WHS install - SATA drives?

[Homerboy]

It's been a long while since I've done a fresh install of WHS. Does anyone recall if it can see SATA ports/drives out of the box or do I have to slipstream drivers? This would be on a DFI LANPARTY UT nForce4 motherboard.

Thanks in advance!

 

[BTA]

On an nForce4 board I would lean towards needing to load the sata drivers during install. Those drivers were never included in XP and Server 2003(WHS) is fairly similar as far as drivers go.

 

[Homerboy]

On an nForce4 board I would lean towards needing to load the sata drivers during install. Those drivers were never included in XP and Server 2003(WHS) is fairly similar as far as drivers go.

well I have no floppy drive so can't load during install. I'll have to slipstream them (which is a slight pain with WHS IIRC). Stupipd floppies and SATA!!!

 

[MaxBurn]

You can't use F6 drivers in WHS, you must slipstream them. I know it presents the F6 option but it just doesn't work due to the way they customize server 2003 to make it into WHS, stop error 7B every time when I tried it. This is the easiest method I know of and you can go a little beyond and make your disk bootable but it is easy enough to do the disk swap. I used this to slipstream the AHCI drivers for the ICH9R chipset (not using RAID).

http://ctt-andy.blogspot.com/2008/10/windows-home-server-stop-error-7b.html

Also you can just put your SATA into IDE emulation mode and skip the whole thing. You lose a slight amount of performance though.

 

[BTA]

Hey Thanks for the info MaxBurn...I was not aware of the F6 not working right on WHS.

That explains issues I had using the ICH9R. I do use IDE emulation and it performs just fine btw.

 

[notposting]

I never slipstreamed drivers for my WHS, used a floppy every time...just opened the case and had it dangling out for install, then removed it.

 

[Homerboy]

I never slipstreamed drivers for my WHS, used a floppy every time...just opened the case and had it dangling out for install, then removed it.

This is what I've done for XP installs and such... the problem is I think I have lost/broken/killed all my floppy drives

 

[RebateMonger]

You can't use F6 drivers in WHS, you must slipstream them. I know it presents the F6 option but it just doesn't work due to the way they customize server 2003 to make it into WHS, stop error 7B every time when I tried it.

I've used F6 to load disk controller drivers in WHS. You actually have to load the drivers twice: Once in the "DOS-mode" install portion, and once in the "Windows-mode" install portion. If you don't do both, the WHS install won't work.

 

[Homerboy]

http://social.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/whssoftware/thread/20476af1-c25a-475a-a468-f024df23fed2/

Looks like its a bit more involved than a standard slipstream. Nothing earth shattering though. Hopefully I can just find a floppy drive laying around and toss the NF4 drivers on that (anyone know where to GET the nforce4 drivers for SATA??!?!? )

Edit:
Easy Google: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_winxp32_amd_6.66.html

 

[nerp]

I never messed with slipstreaming or floppies when installing WHS on an NF4 board. It worked just fine out of the box.

 

[Homerboy]

I never messed with slipstreaming or floppies when installing WHS on an NF4 board. It worked just fine out of the box.

I'm hoping you're right!

 

[MaxBurn]

I've used F6 to load disk controller drivers in WHS. You actually have to load the drivers twice: Once in the "DOS-mode" install portion, and once in the "Windows-mode" install portion. If you don't do both, the WHS install won't work.

I am a little hazy on the steps I went through where it would fail but I don't remember even getting to the windows mode install portion step where you can load drivers. I assume you are refering to step 2 on the link page below? I think my machine blue-screened before it got to that step.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2236189,00.asp

 

[Homerboy]

Tangent: So I figured I'd go to the oracle and ask Google what the world has to say about "WHS nforce4"

This thread is already #4 on the list. Jeebus Google. Slow down!

 

[nerp]

The only driver I needed to install was the chipset driver or whatnot. Grab the xp Nforce4 drivers and you're good to go. I did this after install. No biggie. NVIDIA has it in its driver archive area, I believe. It has been a while. That NF4 board is now a basic workstation for me as I've switched to a low power atom setup for WHS.

 

[RebateMonger]

I am a little hazy on the steps I went through where it would fail but I don't remember even getting to the windows mode install portion step where you can load drivers.

It's been a while since my last WHS install. There's a description of the process and the "F6" part in this article:
http://www.livens.org/2010/05/21/windows-home-server-review-part-1-installation/

WHS installation involves both a Vista-based interface AND an XP-based interface. The XP (Server 2003, actually) part comes SECOND. I'd forgotten this.

I had to go through the two-time disk controller install when I installed WHS on an old PC using a VIA-chipset-based PCI SATA controller card and a Hitachi 1 TB disk. In my first attempt, I assumed that the first time I supplied the disk controller drivers would be enough, and the install couldn't complete. The second time, I provided a floppy disk drive and did the F6 thing and all was well. The first set of drivers would be Vista/Win7 drivers so the Vista-based installer can see the disk controller. The second set of drivers would be XP/2003 drivers so that Windows Server 2003 can see the disk controller.

 

[ViRGE]

Isn't the GUI installer supposed to copy over the drivers for use with the textmode Win2K3 installer? You aren't supposed to need to load drivers twice.

 

[MaxBurn]

My advice is all based on my experience with the intel chipset on home server. It wouldn't surprise me if nvidia makes you jump through a whole different set of hoops to get their driver loaded.

 

[WobbleWobble]

I have a DFI Lanparty NF4 board running WHS. No drivers needed for the nVidia SATA connections, but I did need them for the onboard Silicon Image SATA controller.

 

[TrueBlueLS]

I've got a ECS nForce3A NF3 board running WHS without a driver disk.

 

[Homerboy]

I have a DFI Lanparty NF4 board running WHS. No drivers needed for the nVidia SATA connections, but I did need them for the onboard Silicon Image SATA controller.

This was/is exactly right.
NForce needed them, Silicon Image needed.