Comments on: Follow-Up: How to Enable Intel ICH RAID After Installing Windows Vista

By: DrNathan

DrNathan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:11:30 +0000

Yeah, that warning from Intel is precisely what my post helps to fix. You might be having issues since yours is an ICH7 chipset, though again if you are encountering issues before booting at the actual chipset configuration dialogs, that is another issue altogether.

I will say that the RAID controller may report a degraded array while it builds a RAID 1 mirror, but that depends on chipsets. I am not 100% sure it applies here, but that could be the case.

Any luck booting into Windows at all?

By: Al

Al — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:20:21 +0000

Please tak a look at this from Intel, especially the “Warning” comment.

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-029980.htm

Your comments are appreciated.

By: Al

Al — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:58:29 +0000

Thanks for the reply. I am attempting Raid 1. My options in the BIOS are RAID, ACH and ICH. I will look into it further.

By: DrNathan

DrNathan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:17:19 +0000

Al,

Are you trying to create a RAID 0 or RAID 1 array?

Windows and the Matrix Storage ROM are two mutually exclusive portions of the RAID configuration, so the changes you made in Windows should not affect the configuration on the actual RAID controller. I would try playing around with the settings on the controller for a bit and seeing what you can make of it, it sounds like the issue you are having regarding the “degraded” array is a controller-level issue.

By: Al

Al — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:12:02 +0000

Well, I followed all the steps and no luck. Note: this is XP Pro not Vista and Dell Optiplex 330 with the 975X ICHR7 chipset . When I attempt to reboot the PC it goes right into the Intel matrix Storage ROM and tells me disk are degraded and the like. Not sure what to do at this point, maybe return the newly purchased HD and chalk up another winn for the PC :)

Any thoughts are appreciated!

By: Al

Al — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:23:24 +0000

Thanks for the info, I will try this evening :)

By: DrNathan

DrNathan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:22:57 +0000

Al,

Looking at Intel’s summary of the Matrix Storage Manager software, the latest version does mention support for the ICH7R chipset, so it *should* work without any issues.

As the software installs the same driver across the board, I would think that you should be just fine. If you give it a shot, let me know – I would like to know how you make out!

By: Al

Al — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:56:27 +0000

The registry you list shows “DriverDesc”=”Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO SATA RAID Controller”

I have a Dell Optiplex 330 with the 975X ICHR7 chipset will this process work?

Windows XP SP3

Many thanks!

By: niteskunk

niteskunk — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:17:39 +0000

Tried this on Windows 7 x64 last night which was in AHCI mode and I wanted to move to RAID (ICH10R)… Intel Matrix Storage Manager was already installed (I downgraded to the version you linked to be safe), ran the patch and switched to RAID, and booted without a problem. You are a lifesaver, thank you very much for this information!

By: DrNathan

DrNathan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:25:10 +0000

No problem, glad it worked for you!

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:29:17 +0000

Thanks very much for your quick and incisive reply, in spite of my unfocused and exhausted technical ramblings.

That reg file worked like a charm!

Everything functioning great under Windows 7 x64, so far….
I also set ‘iirsp’ Start=0, though I don’t know how relevant that was.

Thanks again !

By: DrNathan

DrNathan — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:56:12 +0000

You could give the registry file found here a go:

http://drnathan.teamhackaday.com/2009/03/09/how-to-enable-intel-ich-raid-after-installing-windows-vista/

This is the exact file I used for Vista x64, though that is not 100% guaranteed to work in Windows 7

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:36:37 +0000

This method worked fine for the 32-bit Win 7 on my dual-boot setup, the 64-bit Win 7, however, still blue screens. (I DID make sure to use the x64 iastor.sys), but I have not yet defined a RAID array.
Why? I feel that I’m missing something in the registry…but I have set both iastor and iastorV to 0, even msahci to 0.
Is it possibe something would be different on my x64 installation for the ICH9R chip?

I’m hoping that later I can image both OS’s and restore them to an array.
I am thinking that what I’m trying here is not possible because of the way RAID itself is implemented, or am I off base?
The 64-bit is on another physical hard drive from where the bootmgr is.
I suppose I’ll have to alter the bootmgr code, but is this even feasible?

By: Ed Berkheimer

Ed Berkheimer — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:53:40 +0000

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Hi Everyone,
I took a completely different approach.

I moved my boot (C:) drive from the ICH10R over to the GSATA connector.

I adjusted the BIOS setup (boot sequence, etc) until I could get Windows Vista-64 to boot from (drive-5 Master in my case)
Rebooted several times to insure this was solid!

Then, in BIOS setup, I changed the ICH10R to enable RAID.
After booting into WindowsV64, I installed the Intel-MxMgr (8.9.0.1023)

I have since defined several RAID-0 configurations on data drives connected to the ICH10R

I have not yet tried to move the boot drive back to a “non-RAID” defined ICH10R port, (maybe I won’t) (maybe I’ll just move the pagefile to a RAID-0 stripe)

So far, everything is working as desired.

Thanks, Ed
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By: Michael Elliott

Michael Elliott — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:10:54 +0000

Thanks! Works perfectly. :)