SATA Driver for Nforce 4

bluethree · December 2004

Can anybody provide me with the correct SATA drivers to download and install for the Gigabyte Nforce 4 motherboard K8 NF-9 as I cannot identify which driver to use at the point of installing Windows XP on a new Diamond Max 10 SATA Drive??

I have scoured the Gigabyte Support disk but am unable to find the driver acceptable for installation.

Any help appreciated greatly.

Regards.

:bawling:

BlackHawk · December 2004

From what I can see on Gigabyte's site, all of those NF4 boards use the same Sillicone Image drivers.

Thrax · December 2004

The Serial ATA I ports are powered by a Silicon Image 3114 controller.
The Serial ATA II ports are powered by the nForce4 MCP chip.

bluethree · December 2004

Thanx for the help.
I have tried the Sil 3114 drivers but with no joy.
I am attempting to setup XP on a fresh 200 gig Maxtor Sata drive and require the drivers to be floppy based to install the sata???

R Usure this board uses the Sil 3114 drivers as I will try again???

Thanks again for any help.

BlackHawk · December 2004

n/m. Gigabyte's site has nothing on your board. I think I was seeing NF3 boards. Try what Thrax says.

bluethree · December 2004

Thanks Again.

So if I try the Sil 3114 driver all I should have to do is prepare a Floppy for F6 install suring XP setup or are ther any other adjustments required for example in the Bios???

Regards

BlackHawk · December 2004

Pretty much but I'm not sure since I have yet to install XP with a raid/sata setup.

bluethree · December 2004

It seemed to take the Sil 3114 driver and formatted the SATA Disk during the XP Setup....however at the end of the format it rebooted and recommenced the setup procedure from scratch.

I looked for a SATA boot option in boot priority but all that can be found is "Add on Cards???"

Any Help please???

Regards

Missileman · December 2004

You are hitting F6 when the cd starts to boot and then selecting add-in cards and loading the floppy that way aren't you?

Windows (any version) sees any device that it doesn't have built in drivers for as an add in card.

If you do it that way and get the right driver to load it will see the disks and all will go as normal install after that.

bluethree · December 2004

Thanks Missileman....feel like a bit of a idiot here. I will try it that way when I get home tonight.

This is like a burning sore!!!!!!!

In summary select the bios to boot from the add in card and hit F6 with the Sil 3114 drivers.I honestly did not think that the onboard SATA would be seen that way so thanks a lot.

Attempt 23 on the way!

regards to all

Spinner · December 2004

bluethree wrote:

It seemed to take the Sil 3114 driver and formatted the SATA Disk during the XP Setup....however at the end of the format it rebooted and recommenced the setup procedure from scratch.

I looked for a SATA boot option in boot priority but all that can be found is "Add on Cards???"

Any Help please???

Regards

In the motherboard BIOS the boot option you want to be 2nd to the CDROM (if a specific SATA controller option doesn't exist) will be either Hard Disk or SCSI (or something to that effect), and there should be in that case an extra menu tier which will allow you to define what to associate with the boot device term. e.g Hard Disk = SATA Controller.

It may just be a boot order problem, because the OS setup will quite happily format and detect a hard disk with the right drivers, but if it isn't set as a boot option when it comes to restart the OS will go like "WTF?, where's that drive I just formatted"... if you understand me.

I find it strange that you get that error message but nevertheless, try and/or clarify the above and post back.

Cheers

Spinner · December 2004

bluethree wrote:

In summary select the bios to boot from the add in card and hit F6 with the Sil 3114 drivers.

Only select 'add in card' if there is no other option (as described in my post above). If there is only an 'add in card' option for the boot order, it should be accompanied (like I said above about a SCSI or Hard Disk boot option) with a second tier menu which will allow you to select the appropriate device associated with that boot selection. e.g Add in Card = SATA controller.

You following me?

Have a look in your BIOS again and post back letting me know if what I'm saying makes sense. I don't know the exact layout of your BIOS so you'll have to bare with me.

EDIT: Please try not to post duplicate threads about the same subject. Thanks.

Missileman · December 2004

My NF3 setup is like spinner said. I have my bios set to floppy, hard disk, cdrom. I have my NF3 RAID bios set to enable. Once RAID or disk is posting on the sata bios I go back into bios and set boot order so it uses the SATA controller disk first. Then I boot the Windows CD and as soon as it starts to boot you will see "Hit F6 if you have add-in/SCSI controller". SATA looks like SCSI to Windows. Hit F6. Nothing happens right away. Takes a minute. When the install gets in a bit it will ask for the add-in driver disk. Insert floppy and press enter. Select the SATA device and hit enter to load driver. Then escape when done and the normal install continues.

Setting up the bios on some of these boards is an experiment in itself. Some make you load the driver and set it in RAID mode even when it's a single disk. Some (like my NF3) only require RAID bios be active when RAID is used.

My I975 intel board has 2 on-board RAID controllers. One is called on-chip SATA, other is on-board SATA. You kinda got to figure this out on your own unless somebody has your particular board and has gone through the setup.

Big thing is once bios disk configuration is right, then do the F6 driver load install. Everything else looks like the normal install.

bluethree · December 2004

Take the point about duplicating threads and I apologise....just desperate and no excuses!

Going home from work in about 10mins and will give it a bash.
Thanks for the help so far and I will get back to you letting you know the result.
I suppose I am learning something even though I am approaching that ball breaking moment rapidily!

regards

bluethree · December 2004

Thanks for everything but I think I am approaching that ball breaking moment now....It still is not working and I am starting to waste peoples time here although it is greatly appreciated.

There is NO secondary level boot menu available to me at "Bootable add in card"

I have the boot order set to Floppy/Hard Disk/CD Rom

All SATA options in Advanced Peripherals Bios are enabled

I am Loading the Floppy "SIL 3114 Satalink Controller" at this stage

The Hard Disk Formats - Copies installation files - restarts and then it either seeks to recommence the entire setup process from the CD Rom, or if removed simply stops after "boot from CD Rom"

there is no evidence of any SATA process during boot up as it seeks IDE Channels of which there are none before booting through the Raid Utility F10 option.

Give up and buy another IDE Drive or battle on...any help please??

binsoutonfriday · December 2004

i was trying to find a solution to this........stumbled into this thread and found the same problem.........i also think i might have a solution

you must have winrar installed. you will need two floppies.

download this file.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_udp_winxp_5.10

make a new folder on your desktop and call it folder 1

right click on the downloaded file and click--extract files

select folder 1 as the folder to extract to. click ok.

now inert a blank floppy in the drive.

create a folder on the floppy called RAIDCLASS

now double click folder 1--IDE--winXP

now copy these files to the RAIDCLASS folder on the floppy

nvraid.sys
nvraid.inf
nvraidco.dll
nvraid.cat

now copy

textsetup oem and disk1 to the same floppy OUTSIDE the RAIDCLASS folder.

remove the floppy and insert a new blank floppy

create a folder on this floppy called BUSDRV

now go back to the xp folder in folder 1 and copy these files to the BUSDRV folder on the floppy

nvatabus.sys
nvatabus.inf
idecoi.dll
nvata.cat

now copy

textsetup oem and disk1 to the same floppy OUTSIDE the BUSDRV folder.

remove the floppy

ok.

now it should work

boot from the xp cd and at the start of setup hit f6.

when prompted hit S to specify a device driver and insert the RAIDCLASS floppy when prompted.

when that driver has been installed hit S again to specify a second driver. and insert the BUSDRV floppy

then continue with your installation as prompted.

this should work.

if it doesn't i can take a look at the floppies again. maybe try to put both folders on the same floppy...........but i'm pretty sure that those are all the files you need.

bluethree · December 2004

Just checked in before I pop out for New Year...Thanks for your considerable effort and I will give it a blast as soon as....

will let you know the result

Thanks

binsoutonfriday · December 2004

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=894

just having a look at these beta's ............. which are siad to have n-force 4 support.

these might be more appropriate.

binsoutonfriday · December 2004

ok the procedure is pretty much the same using the the download from guru3d.

extract the files to folder 1 using winrar.

then double click--folder 1--guru3d.com--set up--IDE--winXP.

then follow the steps shown above.

the note on guru3d says nforce 4 support added, but remember these are beta drivers.

bluethree · January 2005

Thanks....am just easing through a bit of post celebration after effects!
Will give it a serious bash this afternoon.
Mplex say they will fix it for £45 - personally that will stick in my throat somewhat and I wouls like to beat this myself with the forums help.

Regards

Spinner · January 2005

bluethree wrote:

Thanks....am just easing through a bit of post celebration after effects!
Will give it a serious bash this afternoon.
Mplex say they will fix it for £45 - personally that will stick in my throat somewhat and I wouls like to beat this myself with the forums help.

Regards

I can't find any reference, now that I've checked, to your motherboard using the SI 3114 SATA chip, according to the manual all 4 SATA ports on your motherboard are powered by the Nforce 4 MCP. So that is the driver you should be using, and it will have been supplied with your motherboard, there is no need, going by what you have said so far, to use any other drivers or mess around with creating a new floppy driver disk like binsoutonfriday instructed you to do, though to be fair... it couldn't hurt, I just don't think it's a driver problem. That doesn't mean it isn't, but so far yourself or binsoutonfriday has given me no reason to think it is.

(binsoutonfriday, could you ellaborate as to why you feel creating a new driver disk set will cure this problem? Thanks mate.

I appreciated your input, post me a link to some references or something so I can get onboard with the way you're thinking. Cheers.)

I mean, you must have a driver disk for the Nvidia MCP SATA controller because you must have fed one to the Windows XP setup in order to get it to detect and format the hard drive. Right? You know when you press F6 and then feed it a floppy when it asks. You've been doing that right?

If it was a driver problem, you wouldn't have been able to format the drive and copy all the Windows XP installation files to it. The driver you are using appears to be working fine...

I believe the problem you're experiencing is simply a boot order problem, nothing more. I've read the manual for your motherboard, this is what you should do. At least if we're going to eliminate the possibilty of it being a boot order problem.

1) Enter your motherboard BIOS.
2) Enter 'Advanced BIOS Features'
3) Enter 'Hard Disk Boot Priority'
4) Select the appropriate controller to be first boot priority. e.g. RAID
5) Back out of 'Hard Disk Boot Priority'
6) Make sure 'First Boot Device' is CDROM
7) Make sure 'Second Boot Device' is Hard Disk
8) Exit 'Advanced BIOS Features'
9) Enter 'Integrated Peripherals'
10) Make sure 'IDE/SATA RAID Function' is Enabled
11) Make sure the option 'Serial-ATA 1' through to 'SATA 2 Secondary RAID' are all enabled
12) Exit 'Integrated Peripherals'
13) Exit and Save BIOS settings

You may find that you need to enable all four 'IDE Primary/Secondary Master/Slave' options in the 'Intergrated Peripherals' section, but as I'm uncertain to their purpose try it first with them disabled. (They should disabled be by default).

If you are not sure what should be first boot priority in the 'Hard Disk Boot Priority' section, then post the options here and I'll tell which one. It should be RAID or SATA however.

Try setup from scratch after you've done/confirmed all of the above then post back.

Cheers

binsoutonfriday · January 2005

Spinner wrote:

I can't find any reference, now that I've checked, to your motherboard using the SI 3114 SATA chip, according to the manual all 4 SATA ports on your motherboard are powered by the Nforce 4 MCP. So that is the driver you should be using, and it will have been supplied with your motherboard, there is no need, going by what you have said so far, to use any other drivers or mess around with creating a new floppy driver disk like binsoutonfriday instructed you to do, though to be fair... it couldn't hurt, I just don't think it's a driver problem. That doesn't mean it isn't, but so far yourself or binsoutonfriday has given me no reason to think it is.

(binsoutonfriday, could you ellaborate as to why you feel creating a new driver disk set will cure this problem? Thanks mate. I appreciated your input, post me a link to some references or something so I can get onboard with the way you're thinking. Cheers.)

hey spinner.

just about every other nf 4 board seems to have the si 3114 controller on board as well as the nforce controller, but the board in question does not.

in order for windows to see the drive through the controller a driver must be installed from a floppy during setup. or slipsteamed onto an xp cd.

i'd agree that the driver needed, almost certainly came with the mobo. probably on a cd, but it needs to be on a floppy.

i've got xp 64 and xp installed on separate sata drives on a asus k8v deluve.
both os's needed an sata driver installed from a floppy during setup. A lot of trial and error and figuring out how the textsetup.oem files work got me up and running and i've pointed one or two people to the right files needed to install on sata, for a number of chipsets.

someone posted at techimo with the exact same problem as this, same board. and i stumbled in here, so i had a look at the mobo manual.......no si 3114. had a look in the unified driver package and recognised similar files to those used on other raid floppies. i posted the same reply to the guy on timo, (where i'm known as doddsy

) i'm still waitng to see if this works.

but you do have a point, inasmuch as the sata drive will need to be set as the first bootable hard drive, after a successful installation.

ok shaz is goin to work soon so i'm baby sittin for a while.........

later.

Spinner · January 2005

binsoutonfriday wrote:

hey spinner.

just about every other nf 4 board seems to have the si 3114 controller on board as well as the nforce controller, but the board in question does not.

in order for windows to see the drive through the controller a driver must be installed from a floppy during setup. or slipsteamed onto an xp cd.

i'd agree that the driver needed, almost certainly came with the mobo. probably on a cd, but it needs to be on a floppy.

i've got xp 64 and xp installed on separate sata drives on a asus k8v deluve.
both os's needed an sata driver installed from a floppy during setup. A lot of trial and error and figuring out how the textsetup.oem files work got me up and running and i've pointed one or two people to the right files needed to install on sata, for a number of chipsets.

someone posted at techimo with the exact same problem as this, same board. and i stumbled in here, so i had a look at the mobo manual.......no si 3114. had a look in the unified driver package and recognised similar files to those used on other raid floppies. i posted the same reply to the guy on timo, (where i'm known as doddsy ) i'm still waitng to see if this works.

but you do have a point, inasmuch as the sata drive will need to be set as the first bootable hard drive, after a successful installation.

ok shaz is goin to work soon so i'm baby sittin for a while.........

later.

Thanks mate for that.

Yeah absolutely, I however am working on the presumption that his mobo came supplied with a driver on a floppy disk. As to date, I haven't seen a modern motherboard not come with a controller driver on a floppy. Though saying that, I'm sure there are some that stupidly don't, and the fact that on this mobo the SATA controller is part of the motherboards main chipset and made by the same manufacturer (nVidia), I can see how they might just bung the unified drivers on a CD for use after an OS is already installed. However, for obvious reasons, I hope that isn't that case. It certainly wouldn't be the norm.

Bluethree can you confirm this for us?

bluethree · January 2005

Sorry for the delay but I have been away with work today and haven't got near this thing.
Spinner - There is NO Floppy Driver disk with the board, afact that in hindsight having read into all this with the forums help seems incredible.Regarding a submenu for hard disk boot priority - all I am offered is Bootable add in card with no further sub menu.

Binsoutonfriday I am about to have a go at that one now. Its a small world but I actually live just down the A1 from yourself!!!

Being a Newbie here I have to say the effort people have went to offer support is impressive so thanks. I have also emailed Gigabyte about a week ago but that seems a forlorn hope regarding a response!!

Speak to you soon and thanks all.

bluethree · January 2005

Binsoutonfriday - Sorry it did not work and got the error message could not find nvraid.sys file even though they were copied as directed????
I am out of my depth here so any advice taken.

Spinner - Have again set your boot order as directed however as I have said before under Hard Disk Boot Priority all I get offered is Bootable Add In Card with no other sub menu's available.

For information the driver files available off the Mobo Disk are as follows:

IAARaid
GigaRaid
Sil
SilRaid
SCSI
Promise 20276 ATA
Promise 20276 Raid
Promise 20265 ATA
Promise 20265 ATA XP
Promise 20265 Raid
Promise 20265 Raid XP
Via 8237 Series ATA
SIS 964 SATA
Nvidia Series ATA XP
Nvidia Series ATA 2K
Sil 3114
Sil 3114 Raid
Sil 3114 Raid 5

Regards

bluethree · January 2005

Just out of curiosity tried installing with the NVidia series driver XP which as usual it appeared to take...however no drive recognised in system after copying over initial files and the install ceases.

Spinner · January 2005

bluethree wrote:

Just out of curiosity tried installing with the NVidia series driver XP which as usual it appeared to take...however no drive recognised in system after copying over initial files and the install ceases.

I'm kind of working blind here as information on your motherboard is pretty thin. Gigabyte themselves don't even list your motherboard in their drivers section. (Idiots!)

Still...

Attached to this post is a .zip file. Unzip the contents directly to a floppy and then try the Windows XP setup procedure again, once again pressing F6, and then when prompted instruct the setup to use the driver on the floppy disk.

Try that and then post back.

Cheers

bluethree · January 2005

Spinner wrote:

I'm kind of working blind here as information on your motherboard is pretty thin. Gigabyte themselves don't even list your motherboard in their drivers section. (Idiots!)

Still...

Attached to this post is a .zip file. Unzip the contents directly to a floppy and then try the Windows XP setup procedure again, once again pressing F6, and then when prompted instruct the setup to use the driver on the floppy disk.

Try that and then post back.

Cheers

Will do Spinner. Am at the office to this evening and will give it a bash then.

binsoutonfriday · January 2005

still no joy.

pretty sure we're on the right track. its just a matter of gettin the floppy set up right.

let us know how you get on.

Spinner · January 2005

binsoutonfriday wrote:

still no joy.

pretty sure we're on the right track. its just a matter of gettin the floppy set up right.

let us know how you get on.

Okay, let me back pedal a little with you.

Plug your SATA drive into the first SATA port (there should be four correct?) e.g SATA 0, 1, 2 and 3. Try the install procedure again, but this time without pressing F6 and just letting the OS setup routine do its thing. Can you see the drive to install onto it? Can you format it?

You said you tried the Nvidia series driver XP, how exactly did you try this driver during the OS setup? Where did you get it from? Is it on a floppy? Can you clear this up for me please? Did any floppy media come with your motherboard, if so what's on it?

Sorry if some of this information has already been told to me, but I need to touch base on these issues in my head if I can move forward with this effort.

Try the above, and set me straight with the above queries and then I'll have another think.

Cheers

bluethree · January 2005

Folks the problem has just been resolved and I have had no internet access to get back to you for a day or so.

There was no need for addittional drivers at the F6 floppy stage. The Raid had to be set up in stripes in the Bios with the one drive. Windows XP with service pack One wasthen used for the install.

Spinner & Binsoutonfriday - Thanks for all your help and to clarify I was attempting to load drivers from a floppy disk at the F6 stage. the floppy was constructed from the utility in the Mobo disk which self extracted.The drivers were native however and it was the setting of the Raid to stripes in the Bios that was the problem. I have now found out that MS have a downloadable floppy utility for this and when I find out more details I will post them here if people are interested. It was only after the raid was set that the drive was recognised.

As yet Gigabyte have still not replied which teaches a lesson in itself.

Thanks again.

SATA Driver for Nforce 4

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