2.2 S-ATA/RAID driver integration via XP-Iso-Builder/nLite pre installation
It is possible to integrate missing S-ATA/RAID driver to the Windows setup CD pre installation. The most common programs to do that are
XP-Iso-Builder and
nLite (or also
Windows Unattended CD Creator) (for Vista:
vLite). When you have done this, you don't have to add the driver via F6 during installation any more. The driver will be loaded automatically.
To give an example, I will show how to integrate the VIA RAID VT6421 controller driver (can be found in M1437, M1439, Mx438, Xi1526, Xi1546, Xi1547, Xi1554) with XP-Iso-Builder (Version 3 Beta 1). Other integrations are similar.
First, insert the Windows Setup CD in your CD/DVD drive and indicate it to be your source disc. The CD will be copied to a custom directory on the hard drive (here E:\TEMP\AmiloXPCD). (In case of Windows XP, it is strongly recommended that you also integrate at least the
Servicepack 2, if not already included).
Now it should look like this:
Now the most important step - the integration of the controller driver. To do that, XP-Iso-Builder needs the file
txtsetup.oem (here in folder D:\Downloads\VIA RAID 5.20A\drvdisk\). Both S-ATA and RAID drivers should have this file included in their driver package.
With the execution of the
txtsetup.oem you get a menu similar to the following:
Chose the appropriate driver here.
The integration of the S-ATA/RAID driver as device driver is optional, but recommended. The driver comprises at least two files - one *.inf file and one *.sys file. XP-Iso-Builder needs for integration the *.inf file (here viamraid.inf), but the corresponding *.sys file (here viamraid.sys) has to be in the same folder, too. In the given driver package the two files were found in the folder D:\downloads\VIA RAID 5.20A\drvdisk\i386\NT5\ (as NT5 stands for Win2000, WinXP and Win2003)
Now we need to create a bootable image file that can be burnt onto CD/CD-RW with e.g. Nero. You should have the following window in front of you:
Burn the iso image on CD.
Finally, you have created a Windows Setup CD that is able to install Windows on your Amilo. The hard drives will be detected properly.
Common problems:
If you encounter any problems (driver integration fails, hard drives are not detected anyway, etc...) take note of the following points:
- Do BIOS- and Hardware-Reset as described here
Hardware FAQ
- Use another program (e.g.: XP-ISO-Builder <-> nLite)
- identify the right driver (see also 2.4)
- make sure that both inf and sys file as well as the txtsetup.oem exist
With the latest notebooks it may be necessary to integrate the chipset drivers as well. The chipset "drivers" probably consist of only inf files, nevertheless there may be a txtsetup.oem