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Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers


Fernando 1

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Thanks for the reply.

Acronis worked and I'm back on the afflicted machine with no problems (with yesterday's image).

2 GB of RAM.

I've got the P6N SLI-Fi, not the SLI Platinum I guess (so no eSata and no second SATA controller).

This is the optical drive I used to install the OS initially (onto my RAID array).

I'll try with the clean XP + XP3 retail disc, nLite the drivers (from here) onto it, and see what happens.

Now that I know Acronis works (never actually tested the restore before).

Perhaps this weekend / the next 3-day weekend. This was way too much drama for a Monday.

I'll update here with whatever happens.

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Well I tried again yesterday.

Used the clean XP SP3 image, dumped the 10, whatever drivers (from the nForce 15.25 package) into it with nLite (as well as an update pack and a bunch of tweaks).

Worked like a charm. :thumbup

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  • 4 weeks later...
If its in-box then i shouldn't bother trying to integrate it...
I have them extracted, but you cannot use them from scratch with Windows XP, because the TXTSETUP.OEM file is missing.

Can the txtsetup file be added into the win7 drivers? Or is modifying the driver a fruitless endeavor?

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If its in-box then i shouldn't bother trying to integrate it...
I have them extracted, but you cannot use them from scratch with Windows XP, because the TXTSETUP.OEM file is missing.
Can the txtsetup file be added into the win7 drivers? Or is modifying the driver a fruitless endeavor?
Vista and Win7 don't need and don't use the TXTSETUP.OEM file.
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Vista and Win7 don't need and don't use the TXTSETUP.OEM file.

Sorry i didn't make that very clear. Are any parts of the win7 driver compatible or interchangeable with the XP driver?

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Vista and Win7 don't need and don't use the TXTSETUP.OEM file.
Sorry i didn't make that very clear. Are any parts of the win7 driver compatible or interchangeable with the XP driver?
The Win7 in-box nForce drivers may work with Vista, but I doubt, that they will be usable with Windows XP.
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  • 2 weeks later...
is it possible to integrate all textmode drivers (all nvidia and all intel) so as to have only one XP install CD?
You can integrate more than 1 textmode driver, but I do not recommend to integrate different textmode drivers from the same chipset vendor.

Reason:

The real drivers are the files with the extension ".SYS". Windows XP /32/64bit) Setup will only detect the SATA hdd's, which are set to RAID or AHCI mode, if the suitable textmode driver SYS file is present within the i386/AMD64 directory of the XP CD.

Problem: The chipset vendors (in your case: Intel and NVIDIA) have created and published many different textmode driver versions with completely different functions and compatibilities, but with the same names.

Examples: All 32/64bit Intel SATA drivers are named IASTOR.SYS, NVIDIA's 32bit SATA drivers are named NVATABUS.SYS/NVATA.SYS or NVGTS.SYS.

Bad consequence: If you integrate different Intel or NVIDIA textmode drivers into the same XP CD (32/64bit), the final OS installation may fail, because the correct SATA driver (SYS file) has been overwritten during the driver integration processing.

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First up: thanks Fernando1 for your hard work and dedication on this for 86 pages!! Rather than trawl through that lot, I'll post my question here at the end!

I'm trying to put together a sysprep image that supports the diverse hardware in my organization. I've successfully integrated drivers from Intel, JMicron and Silicon Image but I'm having trouble with the nForce kit. We have a small number of systems based on nForce 1, 2, 3, 4 and 410/430, so I am using "Fernandos XP 32bit nForce LEGACY Remix Pack v5.5a" as it seems to support them all. Unfortunately, my 410/430 based system (an Asus A8N-VM CSM motherboard with SATA RAID 5) crashes with a BSOD 0x07B error on first boot.

I have three folders in my image's C:\Drivers\Storage folder:

nVidia1 (which contains the contents of the "sataraid" folder from the driver pack)

nVidia2 (files from the "sata_ide" folder)

nVidia3 (files from the "legacy" folder)

(The reason the folders are numbered like this is to get the sysprep process to try them in order (newest to oldest) and use the first driver it finds that works)

My sysprep.inf [sysprepMassStorage] section contains the following lines:

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0266&CC_0104=C:\Drivers\Storage\nVidia1\nvraid.inf
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0267&CC_0104=C:\Drivers\Storage\nVidia1\nvraid.inf
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0266&CC_0101=C:\Drivers\Storage\nVidia2\nvata.inf
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0267&CC_0101=C:\Drivers\Storage\nVidia2\nvata.inf
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0265&CC_0101=C:\Drivers\Storage\nVidia3\nvatabus.inf

(There are other lines to support other mass storage controllers, I've just included the relevant ones for the 410/430)

First of all, am I using the correct drivers for what I want to accomplish?

Second, am I doing this the right way?

Thanks in advance for any help/guidance/ideas you can give me!!

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@ beardy:

Welcome at MSFN Forums!

Here is my comment:

1. If you want to use 1 single driverpack for nForce2, nForce3, nForce4 and nForce 430/410 (MCP51) chipset mainboards, you have chosen the best suitable one. The included nForce IDE drivers v6.99 will fully support them all.

2. It is not a good idea to integrate all 3 IDE driver folders (SATARAID, SATA_IDE and LEGACY). My suggestion: Just integrate the LEGACY driver folder. This way nearly all possible hdd configurations (even PATA and PataRAID Controllers) will be supported.

3. The ASUS A8N-VM CSM motherboard is supporting RAID5, but you will need an appropriate mainboard BIOS and nVRAID BIOS version.

Good luck!

Fernando

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi all - new member of the forum - found Fernando's post on NVRAID installs, read through many of the pages, and it looks fantastic. Couldn't find my solution exactly, though.

Before I kill data on my drives, I thought I'd ask for some advice. Though I've mastered plenty of weird XP quirks, this one's slightly beyond me.

System:

Asus nForce5 590SLI (M2N32SLI Dlx)

GeForce 8800GT

2x 74GB raptors (RAID 1) (Edit: fixed RAID type)

2x 160G Hitachis (RAID 1) (Edit: fixed RAID type)

1x 500G Seagate

1x 250G WD (fresh drive)

I was having some BSOD errors yesterday, so decided to upgrade drivers in case that was the problem. Went to NV nForce 15.25, and it killed the nV RAID. Drives are still there, but during POST, the pc hangs at "Detecting Array" if I try RAID-enabling the Raptors in BIOS. If I leave them as JBOD, but RAID-0 the Hitachis, POST says "Healthy" array, but WinXP Pro doesn't see them at all.

I've re-installed XPpro on the 250G, but didn't do the F6-install for drivers, just trying to see if all my data was on the HDDs. It is.

Now, the system's booting off one of the Raptors, but only in JBOD mode. DevMgr says the NVRaid controller's working properly, Ver 10.3.0.46. But no RAIDs visible.

Any ideas? I'm copying all data to the SG & WD drives in case I have to do a wipe, but I really, really want to avoid that.

Or, if I drop the Raptors to JBOD, and do a fresh XP install on one of them, then "rebuild" the array, can I tell it which directories to mirror from each drive? Or would I just be SOL?

TIA,

Jim/ByTor

Edited by Bytor
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@ Bytor:

Welcome at MSFN Forums!

Before I can give you any advice, I need some additional informations:

1. Before you installed Windows XP onto your single WD hdd, which OS were you running?

2. Do you have any additional OS installed?

3. On which hard disk drive is the boot sector (MBR)?

4. Is it possible, that you got more than 1 MBR within your system?

5. Which order did you set at the BIOS option "HARD DISK BOOT PRIORITY"?

6. Did you really create 2 RAID0 (=striped) arrays? I ask this, because you wrote about a "mirror", which would be a RAID1 array.

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@ Bytor:

Welcome at MSFN Forums!

Before I can give you any advice, I need some additional informations:

1. Before you installed Windows XP onto your single WD hdd, which OS were you running?

A: WinXP Pro 32, SP2. Same as is on the single WD

2. Do you have any additional OS installed?

A: Not at this time.

3. On which hard disk drive is the boot sector (MBR)?

A: Normally it would be on the RAIDed Raptors.

4. Is it possible, that you got more than 1 MBR within your system?

A: If the C: RAID wasn't detected, I imagine the BIOS could see a MBR on SATA 1 & SATA5 (where the Raptors are connected)

5. Which order did you set at the BIOS option "HARD DISK BOOT PRIORITY"?

A: Normally, it's set to HD/CD/Removable or HD/CD/Disabled.

6. Did you really create 2 RAID0 (=striped) arrays? I ask this, because you wrote about a "mirror", which would be a RAID1 array.

A: Bleah. You're right. I wasn't thinking clearly. They're 2 sets of mirrored drives, RAID 1. 1 set is the Raptors, for /Windows and fast-access programs, the 2nd set is the Hitachis, for slower-access pgms (Orifice, etc) and digital media files, and all other /My Documents stuffs.

See embedded answers... I really appreciate the help.

I'm about ready to trash one of the Raptors with a LLFormat, and just build a new RAID array from the other drive. This may be the least painful solution, unless you've got some other ideas. :)

One additional note - I'm now able to see the Hitachis in RAID-1 within Windows - functioning normally. Registered the nvraidservice thru the .bat file, and that made them visible. Thought I'd try re-enabling RAID on the Raptors, and the system hangs again at "Detecting Array." I haven't gone back to clear CMOS yet, because I don't have the willpower to spend a few hours on the PC right now - that'll be a weekend job. Posting this now from the wife's lappy.

Edited by Bytor
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The Hitachi-Problem seems to be solved, so let`s look at your Raptors.

You got 2 of them, they were figured as RAID-1, so both HDDs have the full data on it.

If one of the HDDs crashes you`re able to REBUILD the RAID-0 with another spare HDD.

I would give this a try: Use your "1x 250G WD (fresh drive)" as spare drive and try to

rebuild the (former Raptor-) RAID-1. Try this with both Raptors to see if one causes the failure.

Edited by g-force
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