Topic: [SLVD] New hardware build - does MassStorage Pack include drivers?
New hardware build - does MassStorage Pack include drivers?
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard (Intel Core i7 LGA 2011)
Intel X79 chipset built-in:
2 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
4 x SATA 3Gb/s ports
Intel Rapid Storage Technology
2 x ASMedia controller:
2 x External SATA 6Gb/s ports at rear
2 x Extended SATA 6Gb/s ports (hard drive only, not ATAPI)
WD SATA III 6Gb/s harddrives connected to Intel 6Gb/s ports
WD SATA II 3Gb/s harddrive connected to Intel 3Gb/s port
System booted > BIOS > EZ Flash Utility used to update BIOS to latest version downloaded form ASUS web site.
Using older system, Easeaus Partition Master Pro v9.1.0 used to create a WinPE bootable flash drive. This flash drive
then inserted into USB 2.0 port 3 and new system rebooted from flash drive > Easeus Partiton Master Pro started and it
was used to partition and format the three harddrives connected as indicated above. (The C:\> drive was made active.)
Again, using older system and the program WinToFlash a bootable flash drive was created that included XP Pro w/SP3
updated using the RyanVM Integrator, the most recent update pack, various addons, WMP11 slipstreamer, and DriverPacks
Base program that included MassStorage_wnt5_x86-32_1202r1.7z.
The new system was booted with the XP Pro flash drive in the same USB port as earlier and the install/setup routine
started. After agreeing to the EULA and opting to install XP the screen that appeared that should have presented a
list of the harddrive partitions created using Easeus was empty - no drives were found (only the flash drive was
shown). This was not expected.
To verify the problem the flash drive was removed from the new system and using the old system and the program
WinFromUSB another bootable flash drive with the same XP Pro w/SP3 was created. The flash drive was again inserted in
the same port on the new system and it was booted. The flash drive was detected, the XP install/setup routine started
and, again, the drives/partitions were not detected.
The Rampage IV motherboard's BIOS default setting for the drives is AHCI mode and I was pretty sure the DriverPacks
MassStorage pack had AHCI drivers included so I did not expect the result I got.
I then booted the new system and went into the BIOS to change the settings from AHCI to IDE. This time I was
successful in detecting the drives/partitions when booting from the flash drive. So, it appears this version of
MassStorage I was using did not include the drivers compatible with this motherboard. Bummer.
The ASUS web site http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/ > Products Category > Intel Socket 2011 > Intel X79 > scroll down to Rampage IV Extreme > locate tab Download > select OS > WinXP > SATA > Asmedia SATA Controller Driver v1.2.2.0 for Windows 32/64/bit etc can be downloaded.
When this download is expanded/extracted a \Driver folder with various subfolders is created. The *.inf file in the
x86 folder does include hardware IDs. I mention this here because I cannot use SaveHWIDs v1.3.exe to get a list of
HWIDs for the Rampage motherboard as no operating system is installed.
Going back to the ASUS web site and changing the OS to Win7 64 bit two SATA downloads are presented. The new one is
Intel Rapid Storage Tech v3.00.2.003. When this one is expanded/extracted and the folders are created one that shows
is \Driver\Disk\32bit and another is \Install\Drivers\AHCI\x32. They both have *.INf files that I'm assumng provide
all the necessary information needed.
I have not yet changed the harddrives from the Intel ports to the ASMedia ports and tried again to boot from the flash
drive to see if detection is successful in AHCI mode.
If the MassStorage driverpack does contain all of these drivers then please let me know that and I will switch from
Intel to ASMedia and try again in AHCI mode.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_X79 talks about this issue and mentions that motherboard manufacturers may provide their own drivers so I'm posting this and hoping a solution is available using DriverPacks.
Last edited by ChiefZeke (2012-02-28 17:05:13)