Integration of nForce SataRaid drivers

[Fernando]

@ All users with a NVIDIA nForce SataRaid system:

The tool WUCD Creator (since version 0.9.8 ) offers a very easy way to integrate the actual nForce SataRaid drivers into a bootable Windows XP CD (32- and 64-bit).
If you use the CD Creator for the integration of these problematic drivers, there is no need for any additional handmade work (creation of folders, editing of SIF or OEM files). At the end of the install of the bootable CD you have a perfectly working OS with up-to-date nForce SataRaid drivers - no F6 and no floppy is needed.
Vitali Graf as the "composer" of the CD Creator managed this by the complete integration of a special method, that I have described in summer 2005 (OemInfFiles method *). This method prevents, that the MS setup routine installs the wrong MS standard IDE drivers instead of the still not correctly digitally signed nForce SataRaid drivers.

Important requirements for the successful integration of the actual nForce SataRaid drivers:
a) up-to-date mainboard BIOS (new nVRaid drivers need an actual Raid Bios, which is a part of the mainboard BIOS)
b) enabled ACPI (Power Management)
c) error free OS CD and CD-ROM device
d) correctly configurated and activated nForce Raid array (BIOS and F10)

1. Preparations:
Download the actual version of the CD Creator here and install it.
Before you begin your work with the CD Creator, you should lay out the suitable nForce drivers you want to integrate. The choice of the best suitable NVIDIA SataRaid drivers depends on the mainboard chipset features and a little bit on the available Raid BIOS version:

For the later integration of the SataRaid drivers into a Windows XP CD (32-Bit) I recommend one of the following nForce chipset driver packages:
a) v. 6.85 (get it here) for mainboards with nForce4 Ultra, nForce4 AMD/Intel SLI and nForce4 AMD/Intel SLIx16 chipset,
b) v. 9.34 (get it here and don't take the official 9.34 package) for mainboards with an nForce 410/430 chipset (Notice: These newest 32-bit nForce SataRaid drivers v. 667 can be used with other nForce chipsets too),
c) v. 6.53 (get it here) for all nForce4 chipset owners, who got problems with the newer nForce SataRaid drivers because of their old nVRaid BIOS version or
d) v. 5.11 (get it here) for mainboards with nForce 3 chipset.
Owners of a mainboard with an nForce590/570/550 chipset should take the 32-bit nForce SataRaid-drivers they find on their mainboard driver CD.

If you want to build a Windows XP x64 CD, you should take one of the following driver packages:
a) v. 6.67 (get it here) for mainboards with nForce4 Ultra or nForce4 AMD/Intel SLI chipset,
b) v. 9.34 (get the x64 version here and don't take the official 9.34 package) for mainboards with an nForce 410/430 chipset (Notice: These newest 64-bit nForce SataRaid drivers can be used for other nForce chipsets too)
c) v. 6.56 (get it here) for all users with an nForce4 board, who had troubles with the 6.67 or 9.34 package and
d) v. 6.25 (get it here) for mainboards with nForce3 chipset.
Owners of a mainboard with nForce590/570/550 chipset should take the 64-bit nForce SataRaid drivers they find on their mainboard driver CD.

2. Processing:
After the start of the CD Creator you may use all options you want, but you have to do the "Driver Integration".

Within the section "Driver Integration" it is necessary to pay attention to the following:

• Choose the integration of "Controller Driver" and point to the IDE\WinXP\LEGACY subfolder of your prepared nForce chipset driver package (if you use the 32-bit packages v. 6.53 and v. 5.11 or one of the x64 packages v. 6.25 and 6.56, just point into the IDE\WinXP directory).
  
• You have to integrate one after the other both proposed drivers as Controller Drivers.
  
• Owners of a mainboard with nForce590/570/550 chipset should integrate the SATARAID instead of the LEGACY subfolder.

Then you can integrate all other needed nForce (SMBus, Ethernet, Audio etc.) and other drivers as "normal" Device Drivers. Before you start with the integration you should give each driver a name (such as SMBus, nVLAN, Graphic, Audio, Printer etc.).

Very important:
After having finished the integration of all drivers, you have to flag the Controller driver named  NVATABUS (XPx32) or NVATAX64 (XPx64) by rightclicking as "Bad Controller". Only if you have done this, the OemInfFiles method will be activated for this suspicious driver by the CD Creator. If you miss this step, you will not succeed at the end of the install of your OS (result: endless reboots even in safe mode).
This step might not be necessary for owners of a mainboardwith nForce590/570/550 chipset, because the SATARAID subfolder mostly contains WHQL certified drivers.

3. Finalizing:
After the complete processing you should let the CD Creator build the CD image (ISO file). This ISO file can easily be burned as bootable CD by a burning program as Nero (use "Recorder" > "Burn Image....").

Ready!

I hope, that my guide is clear and easy to understand.

If you have any problems, please post into this thread. I will try to help you.

CU
Fernando


*) The OemInfFiles method for not WHQL certified drivers has been described the first time by PhreeZ in this thread.[/color]

[gisborne]

This (and the instructions here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/in...140-0.html

) don't work for me.

I have a Abit KN8 SLI mobo. When I use the CD built according to these instructions, about a minute after the "Starting Windows" message appears in the installation process, I get:

STOP: C0000221 Unknown Hard Error

\SystemRoot\System32\ntdll.dll

Note that I have been able to install Windows on this same hardware setup, without the drives in RAID configuration, by installing to a single drive without using the SATA drivers (so I get a 128 GB partition on my 300GB drive). This works fine, but weirdly, I've tried a couple of different partition resizers after installing all the drivers, and after I resize the partition, Windows becomes quite unstable.

I've also tried a third 300GB SATA drive, with similar results.

What's weird is that I can install the drivers into Windows once it's installed, and it will see the full 300GB and so on, but any attempt to use them in the installer process (either slipstreamed or via floppy disk) crashes the installer at this same point. I've tried various drivers from both the Abit and Nvidia's sites, always with the same results.

I've been trying to get this working for a couple of weeks now. I'm using dual Maxtor SATA Ultra 16 300GB in mirror configuration. 2GB RAM (top quality RAM, that I've tested), and a new DVD drive (also tried a different DVD drive).

Just so it's clear: following the instructions here, I loaded the IDE/XP/legacy drivers, then set nvatabus to Bad controller. I also loaded up the SMBus, Network, Audio and Nvidia video drivers (I have a 7900GT). Oh, and I've previously slipstreamed SP2 into the install directory.

Please help!

[Fernando]

I have a Abit KN8 SLI mobo. When I use the CD built according to these instructions, about a minute after the "Starting Windows" message appears in the installation process, I get:
STOP: C0000221 Unknown Hard Error
\SystemRoot\System32\ntdll.dll
Please help!

Some ideas:
1. Are your RAM sticks rock stable?
2. Is your XP SP2 CD "clean" (fresh created and not manipulated) and proper burned?
3. If your Maxtor hdd's are SATA2 ones, did you look for a firmware update or alternatively have you jumpered them to SATA1?
4. Is your Raid array "healthy" (shown at second boot screen)?
5. Have you unplugged all non-Raid hdd's and USB devices before you started the install?
6. Do you really have only 1 MBR on drive C:?
If all your answers are "yes", you should do the following:
Try to install the original XP CD by hitting F6 and presenting the SataRaid drivers off the nForce chipset driver package 6.53. If the install fails, you have a hardware problem, that has nothing to do with the nForce driver integration.

CU
Fernando

[gisborne]

I have a Abit KN8 SLI mobo. When I use the CD built according to these instructions, about a minute after the "Starting Windows" message appears in the installation process, I get:
STOP: C0000221 Unknown Hard Error
\SystemRoot\System32\ntdll.dll
Please help!

Some ideas:
1. Are your RAM sticks rock stable?
2. Is your XP SP2 CD "clean" (fresh created and not manipulated) and proper burned?
3. If your Maxtor hdd's are SATA2 ones, did you look for a firmware update or alternatively have you jumpered them to SATA1?
4. Is your Raid array "healthy" (shown at second boot screen)?
5. Have you unplugged all non-Raid hdd's and USB devices before you started the install?
6. Do you really have only 1 MBR on drive C:?
If all your answers are "yes", you should do the following:
Try to install the original XP CD by hitting F6 and presenting the SataRaid drivers off the nForce chipset driver package 6.53. If the install fails, you have a hardware problem, that has nothing to do with the nForce driver integration.

Thanks. My RAM is stable. I used a fresh copy of my XP CD. Nothing in the specs of my Maxtor SATA drives mentions SATA2. I've also had the same problem with a Samsung drive (unable to access the whole drive, even outside of a RAID configuration). The RAID array shows healthy at the second boot screen. I only have the two HDs and a DVD drive plugged in.

I've no idea if I have only one MBR on C or how I would tell or remedy the situation. I would use the Recovery Console to look into this, but the RC would only be able to see the drive if I could load SATA drivers, which of course, I can't. But when I turned on RAID, and erased the drives, would that not have fixed this?

Please note that without the RAID turned on, I've been able to install XP, SP2 and all the updates, along with a whole bunch of software, in the first 128GB of the drive. I've used the system, played Far Cry and other games for some time, and generally pounded on it, with no problems whatever. The only time this system fails is when I try to use SATA drivers. And then, it fails immediately. For this reason, I'm fairly convinced that the drivers are the problem.

[Fernando]

Please note that without the RAID turned on, I've been able to install XP, SP2 and all the updates, along with a whole bunch of software, in the first 128GB of the drive. I've used the system, played Far Cry and other games for some time, and generally pounded on it, with no problems whatever. The only time this system fails is when I try to use SATA drivers. And then, it fails immediately. For this reason, I'm fairly convinced that the drivers are the problem.

I don't think, that the nForce SATA drivers are the reason for your problems, provided that you took the ones I proposed in my guide. It sounds more likely as an nForce Raid controller issue of your board.
To find it out I have more questions:
Which nForce chipset driver package and which subfolder did you use for the SataRaid driver integrating?
Did you reformat (best way: low format) your hdd's after your non-Raid tests to get the MBR totally clean for your Raid setup?
What is about the test with F6 and the drivers off the 6.53 package? Did you succeed this way?  

[gisborne]

I don't think, that the nForce SATA drivers are the reason for your problems, provided that you took the ones I proposed in my guide. It sounds more likely as an nForce Raid controller issue of your board.
To find it out I have more questions:
Which nForce chipset driver package and which subfolder did you use for the SataRaid driver integrating?
Did you reformat (best way: low format) your hdd's after your non-Raid tests to get the MBR totally clean for your Raid setup?
What is about the test with F6 and the drivers off the 6.53 package? Did you succeed this way?

I'm sorry: 6.53? Your original post seems to propose I use 6.70, which I did via slipstreaming. I'll try the F6 route.

Also: I've tried all kinds of permutations with both nlite and wucc. The latter offers the "Bad driver" right click option, but I don't see something similar in nLite. It would be helpful to understand what that is doing and why it is (supposed to be) helpful.

Edit: or is it 6.85, which is described as being for "mainboards with nForce4 AMD/Intel SLI x16 chipset". I find that confusing: surely, AMD and Intel chipsets don't both use the same driver?

[gisborne]

Well, this would seem to be some progress: a CD with the beta drivers slipstreamed ran through the install, but then got to restarting into Windows, and we get the restarting loop, even with Safe Mode.

I still have the wucc window open in which I created the image, and I definitely have nvatabus (only) set to "bad controller".

Still: this means I can get into Recovery Console, with Windows (almost) installed. Can I repair the problem from there?

[gisborne]

Reading up on the original discovery about how to do this, I'm still somewhat confused, but in the Recovery console, I see that \Windows\OEMDIR has nvatabus.sys, along with all the other driver files I installed. Is there a file I can edit to get Windows to load this file?

[Fernando]

I'm sorry: 6.53? Your original post seems to propose I use 6.70, which I did via slipstreaming. I'll try the F6 route.

Also: I've tried all kinds of permutations with both nlite and wucc. The latter offers the "Bad driver" right click option, but I don't see something similar in nLite. It would be helpful to understand what that is doing and why it is (supposed to be) helpful.

Edit: or is it 6.85, which is described as being for "mainboards with nForce4 AMD/Intel SLI x16 chipset". I find that confusing: surely, AMD and Intel chipsets don't both use the same driver?

1. All chipset driver packages with a version number of 6.66 or higher will cause an endless reboot at the end of the OS installation, if you have an nForce SataRaid system and try to install them during setup by hitting F6 (for details look into my guide). That is the reason, why I suggested to try the F6 installation with SataRaid drivers off the old 6.53 package. It's just for testing your system and to find the reason for your problems.
2. nLite and CD Creator are different tools with different methods to prevent the "endless reboot effect" after the integration of the actual nForce SataRaid drivers. While nForce manipulates the MS standard IDE drivers, the CD Creator enhances the nForce driver integration by the so called OemInfFiles method, which is the best I know (for details have a look into my first post).
3. Yes, there are a lot of different nForce chipsets (not only AMD/Intel) and all need the same nForce SataRaid drivers named NVRAID.SYS and NVATABUS.SYS. The decision, if a chipset can use the driver or not, is only implemented within the special INF file, which contains the install informations of the related driver.

Reading up on the original discovery about how to do this, I'm still somewhat confused, but in the Recovery console, I see that \Windows\OEMDIR has nvatabus.sys, along with all the other driver files I installed. Is there a file I can edit to get Windows to load this file?

This folder is created by the CD Creator using the OemInfFiles method for the "bad" NVATABUS driver. After the complete and successful install this OEMDIR folder is not needed any more and can be deleted. I don't know a way to repair a failed installation by using these files.

Important information for all users:
After a lot of tests within the last days I detected, that the best nForce chipset driver package for the nForce Sataraid driver integration is the one for Vista Beta2! This brandnew package seems to be not only the best choice for W2k, XP, W2k3 and Vista, but also fully compatible to all of the various nForce chipsets!
As a consequence I have modified my guide within the first post of this thread.
  

[gisborne]

I just tried *very carefully* starting from scratch, slipstreaming in SP2, then loading up all the 6.85 drivers. And I get the STOP error.