How to Enable Intel ICH RAID After Installing Windows Vista
An update to this post can be found here
On-board RAID controllers are becoming increasingly common, even among bargain-priced PCs. With that, many people are opting to install RAID-0 and RAID-1 configurations on their home PCs.
One thing that you need to keep an eye out for is making sure to enable the RAID or AHCI settings in the computer’s BIOS before you install Windows. Failing to do so can possibly cause a ton of headaches if you try to enable RAID after you have already completed your Windows installation.
I encountered these headaches while working on a new Dell XPS Core i7 box this weekend. The SATA chipset in the BIOS was set to IDE mode, and I failed to check it before letting the Windows preinstall do its thing. After configuring everything aside from the RAID-1 array my client wanted, I pulled the trigger in the BIOS. On the next boot, the 64-bit Vista installation gave me a BSOD upon restart. I tried rebooting the computer and came up with the same error each time Windows tried to load. I decided to switch the SATA configuration back to IDE mode, and the computer booted into Windows just fine. Clearly, the RAID configuration was the issue.
After Googling for a few minutes, I found a bunch of posts in forums and such asking about how to enable RAID after installing Windows. Most responses boiled down to, “Reinstall Windows.” There was no way I was about to repeat all of the work I just did, so I dug deeper.
The easiest solution that came to mind was to simply install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager software and then give RAID another try. For those of you not familiar, Intel does not offer a driver-only installation package for their ICH family of SATA controllers. Instead, you need to install the Matrix Storage Manager software in order to make things go. Any time I tried installing the software, I received an error stating that my hardware was not supported. That made plenty of sense as the RAID option was not yet enabled in the BIOS, but it left me with a chicken/egg problem: “How can I install the RAID software that requires a RAID controller when enabling the RAID controller causes Windows to crash every time?”
I decided to give the install a try in safe mode to no avail. Each time I booted in safe mode, the computer crashed when loading crcdisk.sys. I searched a bit more and found that this file was not actually the problem, but that the lack of a proper RAID driver in Windows was causing the issue. Back to square 1.
After a ton of research and forum scouring, I found an answer that seemed like it could work. I hoped it was the fix I was looking for as I did not want to reinstall Windows.
I think that the solution to this problem originated on experts-exchange.com, but I found it on another site. It goes as follows:
1) Download the Intel Matrix Storage Manager software and attempt to install it without RAID enabled.
2) before you click “OK” to close the error message dialog box when the installation fails, navigate to C:\Windows\Temp. Make a copy of the IIF2 folder, then close the installer – the installer will delete the IIF2 folder. Rename the copied folder “IIF2″ and start then locate the proper iastor.sys file under the WinAll folder contained within. This will differ based on whether your OS is 32 or 64-bit.
3) Copy iastor.sys to your C:Windows\System32\drivers\ directory
4) Copy the following text, paste it into notepad and save it as a .reg file, or download it directly:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\PCI#VEN_8086&DEV_2822&CC_0104]
"ClassGUID"="{4d36e97b-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}"
"Security"=hex:01,00,04,90,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,00,00,02,\
00,4c,00,03,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,ff,01,1f,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,\
00,00,00,00,18,00,ff,01,1f,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,20,02,00,\
00,00,00,18,00,9f,01,12,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,21,02,00,00
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0001]
"InfPath"="oem3.inf"
"InfSection"="iaStor_Inst_RAID"
"ProviderName"="Intel"
"DriverDateData"=hex:00,00,cd,7f,6a,14,c9,01
"DriverDate"="9-12-2008"
"DriverVersion"="8.6.0.1007"
"MatchingDeviceId"="pci\\ven_8086&dev_2822&cc_0104"
"DriverDesc"="Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO SATA RAID Controller"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Tag"=dword:00000019
"ImagePath"=hex(2):73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
52,00,49,00,56,00,45,00,52,00,53,00,5c,00,69,00,61,00,53,00,74,00,6f,00,72,\
00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,00,00
"DisplayName"="Intel RAID Controller"
"Group"="SCSI Miniport"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters]
"queuePriorityEnable"=dword:00000000
"BusType"=dword:00000008
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters\Port0]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters\Port1]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters\Port2]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters\Port3]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters\Port4]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters\Port5]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000 |
5) Double-click on the .reg file and click yes when asked if you want to merge the data into your registry.
6) Reboot the computer and change the SATA configuration in your BIOS to RAID – Windows should load without any issue.
7) Install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager software to complete the driver installation/configuration.
8 ) Celebrate the fact that you have now enabled RAID without having to reinstall Windows.
This process, as you might imagine, is exclusive to Intel ICH RAID controllers. The registry file seems to indicate that it will support ICH8R, ICH9R, and ICH10R chipsets. It worked fine for my ICH10R controller – I cannot say if it will work for future or older chipsets – your mileage may vary.
For other RAID chipsets, odds are you will be able to install the RAID drivers without a RAID controller present. For some reason Intel does not allow the drivers to be installed without the RAID controller present, hence the issues I was running into.
Hopefully this info will help someone else out there – I know that I was extremely grateful to have found a solution to the BSOD issue.
Glad I could help!
Thank You sooooooooo much .. I was driven mad by this after getting my brand new 1TB X 3 drives to build a RAID5 array
.. I spent 3 hours and was befuddled .. what a terrible driver from Intel than you cannot install it without enablling it .. (incidently when i tried installing the 64bit package on my 32 bit laptop .. it installed without a problem .. even though there are no raid features etc .. ) it loads on laptop and says all drives are fine lol ..
Next day came to work and just seemed to find your post in 5 minutes after hours googling the night before
.. I have a Gigabyte ex58 extreme with 64 bit vista and at first I tried your way but my drivers were the old version (that came with motherboard )
so I looked again and read your updated post for the new drivers and followed that and bang it was working :))) I could have kissed you when I saw vista load and NOT blue screen of death at the usual point .. :)) lol ..
My raid 5 drive was built after 9 hours ..
People like you who share such useful information are what mades the internet tech community what it is
Many Thanks Again
DaveyB
DaveyB,
I am glad that the article helped you out so much.
I myself have learned more information than I can ever imagine from people who share it for the sake of sharing it online. I believe the old saying goes, ‘If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”, which is so true.
As long as we share and share alike, we can all progress.
You just saved me a lot of time and money. THANK YOU
One note…there is a glitch in the way the browser is presenting the registry code to be entered. the first line:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\PCI#VEN_8086&DEV_2822&CC_0104]
“ClassGUID”=”{4d36e97b-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}”
The & (& a m p ;) I have listed it with spaces betwen the characters so the browser does not change what I am typing
the amp; should be deleted so it’s just an ampersand character
thanks again for this fix. much appreciated
Barry,
I had not noticed the improper ampersands there, it must have been from when the article was first posted and I did not have it in its own code block. Thanks for pointing it out, it should be fixed now.
Hi DrNathan,
Just another thanks for your efforts and kindness for sharing this tip! I’m so happy I didn’t have to reinstall my OS since switching on my raid controller! You’ve made my day!
Champion!
Doc – I know you’ve been inundated with accolades for this tip, but I HAD to add to the pile. This posting kicked butt – saved me hours of work. Great work – you are my uber-tech of the year. Thanks again! …Keith
Second the last post. Complete lifesaver!
Excellent Morten, glad to help you both you and Keith!
Thank you so much. This worked perfectly on my Windows 7 x64 system and saved me a ton of time.
I’m not sure that this will be a help to everyone, but on my system (Windows Vista Home Premium x64, Intel X48/ICH9R) it was a lot simpler even than DrNathan’s excellent solution.
I found this Microsoft KB Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976, which provides a solution for AHCI mode in the same situation, and I was wondering if I could do the same for RAID. Inspired by DrNathan’s post, I performed the same operation on /iaStorV, and it worked perfectly. (If your version of Vista didn’t install this key itself for whatever reason, then of course DrNathan’s solution will still work!)
To avoid ambiguity, the procedure was:
Run regedit
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV
In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
With thanks to DrNathan and Microsoft. ;)
I should probably add that once Windows had loaded successfully, I installed the Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver using the automated setup.
My apologies for the double post, and thanks again.
[...] How to Enable Intel ICH RAID After Installing Windows Vista Many people seem to have found my original post about enabling ICH RAID after installing Vista quite helpful, so I thought it would be worth adding a follow-up post to add a few [...]
Peregrinus,
Nice solution, I had skimmed that article in the past and it never occurred to me to try disabling the iastor driver there, mostly because I had assumed that the driver had not been installed.
Since it looks like MS installs some sort of iastor driver when you set up Windows, changing that registry key makes a ton of sense. I will post an update on the site in a bit to reflect this alternative method of correcting the problem. I will credit you for finding it, of course.
Thanks a bunch! I purchased a Dell Studio XPS a few days ago and wanted to add another 1TB drive and setup RAID1. I knew changing from ATA to RAID in the BIOS would hose me if I didn’t have the right driver, but was having trouble getting it installed. Your tip on getting the driver installed saved me hours of reinstallation and setup. Thanks!
I HAVE A DEAD SYSTEM BASED ON GIGABYTE P45-DS5.
It has been dead all summer, the local PC builder cannot figure ho to corret it.
My machine was first based on P35-DS4 but that totally failed in May 2009, this builder could not find a replacement apparently it is not made anymore, so recommended rebuild on this P45 based board. He built 4-disk internal SATAII RAID0 volume on he ICH10R controller and put 150Gb Vista Ultimate 64-bit disk straight on the GSATA controlleur along with the remaining 500Gb data disk. So you note Vista was not reinatlled the existing op sys installation was simply plugged into the new board. It seemed to work and they delivered it to my home. All was fine until I realised GSATA controlleur was set in BIOS to RAID1 mode and my Vista install was not RAID1 install so I just changed it back to non-RAID. This caused Vista not to boot. I moved Vista to a SATA controller extension card
and that did not have enought slots for 2 data disks and and bluray writer so I got an Adaptec controller that was SCSI to SATAII adapter, then Vista would not boot and Vista Repair program aid bad master boot record. Threw out the Adaptec and put in a second 2-port SATAII extension card PCIe. Could not get a stable Vista install, seemed at one time to be stable, started upgrade online from SP0 towards SP2, but the Vista Installer reported lots of failures and eventually got bluescreen of death during a reboot during Vista Updater. Then I started getting “Member Offline” for the ICH10R volume, which by teh way had now been upgraded to include 2 eSATAII disks, same make and model of disk as teh 4 internals but on eSATA connection, and of course I had rebuilt the volume via the BIOS and it had worked for a while. Now every time you rebuild teh volime on restart yo just get told the same thing, all members offline. Basically the machine has been dead all summer 1009, I tried to find a replacement P35-DS’ but there just arenot any and this P45 motherboard is a complete f**kup.
Any ideas how to make this P45 motherboard actually work please??????
Wow !! Thats is really wonderful, Worked for Vista 64 bit, ICH10R , RAID10. Thank you.
Thanks! It all worked great- solving the last problem keeping me from enjoying my newly built system. You da man!
Was having a problem installing raid on my pc with 2 x 1TB discs whilst windows vista was installed on another. This solved my problems thanks :)
[...] I fixed it! Piece of cake. A little further googling and I stumbled across this gem, made for vista, but works for windows 7! Sorry to post here without doing enough googling, but [...]
Wow – this saved me a ton of time. I didn’t configure RAID when I installed Vista 64 on my computer and didn’t realize it wasn’t easy to just turn on. I imaged my boot drive to a separate disk so that I could set up RAID1 on my boot drive. I then turned on RAID in BIOS and the system wouldn’t boot. I found these instructions and I now have the RAID drivers installed without having to reinstall Vista. NICE!
Glad to hear it helped you out Paul!
Thanks Dr Nathan, just tried this in Windows 7 (64 bit) and it worked a treat, instead of 5 hours of misery just downlaoded the latest 64 bit driver from intel (8.9.0.1023), 5 minutes later success…:)
Thanks DrNathan. This worked for me also. With one exception, I am able to boot without the BSD but the Raid volume is not displayed in “disk manager” . ( Raid 5 .. 5(1.5tb)). I’m thinking that I might need to tweak the registry to see larger than a 2tb drive. Thoughts?
Jim,
What OS are you using?
Pre-SP1, Windows XP had a limit of 137 GB per hard drive. With SP1, Microsoft enabled 48-bit LBA addressing which allows for a maximum disk size of 144 Petabytes.
If your motherboard’s BIOS is outdated, that may be a contributing factor as well. Motherboard manufacturers updated their code to enable 48-bit LBA around the same time.
I would try installing the full Intel Matrix Storage Manager software package if you have not already.
Additionally, I would double check the RAID configuration in the BIOS to ensure that everything is on the up and up with the array itself.
Good luck, and keep us posted!
DrNathan, Thanks for the quick response. The machine is on vista ultimate SP2 with the most up to date bios. The MB is a Gigabyte one of two that I built last summer. The other has a similar Raid configuration which was enabled prior to the OS being loaded. It works flawlessly. I later decided to build an array on the second machine. I downloaded and installed Intel Matrix Storage Manager 8.9. Tried creating the raid volume in IMSM but the max size allowed was 2047gb. In the Raid Bios, I’m able to create the full volume size ~5500 GB. But once I boot into windows the volume is missing from Disk Manager. If I remove the raid volume from the bios all 5 drives appear indivually. Im guessing the problem might be that the 6th sata drive is the system drive and is listed as a non-raid drive in IMSM. My understanding is that sys drives cannot exceed the 2tb plateau. The other MB had 2 extra sata ports that were ide which I used for system. This one does not have that. So, is it possible that since the system drive is raid controlled the 2tb limit applies for all the drives controlled by raid in the system?
Jim,
I looked around for a bit, and I can’t seem to find a definitive solution for your issue. Some people state that you should enable “Auto-Carve” or “Auto-Carving” on your RAID controller to bypass the 2TB limit, but I don’t believe that setting exists for the Intel BIOS. Usually you only see that sort of option on higher-end chipsets like those from 3Ware and similar.
Some people state that you should create a GPT partition instead of an MBR partition to go beyond the 2TB limit. Here is a brief (and old) overview from Microsoft regarding GPT partitions: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT_FAQ.mspx
Hopefully one of these two solutions will lead you down the right path. Good luck!
The volume would need to show up in disk manager before I could use GPT to partition it.
Thanks for your help.
You might want to see if you can find it using DiskPart at the command line. It’s doubtful, but it might be there.
DrNathan, Quick note to let you how I solved the issue. The Raid driver was incorrect. Windows detected the Raid controller as an earlier Intel model which had a 2tb limit. So, even though your reg hack corrected the BSD issue, the OS still needed to be reloaded in order to install the correct Raid driver. Once I did that, all was golden.
Jim,
Thanks for the follow-up, I am glad you got it worked out.
When you say that the driver was incorrect, you mean the driver provided by RAIDFix? If so, can you provide a link to the driver you used?
I was pretty positive I had the most recent driver, but if not, I want to get it squared away asap.
Thank you so much DrNathan and all the posters. This worked like a charm and saved a huge headache of the endless toil of windows updates and backing up. I actually found this easier than dealing with the RAID setup during the OS install.
Cheers!
Nathan
Thanks so much, this solved my problems with Windows 7 64-bit. Installed my windows with the harddrive set to IDE by mistake. Installed Linux but the bootloader failed.
Worked out that the bootloader required the harddrive to be set to SATA RAID in the bios which in turn broke windows!
Good work.
Thanks again!
you are a genius!
Peregrinus – could not get Raid ‘on’ but sorted thanks to simple change in registry. You have saved me a lot of time……cheers.
I am running Windows 7 64 and GA-EX58 UD5 MoBo and was trying to get Raid 1 storage drives set up……
Thanks
i spent 4 HOURS looking for a solution, THANK YOU .. YOU ARE GOD!!!!
Worked perfectly for my Windows 2003 Server installed under IDE on a TYAN S7002 motherboard with ICH10R. Thanks!!!
Oh god this guide was a lifesaver. I didn’t bother reading up on it beforehand, assuming it’d be fairly straightforward. Ended up wasting about 4 hours trying stuff like running the windows 7 repair utility on the installation disk, trying to load the RAID drivers into the windows setup and trying a repair after that, and other such things to no avail.
Thanks a bunch!!
Thank you!!
amazing, thank you
Many thanks for this workaround.
Dr. Nathan, you saved my life!
Well, not literally but set me free from the pain/agony and frustration that I’ve been facing for 2 days now.
I was JUST about the re-format and start over, when your registry “hack” did the trick.
If you ever come by Thessaloniki, Greece I’ll buy you dinner! :o)
Thanks a lot!
Argiris,
Glad to hear it. There’s nothing like getting your computer up and running again.
If I am ever in Thessaloniki (yes, I know where it is on a map) I will be sure to look you up!
Amazing!
I got a bsod after trying to enable raid on my intel dg33tlm motherboard. I already hade the storage manager and iastor.sys installed since I hade the controller in sata mode.
So I only applied the registry hack and voila! it worked like a charm.
Thanks alot!
Perfect. I was just about to sit down and re-install Windows. Now I can go and have lunch with the family!