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Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers


Fernando 1

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Sorry for that typo... I've got an ASUS A8N SLI Premium.
And you are sure, that you have an nForce Raid array and not a Sil3114 Raid array?

EDIT: You have 2 different sorts of Raid Controllers on board (the nVRaid and the Sil ones). Check within your device manager, which controller your Raid uses.

Edited by Fernando 1
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Tzeb

"No, that will not be ok."

If using nforce RAID you will have no ATAPI recognition, other than in command prompt, in PNP during install and will not have until GUI has ended and you are at first logon. Any CD/DVDROMS will use the MS PNP 2001 drivers and are not signed. I found the NVIDIA sw drivers faster; regardless of what some "reviews say". Do your install, backup your boot partition and give the sw drivers a go-if using nforce RAID. However, rollback is not a viable-it is buggy-option; so backup before experimenting. Further, if speed is your goal use the nforce4 bios because it utilizes the PCIe bandwidth and is faster than the Siil which travels in PCI. I found the Siil very difficult to setup and boot from-instability-mileage may vary though.

Edited by RickSteele
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And you are sure, that you have an nForce Raid array and not a Sil3114 Raid array?

EDIT: You have 2 different sorts of Raid Controllers on board (the nVRaid and the Sil ones). Check within your device manager, which controller your Raid uses.

I only use nvraid sata, the Silicon raid controler is disabled in bios

I don't understand the need for sw drivers if my raid is on sata ports. Sure, i have one nec 4551 DVD ram on IDE2 and it works perfectly.

I knew about Sil3114 "problems" and that's why i went with ports 3 and 4 on the nvraid B)

Btw, i have 2 samsungs 250gb each and they perform awesome in raid 0, while being extremely silent :thumbup

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I just wanted to say thanks - I followed Fernando's guide (the one in the first post of this thread), and it worked perfectly (on my nForce 4 Ultra-based Gigabyte GA-K8N-Ultra9, with 2xMaxtor HDDs in RAID0 )!

Thank you, Fernando, for your (very good) explanation! And a very big THANK YOU to the author of nLite - it's a really AMAZING piece of software!!

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I don't understand the need for sw drivers if my raid is on sata ports. Sure, i have one nec 4551 DVD ram on IDE2 and it works perfectly.
If you have an nForce SataRaid system, you have to install the NVATABUS.SYS and this is the S-ATA and P-ATA (=IDE) driver at the same time. If you don't want to use the NVATABUS.SYS as P-ATA (= IDE s/w) driver anymore, you can change the use of the nForce Parallel ATA Controller against the use of the MS Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller, but you should do it only after the successful install of Windows XP.

These are the steps: Device manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI-Controller > right click on the NVIDIA nForce4 Parallel ATA Controller > udate driver > manual update > show compatible drivers > then choose the MS one).

But I confirm what RickSteele wrote - I would not recommend to take the MS IDE drivers unless you get problems with one of your IDE (CD ROM or DVD) devices.

I just wanted to say thanks - I followed Fernando's guide (the one in the first post of this thread), and it worked perfectly (on my nForce 4 Ultra-based Gigabyte GA-K8N-Ultra9, with 2xMaxtor HDDs in RAID0 )!

Thank you, Fernando, for your (very good) explanation! And a very big THANK YOU to the author of nLite - it's a really AMAZING piece of software!!

Thank you for your post!

CU

Fernando

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  • 2 weeks later...
RickSteele, how many drive do u have on sata port ?
Hi Blank,

are you sure, that Rick will read all posts of this thread, unless he succeeded with the integration of the nForce SataRaid drivers?

You probably will have more chance to get an answer, if you send him a PM.

CU

Fernando

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ok i'll try this, because i want to reinstall an xp 32 and still having bsod. I had use the 6.85 package with nlite and unatend cd creator; with the two it's working find until i'll plug another drive on the nvidia s-ata port.

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eheh i'va been a little crazy few minuts ago :w00t: last i night i reinstall an xp32 coz this f**k*n starforce wont work on a xp64, so there all test i make using an xp32 with nf4 16x 6.85 package:

-make a full unatend cd with content of legacy folder copy in sata_raid (without overwrite) = bsod

-same with copy files describe on first post = same bsod (can stop reboot and error message was on acpi)

-try unatend cd creator and adding only sata_raid folder without modding and follow fernando guide = bsod

So i restart from 0 with floppy and xp pro 32 sp1a, i have copy on the floppy the content of the sata_raid folder and get no bsod.

Then i make a full modded cd with nlite (added sp2 & all hotfix) without driver integration and make it work fine. So for the end i have use the same project before and add the sata_raid folder as txt with no modding on driver and get it work too :thumbup

Just want to notice that all the stuff describe in this topic is working until i use only two sata drive, in my last working cd nf4 sata controller & parallel ata controller are recognize as standart controller and get no more bsod after reinstall the nf4 6.85 package.

To finish i think the bsod i get when using 3 drives on sata came from moving file before integration.

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ok i'll try this, because i want to reinstall an xp 32 and still having bsod. I had use the 6.85 package with nlite and unatend cd creator; with the two it's working find until i'll plug another drive on the nvidia s-ata port.
When did you plug the 3rd hdd (before or after the install)? Did you use the nVRaid utility?
So i restart from 0 with floppy and xp pro 32 sp1a, i have copy on the floppy the content of the sata_raid folder and get no bsod.

Then i make a full modded cd with nlite (added sp2 & all hotfix) without driver integration and make it work fine. So for the end i have use the same project before and add the sata_raid folder as txt with no modding on driver and get it work too :thumbup

Just want to notice that all the stuff describe in this topic is working until i use only two sata drive, in my last working cd nf4 sata controller & parallel ata controller are recognize as standart controller and get no more bsod after reinstall the nf4 6.85 package.

To finish i think the bsod i get when using 3 drives on sata came from moving file before integration.

Hi Blank,

your findings may be important for other users with nForce4 SLI x16 mainboard.

Just to clarify:

1. How did you get your Raid array to work "without driver integration"?

2. So you recommend for this special chipset just to integrate the SATA_RAID subfolder as TEXTMODE driver and nothing else? Or did this only work with more than 2 hdd's?

CU

Fernando

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i'm mad one more time, after install of drivers/software/4-5 reboots, i unplug my floppy drive, disable it in bios, change boot setting and get the bsod !!! :crazy:

I just return to bios and enable floppy drive without plug it and windows boot normally :huh: So to resume

raid0 set on sata port 1/2 + 3° drive on sata 3 + floppy enable in bios = boot ok

raid0 set on sata port 1/2 + 3° drive on sata 3 + floppy disable in bios = bsod

raid0 set on sata port 1/2 + no drive on sata 3/4 + floppy disable in bios = boot ok

raid0 set on sata port 1/2 + 3° drive on sata 3 + floppy enable in bios = boot ok

that's really awesome :ph34r:

To resume for nf4 16x + 6.85 + xp32

Just add sata_raid folder as txtmode without no mod, make install only with raid disk to prevent windows to put mbr on wrong disk and let's floppy enable in bios :whistle:

Just to clarify:

1. How did you get your Raid array to work "without driver integration"?

I use a floppy with sata_raid driver + f6 @ windows install

Edited by blank
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To resume for nf4 16x + 6.85 + xp32

Just add sata_raid folder as txtmode without no mod, make install only with raid disk to prevent windows to put mbr on wrong disk and let's floppy enable in bios

It is not easy to understand.

Do you mean that you integrated the SATA_RAID subfolder as TEXTMODE driver using nLite and additionally presented the same drivers by using F6/floppy method during TEXTMODE part of the installation?

When did you plug the 3rd hdd (before or after the install)? Did you use the nVRaid utility?
You did not answer to these questions.

EDIT: I have read, that you worked with Windows XP SP1a. There are other users which had problems trying to integrate the nForce SataRaid drivers into a bootable XP CD by using SP1a.

Please try to get a clean XP CD without SP1a or XP with integrated SP2. Maybe the install works this way without any floppy use!

Edited by Fernando 1
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To resume for nf4 16x + 6.85 + xp32

Just add sata_raid folder as txtmode without no mod, make install only with raid disk to prevent windows to put mbr on wrong disk and let's floppy enable in bios

It is not easy to understand.

Do you mean that you integrated the SATA_RAID subfolder as TEXTMODE driver using nLite and additionally presented the same drivers by using F6/floppy method during TEXTMODE part of the installation?

No i use the same driver but don't load it twice, i try floppy without integration and no floppy with integration

When did you plug the 3rd hdd (before or after the install)? Did you use the nVRaid utility?
You did not answer to these questions.

I plug my 3° drive at the end on setup, dont use nvraid utility

EDIT: I have read, that you worked with Windows XP SP1a. There are other users which had problems trying to integrate the nForce SataRaid drivers into a bootable XP CD by using SP1a.

Please try to get a clean XP CD without SP1a or XP with integrated SP2. Maybe the install works this way without any floppy use!

Don't have a clean cd, in fact the setup work with sp1a or sp2 without floppy, i get bsod until i disable floppy drive in bios.

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I plug my 3° drive at the end on setup, dont use nvraid utility
Maybe I am wrong, but I suppose, that this is the reason for all your troubles. If you want to create a new Raid array with 3 instead of 2 hdd's, it is not enough to enable the 3rd SataRaid port within BIOS, you have to add the new hdd to the array by nForce Raid utility.

Before you do that, I would recommend a backup of your important datas.

CU

Fernando

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