Win7/Vista: Optimized nForce Driver Packs

[Fernando 1]

Your drivers have solved a major problem for me. I had upgraded my AMD X2 6000+ on an nForce4 board to 8GB of RAM and Windows 7 Pro, only to find that I could no longer stop or start my 1Tb eSATA backup drive without rebooting or changing to the slow USB2 interface.
Your drivers have fixed this and made my day.

Thank you for your positive feedback, which saved my day too. It always makes me happy, if I can help.

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Have a nice weekend in Christchurch (NZ), where I have been in 1993 and I loved this very British town just on the other side of our planet (seen from my home country Germany).

Kind regards
Fernando

[DFI-Bri]

Hello Fernando,

Thanks to your work with the modded nForce4 Windows 7 drivers, I've finally been able to get Windows 7 to respect the nvidia RAID array. I have a DFI Lanparty UT NF4 SLI-DR motherboard. I installed Windows to the SiI 3114 Raid-0 array and had NO problems installing. However, once I had Windows up and running I could not get Windows to see the array, only the two separate drives. I tried numerous times with a lot of different driver combinations, SP1, etc to no avail. I tried the v998 drivers you provided and would not work. I finally uninstalled the drivers and let Windows reinstall the drivers. This put the NVIDIA nForce RAID Controller Under Storage Controllers to version 8/6/2010-10.6.0.319 (actual v10.6.0.18). The IDE drivers were at a lower version (sorry can't remember the version numbers, but it was the latest I could install). Still no dice. Finally I found this link, 64bit driverpack v9.0 for Win7 x64 and Vista x64, from this page, Win7/Vista: Optimized nForce Driver Packs. I am happy to report that did the trick and now I am able to use the nforce4 Raid-0 array normally (as a secondary storage drive).

Summary:
Device Manager/Storage Controllers/NVIDIA nForce RAID Controller v10.6.0.319 (actual nvraid.sys v10.6.0.18)
Device Manager/IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller/NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller v5.10.2600.998 (nvstor64.sys)

I wish I could have been a bit more scientific about the way I went about installing these drivers, but by the time I finally got it to work, I was doing anything and everything to make it work. Also, I don't see where nvraid.sys lives in ANY of the driver files I installed. Where does it come from? I'd like to get a backup of all of the required driver files in case I need to reinstall this in the future. Does your version 9 contain this nvraid.sys driver file?

Thank you again for keeping the nforce4 chipset alive!

Brian Evans

[Fernando 1]

Hello Brian,

welcome at nForcersHQ Forum and thanks for your interesting report.
Now to your question:

I don't see where nvraid.sys lives in ANY of the driver files I installed. Where does it come from? I'd like to get a backup of all of the required driver files in case I need to reinstall this in the future. Does your version 9 contain this nvraid.sys driver file?

No, the file named nvraid.sys is the Win7 in-box nForce RAID driver. You will find it after a fresh Win7 SP1 install within the following folders:
1. C:\Windows\System32\drivers and
2. C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvraid.inf_amd64_neutral_dd659ed032d28a14
The "trick" to get the RAID array recognized by Win7 was to install the nForce SATA driver nvstor64.sys v9.98, because the Win7 (32/64bit) in-box nForce SATA driver named nvstor.sys v10.6.0.xx doesn't work with nForce4 chipsets and the Win7 in-box IDE driver named pciide.sys cannot be used with any nForce RAID array.

Regards
Fernando

[DFI-Bri]

No, the file named nvraid.sys is the Win7 in-box nForce RAID driver. You will find it after a fresh Win7 SP1 install within the following folders:
1. C:\Windows\System32\drivers and
2. C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvraid.inf_amd64_neutral_dd659ed032d28a14

Interesting. I'd assume that a driver pack would have the drivers for a complete install, but I see that's not the case. I guess I was fortunate that I installed Windows to the SiI3114 RAID array, couldn't imagine the pain in trying to get the nForce RAID array to work upon install (my Windows disk is RTM version). Just one more question. I looked into the DriverStore\FileRepository nvraid.inf.... folder mentioned above, but found no security catalog file. Isn't this file necessary to create a WHQL'd install? Perhaps I'm going about this the wrong way, I simply want a backup for archival purposes.

Thank You,
Brian

[Fernando 1]

I looked into the DriverStore\FileRepository nvraid.inf.... folder mentioned above, but found no security catalog file. Isn't this file necessary to create a WHQL'd install?

You are right, it's the .cat file, which contains the WHQL stamp (or not), but this is only valid for drivers, which are loaded and installed from outside.
As I already have mentioned, the NVIDIA nForce SATA and RAID drivers named nvstor.sys and and nvraid.sys are Win7/Vista in-box drivers and part of the OS. That is why no CAT file is required for the OS to check, if the driver is safe.

Regards
Fernando

[jadelor]

Ohh, I wish I would've found this thread on Google when I was in the same situation with my nForce4 professional board and I had to alchemize my own set of preferred Win7-64 drivers. It would've saved me so much trouble. Fernando, you rule. (I'm donating right now)

[Fernando 1]

@ jadelor:
Welcome at nForersHQ Forum!

Ohh, I wish I would've found this thread on Google when I was in the same situation with my nForce4 professional board and I had to alchemize my own set of preferred Win7-64 drivers. It would've saved me so much trouble. Fernando, you rule. (I'm donating right now)

Thank you very much for your kind words and - not to forget - for the donation.

All the best to you!
Kind regards
Fernando

[Harry]

Finally a clean device manager Upgrading a HP Pavilion dv2810us notebook for a member of my church with a corrupt vista x86 factory installation. Decided to use win7 ultimate x64 everthing went great except two system base devices lacking drivers which were fixed with hp support vista drivers. The pain in the neck was a coprocessor driver that your pack fixed. (Fernandos Special MCP65-67 nForce Driverpack for Win7Vista 64bit v9.0) 6751m/630m, I believe it was the smbus/smu drivers? I tried support for Hp (NVIDIA MCP67M Graphics Video Driver sp37860 ) and Nvidia (179.48_notebook_winvista_win7_64bit_beta) Thanks a bunch!!!! May God Bless you.

[dragan]

I have a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe that would like to install Win 7 with a Raid drive. Will any of your drivers do this?

Thanks

Don

[Fernando 1]

@ Dragan:
Welcome at nForcersHQ Forum!
Since the Win7 installation onto an nForce 4 RAID system usually does not work flawlessly, I recommend to read the start post of >this<thread, before you start with the Win7 installation.

I have a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe that would like to install Win 7 with a Raid drive. Will any of your drivers do this?

Once the OS is up, you can either install my 32/64bit "NForce4 WHQL Driverpack" or - usually better - my 32/64bit "Non-AHCI nForce Performance Pack".

Regards
Fernando