Integration of the nVRaid drivers into
Windows XP or Windows Server 2003
Introduction:
Many users with a NVIDIA Raid system on their computer know about the problems, when they try to install Windows XP or Windows Server 2003:
Even if they have a floppy drive and integrate the newest nForce SataRaid or PataRaid drivers by the F6-method, they get bluescreens or endless reboots at the end of the installation. The reason for this strange behaviour is the fact, that the actual NVIDIA Raid drivers are still not correctly digitally signed or WHQL-certified with the consequence, that the XP installation routine does not trust them. During the second (GUIMODE) part of the installation the correct (but uncertified) NVIDIA drivers are replaced by wrong (not working) Microsoft PCI-IDE standard drivers.
The only chance to prevent these problems is to create an Unattended Install CD with integrated nVRaid drivers using a method to enforce the installation of the correct NVIDIA drivers.
After a lot of tests with nLite I have found 2 different methods to enforce the installation of the correct nForce Raid and nForce S-ATA drivers und to prevent endless reboots at the end of the XP setup:
1. Method by directly enhancement of the NVIDIA drivers (OemInfFiles-Method)
and
2. Method by suppression or removal of other interfering drivers (Driver-Suppression/Removal-Method)
New and very easy method with nLite 1.0
The actual version of nLite 1.0 (RC1 or higher) offers the safest and easiest way to integrate the nVRaid drivers.
Advantages:
- fully automaticly method (without creating new directories or editing SIF or TXT files)
- without restriction of any kind during the use of nLite
Here is the way to do:
Description of the Driver-Integration-Method by using nLite 1.0
(valid for v. RC1 or higher)
Important requirements:
You only will succeed with the integration of the nForce SataRaid drivers, if you have
- an up-to-date mainboard BIOS (actual nVRaid drivers may need a Raid Bios v. 4.84 or higher)
- a stable system (proper RAM modules and stable BIOS settings)
- an original or perfectly created Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 CD
- a proper working IDE-connected CD or DVD drive
- an enabled ACPI power management (within BIOS, don't disabe it by nLite settings).
Tips:
1. You can see the nVRaid BIOS version of your system on the second boot screen. If you can't get a Raid BIOS version v. 4.84 or higher unless having flashed the latest mainboard BIOS, you might get problems with the integration of the latest nForce SataRaid drivers. In this case you should take the nForce driver package 6.53.
2. It is a good idea to unplug all unnecessary extern hardware devices during the install of the OS with integrated nVRaid drivers.
3. If you have hard disk drives outside your RAID array, you may get the problem, that the MS Setup routine tries to install the master boot record (MBR) on that non-RAID device, although you have set the RAID array as first bootable hard disk drive within BIOS. The only possibility to prevent this is to unplug these non-RAID hdd's during the installation of the OS. After the successful installation they can be reconnected without any problems.
1. nVRaid driver choice and preparation:
Although nLite allows the correct integration of the actual nForce SataRaid drivers and prevents the installation of the wrong MS IDE standard drivers, the biggest problem is the creation of the optimal nVRaid driver prepackaging. The choice of the best driver version and combination depends on the system (Chipset details and Raid BIOS version). NVIDIA has complicated all this, because they often change the composition of their driver packages and even the names of the files for not understandable reasons. Nevertheless I found a solution, which should be suitable for nearly everyone.
Windows XP:
* For the integration of the SataRaid or PataRaid drivers I propose to take the new official 32-bit NVIDIA nForce chipset driver package v. 6.70 (you may download it here, then extract the content). Fortunately NVIDIA has established a subfolder named LEGACY within the IDE\WinXP directory of this package. As this subfolder contains all necessary files, for most of the users any further preparations of this package are dispensable.
* If you had trouble with the integration of the LEGACY subfolder or if you just want to use the best and safest method for the later integration, you should take the SATARAID subfolder of the 6.70 package, but in this case you have to do some additional preparations within the IDE\WinXP directory of the driver package:
1) Open the LEGACY subfolder and copy the file NVATABUS.INF into the SATARAID subfolder.
2) Open the SATA_IDE subfolder and copy the files NVATA.CAT, NVIDE.NVU and NVCOI.DLL into the SATARAID subfolder.
Now your SATARAID subfolder of the 6.70 package is well prepared for the later integration of the SataRaid drivers.
* Users with a nVRaid BIOS version lower than 4.84 should integrate the SataRaid drivers off the package 6.53 (downloadable here). Just unzip the package. The later integration is easy, because the IDE\WinXP directory of this package does not contain any driver subfolder. So all needed drivers and files for the later SataRaid driver integration are laying within the IDE\WinXP directory.
* Users with an nForce4 AMD/Intel SLI X16 mainboard should take the nForce chipset driver package 6.85 (you can download it from here). As this new package contains a LEGACY subfolder with all necessary files, there is no need for any further driver preparation. RickSteele reported, that it would even be better to take the SATARAID subfolder. But before you integrate it, you have to add the NVATABUS.INF (from the LEGACY) and the NVATA.CAT, NVIDE.NVU and NVCOI.DLL (from the SATA_IDE).
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