I don't touch anything else ;-)

What you think ?

It is not the question of the driver, but of the Raid Controller.

Most of the users who have both Raid Controllers (nVRaid and Sil3114), prefer the nForce Raid controller.

The best drivers for the nForce4 SataRaid Controller will certainly be the brandnew ones from the NVIDIA chipset driver package 8.12 (look here:).

[javs1979]

Hi Fernando,

I try to figure out something : the website you're talking about (Station-Drivers) contains nForce 4 drivers that are stamped version 8.12.

On the other hand, nVidia offer the 6.66 nForce 4 drivers (AMD Edition).

What are the differences between the two packages ?

[Fernando 1]

I try to figure out something : the website you're talking about (Station-Drivers) contains nForce 4 drivers that are stamped version 8.12.

On the other hand, nVidia offer the 6.66 nForce 4 drivers (AMD Edition).

What are the differences between the two packages ?

The 6.66 package is complete, whereas the 8.12 packages contains only SATARAID, Ethernet and SMBus drivers.

Both driver packages were built by NVIDIA. The driver package 6.66 was already officially presented by NVIDIA, whereas the brandnew package 8.12 was leaked first by the french website "station-drivers", but now already presented as "official" nForce4 driver package by ASRock:

http://www.asrock.com.tw/support/Download/...8NF4G-SATA2.htm

Users with an nForce4 system should take the SataRaid drivers from the new package 8.12. They are really better than the older ones.

CU

Fernando

[Striker]

Acpi is enabled, (S1 /S3)

Tried it first with F6 and a floppy disk.

Copied nvatabus.inf to sataraid and did that .oem change.

XP booted ok afterwards but showed ms drivers.

Then I made a nlite bootdisc using the 2nd method, deleting the other ide drivers.

But had the same results as above.

I'm getting tired of this.

Gonna try the first method and then I'm gonna give up and delete my raid array..

Attached are some shots

I have no idea what that unknown device is.

Btw my mb is an Asus a8n-e

[Fernando 1]

XP booted ok afterwards but showed ms drivers.

I have no idea what that unknown device is.

What is your problem? Everything is fine within your device manager!

The only little thing you have to search for is your "Unknown Device". (My tip: Google for "Asus A8N-E" +"Unknown Device"!)

Everything else is totally OK.

As you can see within the pictures, your NVIDIA Raid Controller and the nForce4 SATA Controller have their correct NVIDIA drivers.

It is totally normal, that the "device" NVIDIA Stripe shows MS drivers (disk.sys and PartMgr.sys).

CU

Fernando

EDIT:

I found something about your "Unknown Device" in an ASUS newsgroup::

I had that problem but I had ignored the Asus CD (I installed the latest nVidia 6.53's instead). The solution is a missing driver that is installed when you install Asus's "AI Booster" program. Install it, and the Unknown Device will go away instantly.

Edited September 21, 2005 by Fernando 1

[Striker]

yeah i had already found that too, it seems to work

just installed xp again using your 1st method.

it has some other ide controllers installed, see pic

and what happend with the human interface devices??

something not really ok?

now going back to your second method.

Are there any other nice hotfixes, patches, tweaks to include that you can recommend?

thanks for the help so far

Edited September 21, 2005 by Striker

[Fernando 1]

just installed xp again using your 1st method.

it has some other ide controllers installed, see pic

and what happend with the human interface devices??

something not really ok? 

If you have only S-ATA and no IDE (P-ATA) hard disk drives, then you did something wrong this time.

The first pic looked much better.

now going back to your second method.

Are there any other nice hotfixes, patches, tweaks to include that you can recommend?

Each user has his own preferences. You can include what you want, but you have to remove the IDE bus drivers (see my first post within this thread).

[jayhall0315]

I too, like many of you, have an ASUS a8n-sli deluxe motherboard (version 1.02) on which I am attempting to run raid using the Nvidia contoller (not the Silicon Image controller). I have been enduring problems up the wahzoo trying to get this motherboard to work with either nvidia reference drivers 6.66, asus drivers 6.65 for winXP 32 bit or BIOS version 1013 (version 6.53 works so so, but more on that in a minute). After about one week and a hundred permutations later, here are the results:

BIOS versions 1001 to 1011 -> Fernandos OemInfFiles Method while very clever and a great step forward (thanks for posting your work, it has been a godsend) does not work. Changing the txtsetup.oem makes no difference. You may use nLite or you may take the F6 floppy route but the result is the same, endless reboots or blue screens. The reason as Fernando correctly points out, is that nvatabus.sys and nvraid.sys (found in nforce4_amd_6.66\ide\winxp\sataraid or pataraid) are not f*!$& WHQL by the Microsoft Gods. They are replaced during the GUI install portion of XP by generic Intel IDE drivers and this is what is causing the endless reboots/BSOD. The creation of an $OEM$ file system is not enough to override the generic IDE drivers that XP normally uses.

Fernandos Driver Removal Method DOES work with BIOS 1008, 1009 and 1011 (sorry, not enough time to test all earlier versions) but YOU MUST ALSO enable the txtsetup.oem tweak mentioned in the OemInfFiles method. This method works only by the nLite method. The reason it works is that you are using nLite to remove all the generic IDE drivers so that during the GUI install portion of XP, XP can only see the Nvidia files. The irritation with this method is that you will be warned during setup and everytime in the future that you install drivers that XP has found a problem with incompatable drivers (the sataraid crap) that could damage your system. You will also find an annoying icon in the taskbar that continually asks you to uninstall your RAID system. I have also found other small problems (such as ASUS update 6.07 does not recognize my motherboard BIOS and device manager problems) and I am still testing. Basically, it works but I am a perfectionist so that crap drives me batty.

BIOS version 1013 -> If you are one of the few lucky ones who thru sheer cussing, mountain dew binges and/or compulsion to rake your own eyeballs have updated the BIOS to 1013, then congratulate yourself, you are a Siddhartha of motherboards. The 1013 BIOS is a bit different from all previous versions because it includes specific changes that allow the Nvidia SataRaid controller to be recognized by the non-WHQLed nvatabus.sys and nvraid.sys files (this is done, I believe by sequencing at the machine code level, not at the C++ level). These changes take the place of the nvcchflt filter file found in the 6.53 drivers.

Long story short, the OemInfFiles method DOES works and so does the Driver Removal Method (both using nLite). You still will have all the minor irritations I mentioned above though. It works, I believe, because the generic IDE drivers are now seeing the Nvraid controller as an ide extension. The easiest method with the least problems seems to be the OemInfFiles method but I am still testing. If you want to use the floppy method, go to the sataraid folder, copy in the nvatabus.inf from the pataraid folder, then change the nvraid.inf line to nvatabus.inf in the txtsetup.oem file, then copy all the sataraid folder to one floppy.

I will be testing BIOS 1013 with 6.66 for the next few weeks and BIOS 1013 with version 6.53 drivers to see how it goes. BIOS version 1009 and 1011 work fine with Nvidia's reference drivers 6.53 because of the included filter file nvcchflt in the sataraid folder. You will still get the taskbar icon asking you to disable your RAID hardrives but just ignore it. Stay tuned...

Please Note: I use an AMD X2 4800 and two of the four drives I worked with to get the above results have been Hitachi T7K-250s, which use the new SATA II standards (3 Gbps and NCQ)(that is part of the reason I wanted to use the Nvidia raid controller, which is made to work with SATA II, instead of the Silicon Image one). Using or not using dual core processors or SATA II makes no difference (as long as you use a BIOS version that recognizes dual core processors)

reach me at jayhall0315@yahoo.com because I will most likely forget to post here often.

(Homebuilt) X2 4800/ASUS a8n-sli deluxe/BFG 7800 GTX SLI/2 74 GB Raptors and 2 250 GB Hitachi T7K-250s/Creative X-FI Fata1tly/DangerDen watercooling/Plextor Burners/Dell 2405 FPW/PC Power and Cooling 850/Gigaworks S750

Edited September 23, 2005 by jayhall0315

[dale5605]

I think that driver removal method is actually my method but ok...

You might want to wait for next nLite, seems to integrate nvraid perfectly without having to use my driver removal method.

[jayhall0315]

Attention to all thread users: The "unknown device" that is appearing for many of you in device manager (especially for those of you who have nforce 4 boards) is the ATK0110 APCI Util that is used to change the FSB with software like ASUS's AI Booster. To clear the problem, do the following:

insert your motherboard driver cd or download the latest AI Booster from Asus.

browse the cd and goto \software\aibooster\acpi64 and copy the win2000 folder to your desktop.

open the win2000 folder on your desktop and open the file ATK2000.ini with Notepad.

Look for this

[Manufacturer]

%ATK%=ATK

[ATK]

%DeviceDesc1%=DriverInstall,ACPI\ATK0110

and change it to this (bold text is only to show you what you have to change)

[Manufacturer]

%ATK%=ATK,NTamd64

[ATK.NTamd64]

%DeviceDesc1%=DriverInstall,ACPI\ATK0110

save the file and then go to the unknown device in device manager and manually update the driver pointing it to the win2000 directory on your desktop.

There should be no more problems. Also, even if you overclock, avoid ASUS's AI Booster and Nvidia's nTune. Short story is that they both suck and are alot like the 6.66 driver package, full of bugs.

Edited September 23, 2005 by jayhall0315

[jayhall0315]

Sorry Dale, I did not mean to give credit to someone else for your work.

For all the rest of you, I am attempting to get the source code from a contact in China at ASUS. I contacted Nvidia and they do not seem to give much of a **** wether the nForce community hangs in limbo (that is about 2,100, 000 nforce 4 motherboard purchases and counting). If my contact comes thru (a big "if"), I will attempt to rewrite the sataraid drivers and test them on my own systems. If I am successful and my coding works well, then I will release the new drivers here in the forums as a Beta release to test out. In the meantime, I encourage those who are still having problems to try the 6.67 drivers at www.guru3d.com. Stay tuned.......................