ICH9R - Intel Matrix Help

[kirscp]

I am running an Asus P5E3 Deluxe.

During my build I included two WD Raptors in RAID and installed WinXP Home and installed WinVista Home on another drive. Well, the WD's crapped out, so I installed WinXP Home on the secondary drive. I was going to install Vista Home on the RAID.

I now have Vista on RAID and XP on the secondary drive. Here is my problem.

If I have RAID enabled in BIOS I can NOT get XP to load. I get a blue screen. I disable RAID, works just fine. Vista works fine in RAID.

I figure that problem with XP is there isn't the Intel Matrix driver installed. WELL, when I try to install the Matrix driver it says "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing this software." My only option is to close. I suppose it won't let me install Matrix since I have RAID disabled.

How can I get the Matrix driver intalled into XP? I tried safe mode, no go.

Any ideas?

[rjs735]

Intel® Matrix Storage Manager - Intel® Matrix Storage Manager support

This the matrix support page from support.intel.com.
Just a quick read tells me you have to install the drivers from a diskette before the OS the install .

There is a quick install guide as well as users pdf. They should be able to answer your question better than I .

[kirscp]

There has to be a way to install the driver into a current windows XP. My version of XP is not on the RAID, but I need the driver installed to see the RAID array.

If someone wanted to add a RAID array, mirrored for storage, you can't tell me that you have to do a complete reinstall of Windows.

I'll do some more looking, was hoping somone had run into this before and had a quick answer.

[rjs735]

I found this on the Asus forum relevant to your P5E3 dlx under the heading Raid Faq

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum-

There are 3 items related to Raid for your board
1. Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver Vers 7.5.0.1017 for XP

2. Intel Chipset software Installation Utility V 8.3.0.1013 for XP

3 Make Intel ICH( Raid Drivers V 7.5.0.1017 for XP

There is also one for Jmicron JMB363 Raid driver V 1.17.15.0 for XP

The only raid as you know that has 100% recovery is 5. In order for you to see even a single drive that was created under a raid driver is to have the raid driver loaded. The problems is in order for the OS to know about the raid driver is to have it loaded before the install and install the OS.

I assume the intel matrix docs and support site were of no use. My knowledge of Raid is from watercooled mainframes. I have raid running on my P4S8X but only have two non raid drives running under the raid controller. So the raid drives are loaded before Xp comes up and sees the 2 non raid drives that had to be defined in the raid software to even be initialized.

Bottom line is there doesn't appear to be any way for you to see data that has been allocated under a raid software control.

According to this link you may need the Intel chipset driver to be loaded first before the Matrix software will load

Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility - Do I need the Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility?

This may answer your question

ntel® Matrix Storage Manager
Do I need to use the F6 installation method?

Answer the following questions to determine if you need to use the F6 installation method:

Question 1 - Does your system have one of the following controller hubs?

* Intel® 82801IR/IO Controller Hub (ICH9R)
* Intel® 82801HEM I/O Controller Hub (ICH8M-E)
* Intel® 82801HBM I/O Controller Hub (ICH8M)
* Intel® 82801HR/HH/HO I/O Controller Hub (ICH8R)
* Intel® 631xESB/632xESB I/O Controller Hub
* Intel® 82801GHM I/O Controller Hub (ICH7MDH)
* Intel® 82801GBM I/O Controller Hub (ICH7M)
* Intel® 82801GR I/O Controller Hub (ICH7R)
* Intel® 82801GH I/O Controller Hub (ICH7DH)
* Intel® 82801FR I/O Controller Hub (ICH6R)
* Intel® 82801FBM I/O Controller Hub (ICH6M)
* Intel® 82801ER I/O Controller Hub (ICH5R)

If the answer is yes, proceed to question 2.

If the answer is no, the F6 installation method and the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager are not required.

Question 2 - Is your system in AHCI mode?

If the answer is yes, proceed to question 4.

If the answer is no, proceed to question 3.

Question 3 - Is your system in RAID mode?

If the answer is yes, proceed to question 4.

If the answer is no, the F6 installation method and the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager are not required.

Question 4 - Are you using Microsoft Windows Vista*?

If the answer is no, you will need to use the F6 installation method to load the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager driver during operating system install. If your system is in RAID mode, once the operating system has been loaded, it is recommended that you install Intel® Matrix Storage Manager via its executable from within Windows*. This will allow you to take advantage of the Intel® Matrix Storage Console and event notifications available via the system tray icon.

If the answer is yes, the F6 installation method is not required. If your system is in RAID mode, once the operating system has been loaded, it is recommended that you install Intel® Matrix Storage Manager via its executable from within Windows. This will allow you to take advantage of the Intel® Matrix Storage Console and event notifications available via the system tray icon.

This applies to:
Intel® Application Accelerator RAID Edition
Intel® Matrix Storage Manager
Intel® Matrix Storage Technology

[GWillakers]

Wow what a coincidence!

I'm running ICH7R... but similar predicament...

Normally I run Software raid under Win 2K server... but just bought an additional pair of drives and wanted to put them under Intel matrix raid...

My situation:

Raptor is non-raid and has the "System Partition"
Partititioned to include Boot partitions for Win 2K Pro, XP, and 2K server

You mean to tell me I can't add two Sata "Data" drives ...
under Raid, without reinstalling all three Operating systems?

When I installed each operating system... I did not make them "Raid Ready"
by adding the F6 diskette... At the time the BIOS was set to IDE not
Raid.


Any help appreciated.... Thanks G..

[rjs735]

Originally Posted by GWillakers

Wow what a coincidence!

I'm running ICH7R... but similar predicament...

Normally I run Software raid under Win 2K server... but just bought an additional pair of drives and wanted to put them under Intel matrix raid...

My situation:

Raptor is non-raid and has the "System Partition"
Partititioned to include Boot partitions for Win 2K Pro, XP, and 2K server

You mean to tell me I can't add two Sata "Data" drives ...
under Raid, without reinstalling all three Operating systems?

When I installed each operating system... I did not make them "Raid Ready"
by adding the F6 diskette... At the time the BIOS was set to IDE not
Raid.


Any help appreciated.... Thanks G..

I think in your situation you should be able to add your 2 sata drives. Your going to have to add them under win2k if you wnt them to be a part of the raid array. If not then you should be able to add them under xp as not raid enabled.
Your situation is different in that you don't have any raid data on your drives you just want to add them to the system. Kirscp has a drive with raid data that he wants to access without reinstalling the os which would then req an F6 raid driver install. He doesn't want to do an OS reinstall he wants to add the raid drivers after the fact. And he can't.

You both need to see if you have AHCI turned on in your bios

Also I pulled this off "PC perspectives forum"

Not sure if this has been posted before, but I managed to successfully enable AHCI mode after installing Windows. Here's how...

AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) is present on newer Intel chipsets such as 975X (ICH7), P965 (ICH8), and P35 (ICH9). AHCI mode is enabled in the BIOS and 3 settings are commonly available: IDE, AHCI, and RAID. The last two (AHCI and RAID) require a driver floppy and the F6 method when installing Windows XP otherwise the hard disks won't be detected.

AHCI mode brings 3 main advantages:

1. Supports NCQ (Native Command Queuing) allowing SATA drives to accept more than one command at a time and dynamically reorder the commands for maximum efficiency.
2. Supports hot plugging of devices
3. Supports staggered spin ups of multiple hard drives at boot time


However, in the real world the performance difference isn't huge.

The problem is that if you installed Windows in IDE mode (ie you didn't use F6 and supply a driver disk), then simply changing the BIOS setting to AHCI mode and rebooting will cause Windows to fail and will require a repair install. Most people have been advising to reinstall Windows if you want AHCI enabled.

I managed to enable AHCI on Windows XP Professional for a Gigabyte P35-DS4 (ICH9R) without needing to reinstall. This should work on any P35 ICH9 based board:

1. Go to Intel's download centre and download the latest version of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (7.6.0.1011, 8/2/2007 at time of writing) for your OS:

Support Intel

Keep this file as you'll need it again in step 4.

2. Run the installer with the -a switch to extract the files. This will NOT install the software, just extract the files. Follow the prompts as if you were installing the software:

Code:

iata76_enu.exe -a

The above should extract the files to \Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager. There are two folders, \Drivers and \Drivers64 for 32-bit and 64-bit OS's, respectively.

Copy the file IaStor.sys from the Drivers folder to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\

3. copy the following registry file to your desktop (copy and paste into notepad) and save as ahci.reg

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2922&cc_0106] "Service"="iaStor" "ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor] "Type"=dword:00000001 "Start"=dword:00000000 "Group"="SCSI miniport" "ErrorControl"=dword:00000001 "ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\iaStor.sys" "tag"=dword:00000019 "DisplayName"="Intel AHCI Controller" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters] "queuePriorityEnable"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum] "0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_02\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA" "Count"=dword:00000001 "NextInstance"=dword:00000001

4. Double check you've copied the IaStor.sys file as part of step 2. Now do the following:

* Run the ahci.reg file to add the entries into the registry
* Reboot the computer and enter the BIOS - DO NOT allow it to start Windows yet.
* Change the setting for the on board Intel controller to AHCI, save and exit BIOS
* Boot into Windows


When Windows loads it will detect a new hard disk - cancel the wizard for installing the new hardware and run the Intel driver installer you downloaded in step 1.

Reboot the system again and you're good to go

Now, under Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers you should see Intel(R) ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller listed.

Hope someone finds this useful - I wanted to do this as I needed AHCI mode to dual boot Linux and I didn't have a floppy drive on the machine to allow me to install Windows XP in AHCI mode. This is one area Vista has moved forward - it will allow you to install drivers from devices other than A: such as a USB pendrive or CD.

If you want to enable write caching, see einshem's tip here:

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.p...5&postcount=23

Quote:
Originally Posted by einshem
2. All this process worth nothing if you forget at the end to go to device manager, double klick your hard-drive(s) under "disk drivers", go to "policies" tab and mark "Enable write caching for this disk" (I recommend adding this to the guide)
EDIT: Here is a Registry file that should work for 975X and P965 based boards:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2821&cc_0106] "Service"="iaStor" "ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor] "Type"=dword:00000001 "Start"=dword:00000000 "Group"="SCSI miniport" "ErrorControl"=dword:00000001 "ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\iaStor.sys" "tag"=dword:00000019 "DisplayName"="Intel AHCI Controller" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters] "queuePriorityEnable"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum] "0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2821&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_02\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA" "Count"=dword:00000001 "NextInstance"=dword:00000001

I do belive this will fix KIRSCP's problem it may help with Jwillaker's. It appears from the item that only a reinstall or a repir install would fix the ( obviously) the registry problem. Hope this helps

[GWillakers]

Wow thanks...

I appreciate the effort... typing and research...

I am not quiet sure I wanna go down this yellow brick road...
Lions and Tigers and Bears... oh my..

I thought I wasn't gonna have a problem because my OS's were not
gonna be raided... but when I changed Sata setting from IDE to Raid...
The three Operating Systems could not find the boot drives...

Also I have to consider repercussions of having
two different releases of (Intel Matrix storage ) accessing the drives.
XP runs with the Current version
2K Pro runs with a prior release
I get conflicting information as to wether 2K server is supported at all.

Since this is my data that I'm talking about...
I think I will seek out a more tried and true solution...

Once again thanks...

[kirscp]

I figured I'd have to reinstall XP, no biggy I guess. I'll just use Vista more until I decided to take the time to reinstall XP.

I always thought the f6 was just if you wanted to install the OS onto the RAID. Guess I won't make that mistake again.

It would always be best to f6 and install all RAID drivers even if you aren't going to be intalling the OS onto RAID ... this appears to exclude Vista though.

Thanks for the help.

[rjs735]

Sorry it couldn't be an easier solution.

[Kwisatz Haderac]

Originally Posted by rjs735

Also I pulled this off "PC perspectives forum"

Not sure if this has been posted before, but I managed to successfully enable AHCI mode after installing Windows. Here's how...

AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) is present on newer Intel chipsets such as 975X (ICH7), P965 (ICH8), and P35 (ICH9). AHCI mode is enabled in the BIOS and 3 settings are commonly available: IDE, AHCI, and RAID. The last two (AHCI and RAID) require a driver floppy and the F6 method when installing Windows XP otherwise the hard disks won't be detected.

AHCI mode brings 3 main advantages:

1. Supports NCQ (Native Command Queuing) allowing SATA drives to accept more than one command at a time and dynamically reorder the commands for maximum efficiency.
2. Supports hot plugging of devices
3. Supports staggered spin ups of multiple hard drives at boot time


However, in the real world the performance difference isn't huge.

The problem is that if you installed Windows in IDE mode (ie you didn't use F6 and supply a driver disk), then simply changing the BIOS setting to AHCI mode and rebooting will cause Windows to fail and will require a repair install. Most people have been advising to reinstall Windows if you want AHCI enabled.

I managed to enable AHCI on Windows XP Professional for a Gigabyte P35-DS4 (ICH9R) without needing to reinstall. This should work on any P35 ICH9 based board:

1. Go to Intel's download centre and download the latest version of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (7.6.0.1011, 8/2/2007 at time of writing) for your OS:

Support Intel

Keep this file as you'll need it again in step 4.

2. Run the installer with the -a switch to extract the files. This will NOT install the software, just extract the files. Follow the prompts as if you were installing the software:

Code:

iata76_enu.exe -a

The above should extract the files to \Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager. There are two folders, \Drivers and \Drivers64 for 32-bit and 64-bit OS's, respectively.

Copy the file IaStor.sys from the Drivers folder to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\

3. copy the following registry file to your desktop (copy and paste into notepad) and save as ahci.reg

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2922&cc_0106] "Service"="iaStor" "ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor] "Type"=dword:00000001 "Start"=dword:00000000 "Group"="SCSI miniport" "ErrorControl"=dword:00000001 "ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\iaStor.sys" "tag"=dword:00000019 "DisplayName"="Intel AHCI Controller" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters] "queuePriorityEnable"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum] "0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_02\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA" "Count"=dword:00000001 "NextInstance"=dword:00000001

4. Double check you've copied the IaStor.sys file as part of step 2. Now do the following:

* Run the ahci.reg file to add the entries into the registry
* Reboot the computer and enter the BIOS - DO NOT allow it to start Windows yet.
* Change the setting for the on board Intel controller to AHCI, save and exit BIOS
* Boot into Windows


When Windows loads it will detect a new hard disk - cancel the wizard for installing the new hardware and run the Intel driver installer you downloaded in step 1.

Reboot the system again and you're good to go

Now, under Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers you should see Intel(R) ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller listed.

Hope someone finds this useful - I wanted to do this as I needed AHCI mode to dual boot Linux and I didn't have a floppy drive on the machine to allow me to install Windows XP in AHCI mode. This is one area Vista has moved forward - it will allow you to install drivers from devices other than A: such as a USB pendrive or CD.

If you want to enable write caching, see einshem's tip here:

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.p...5&postcount=23

Quote:
Originally Posted by einshem
2. All this process worth nothing if you forget at the end to go to device manager, double klick your hard-drive(s) under "disk drivers", go to "policies" tab and mark "Enable write caching for this disk" (I recommend adding this to the guide)

Well I was hoping too much.....

I have a Dell Inspiron I530 with an Intel Q6600 Quad andI believe it is ICH9R. Itried the above method but get a BSOD when I switch from IDE to RAID in the BIOS. Supposedly for thei MOBO switching on RAID automatically enables AHCI.

Like the other poster I was trying to enable RAID without re-installing the OS and all the APPS.

I have read elswhare that it might be possible to do a Windows REPAIR operation and do an F6 to load the driver. This system has no floppy but I may be able to add one (running XP Pro).

Any ideas? Sorry to dredge up an old post for my "new" problem.