Enable AHCI/RAID on existing WinXP 64bit install on P6T?

[juu]

I have an Asus P6T with a working WinXP 64bit install. I hadn't noticed the BIOS option to enable RAID/AHCI mode so I had SATA in IDE mode when I installed it (also I don't have a diskette drive so providing the drivers to it would have been a pain).

Now if I switch to RAID/AHCI it won't boot (obviously). If I try to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers (downloaded either from Intel site or Asus site) it says:

This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software. Software will exit.

I tried switching the drivers manually by replacing the Intel ICH10 Family 2/4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 1/2 - 3A26/3A20 (2 entries) with the Intel ICH10R SATA AHCI Controller driver I had downloaded but then it wouldn't boot neither in RAID/AHCI nor IDE modes, so I had to use System Restore in Safe Mode to recover.

Any ideas other than slipstreaming the drivers onto a new XP install and reinstalling?

 

[juu]

Wanted to add that I did the driver replacing under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" as I only have JMicrom JMB36X Controller under "SCSI and RAID Controllers". It doesn't let me add a new device from the .inf files that are in the drivers folder for some reason (the device list that comes up is empty even though there are multiple devices listed in the .inf files).

A friend of mine thinks maybe the driver files can be somehow manually enabled so the bootloader finds them.

 

[55795642]

RAID: Redundant Array of Independent/Inexpensive Disks. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

By definition, to setup a RAID array, you must have two or more (preferably) identical drives in the system. At the BIOS level, these multiple drives are combined in various ways into a single drive which is what the operating system sees.

You cannot convert an existing disk to a member of a RAID array without losing all data on the disk. Nor can you take a single member disk from a RAID array and convert it to a non-RAID disk without data loss.

You appear to be attempting to break both of the above rules: 1) There is no such thing as a single-disk RAID array. 2) You cannot chage an existing disk from "independent" to a memeber of a RAID array - or vice versa - without being prepared to wipe all data and reformat the drive.

 

[55795642]

You may want to check this article also in regards to AHCI mode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahci

 

[juu]

55795642, RAID mode for the Intel ICH10R implies AHCI as well. Also, I have 3 drives; two of which I want to run as a RAID1 array (I've done it before on my previous setup).

Also, I resolved the problem by following this suggestion from another forum:

You might be able to enable the J-Micron controller in BIOS as IDE, boot into Windows and let it install the J-Micron controller, move both drives to the J-Micron controller, boot into Windows to make sure that everything works, reboot and change the ICH10 to AHCI with the drives still on the J-Micron controller, let Windows install the ICH10 AHCI controller, and finally move the drives back to the ICH10 SATA connectors and reboot.

 

[Appzalien]

I ran into this posting through a google search for the same problem and while reading and checking out the links posted here I had a brainstorm. Those of you who know what a non-destructive reinstall of XP is, will benifit. What I did was make a floppy install disk for the F6 sata/raid installation, set to boot from cdrom and put in my XP disk (actually xp64bit) in the drive and changed my sata setting in the bios from IDE to AHCI. I then rebooted to the XP install disk, hit the F6 and installed the drivers, and then continued as if I was going to install XP again but when it detects you already have one it asks if you want to repair (not the first repair for the recovery console, one that shows up later). Afterwords the machine booted up fine in AHCI mode no problems.

If your not familiar with a non-destructive reinstall you can read about it here:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ATER1BJCZNSN0QSNDLQSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=189400897&_requestid=319026

All your programs and data remain intact but since the system is rebuilt from scratch you lose all the critical updates that are not integrated onto your XP disk. Therefore its best to use an SP3 (or SP2 in the case of my 64bit XP) so you will not have too much to update afterwords.

It works, and only took about 45min all togther. And best of all I didn't have to reformat or reinstall all my programs and save my files to another drive. The non-destructive reinstall tutorial on the page I listed has saved my butt on many occasions and is an excellent addition to your favorites or bookmarks.

 

[juu]

Interesting idea, Appzalien, and would work for those whose boards don't support the two ways to attach devices as mine did.

 

[lkujala]

The simplest solution is sometimes the best. Buy an add in controller board (I used a Promise FastTrax 2200) that is compatible with the HDDs you are using.
1 - Install the controller board and reboot; the OS will recognise the new hardware and install the drivers for the controller board.
2 - Shutdown the computer, move the boot HDD connector to the addin controller, reboot.
3 - the OS should be running ok (if not correct any boot up problems by switching the HDD connector back, etc...)
4 - Shutdown and restart the computer; go into the BIOS configuration, enable the RAID/ACHI in BIOS, reboot
5 - the OS will boot up and recognise the Intel RAID controller and install the drivers for it.
6 - Reboot (to make sure drivers are installed properly)
7 - Shutdown computer, move the boot HDD connector back to the Intel RAID, remove the addin controller, reboot.
8 - The OS should boot off of the Intel RAID drive without complaint
9 - ... do cleanup stuff like install Intel Matrix Manager, re/build RAID volumes etc.

BTW the primary reason for doing this is to recover from a Mobo failure. Where there is no replacement mobo available; but everything else still works just fine.

 

[jbear]

This post is old, but I had a similar experience recently. I found a great link which provided the info below. Works great on Vista, Win 7, Windows 2008 Server (tested), and likely Windows 2003 Server. Saved me a TON of time, all other solutions I found were NO WAY near as simple as this.



Go into the registry using regedit and change each of the "start" values in the registry keys below from 3 to 0 and this will allow you to change between the different modes by just changing the option in your bios each time you reboot.


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servic es\pciide

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servic es\msahci

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servic es\iaStorV

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servic es\iaStor


You might not have the last registry key (iastor) as this is installed in the registry with the intel raid drivers, the default windows 7 raid driver uses the iastorV key.

 

[peter_68]

Fantastic jbear! I rarely participate in boards but this worked perfectly - I was 5 mins away from reinstalling my whole system because it seems everybody including Microsoft and Intel say you can only enable RAID/AHCI during system install (of course my Ubuntu partition doesn't care and boots fine either way). Enabling AHCI also enabled UDMA 6 on my Intel SSD, when before it'd do only UDMA 5.

Major kudos and thanks again!

-- p

 

[bitchface]

ima try this, im having the same prob...

 

[John566]

Thanks a million jbear. You made my day and saved me from a huge re-install.

 

[deadonthefloor]

Just wanted to go on record, months later, the information is still relevant, and OH so useful!!!!

 

[xdoktor]

YEARS LATER....the post by Jbear just saved me!
jbear > LEGEND!