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Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers


Fernando 1

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small correction to this part>

Users with an nForce4 AMD/Intel SLI X16 mainboard may take the SATARAID subfolder of the new nForce chipset driver package 6.82 (download it from here), but they have to add the NVATA.CAT and the NVCOI.DLL (from the SATA_IDE subfolder) and the NVATABUS.INF (from the LEGACY subfoder of the 6.70 package) prior to the integration.

Actually the NVCOI.DLL file is already in the sataraid folder of the 6.82 drivers - same date, same size

Thank you for the information. I will check it and correct my guide regarding this point if necessary.

CU

Fernando

EDIT: I checked the nForce driver package 6.82 and found, that there is no NVCOI.DLL within the SATARAID folder. For this reason I did not change the quoted text within my guide (post No 1).

Edited by Fernando 1
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Can anyone tell me is there's a way to make a functional NVIDIA nForce™ RAID Class Controller driver diskete whitout integrating in the XP CD, I had my Windows installed since 2003, I have change my mobo several times and went from several disk subsystems, sometimes RAID 0 and others just plain IDE config. When a abandon a RAID 0 config I usually Ghost my RAID to a singe IDE drive to be recogniced by Win XP when it boots from the new mainboard, then, I make my RAID 0 from scratch and boot from the IDE drive, I install all the drivers I need for the new motherboard (including the RAID drivers) and then I Ghost back to the newly RAID 0 and unplug the IDE drive. When the RAID 0 boots, it allready have all the drivers it needs, the spare IDE drive is then deleted and used as manual backup for the files in the RAID.

This procedure was imposible with the NVidia RAID Class Controller, it keeps giving the error:

There was a problem installing this harware

NVIDIA nForce™ RAID Class Controller

An error occurred during the installation of this device

The installation source for this product is not available.

Verify that the source exists and that you can access it."

and some times the "Access Denied" one, so I must use the Sil RAID drivers that works perfectly, the problem is that since I had a couple of Hitachi SATA I 80GB I cannot complain so much, the performance is very good, but I had another MSI K8N Neo4 for my father and he had 2 WD160JS, SATA II that are conencted to the Sil controller for the obvious reazons.

Is there a way to make a valid floppy disk with the drivers?

Alejandro

My PC:

MB: MSI K8N Neo4

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice

512 MB Kingston Valueram 333Mhz

2x Hitachi deskstar 80GB SATA 1

1x WD 160GB IDE

PSU: Generic 450Whatts Strong line

Video: MSI gForce NX6600GT-TD128E

My Father:

MB: MSI K8N Neo4

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester

2 x256 MB Kingston ValueRam 333Mhz (dual channel)

2x WD160JS SATA II

PSU: Generic 450Whatts Strong line

Video: generic gForce 6200 based PCI-e

Edited by WhiteWizard
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Can anyone tell me is there's a way to make a functional NVIDIA nForce™ RAID Class Controller driver diskete whitout integrating in the XP CD,

Is there a way to make a valid floppy disk with the drivers?

Yes, it is possible to create a valid floppy disk with the nForce SataRaid drivers. But if you try to install the newest nVRaid drivers (off the package 6.66 or higher) by F6 method, you risk to get endless reboots at the end of the install (Reason: see post No 1 of this thread).

According to my experiences you have the best results, if you do this:

1. Download the nForce package v. 6.53 from here: ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/nForce/standalone/6.53/

2. Unzip the package and copy the whole content of the IDE\WinXP directory (without the RAIDTOOL subfolder) onto a formatted floppy disk.

3. During the install you have to integrate both required drivers.

After the completion of the install you can update all nForce drivers inclusive the SataRaid ones by just executing the setup.exe of the nForce package v. 6.70.

CU

Fernando

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To WhiteWizard

"Can anyone tell me is there's a way to make a functional NVIDIA nForce™ RAID Class Controller driver diskete whitout integrating in the XP CD"

Download the 6.70 drivers from Nvidia's site, extract them and copy all of the IDE\WinXP\legacy files to an empty, freshly formatted floppy; just those in the "legacy" folder. this is your F6 diskette. After successful completion of install, reboot into Safe mode and run the setup.exe for these drivers.

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What I want to do is to install the drivers for the RAID class Controller from a functional WIN XP, if I integrate I will have to do a full repair of my copy of WIN XP, form the CD.

I wish simply to install the correct driver, my Win XP SP2 is running on the Sil controller, in Device Mannager I have:

SCSI and RAID Controllers

Unknown Device (this is the nForce RAID Class Controller)

Sillicon Image Sil 3114 SoftRaid Controller (wich is functional and my 2 HD are connected to it)

My guess is that if I fix the problem and install "nForce RAID Class Controller" I will be able to unplug both disk from the Sil controller and plug them into the nVidia SATA controller, and my RAID will work ok, and perhaps, faster.

This seems "loco" but I already do it form a VIA based mainboard to nForce, aparently the info in the drives is similar in several RAID systems, I had to reconfigure the RAID controller by pressing F4 and setup the RAID in the new mainboard, by specify "Don not delete data", then it simply boot like charm.

The hard way will be: unplug both dirves form the Sil and connect them to the nVidia SATA Controller (in the same order), then boot from a Win XP integrated CD and perform a repair of the previous system.

This is complicated, and the main problem is that I cannot make a Gosth copy of my RAID 0 to the IDE drive anymore, Gosth post some error too, so I'm trapper in the Sil controller for now and I cannot do complex test becouse I risk to loose Win XP, and believe me, I had programs installed that I cannot loose.

Alejandro

P.S: I tryed the floppy with the WinXP/Legacy folder from the 6.70 but keep reciving the error.

Edited by WhiteWizard
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WhiteWizard,

"I tryed the floppy with the WinXP/Legacy folder from the 6.70 but keep reciving the error."

nforce4, as with all of NVIDIA's chipsets, are very finnicky and compatability does not seem to be a consideration.

Try this; enable the NVIDIA controller in the BIOS, enable RAID for only those drives you will connect, reboot saving changes on the SiiL controller.

When up and running on the SiiL controller enter Device Manager and right click the "Unknown Device", hit update drivers, point to your F6 floppy disc and allow the drivers to be installed.

Reboot, then reboot again; only this time enter BIOS setup and disable the SiiL controller. Reboot, saving changes, shut down your PC manually when it will boot no further. Move your drives to the nforce controller, power up your PC and turn it on. Make sure your HDDs are plugged into the correct SATA plugs; ie: SATA 1, SATA 2....so forth.

If this works, reboot a final time into Safe Mode and run the 6.70 setup.exe.

Also you must remember that the nforce4 F6 option shows 2 driver classes when you hit "S" for select; you must hit the first one and enter, then hit "S" again and select the second choice and hit enter again-then, continue on.

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Danke schön Fernando!

Your method worked perfectly for me, save one detail. I had one SATA drive outside my RAID array, and Windows insisted on trying to install the boot files to that drive. Once I disconnected that drive, Windows installed great! I had so much frustration trying to get my system up and running this weekend, what a relief to finally find your guide Monday.

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Your method worked perfectly for me, save one detail. I had one SATA drive outside my RAID array, and Windows insisted on trying to install the boot files to that drive. Once I disconnected that drive, Windows installed great! I had so much frustration trying to get my system up and running this weekend, what a relief to finally find your guide Monday.
Thank you very much for this comment.

That is a bad, but wellknown behaviour of the Windows Setup. If you have a hard disk drive outside the Raid array, it tries to install the OS on this device, even if you have set the RAID array as first bootable device. The only possibility to prevent this is to unplug the extra hdd(s) during the install of the OS.

I think, that I should mention this in my guide (first post of this thread).

CU

Fernando

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Your method worked perfectly for me, save one detail. I had one SATA drive outside my RAID array, and Windows insisted on trying to install the boot files to that drive. Once I disconnected that drive, Windows installed great! I had so much frustration trying to get my system up and running this weekend, what a relief to finally find your guide Monday.
Thank you very much for this comment.

That is a bad, but wellknown behaviour of the Windows Setup. If you have a hard disk drive outside the Raid array, it tries to install the OS on this device, even if you have set the RAID array as first bootable device. The only possibility to prevent this is to unplug the extra hdd(s) during the install of the OS.

I think, that I should mention this in my guide (first post of this thread).

Done!

CU

Fernando

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small correction to this part>

Users with an nForce4 AMD/Intel SLI X16 mainboard may take the SATARAID subfolder of the new nForce chipset driver package 6.82 (download it from here), but they have to add the NVATA.CAT and the NVCOI.DLL (from the SATA_IDE subfolder) and the NVATABUS.INF (from the LEGACY subfoder of the 6.70 package) prior to the integration.

Actually the NVCOI.DLL file is already in the sataraid folder of the 6.82 drivers - same date, same size

Thank you for the information. I will check it and correct my guide regarding this point if necessary.

CU

Fernando

EDIT: I checked the nForce driver package 6.82 and found, that there is no NVCOI.DLL within the SATARAID folder. For this reason I did not change the quoted text within my guide (post No 1).

Ahh..sorry... stupid of me to post when so tired, hehe

Got confused about NVCOI.DLL and idecoi.dll ...ups

Will see if I can get your method to work -thnx

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Users with an nForce4 AMD/Intel SLI X16 mainboard may take the SATARAID subfolder of the new nForce chipset driver package 6.82 (download it from here), but they have to add the NVATA.CAT and the NVCOI.DLL (from the SATA_IDE subfolder) and the NVATABUS.INF (from the LEGACY subfoder of the 6.70 package) prior to the integration.

Does not work for me on A8N32-SLI Deluxe-Microsoft drivers for ATAPI still installed and DVD-RW recognition during setup is through command line only; ie: G:\....... or H:\.........

Also, on one occasion only I got endless reboots after GUI finished.

Edited by RickSteele
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Users with an nForce4 AMD/Intel SLI X16 mainboard may take the SATARAID subfolder of the new nForce chipset driver package 6.82 (download it from here), but they have to add the NVATA.CAT and the NVCOI.DLL (from the SATA_IDE subfolder) and the NVATABUS.INF (from the LEGACY subfoder of the 6.70 package) prior to the integration.

Does not work for me on A8N32-SLI Deluxe-Microsoft drivers for ATAPI still installed and DVD-RW recognition during setup is through command line only; ie: G:\....... or H:\.........

Also, on one occasion only I got endless reboots after GUI finished.

@ RickSteele:

That is interesting. As I don't have a SLI X16 mainboard, I cannot test it.

My tip: Try to integrate the nForce SataRaid drivers off the 6.70 package and update the drivers after the successful install. That should work. Please give a feedback!

EDIT: I assume, that your DVD-RW device, where you are booting from, is connected to an IDE port. Otherwise you have a known problem. The CD/DVD booting device should be IDE connected, otherwise you can get conflicts with the fresh installed Sata drivers.

@ all users with a SLI X16 mainboard:

Please report about your experience with the 6.82 driver package.

CU

Fernando

Edited by Fernando 1
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My tip: Try to integrate the nForce SataRaid drivers off the 6.70 package and update the drivers after the successful install. That should work. Please give a feedback!

Migrated from A8N-SLI Premium and 6.70 drivers-4 WD 74G Rapters all installed in the correct sequence; ie: SATA 1, 2..etc..and the RAID array was recognized and valid. Endless reboots at logon; I would imagine due to the conflict in the ATAPI drivers-one using nforce switched and the other calling for default MS.

EDIT: I assume, that your DVD-RW device, where you are booting from, is connected to an IDE port. Otherwise you have a known problem. The CD/DVD booting device should be IDE connected, otherwise you can get conflicts with the fresh installed Sata drivers.

They are all IDE.

Also, I'm not sure this belongs here but, on nuhi's web page in the FAQ section is a reference to 4KB stripes not bootable/working at all in winXP pro. That is how I run my array-4KB stripes ever since I was able to on the A8N-SLI Premium-BIOS update added this option; and right now I am typing this reply on an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe, 4 WD74G Rapters in RAID 0 using a 4KB stripe. Never any problems and much quicker than 16 and up.

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Also, I'm not sure this belongs here but, on nuhi's web page in the FAQ section is a reference to 4KB stripes not bootable/working at all in winXP pro. That is how I run my array-4KB stripes ever since I was able to on the A8N-SLI Premium-BIOS update added this option; and right now I am typing this reply on an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe, 4 WD74G Rapters in RAID 0 using a 4KB stripe. Never any problems and much quicker than 16 and up.
So you succeeded finally?

How did you do it (F6 or nLite)? Which nForce SataRaid driver version did you install?

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