RAID without reinstalling Windows XP
Stop 7B or sometimes referred to blue screen of death (BOSD) due to an
Inaccessible Boot Device can occur when one tries to enable RAID a configuration
after Windows has already been installed. On the Author's system; Windows XP SP2
was already installed on a 250GB SATA drive attached to SATA0 on his D975XBX
motherboard. The boot drive was attached to the ICH7
south bridge on the motherboard. He ran into trouble when he attempted to
configure RAID0 using three 400GB SATA drives attached to SATA1-3 on the same
ICH7R. The goal to enable a 1.1TB RAID array to store data for various lan
parties ;) and to use Intel's
Matrix Storage Technology to maintain the RAID array. A diagram of his
system is show below:
(Please NOTE: The tutorial above was created under Windows XP. Performing the same steps under Win2000 or
Vista may yield the similar results.)
Neither Zittware nor this tutorial's author is responsible for any damage or
loss of data due to implementing this tutorial. Tread carefully and for gawd
sake; MAKE A BACKUP!
Feedback for the tutorial is welcome and encouraged; but please do not contact
us for support or help implementing this tutorial.
The author successfully implemented the procedure below to get RAID working on
WindowsXP SP2 without rebuilding or reinstalling the OS. He makes it available
to the general public in the hopes that is saves someone from having to
reinstall and rebuild their OSes when enabling Intel Chipset RAID using the ICH*R
devices.
Please note: This entire tutorial and the associated
images is Copyright 2007 by John Zitterkopf. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
You may not copy or distribute this tutorial without prior WRITTEN permission
from Zittware.com. Linking to this page is permitted and encouraged; but do not plagiarize
this tutorial.
Let's get started... The trick is to fool Winders into booting the existing
boot drive even though the ICH7R is configured as Matrix Raid. To do this you'll
need to bring some registry hacking to the table... so heed the warnings about
backing up your data and installation.
- Make a backup ju fewl! Don't blame us if you crash your Windows drive.
Again; Make a backup.
- Download the latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager from Intel's website. If the link
to the left dies; look to www.intel.com
and click on "Supports & Downloads." Click on Download Center
/ Chipsets / Chipset Software / Intel Matrix Storage Manager. Complete your
selection by selecting your OS.
- Once the download is complete; you'll need to extract the drivers without
install them. Go ahead and attempt to install the drivers; and you'll be
greeted with a "system doesn't meet minimum specifications" or
some such dribble. To extract the drivers; read the readme. On our
installation of the raid drivers the command line was STOR_ALLOS_7.5.0.1017_PV.EXE
-A -PC:\TEMP\RAID where:
- -A says to extract the files
without installing and
- -P<path> tells the
installer to extract to that <path>.
- Now open up the Device Manager using Start/Control
Panel/System/Hardware. Goto the IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers group and click the + to expand. You should see a device
which reads: Intel(R) 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller -
27C0. Right click and hit properties. Goto the Details
tab and click on the Compatible IDs drop
down box. Write down the ven number and the Dev number. On the author's
system this was PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C0 .
You'll need this device id along with the entire product family name listed
in the ATA group.
- Now that you know the device id; you can look at the iastor.inf
(extracted during step 3) with a text editor. Scroll down to the [Strings]
section near the end of the file. Your looking for the name of your
RAID controller which most closely matches the name and device number of the
Compatible IDs you extracted at step 4. In the Author's case; this was:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_0104.DeviceDesc = "Intel(R) 82801GR/GH SATA RAID Controller"
write down this string matched in this step.
- Now; hand edit the attached template for a
registry file. Locate the last section and replace the REPLACEMESTEP5
with the deviceid from the step 5. In the author's case; he changed it to 27C3
so it read:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_27C3]
Save the edited file.
- Verify the ClassGUID reflects the same guid as the the entry in your
registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\primary_ide_channel
if not update all the guids in the file saved at step 6 and save again.
- Now the file is ready to be merged into your registry.... You made a
backup, RIGHT?!?... when your ready; double click the raidhack.reg file
you created in step 6&7. You should get a message about the file being
successfully merged into the registry.
- Now your ready to see if your l33t registry hacking skillz were up to the
task...
Reboot your computer; entering BIOS settings. Go to the Drive Configuration
page and set it to <RAID>. Remember the original setting of this
incase you have trouble later:
(click here to enlarge)
save the settings for your bios and allow the system to reboot.
HINT: If you encounter a BSOD (Stop 7B error) at step 11; simply reset
the Configuration back to it's original value. That should allow you to get
back into WinXP.
- Now; setup your RAID array as you see fit... when the system is POSTing;
hit CTRL-I when prompted to enter the configuration utility. Below is
screenshot of the author's configuration:
- Once complete; cross your fingers and try to boot back into windows.
If your hacking skillz were up to snuf; you should see windows boot like
normal. ;) And the system should prompt you to search for the Raid Drivers.
You'll most likely have to let windows do nothing as it couldn't find the
drivers.
If not; you'll be greeted with the BSOD Stop 7B error on bootup. Try
reseting the RAID configuration back to the orignal value in step 9.
(click here to enlarge)
- Return to the Device Mangler and verify that your "RAID
Controller" is present with a yellow bang in the IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers group.
- Now you should be able to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager
you downloaded in step 2 without any of those annoying lack of minimum
specification errors.
(click here to enlarge)
- Go back to the device manager and see that the Raid Controller has been
re-identifed and it now appears under the SCSI and
RAID controllers group.
- Reboot your computer again; to allow Windows to redetect you drives
including the new RAID volume(s).
- Open the Intel Matrix Storage Console and verify that indeed the raid
volume are present and "normal". You might want to select View /
Advance Mode to view the details.
(click here to enlarge)
- Now open the Disk Managment applet. You can find this under Control Panel
/ System / Computer Management / Disk Management.
(click here to enlarge)
- If Prompted by the "convert disk wizard" Cancel it.
- Locate your new RAID volume. Right click on it and select Initialize
Disk .
(click here to enlarge)
- Once the Drive is "online"; Right click the unallocated space
and click New Partition...
- Select a Primary Partition; Next.
- Specify your desired partition size; Next.
- Assign it a Drive Letter if so desired; Next.
- Set it to "quick format"
(click here to enlarge)
- Verify your settings and click Finish.
- Wait for the new volume to be created and formatted.
- Congrats... your done. You now have your shinny new NTFS partition... on
RAID without a Windows rebuild.
I hope you found this tutorial useful.
While you here, check out our other Music / Audio related
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