Win7 & nVRaid - Installation Guide

[Fernando 1]

@ mnlg:
No, you haven't done anything wrong.
The problem is, that the RAIDTOOL v11.1.0.43 expects, that the appropriate nForce SATA and RAID drivers are present, but they aren't.
So if you want to use the MediaShield Control Center, you should try to get these actual drivers installed. Since you got Win7 installed onto your RAID without loading ay separate drivers, I am very confident, that you will get these modded v11.1.0.43 nForce IDE drivers installed too. You can do it either by running the installer of my 64bit "Actual nForce Driverpack" by choosing the MediaShield (=Storage Driver) option or manually from within the Device Manager according to my special guide about "How to safely update the nForce SataRAID drivers". You will find the guide within the start post of >this< thread.

[mnlg]

Fernando:

Thank you. I have to tell you, I am a little worried of updating these drivers. I would first try to backup my data, but I do not have enough disk space on my other computers to do so at the moment. I will try this the next weekend, after I had time to clear up some space.

Can you confirm that I can resync a RAID array through MediaShield's BIOS interface, without having to destroy the array? Because I remember I tried that, one of the first times I had the array out of sync, and either I lost my contents, or the program warned that I would lose it.

The whole point for me to have "nvraid" is to be able to resync my array. I remember that when I used XP, this was the only safe way I had (that I knew about). If you can assure me that MediaShield's BIOS interface is perfectly capable of restoring sync in a RAID1 array, then I think I can live with the old drivers...

Thank you for your great help.

[Fernando 1]

@ mnlg:
I understand your worry regarding the safety of your data. Nevertheless I recommend to install the new nForce SATA and RAID drivers. The actual MediaShield Control Center will give you much more options to handle your RAID1 array than the nVRAID ROM Utility.
This is what I would do:

1. Open the "Control Panel" > "Storage and Recovery" and create
   1. a System Repair CD/DVD and
   2. an actual image of your 100 MB sized boot partition and your actual OS partition (you have to do a backup of them both simultaneously!)
2. Store the created image file somewhere outside the PC.
3. Now you can start with the nForce SATA and RAID driver update.
4. If the driver update should fail, you can try the F8 option "Last good configuration". If this will not work, you can easily recover your current system by booting off the prepared "System Repair CD/DVD" and pointing to the stored image backup file.

Good luck!
Fernando

[mnlg]

Fernando:
Thank you again for your message.

I will free up some space on my drives during the week, perform a backup of my data, and update my drivers at some time before the next weekend.

AFAIK I do not have a boot partition right now, I only have one partition which is the whole C: drive. I usually create small-sized boot partitions with linux only...

I will however follow your suggestions and I will let you know what happens.

I owe you a beer!

[Fernando 1]

AFAIK I do not have a boot partition right now, I only have one partition which is the whole C: drive.

I doubt, that you are right. You should keep in mind the difference between the physically and the virtual drive C.
Win7 Setup usually creates a special 100 MB sized boot partition (=physically drive C with the Win7 bootloader) and installs the OS onto the next partition (physically drive D, but named "Drive C" by the OS).
You can easily verify that by running the "Disk Management" of Win7. There you should see the 100 MB boot partition, which has not gotten a drive letter by the OS. That is why you don't see it within the Windows Explorer.
Note:
If you don't do an update of both (boot and OS) partitions simultaneously, you will not be able to boot into Win7 after having done the system recovery.
Reason: The bootsector with the Win7 Bootloader and all the RAID informations are outside the OS partition, but absolutely needed to get a recovery of your RAID system!

[mnlg]

Fernando: I have to confess my ignorance! I honestly didn't know about that. Unfortunately I cannot check right now, because I am at work, and I am using an XP box here. I will check this evening. This is the first time I use Win7, so please be kind

I spoke with a colleague, who has been using Win7 for some time and he confirms that this partition exists. I honestly wasn't aware of it.

What program do you suggest to backup the partitions? Is CloneZilla good enough? I'd rather stay on free programs.

Thank you again for your reply, and I will let you know.

[Fernando 1]

What program do you suggest to backup the partitions? Is CloneZilla good enough? I'd rather stay on free programs.

You don't need a separate backup tool/program, because Win7 has a very good and easy to manage image storage and recovery tool "on bord". Open the "Storage and Recovery" option, which you will find within the "Control Panel".
By the way: If you are searching for a better image storage and recovery tool, I do recommend to take the actual Acronis "TrueImage 2010 Home" version. Although this is not freeware, it might be possible to get a 30-days test version.

[heB_z0rL]

Hi I'm using a DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR and wanted to install Windows 7 on an raid of two IDE HDDs.

They are working and I plugged them in the Primary and Seconday IDE Master (for one cable one HDD). I configured a STRIPE raid with the NVIDIA Raid Utility which says the raid is healthy. I set the boot option to yes and started from the Windows 7 DVD.

Now when I want to install I just see both HDDs which are in the raid. I tried installing on the first one (I wasnt able to install to the second one) which worked fine but when I reboot the BIOS can't find any operating system.

I tried to load the drivers via usb and tried the modded boot CD but no luck.

What can I do to fix this?

Thanks for the help.

[Fernando 1]

@ heB_z0rL:
Welcome at nForcersHQ Forum!

Since you have a PataRAID array you will not be able to get Win7 installed by just booting off the Win7 DVD.
None of the Win7/Vista nForce IDE drivers do support nForce Parallel ATA Controllers.
The only chance to get Win7 installed onto an nForce4 PataRAID array is to start the Win7 installation from within Windows XP (for Win7 x86) or Windows XP x64 (for Win7 x64), but I am not really sure, if you will succeed that way at all.
The easiest way for you to get Win7 installed is by breaking your PataRAID array, disabling RAID within the mainboard BIOS and installing Win7 onto a single (=non-RAID) IDE hdd.

Regards
Fernando

[Simer]

Hi guys!

First of all, thanks for this awesome tread!
Then please, be indulgent for my English, I will try to do my best in order to be understood.

This is my configuration:

CPU: AMD Opteron 170
Moyherboard: Epox 9NPA+ SLI Chipset: NForce 4 SLI
PSU: Seasonic s12 500W
Ram: Crucial Ballistix 2 x 1 Go PC 4000 & G.Skill Kit Extreme 2 x 1 Go PC4000 HZ
Video Card: gainward hd4850 golden sample
HDD: raid0 raptor 74Go, Maxtor Diamond10 250Go, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1To
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi

This is my problem:

I would like to install Windows 7 64-bit on my raid 0 (2x Raptor 74 Go), For that i did all what you said to do.
I put the sata ide driver on my usb key then I plug it for the 'Load Driver" in order to detect my raid, but before the end off the installation of the driver, I have this message:

"To continue installation, use the Load Driver option to install 32-bit and signed 64-bit drivers. Installing an unsigned 64-bit device driver is not supported and might result in an unusable Windows installation."

After that, my array is still not detected.
Only One HDD (one Raptor 74Go) is detected. The 3 others are not detected too.

I tried to put others drivers, the one from the "NForce4 WHQL Driverpacks" and the other one from the "Non-AHCI nForce Performance Packs", but I have the same error withe the same message before the end of the installation of the driver.

If somebody could help me, I will appreciate it!

Thanks