The definitive guide on installing Vista 32/64bit on Nvidia SATA/RAID

[TranceBear]

Edit by Gizmo: As you will see reading further down this thread, this appears to be little more than a rip-off of the work done by someone else. I have given TB the opportunity to respond and he has not done so. As this is clearly in violation of our rules, I am forced to act on the evidence at hand. The original work can be found at NForcersHQ, here. I will mark the body of this post to indicate where the blatant plagiarism has occured, but will leave the post otherwise unaltered, so that everyone can see what has transpired.

On behalf of AOA, I wish to apologize to both Fernando and NForcersHQ for this unfortunate incident.


After wrangling for hours here is what worked for me and many other people. Vista does not include the nessessary drivers to do a clean install from the DVD. You can do a clean install, just you have to do it from an exsisting OS.

Guide for a successful install of Vista Beta2 onto an nForce4 SataRaid system

Preparations:
As Vista Beta2 does not contain the necessary nForce SataRaid drivers, users with an nForce Raid array have to download not only Vista, but also the latest nForce drivers.
a) SataRaid drivers for Vista x86:
You will find them here. Download the 32-bit driver package named nforce_vista32beta2_english.zip, unzip it and copy the content of the IDE\driver\LEGACY folder onto an empty floppy disk or thumbdrive. I used my thumbdrive.
b) SataRaid drivers for Vista x64:
You will find them here. Download the 64-bit driver package named nforce_vista64beta2_english.zip, unzip it and copy the content of the IDE\driver\LEGACY folder onto an empty floppy disk or thumbdrive. I used my thumbdrive. You may find these drivers in another folder but they are there.

The next step is the preparation of an empty partition of your Raid array for the later Vista installation. Run any OS of your Raid and create a new partition (size: 20-30 GB) or do a quick format of an equivalent and not needed existing partition. Be aware to format the designed Vista installation place with NTFS file system.
After you have done that, you can begin with the installation

Warning: Especially Vista x64 needs a rock stable system during the installation. If you have an overclocked system or critical RAM sticks, you will get BSOD's, missing files or sudden reboots during the Vista installation.
Suggestion: Set the default BIOS timings before you begin with the Vista Setup.

Installation procedure:
Edit: this portion plagiarized

Run Windows XP (if you want to install Vista x86) or Windows XP x64 (if you want to install Vista x64) and put the Vista DVD into your DVD device.
Don't choose an Update, but a clean install.
Vista setup will show then all existing partitions of your Raid array and asks you, where you want to get Vista installed. Point at the partition you have prepared before by formatting.
Important: Although Vista sees all partitions of your Raid at this time, it would forget them all after the first reboot, if you would not load the necessary nForce SataRaid drivers.
So you have to hit the button "Load drivers" and put your prepared driver floppy into your floppy device. Vista will show you all drivers, which seem to be compatible to your nForce chipset.
One after the other you should choose
a) the "NVIDIA nForce(tm) RAID Class Controller"
b) the "NVIDIA nForce(tm) RAID Class Device" [not really necessary, just to avoid the annoying pop-up message, that a driver is missing] and
c) one of the devices "NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller" .
After a hit on the "Refresh" button you can click on the "Next" button.

The rest of the installation is very easy and will work like a charme.
At the end of the install you can enjoy Vista Beta2 on your nForce SataRaid array.

[Daniel ~]

Many thanks TB! Great to hear from you. How have you been?

[TranceBear]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Many thanks TB! Great to hear from you. How have you been?

okie-dokie, living in Denver now. I miss Seattle. I may move back. Man this Vista thing is not for the faint at heart. It requires some patience. I expect alot of postings in the future for issues. Noobs may not fully realize that this is a beta product. Here is a current pic of me.

[chrisbard]

Hey Trance, many thanks for the info. It'll definately help me in my quest !

[Gizmo]

http://www.aoaforums.com/forum/images/frontpage.gif

[TranceBear]

Wow, I feel all squishy inside!! Thanks guys.

[robbie]

Sup bud!!!
Miss ya!!!
Thanks for the write up!!

[TranceBear]

ya welcome Robbie. How are things with you?

[chrisbard]

1. Legacy drivers not there and not in another folder but maybe in the root ! Why don't we use sataraid instead of Legacy?
2. I have only xp 32 and I downloaded x64 version of Vista
3. When I boot from dvd there is no point where I can tell to load extra drivers
4. What can I do man??

My board is based on NF3 chip

Thanks

[chrisbard]

I managed to install x64 XP and from it run the installation of Vista. Like in other versions of Vista the rig trashes after restart. Comp is not OC at all timings are relaxed and still it trashes. Last time I borrowed one IDE hdd and had no issue installing on it. I know that on IDE would go without problems. What the hell is wrong? When I started the installation from xp I loaded the x64vistabeta2 driver of a floppy and everything went ok until reboot. Any ideeas? I still think it crashes because it can't see the raid even if the message indicates possibly hardware failure which I know is not unless my raid ctrl is damaged :P

[chrisbard]

bump

[Daniel ~]

De bump bump.

[TranceBear]

I couldn't find the edit button so here are better links and a few hints.

After wrangling for hours here is what worked for me and many other people. Vista does not include the necessary drivers to do a clean install from the DVD. You can do a clean install; just you have to do it from an existing OS.

Guide for a successful install of Vista Beta2 onto an nForce4 Sata/Raid system **Updated**

Preparations:
As Vista Beta2 does not contain the necessary nForce Sata/Raid drivers, users with an nForce Raid array have to download not only Vista, but also the latest nForce drivers.
a) Sata/Raid drivers for Vista x86:
You will find them here. Download the 32-bit driver package named nforce_vista32beta2_english.zip, unzip it and copy the content of the IDE\driver\LEGACY folder onto an empty floppy disk or thumbdrive. I used my thumbdrive.
b) Sata/Raid drivers for Vista x64:
You will find them here. Download the 64-bit driver package named NVIDIA IDE SW 6.67, unrar it and copy the content of the IDE\Win64\LEGACY folder onto an empty floppy disk or thumbdrive. I used my thumbdrive.

The next step (optional) is the preparation of an empty partition of your Raid array for the later Vista installation. Run any OS of your Raid and create a new partition (size: 20-30 GB) or do a quick format of an equivalent and not needed existing partition. Be aware to format the designed Vista installation place with NTFS file system.
After you have done that, you can begin with the installation

Warning: Especially Vista x64 needs a rock stable system during the installation. If you have an overclocked system or critical RAM sticks, you will get BSOD's, missing files or sudden reboots during the Vista installation.
Suggestion: Set the default BIOS timings before you begin with the Vista Setup.

Installation procedure:
Run Windows XP (if you want to install Vista x86) or Windows XP x64 (if you want to install Vista x64) and put the Vista DVD into your DVD device.
Don't choose an Update, but a clean install.
Vista setup will show then all existing partitions of your Raid array and asks you, where you want to get Vista installed. Point at the partition you have prepared before by formatting.
Important: Although Vista sees all partitions of your Raid at this time, it would forget them all after the first reboot, if you would not load the necessary nForce Sata/Raid drivers.
So you have to hit the button "Load drivers" and put your prepared driver floppy into your floppy device. Vista will show you all drivers, which seem to be compatible to your nForce chipset.
One after the other you should choose
a) the "NVIDIA nForce(tm) RAID Class Controller"
b) the "NVIDIA nForce(tm) RAID Class Device" [not really necessary, just to avoid the annoying pop-up message, that a driver is missing] and
c) one of the devices "NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller”.
After a hit on the "Refresh" button you can click on the "Next" button.

Especially with Vista Beta2 x64 it is a good idea to disable Vista's driver signature enforcement by hitting F8 at each reboot.

The rest of the installation is very easy and will work like a charm.
At the end of the install you can enjoy Vista Beta2 on your nForce Sata/Raid array.

[aghastpumpkin]

Originally Posted by gizmo

http://www.aoaforums.com/forum/images/frontpage.gif

Yay! I didn't see this!

Many yays!

[snoogans]

@TranceBear

thanks for ur instructions regarding installation. It worked for me and i can use vista now.

at start-up selecting OS for booting, how can i change to normal view. i mean a special menu is showing up and asking me to select vista or early windows version.

instead of like that i want to it show all windows(i have three Operating systems)including windows vista.

And finally how i can remove windows vista without affecting other operating systems and boot file to select windows ,normal select type

thanks

snoogans


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[IceRaptor]

Everytime i try to install the beta my computer crashes at different percentages of the copying phase.

This happens on both my orginal hard drive partition and on a freshly formatted extra 20gb hard drive i bought just for Vista. :/

[raphael2040]

Originally Posted by IceRaptor

Everytime i try to install the beta my computer crashes at different percentages of the copying phase.

This happens on both my orginal hard drive partition and on a freshly formatted extra 20gb hard drive i bought just for Vista. :/

Have ya tried burning it onto a different disk? Because it sounds like a damaged disk to me.