Intel Communities: Message List

Re: XP Slipstream Installations on Intel RAID - Any Success?

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:38:23 GMT

I did try going back to a simpler setup, first dissolving one of the two arrays so I only had one, then even deleting the array altogether and going to just a collection of single drives, then switching the controller to AHCI mode - all with no luck. If you watch the XP Setup program, along the bottom you can see what drivers it's checking out, and I could see the "Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset" driver flash across the screen, but it never ID's the hardware and loaded the driver.

However, doing all that did give me an idea for a fix - or at least a workaround. Change the controller mode to IDE and vanilla XP Setup will recognize it. Install XP on a single-drive partition that way, then load the Intel drivers via the Rapid Storage EXE file. Now you have a functioning disk image for an XP system that is bootable on an array - and in my case since I had a working Win7 installation, I could boot that and use a utility to transfer the image over to the array from there (I used Norton Ghost, but any image-transfer program should work).

Then it's just a matter of setting up whatever boot manager you want. I happen to like GAG because it's simple and I like the way it hides whatever other OS partitions you have, but anything should work.

I'm still baffled by the F6 slipstream not working, since like I said I have used that technique successfully several times before on other systems, but at least I found a way that works.

P.S. XP on this thing really screams, especially if you use something like Dataram's RAMdisk to take advantage of system memory above 4G that XP cannot normally see or use. I have 16G installed, and with a 4G ramdrive setup for XP, and using the utility to keep the swapfile, temp files, and internet cache etc. on the RAMdrive, XP is surprisingly fast. If you had a full 32G installed and dedicated everything above 4G to the RAMdrive (i.e. 28G), you could theoretically copy the entire XP installation over to the RAMdrive after boot and have XP running entirely in memory - not an SSD, but raw RAM! Downside is you would have to wait longer to boot, since it would have to copy the OS to the RAMdrive every time; also, you would have to make sure you synchronized back to the HD before shutdown every time or risk losing any and all changes from the last sync. But it still might make an interesting experiment...

XP Slipstream Installations on Intel RAID - Any Success?

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 01:06:09 GMT

I have a DZ68BC mobo, but I presume this applies to all recent Intel Z68 and later boards using similar Intel AHCI/RAID controllers

The problem: Once I've setup a RAID array, how can I install XP Pro (32-bit) to it without a floppy drive to do an F6 driver load? Why won't nLite slipstreaming work?

I'm trying to build an XP slipstream disc using nLite. I've done it before with excellent results, but am not having any luck with it this time. XP Setup never seems to be able to identify a driver, and the installation cannot proceed.

Details:

Intel DZ68BC mobo, 028 BIOS
RAID5 array across three identical 500G Hitachi 7K1000.D Deskstar drives (using three of the four Intel SATA II ports)
Using Intel Rapid Storage utility V11.1.0.1006 under a successful Win7 installation on the same system, I have actually created two arrays across the three drives. Not two partitions, but two whole arrays: one 240G array with a single partition for Win7, the other ~750G array having one 120G primary partition for XP and the rest partitioned as a shared logical drive to be used as data drive D: under either OS. All of these formatted NTFS just fine under Win7.
Utilizing the V11.1.0.1006 XP/32-bit Installation Floppy drivers downloaded from the Intel site (yes, I've verified they are indeed the 32-bit drivers - the iaStor.inf file [Manufacturer] section says "INTEL_HDC,ntx86", while the 64-bit floppy's .inf file specifies "INTEL_HDC,ntamd64")
Utilizing nLite 1.4.9.1 (the latest version) and my XP Pro w/SP3 OEM setup disc source to create the slipstream ISO, burned to CD and verified.
Under nLite, I have of course added the drivers. nLite also allows you to remove the stock XP SCSI/RAID drivers. I have tried it both ways - with and without the stock drivers - no luck either way.
BIOS SATA controller mode set to "RAID" (of course)
I can verify under Win7's Device Manager that the controller is returning the device ID as "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&CC_0104", which is correct and should match up to the appropriate iaStor.sys driver, also present in the floppy disk folder I'm using as a source for nLite (the long description from the TXTSETUP.OEM file is "Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller")

Results: Booting the CD made from the nLite ISO, XP setup starts and of course searches through its built-in database of controllers. The two or three times I've done this previously, it would find the new controller, match it up with the slipstreamed driver, and everything would proceed normally. However, this one never ID's, so the driver never loads, so XP Setup cannot continue.

I have no USB floppy drive, thus I have no way of testing these drivers "manually" using the F6 method, so I simply must slipstream.

Oh, and I tried running XP Setup from Win7 - no dice, even if you run it under XP mode, Win7 simply won't allow it.

And again, the array works fine under Win7.

So, anyone had luck installing XP onto an Intel RAID array without a floppy on these mobos? How did you do it, and what version of the Intel F6 installation files did you use?

-- Fritz from Florida

Message was edited by: FritzCat66 - added more details

Re: DZ68BC BIOS 0035 update: you first - BRICKED MOBO

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:14:42 GMT

@wasabipeas - Yes, I did try that, hopeful that it would also work on mine; however, my results were the same.

I just got off support chat with Intel and they are shipping me a replcement DZ68BC system board. I did point out this forum thread to the agent, and advised the agent to make the product manager for this board aware of this thread and the problems the 035 BIOS seems to be causing.

But for me, I will be unmounting this board and replacing it with a new one straight from Intel. I just hope they don't have V035 pre-installed! I'll stick with V028 unless and until something truly better comes along.

Re: DZ68BC BIOS 0035 update: you first - BRICKED MOBO

webadmin@intel.com — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:12:37 GMT

Thanks for all the tips, guys! I have tried all your tricks, but unfortunately to no avail. One DIMM, two DIMMs, CMOS recovery mode (after batt removed and PSU disconnected overnight), back to BIOS button, everything. No change in behavior: still halts at code "45", no video output and I never even get a chance to take control. Looks like this one's going back to Intel.

Everything was working with the 028 BIOS, just some quirks with the Intel-side RAID controller involving Rapid Response drive acceleration I was trying to work out, which is why I tried the 035 BIOS, since it upgrades RAID firmware as well.

Needless to say, if you are reading this and haven't installed 035 yet, do yourself a favor and wait for Intel to fix this with a new, stable BIOS. And my advice to Intel is to pull that BIOS update from the boards ASAP, or risk a flood of bricked & semi-bricked DZ68BC calls & returns!

Re: DZ68BC BIOS 0035 update: you first - BRICKED MOBO

webadmin@intel.com — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:36:03 GMT

Man oh man I wish I read this forum first. I have been building this PC using the DZ68BC and an i7-2600K, using three 500G Hitachi drives in a RAID5 configuration off the Intel SATA 3G controller, with plans to use a Corsair 60G SSD on the Intel 6G SATA as a Rapid Response accelerated drive. Temporarily used another SATA drive as a single drive to install Win7 and build the RAID from there, then reinstalled Win7 directly on the RAID. No real problems.

After installation - and installing all the latest drivers from the Intel site - I was hoping to setup acceleration on the array I used for Win7 (I created two whole arrays, not just partitions, because I only wanted to accelerate the Win7 system partition, but I noticed from a prior attempt that I could only select an entire array for acceleration - thus the two arrays). However, the Windows-based Intel Rapid Response utility would recognize the SSD was present, but refused to give me any option to accelerate a volume.

In addition, I noticed I could no longer do a CTRL-I during boot to pull up the RAID controller firmware. During what should have been the RAID controller displaying its list of drives during boot, there was nothing but a blinking cursor. It would continue to boot all the way into Win7 anyway, but something didn't seem right. The Marvell controller was displaying its routines, but not the Intel side (not helpful since I only have my two optical drives in the Marvell SATA ports).

So, I happened to notice the new 035 BIOS (I was on 028) and that it updated the RAID firmware, so I thought that might help. I downloaded the BIO file and installed it using the F7 technique. The process seemed to go smoothly. It said it completed and time to reboot.

Now the motherboard seems to be bricked. I get no display, no matter what vidport I plug into. The system powers up, but just sits there after a couple seconds with the mobo error display at "45", which according to the documentation seems to be stuck doing CPU identification. It remains there for a second or two and then self-reboots. If I engage the "Back to BIOS" switch on the back, the behavior is the same except it doesn't self-reboot. Either way, I have no control and cannot access anything ever since I installed the 035 BIOS.

Other info: Nothing was overclocked yet. I noticed in the release note that this BIOS did not support overclocking, but that didn't bother me much. I planned to overclock, but not yet, just sometime down the road. Also it should be noted I have nothing plugged into any expansion slot as of yet - plans are to use a 560Ti GPU, but for now during the building phase I'm just using the onboard HD3000.

Any ideas at all? Or is this a "return to Intel" situation?

-- Fritz in Florida