Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R, Windows XP and AHCI

[Selwyn McDonald]

I am about to change my motherboard to a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R and reinstall the OS (Windows XP SP2) on to a SATA drive.

I wish to install 4 x SATA 2 drives, 2 x hot-swappable eSATA and 1 x IDE DVD writer.

Note: At some stage in the future I may wish to change the DVD-writer to SATA and I may wish to add another HDD and reconfigure the data HDDs as RAID.

The Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R has six yellow connectors [SATA2_0....SATA2_5], two purple GSATA connectors [GSATA2_0, GSATA2_1] and a green IDE connector.

I was going to mechanically connect my SATA drives as follows:
SATA2_0.......XP Boot drive
SATA2_1.......Data drive 1
SATA2_2.......Data drive 2
SATA2_3.......Data drive 3
SATA2_4.......Leave vacant for future RAID HDD
SATA2_5.......Leave vacant for future DVD writer
GSATA2_0......eSATA connection
GSATA2_1......eSATA connection
IDE...........DVD writer

Is the above physical arrangment OK?

How do I set up the SATA ports in the BIOS for correct operation and best performance?

My choice of drivers seems to be
(a) Intel ICH9RICH10R Pre-install Driver (F6 during XP setup)
(b) Intel ICH9RICH10R SATA RAID Driver
(c) Motherboard SATA GB SATA2RAID

Do I install all three? They are all highlighted for XP at the Gigabyte website.

 

[Selwyn McDonald]

The BIOS setting "SATA RAID/AHCI Mode" has the options of RAID or DISABLED or AHCI.

Assuming that I want to create a RAID sometime in the future, but not now, which option should I choose before pre-installing (F6) the XP drivers? I don't want to have to reinstall XP when I create the RAID.

 

[Selwyn McDonald]

OK. I guess I must be in the wrong part of the forum for this question.

After a bit more exploration, I got in contact with a Gigabyte support resource who told me:

You would have to reinstall the OS if you ever wanted to use RAID, you can't just install the driver and not create a RAID Array now.

So for now, you can either set IDE or AHCI. IDE would not need any preinstall drivers, and AHCI would only need them if you are using XP. Vista will install it's own AHCI Driver

Since you do want to use eSATA you can install the OS Drive on the Intel ports anyway you like, then set the Gigabyte ports to AHCI and within the OS install the Gigabyte RAID/AHCI Driver-program and you would be good to go.

Integrated Peripherals

Intel Controller (Yellow Ports)
SATA RAID/AHCI Mode (Intel ICH10R Southbridge) .............Disabled (IDE) Or AHCI
SATA Port0-3 Native Mode ................................... Enabled (or Disabled, both will work)

Gigabyte/J.Micron Controller (Purple Ports)
Onboard SATA/IDE Device (GIGABYTE SATA2 Chip) ............. Enabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode (GIGABYTE SATA2 Chip) ........... AHCI*

*The IDE Connector will always function as IDE.


Hope that that is of use to anyone else with the same problem.

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: Selwyn McDonald

After a bit more exploration, I got in contact with a Gigabyte support resource who told me:

You would have to reinstall the OS if you ever wanted to use RAID, you can't just install the driver and not create a RAID Array now.

So for now, you can either set IDE or AHCI. IDE would not need any preinstall drivers, and AHCI would only need them if you are using XP.

Your Gigabyte support person is saying that it's impossible to: install on a single hard drive, while the bios setting is for "Raid".
This statement is simply incorrect.
Use the F6 floppy driver install for the Intel Matrix Storage driver. Then when you later want to install an additional bootable XP installation on a 2x HD Raid array, the "Raid" bios setting won't need changing.
Note: it would also be best to slipstream update the XP install disc to SP3.

 

[Selwyn McDonald]

Your Gigabyte support person is saying that it's impossible to: install on a single hard drive, while the bios setting is for "Raid". This statement is simply incorrect. Use the F6 floppy driver install for the Intel Matrix Storage driver. Then when you later want to install an additional bootable XP installation on a 2x HD Raid array, the "Raid" bios setting won't need changing.

I think what he's saying is that I can choose RAID but I can't subsequently change to AHCI without re-installing XP. (And similarly, I can't switch from AHCI to RAID without reinstalling XP).

The instruction manual would seem to corroborate this...

When you insert the Intel MSM floppy disk, it gives you the choice of
Intel(R) ICH10R SATA AHCI Controller
or
Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R SATA RAID Controller

According to the Gigabyte manual, you can only choose ONE according to whether your BIOS set up is for AHCI or RAID.

So my understanding is that if I choose AHCI now, I can't change the BIOS to RAID later on without reinserting the floppy (F6) and reinstalling the OS.

 

[vailr]

AHCI is for external single hard drives. For installing Windows on those, you'd want to use the JMicron eSATA port.
Set the JMicron bios setting for AHCI, and install Windows using the F6 floppy driver for JMicron.
So: when you (later) install a bootable Raid array (connected to Intel SATA connectors), you'll have (without adjusting any bios settings) a removable storage drive on the JMicron port. And could still be selected in bios setup as the boot drive, whenever wanted/needed.

Summary:
Set the bios for AHCI on the JMicron ports.
Set the bios for Raid on the Intel ports.
Install Windows on hard drive(s) connected to SATA/eSATA port of choice, using the appropriate F6 floppy driver.

Note: installing Windows onto a single HD connected to an Intel port would also require the F6 floppy driver, if the bios has been set to "Raid".
Also note: if the plan was to install onto a single drive, then later add a 2nd drive and turn that same Windows installation into a Raid installation: that's not going to work.
The optical drive should be connected to Intel SATA port #5 or #6. For the optical drive to remain as a bootable option (while the bios setting is "Raid"), the optical drive must be identified by exact brand/model number. This is part of the boot order selection menu in the bios setup.
And: I don't recommend using the IDE port for anything.