How to enable AHCI/RAID mode without reinstalling windows (P35/ICH9/ICH9R)

[Notme]

@mizaring

Thanks for the update for Intel ICH10 and I tested it on a new Asus M/B P5QL-E (Intel P43) with Seagate ST3500320AS for XP Pro SP3, it works!!

For those who want to know how to enable hard drive NCQ with AHCI which was the reason for me to use AHCI in the first place, according to the information on Seagate's web site, it is by default enabled, if you are using AHCI and it can not be changed by end user level as it is on the firmware level (for those HDDs support NCQ).

Thanks and hope this will help others too.

Here's the update for Intel ICH10 on Windows XP to enable BOTH AHCI & RAID at the same time. So if you installed Windows XP in IDE mode (without AHCI or RAID) or you installed Windows in AHCI mode and would like to switch to RAID (or from RAID to AHCI) here's what to do :

- Download the storage manager 32 bits floppy zip file and "RAID/AHCI Software - Intel® Matrix Storage Manager" on Intel website. (Sorry 1st post, can't post URL)

- Extract iaStor.sys to "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers"

- Create a file named iastor-ahci+raid.reg and copy this content into it :

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_3a22&cc_0106]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="iaStor"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2822&cc_0104]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="iaStor"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Group"="SCSI Miniport"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\iaStor.sys"
"tag"=dword:00000019
"DisplayName"="Intel AHCI+RAID Controller"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters]
"queuePriorityEnable"=dword:00000000
"BusType"=dword:00000003

[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

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum]
"0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_3A22&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_00\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA"
"1"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&SUBSYS_B0001458&REV_02\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA"
"Count"=dword:00000002
"NextInstance"=dword:00000002

- Reboot and change the mode to IDE, AHCI or RAID in the BIOS. If you were using a RAID to boot make sure that you know what you do before rebooting, taking apart a RAID will likely break your windows installation.

- When you're back in Windows, install the "RAID/AHCI Software - Intel® Matrix Storage Manager" to finish the process.

Please note that I haven't tested this on any other hardware than my GA-EP45-DS4P motherboard from Gigabyte, but any P45 + ICH10 motherboard should work, as usual make a backup of your data before trying this!!! Changing the registry (particurarily the part that is responsible for the drivers required to boot) can lead to an unbootable OS, you've been warned!

Before you do this if you are booting in AHCI or RAID mode you should have one of the following registry key :

------------------------AHCI------------------------
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_3a22&cc_0106]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="iaStor"

------------------------RAID------------------------
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2822&cc_0104]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="iaStor"

If you don't have one of those keys and you're using AHCI or RAID you don't have the same ICH10 chip as me and should try to replicate my changes with the right ClassGUID and PCI Ids.

Good Luck!

[chong]

Hi,
Does any one know how to install ICH7DH Raid driver after window xp embedded installation.
My motherboard is an Intel D975XBX2

[Skogkatt]

Hi,

I tried to follow the guide for winxp 32, without success. I have an Asus Maximus formula (X38/ICH9R). The keys mentioned are in the registry, but I'm met with the dreadfull "7B" BSOD after switching to RAID in bios. Did anyone get it to work?

Otherwise I guess I'll have to go through the "repair install" track...

Thanks for your help.

[mizaring]

Hi Skogkatt, you won't be able to use my post to make your ICH9R work because the PCI IDs and Class GUIDs for your chipset is different than from the ICH10. You should however be able to find the difference with your chipset and modify my code to make it work. Good luck.

[tetsuo000]

mizaring, are you sure? i'm fairly certain i literally just copied and pasted your code into a reg file and imported it. i have an ICH9R chipset (ASUS P5E). i don't remember the exact steps of my installation but i was shocked that it worked the first time i tried it.

(i of course backed up my data before attempting anything, including and especially this)

[circuitmonkey]

mizaring, are you sure? i'm fairly certain i literally just copied and pasted your code into a reg file and imported it. i have an ICH9R chipset (ASUS P5E). i don't remember the exact steps of my installation but i was shocked that it worked the first time i tried it.

(i of course backed up my data before attempting anything, including and especially this)

This is good to know, as I'll be trying the same thing on the same mobo next week, did you have SP3 installed, not sure if this makes a difference, but the first time I tried this it didn't work.

[tetsuo000]

i am running service pack 2

[eoomateoo]

@mizaring

Thanks for the update for Intel ICH10 and I tested it on a new Asus M/B P5QL-E (Intel P43) with Seagate ST3500320AS for XP Pro SP3, it works!!

For those who want to know how to enable hard drive NCQ with AHCI which was the reason for me to use AHCI in the first place, according to the information on Seagate's web site, it is by default enabled, if you are using AHCI and it can not be changed by end user level as it is on the firmware level (for those HDDs support NCQ).

Thanks and hope this will help others too.

Thank you mizaring!!!
You've saved my day after trying many different things for several hours.
This works exactly as you posted.
Now I can enjoy my Ubuntu dual boot!
Respect!

MY mobo is ASUS P5Q PRO

[mizaring]

mizaring, are you sure? i'm fairly certain i literally just copied and pasted your code into a reg file and imported it. i have an ICH9R chipset (ASUS P5E). i don't remember the exact steps of my installation but i was shocked that it worked the first time i tried it.

(i of course backed up my data before attempting anything, including and especially this)

I don't have access to a motherboard with a ICH9R chipset so I can't say if my solution for the ICH10 will or won't work, but I know that the PCI IDs should be different for the 2 chipsets and so should those registry entries because they are related to the ids of the chipset :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_3a22&cc_0106]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="iaStor"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2822&cc_0104]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="iaStor"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum]
"0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_3A22&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_00\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA"
"1"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&SUBSYS_B0001458&REV_02\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA"

I don't know the exact effects of those keys on the driver, maybe it can work even if the PCI IDs are not the same (though I doubt that), but you can easily find those IDs (and ClassGUID) and replace them in my reg file to make sure you won't have some problems later down the road.

(You're) Welcome to all those who thanked me, I was only able to make that post because of other people (like gLk*zaP, starter of this thread) gave me a place to start. Everybody should share their knowledge, and I'm just paying back for everything I learned from others!

[51mmz0rz]

Just wanted to thank the OP for the guide. I have a 500GB boot drive with windows, and was adding two 640GB drives in RAID 1 for media storage. They are not part of the boot drive. When I turned on RAID in the BIOS (of the DFI P965-S) windows crashed at crcdisk.sys (when trying to boot into safe mode).

After following the guide everything works, I had a new unformatted single drive in windows (which I formatted to NTFS) and the intel program to keep an eye on it. I'm pretty relieved that this worked. Thanks again.

[TiaZzz]

I recently picked up a couple of 750GB Spinpoints that I'm trying to run in a RAID1 on my ASUS P5E(ICH9R). Googling around this thread seems to be the best source of information on how to switch my current SATA config to RAID without having to reinstall my 64b Vista. It's currently BSOD-ing(for a spilt second before it reboots instantly) if I swap from SATA to RAID.

I've tried several of the suggested methods described in this thread, but they usually refer to AHCI, ICH8, XP, outdated versions or any combination of these issues.

ICH9R-RAID.reg looks like a simple redirect to IH8R-RAID.reg. I'm not an expert in Windows, but the device IDs seem wrong for a ICH9 chip. I've gathered that simply using the AHCI reg file is no good if I want to enable RAID. The links to download specific versions of Intel Storage Manager Software all seem dead. Does the version matter or can I go with current 8.5(IIRC)?

Thanks for a great thread and looking at the last days of results, I'd say it's the best one on the subject. It's just a little dated from being perfect.

Edit: Seems I can't post links before I've made at least 5 posts. Hope the above makes sense.

[TiaZzz]

Update: I've tried countless tips from this thread and others to enable RAID support in my Vista installation, but so far no luck. Just for the hell of it I tried enabling AHCI after yet another BSOD and that actually works. That's cool I guess, but hardly what I was trying to accomplish.

I figured that Repair maybe could help me, but so far any iaStor driver is discarded by Vista with a "Driver fails to load". I must have tried 10 different drivers from different sources(all proper Intel drivers for ICH9R of course). Anyone know why my 64 bit Vista Repair refuses to accept 64 bit ICH9R drivers?

On my TODO list now is updating the BIOS(can't remember what version I have) and testing the controller with a Linux liveCD.

[TiaZzz]

Yet Another Update (very sorry about making this thread look like my personal blog):

Success!

I've been reading so many forums, threads, posts, FAQs, articles, bug reports and whatnot that I just now noticed that I haven't said anything about hardware except the controller being an ICH9R. My MB is an ASUS P5E. I updated from BIOS 605 to 903 just now and Vista booted! With my RAID! I was looking at the disks in Gentoo and I figured that the 100th boot or so might be the lucky one.

I'm not 100% sure that enabling AHCI didn't push things forward though. It enabled me to install the driver pack from Intel yesterday.

Anyway. Thanks again for a great thread and a lot of information on how to attack my problem. Now looking at a 0.7 TB partition being formatted. Next up is mirrioring my old 160 GB Seagates and trying to move Vista without having to reinstall. Bet it will be fun.

[sergiommms]

Hi

I was looking to add a RAID1 set of two 500GB HDD to my preexisting installation, keeping the original HDD as the OS/... base, and the new HDDs as storage ones.

I have the IDE set to IDE in the BIOS, so whenever I try to boot with AHCI/RAID setting intead of IDE, I keep getting the BSOD...

At Windows level (XP Pro SP2), I can´t install the Intel Matrix Storage because apparently the system is not compatible/does not meet the requirements - meaning, unless I change the IDE setting to AHCI/RAID... I will never get to install this, right? ...but.... since I can´t change that BIOS setting without getting a BSOD, I will never ever get it done right? ...unless I reinstall the OS... which I´m not inclined to do, really...

So... does this solution for the ICH8R work with the ICH7R? How? Is everything similar or is there any specification to the process?

Many thanks in advance!

Sergio

[Doodily]

Wow! After a lot of issues with my ASUS P5K-E mobo running with RAID1 on the boot drive, I decided to re-install without RAID. Forgot that I should have installed the RAID drivers for my data drive and was panicking (cause I didn't want to re-install for the 3rd time).

I came across this thread and I am SOOO happy (cause I still wanted RAID1), but didn't install the drivers during setup.

Anyhow, I had some issues at the beginning:
1) Couldn't find the 7.5.0.1017 drivers, so I grabbed the latest drivers (8.6.0.1007).
2) Thought I had ICH9(R) for RAID and AHCI so I installed the ICH9R-AHCI.reg and the ICH8R-AHCI.reg files, and after switching to RAID in the BIOS menu, I got the blue screen during the windows load. Finally I figured out that I don't have ICH9(R) (hahaha, I feel so noob)! Turns out I had ICH8(R) for RAID/AHCI.

So, I installed the right registry file (ICH8R-RAID.reg) and everything worked tickty-boo (no bsod).

Thanks for the great thread.

Doodily!


P.S. Is it okay to leave the Registry entries (since I don't have the ICH9(R) chipset), or should I remove them?

_______
System: XP Professional, Q9450, 4 gigs memory, 2x500g WD RAID1, 1x500g Samsung boot drive, ASUS P5K-E mobo

[circuitmonkey]

This is good to know, as I'll be trying the same thing on the same mobo next week, did you have SP3 installed, not sure if this makes a difference, but the first time I tried this it didn't work.

Wow, after a lot of trouble I've managed to get it working on my ASUS P5E.
I had two XP pro SP3 boot drives that are swapped in an out, a WD Raptor and a OCZ Core SSD.
As the SDD was a fresh installation I desided to start from fresh so Rolled my own XP installation CD with the RAID drivers on there and successfully installed XP with with the two WD 1GB HDD in a raid 1 array.
So my next step was to print off the registry pertaining to the ICH9R chipset from the working (SSD) installation, and from the non raid compatible (Raptor) installation using mizaring's sollution as a guide.

I found the differences and created my own registry update for the Raptor drive.
I copied iaStor.sys found on my SSD drive to the Raptor drive and used the following code to update the registry on the Raptor:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2822&cc_0104]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="iaStor"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2916]
"Service"="isapnp"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97D-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_29e9]
"Service"="pci"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97D-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Group"="SCSI miniport"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"DisplayName"="Intel RAID Controller"
"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
"Tag"=dword:00000019

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters]
"queuePriorityEnable"=dword:00000000
"BusType"=dword:00000008

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters\PnpInterface]
"5"=dword:00000001

[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

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters\oromVersion]
"MajorVersion"=dword:00000007
"MinorVersion"=dword:00000005
"HotfixNumber"=dword:00000000
"BuildNumber"=dword:000003f9

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum]
"0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&SUBSYS_82771043&REV_02\\3&11583659&0&FA"
"Count"=dword:00000001
"NextInstance"=dword:00000001

All that was then required was a quick reboot and to change the SATA config to RAID from IDE

Job Done!

Hope this can help some people.