Vista & nVRaid - installation guide and troubleshooting

[Princess_Frosty]

Well I couldn't get it working...

I reset and built a new array from the disks which cleared them down and tried to select the drivers from my 3rd IDE drive (which you have you have to extract from the zips) it could open directorys other than just the root so I extracted the different files into several different folders so I could try all the releases, and non of them worked, even refreshing after installing them the drives were listed as 2xSATA rather than just one large one, trying to install to either would work but it would crash trying to boot from it after the first restart during the install.

For now I've disabled my onboard RAID and I'm just running off one Raptor, still better than nothing and it would have taken this long to install XP anyhow.

The install was fast by the way, much faster than Beta2 for me.

[Fernando 1]

I'd just like to ask what the difference is between the drivers in the beta2 package
IDE/drivers/legacy
IDE/drivers/sataraid

Both driver subfolders do contain both necessary SataRaid drivers (NVATABUS.SYS and NVRAID.SYS), but within the SATARAID subfolder there are some files missing (especially the NVATABUS.INF or NVATA.INF file), which will be needed for nForce4 mainboards with the option of S-ATA and P-ATA RAID connections.
If you have such a "legacy" mainboard, you should either take the LEGACY folder or a mixture of the SATARAID and the SATA_IDE content. The combination SATARAID+SATA_IDE is better, if there are CAT files within the SATARAID and SATA_IDE subfolders and you want to get WHQL certified drivers.

[metalljens]

I get the error "windows was unable to find a system volume that meets the criteria for installation"
I have a raid 0 setup on nforce 4 raid controller, i have deleted the partition formatted it with vistas setup program but i always get that error.

Does anyone know anything about that?

[Fernando 1]

I get the error "windows was unable to find a system volume that meets the criteria for installation"
I have a raid 0 setup on nforce 4 raid controller, i have deleted the partition formatted it with vistas setup program but i always get that error.
Does anyone know anything about that?

Hi Metalljens,
nice to see you again. I remember you and our nLite forum discussion about the best way to integrate the nForce SataRaid drivers into a bootable CD.
Do you still have an nForce3 mainboard? This was your hardware description in July 2005 (within nLite forum):

And im running an Amd 64 3200 cpu on a DFI Lanparty UT 250, which has the Nforce 3 Ultra chipset.

Then you will have a problem to get Vista installed onto your RAID.
Look here: http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/vista-r ... 6693003aa2

If you have an nForce4 SataRaid system, I suggest to unplug all non-RAID hdd's during the install of Vista.
Here is a thread where you find more about the error message you got: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/Sho ... &SiteID=17

CU
Fernando

[metalljens]

Hello again, Fernando!
Very nice to see you to agai!n

No i have upgraded to an Nforce 4 system, i only have 2 sata disk (maxtor 2x250 Gb) + 2 optical drives on the ide Pata channels.
On which i have made a partition where i would like to install Vista 64, i have also tried to make the partition active but it makes no differnce.

I do also however have 2 pata maxtor harddrives on a separate Highpoint Pataraid controller which vista does not see at all, (havent loaded the drivers for it) but you think they could be the problem anyway?

I shall try and unplug those, and see if it helps.

Thanx for your as always quick reply!

[metalljens]

Well, what do you know, unplugging the highpoint controller did the trick!!
Thank you Fernando, you are my god!

But still its weird that you have to unplug all other drives to install.

Cu!

[Fernando 1]

Well, what do you know, unplugging the highpoint controller did the trick!!
But still its weird that you have to unplug all other drives to install.

Fine, that you got it!
It's really funny, that the Windows Setup tries to get installed everywhere (even onto non existing storage devices as a card reader) but not where it should. Vista doesn't like RAID systems at all.

[obvious]

I've tried various combinations of drivers but I Cant get Vista RTM X64 to see my RAID 0 partitions when booting off the CD or starting the install from Windows.

I dont have any PATA drives. The stripe already has data on it so in the D: partition so I'm loathe to re-initialise it.

Any pointers welcome.

I did manage to perform a 32bit install from within windows. The 32bit version also has the problem of not seeing the array (just the disks) despite trying a lot of different driver combinations including hacked versions.

Motherboard is an NF4 DFI ULtra-D

[Fernando 1]

I've tried various combinations of drivers but I Cant get Vista RTM X64 to see my RAID 0 partitions when booting off the CD or starting the install from Windows.
I did manage to perform a 32bit install from within windows. The 32bit version also has the problem of not seeing the array (just the disks) despite trying a lot of different driver combinations including hacked versions.

Motherboard is an NF4 DFI ULtra-D

As I have the same mainboard and succeeded very often with the installation of Vista x86 and Vista x64, there is no reason for any frustration. Just do exactly what I have written within the first post of this thread.

The best way to install Vista x86 is by booting off DVD and loading HWTI's modded Vista in-the-box divers named NF4_Legacy_SATA_RAID_vista_8.22x32, because you get the original Vista SataRaid drivers from scratch.
Notice: The SataRaid drivers within HWTI's package are not "hacked" at all, he only modded the INF file to get Vista recognizing the LEGACY mode nForce4 SataRaid system.

Even more problematic is the installation of Vista x64 onto our LEGACY mode NF4 SataRaid system, but it works (look into the first post).

[obvious]

Thanks Fernando. My ISP forces a proxy so rapidshare is giving me some problems. Do you know of an alternative link for http://rapidshare.de/files/36969171/NF4 ... 44_x64.rar ?

Thanks.