TheAscension

Anybody had a problem loading SATA drivers in Windows XP pre-install?

Here's what I've emailed to AMD:

Trying to install Windows XP to SATA drive. Downloaded latest SATA/RAID AHCI drivers and cannot get the drivers to load in new Windows XP installation. Created floppy disk and pressed F6 when prompted. Everytime I try to use AMD SATA drivers I get this message:

File \x86\ahcix86.sys caused an unexpected error (18) at line 2108 in d:\xpsprtm\base\boot\setup\oemdisk.c

I have used the drivers from my motherboard driver disk, I have downloaded the drivers from my motherboard mfg website, and finally downloaded the drivers from the latest driver release (8.11). None of them work and I continue to get the same message.

I have used three different floppy disks and I'm sure it's not a problem with the floppy. In fact, I'm sure it's not a problem with my hardware either as I tried some SIL chipset drivers to see if they would load during the XP installation. They loaded fine from the floppy. So it seems to be a problem with the AMD chipset drivers.

Here are the AMD SATA driver files I'm using:

ahcix86
ahcix86.cat
ahcix86.inf
ahcix86.sys
txtsetup.oem

Here are the SIL SATA driver files I tested with that worked fine from floppy:

si3112r.cat
si3112r.inf
si3112r.sys
siisupp.vxd
silsupp.cpl
siwinacc.sys
txtsetup.oem

jandarsun8

hmm not sure if this will help or not but when I built my new system this spring I got a Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 board. In order for me to install XP with the sata drivers, I had to update the bios right out of the box in order for it to pick up the sata drives. I was down for about a week trying to figure out what the problem was till I looked around the net and seen some similiar issues with people. Might want to give that a try.

TheAscension

I will, thank you for the suggestion.

TheAscension

Checked it out last night and it looks like I've got the latest BIOS.

I tried to get it to work again last night and I keep getting the same error message. I tried a different XP install disk and a different floppy drive. I also tried to slipstream the drivers into the install with nLite and I get a different error message with that:

"ahcix64.sys drivers are corrupt"

I've tried three different sets of drivers all from different sources and I get that error each time.

Tipstaff

Quick question: are you trying to install XP with the controller set to AHCI or RAID, and is the bios setup correctly to which ever one you want?

If you are using the 32bit version of XP, one thing to try is to limit the files that are available during the F6 requirements by editing out the x64 poritions in the TXTSETUP.OEM file (you can do this by opening the file with note/wordpad). That way you can remove the AHCIX64 file, and the X64 folder completely. Just remember that the structure of the floppy needs to be this way:

X86 (folder with the ahcix86.cat, ahcix86.inf, and ahcix86.sys files in it)
AHCIX86 (file)
TXTSETUP.OEM (file)

All 3 should be listed this way off the root of the floppy.

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Liqourice

I recall having to run in IDE mode on my SB600 GB board. AHCI just didn't work, it crashed like it does for you. Never tried RAID since I didn't see the point with only one harddrive.

Maybe it's a similar problem with SB700. I've read in other places that at least SB600 have problems running AHCI.

Tipstaff

The 2 main concerns I have is that if the board has 2 controllers that it may not work with both set to RAID (I've seen this happen on Intel 975 boards). You might have to set one as RAID, and the other as PATA comptible, or turned off completely.

The other concern is that it might be that driver itself may not work properly in one mode, but it will for another. By this I mean that the XP driver it might work when the controller is set in the bios to AHCI, but not RAID, or vice versa, while under something else, like Vista, the driver for that OS will work under both settings. This is, btw, usually a driver related issue, most likely due to whomever that wrote the driver just decided not to write support for a particular mode under XP.

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TheAscension

I have the drive set-up as AHCI in the BIOS, not as RAID. I was under the impression that the drivers should work for both settings (AHCI and RAID) as there are no "AHCI" drivers that I've found but rather "RAID" drivers available. Plus, the README says "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID driver Diskette" so I figure that they provide support for AHCI, and the file names are "ahcix86.xxx".

Good catch Tipstaff on the folder structure. I've had the floppy setup so that ALL the files were in the root so there are no folders containing the x86 files. I will setup the floppy to the exact structure you list above.

Yeah, I've done an XP install with Vista before where I had a SATA drive set to IDE in the BIOS. I know this works, but I want the XP install to run on SATA not IDE.

BTW, I noticed that if I try to do an XP install with my SATA DVD-ROM drive I get a BSOD everytime. The only way I can start the XP install process is if I use an IDE CD-ROM drive.

I'm pretty sure my board has the same controller, but I can set the 5th SATA connection to run independently from the other 4. So, I can set the 5th to run as IDE and the other 4 to run under AHCI.

Thank you both for the very good comments and suggestions. I will update the thread when I learn more.

Tipstaff

Normally this is the case, but I've run across situations where AHCI just refused to work under XP, and almost always this was due to the driver.

On the same note, something to consider would be that since your board supports RAID you might want to go with it rather than AHCI as there is only 1 benefit to use AHCI over RAID. AHCI over RAID is only really useful if you decide to move your drives over to a board that doesn't have RAID support, in which case it's easier to do with an AHCI setup. As long as you load the AHCI driver, or the OS has that support built in, then it's just like moving a drive from one system to another. With RAID you either can't do this, or you have to rebuild the array to get access to it, however RAID has the exact same features that AHCI provide, such as increased performance, NCQ support, and hot swapping (on supported boards), but then it also has a ton of other features that might interest you.

Mind you, a reason you might have to install AHCI drivers is that there are boards out there that have some wierd setups in which half the SATA ports can be used for RAID, but the others must be set to AHCI or PATA compatible. I'll have to look into it as I'm not sure if that's the case with your system though.

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TheAscension

It's working now! The problem is that I didn't structure the floppy as suggested above. I restructured the floppy exactly as you said, Tipstaff, and it worked perfectly. Thanks for your help! I have learned quite a lesson here about making things too complex, when I should just copy the files to the floppy just how they're downloaded.

I would do RAID but I just get to nervous doing a RAID 0 config. I did a RAID 0 config with IDE driver for 5 years but I was worried the whole time about a drive failing. Plus, I would have to buy another 750GB HDD and I don't want to spend the money

Thank you very much for your help Tipstaff, I really appreciate it.

Tipstaff

Glad it worked out for you.

One thing about RAID: you can still run single drives on a RAID controller. I do this with my main system (not the one in my sig), and with my gaming rig (the one in the sig) I have 1 drive that is not part of a RAID array. You'd get the benefits of what AHCI has, but the idea is that you have the ability to do RAID, or rather switch to RAID without the need to reinstall the OS. Thankfully in your case you have 2 controllers, so you could switch the other controller to RAID, and not have to do a reinstall. Just something to consider.

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Brentos

Thankx guys works great