So why no easy way to install raid drivers from windows?

[Rifter]

So i wanted my ICH10R running in raid mode from windows 7 64bit, thought it would be as easy as changing a bios setting, found out not so much.

Why has no one made a easy way to install RAID drivers AFTER windows is installed? is it really so uncommon for people to raid after a OS install?

So changing the bios setting from AHCI to RAID for my ICH10R resulted in a blue screen on bootup, which from googling it seems normal(well i guess normal in a microsoft is gay kinda way)

I had installed the latest intel RST program/drivers prior to the reboot with the bios change so it should have had the drivers installed and ready to go.

After searching out dozens of help pages on the topic and making a few registry changes and manually moving some driver files around in the system32 folder and drivers folder i did eventually get it to work in RAID mode in the bios without getting a blue screen. It would have been alot easier if some of the help pages were accurate which they were not so i spent as much time reversing things that didnt work as i did making the changes i needed to make to get it to work.

My question is am i just unlucky and is this normally not so much of a pain in the butt or is this normal? And if its normal then thats pretty sad because its 10 times easier in linux, microsoft/intel need to get there crap together and write a program to make this easier for people. I would think a program to move a few 200-400kb files around and make less than 10 reg edits would not be so difficult in this day and age.

Rant over

 

[Diogenes2]

What " few " registry changes are you talking bout ?

I had to change " one " when I switched to AHCI, took less than a minute.
Piece of cake..

I don't think luck had anything to do with it..

 

[Rifter]

Most of these

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\iaStorV.sys"
"tag"=dword:00000019



The main ones that were the issue were the path, my iastorV.sys file was not installed into the system32/drivers folder by the intel install program, it put it into the system32/winsxs folder. At least thats the only place it was found when i searched for it. Also i changed the dword a few times back and forth i cant even remember what it was by default anymore, some help pages i found said that was the only entry i had to change which was incorrect.

 

[tweakboy]

Just install the chipset drivers..

Intel or nVidia .. gl

 

[Old Hippie]

Check out RAIDfix.....just what the Dr. ordered.

A little too late for you........

 

[corkyg]

Basically, RAID drivers should be part of the boot process that comes before Windows loads. They really should be independent of Windows.

 

[Old Hippie]

Basically, RAID drivers should be part of the boot process that comes before Windows loads. They really should be independent of Windows.

OK but what's your point?

 

[Nothinman]

My question is am i just unlucky and is this normally not so much of a pain in the butt or is this normal? And if its normal then thats pretty sad because its 10 times easier in linux, microsoft/intel need to get there crap together and write a program to make this easier for people. I would think a program to move a few 200-400kb files around and make less than 10 reg edits would not be so difficult in this day and age.
Rant over

It's pretty normal because of the way MS has to handle drivers. They're not writing them so it's more difficult for them to bundle them. With Linux it's simple in that there's nothing to fix, because the initial ramdisk has all the storage drivers and udev loads whatever it sees that you need dynamically at every boot up. Windows generally only has the drivers it selected to load at install time. You may be able to avoid the BSOD portion by installing the RAID drivers before you make the change in the BIOS, but even that's not guaranteed to work.

 

[Rifter]

It's pretty normal because of the way MS has to handle drivers. They're not writing them so it's more difficult for them to bundle them. With Linux it's simple in that there's nothing to fix, because the initial ramdisk has all the storage drivers and udev loads whatever it sees that you need dynamically at every boot up. Windows generally only has the drivers it selected to load at install time. You may be able to avoid the BSOD portion by installing the RAID drivers before you make the change in the BIOS, but even that's not guaranteed to work.

yeah i know, ive only been using linux for less than 4 years but could have set this up in linux in seconds, kinda sad really. Though to be honest if i found a help page that had the correct info initially it would have had alot better time of it.

At least its setup now, games load alot faster, seeing almost 200MB/sec seq reads. The ICH10R seems like a great chipset for motherboard raid, seems better than AMD's southbridges so far.

 

[Emulex]

if you have raid enabled you install intel matrix then reboot and use it to create a raid? i strongly suggest cloning to the raid or backing up (full image) in case the raid transition fails for whatever reason.

worked for me.

 

[Rifter]

if you have raid enabled you install intel matrix then reboot and use it to create a raid? i strongly suggest cloning to the raid or backing up (full image) in case the raid transition fails for whatever reason.

worked for me.

Oh trust me i backed it up to a external drive as well as another 2TB sata drive installed in the system for just that purpose. I learned years ago dont trust HDD's , especially RAID 0, with data you dont want to lose unless you have a backup(s).

 

[Rifter]

if you have raid enabled you install intel matrix then reboot and use it to create a raid? i strongly suggest cloning to the raid or backing up (full image) in case the raid transition fails for whatever reason.

worked for me.

oh also, i didnt have RAID enabled when i installed windows, that was my issue, there is no easy way to go from AHCI mode to RAID mode in windows.

 

[corkyg]

OK but what's your point?

The basic question is moot. RAID drivers have to be active before Windows starts loading. That is essentially a Command Prompt operation. not a Windows installation.

RAID controllers often have their own BIOS that follows POST before Windows starts loading.

 

[Emulex]

must be your motherboard. i just set mine to raid (ide or raid was only option) . installed o/s install intel matrix manager. reboot and windows update. inteal matrix manager combined two drives into raid-1