Intel 82801ER SATA RAID Controller Vista Compatibility

[Guest]

I have updated the drivers for the Intel 82801ER SATA RAID Controller to
5.5.0.1035. I simply cannot get Vista Ultimate to install- it keeps telling
me that the drivers are incompatible. From what I can tell, people using the
beta versions and RC1 could get it to work, but here in the final retail
version I cannot get it to work. Anybody else having this problem?

I do not want to risk a clean install as I don't want to end up with a
paperweight.

If it matters, I'm using a basically stock Dell XPS Gen 2.

 

[gripstock]

I decided in early December to download RC1. I tried to do a clean
install and I could never get VISTA RC1 to recogonize any 82801ER
driver I threw at it booting from the DVD disk. VISTA could recognize
I had the RAID controller but refused to accept a couple I found. I
had the OEM driver that came on the ASUS CD with my motherboard and
two others that were later versions but none would work. I found a
post from someone that claimed they used a version number I could find
nowhere.
I worked for three afternoons maybe a total of seven hours attempting
to install, finally I gave up and did an upgrade from within Windows
XP.
I have always believed in a clean install of any new MS operating
system but it looks like for ease of installation and price I am going
to risk it and buy a VISTA Ultimate Upgrade version.

I know I have a different motherboard from yous so we possibly can't
compare and figure out how to do a clean install but here is some of
the information on my system:

ASUS P4C800E Deluxe (Purchased about three years ago)
875P Chipset
1GB DDR400
2 WD Raptor 36 GB DRives running RAID 0

My current version of Windows XP Ser Pack 2
Device Manager Reports the following information under SCSI and RAID
Controllers:

Intel 82801ER SATA RAID Controller
Driver: Intel Ver 3.5.0.2568 6/17/2003

Device Manager Reports the following information under Disk Drives:

RAID 0 Volume

Under Driver Tab:
Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 6/17/2003
Driver Version: 5.1.2535.0

Aparrently if I upgrade, VISTA can use my Intel RAID boot drivers to
start on but it cannot use them for a clean install?

 

[Guest]

I had a tough time with the controller too. I never did get it to
work(It me fits with my Wester Digital Raptor 16k cache drives). I
ended up using the Onboard SIL3112 SATA controller, to install a fresh
copy. One thing to keep in mind is that for Windows to install and not
give you a message that "Windows cannot find a suitable system volume
for installation" message, the drive you are installing to must be the
first drive. I found this out after pulling my hair out, trying to get
Vista installed.

Once I finally did get it installed, I was able to get the Intel
drivers loaded, using the Intel Intel® Matrix Storage Manager install.
The software would fail on install, however, the drivers would install
and have been working fine. I don't know what version these are, as
I'm no on my Vista machine, at the moment. I don't know if this was
the best way to go, but it's working.