problem with windows 7 install and RAID drivers

[Chuck]

I'm attempting to install Win7 64 on a system running a gigabyte
GA-MA78GM-S2H... I've downloaded the AMD SATA RAID Drivers for Win 7 64 from
gigabyte's website and extracted them to my USB drive but during the install
Win7 basically says they are not digitally signed drivers and installing
unsigned drivers is unsupported... so no drivers are installed. Is there a
work around for this? I don't see any older versions of these drivers on
Gigabyte's site so I'm not sure what to do...

 

[Flasherly]

I'm attempting to install Win7 64 on a system running a gigabyte
GA-MA78GM-S2H... I've downloaded the AMD SATA RAID Drivers for Win 7 64 from
gigabyte's website and extracted them to my USB drive but during the install
Win7 basically says they are not digitally signed drivers and installing
unsigned drivers is unsupported... so no drivers are installed. Is there a
work around for this? I don't see any older versions of these drivers on
Gigabyte's site so I'm not sure what to do...

I had that problem, or correctly surmised a black screen of death and
continual reboot attempts were the same cause, when slipping a new MB
recently onto an old XP install. Thought initially I might need a new
OS install, but it turned out all was needed to was to play around
with the BIOS drive settings until able to turn off RAID functions,
whereupon the problem appeared deferred. I despise RAID, however, as
a recipe for disaster, so with a little luck, all in all, it turned
out to be a doubleplus good or win-win situation for an earlier
Windows. I wasn't aware and find that suspicious, the option to
install other than Microsoft "approved & certified" drivers is revoked
in its present incarnation. FWIW - I may have been able to install
the drivers at the OS level for later returning to enable RAID in the
hardware BIOS, can't exactly recall -- while finishing off a binary
backup whereupon I elected to remove the drivers and leave well enough
alone with any BIOS RAID entry points closed and off.

 

[Paul]

I'm attempting to install Win7 64 on a system running a gigabyte
GA-MA78GM-S2H... I've downloaded the AMD SATA RAID Drivers for Win 7 64 from
gigabyte's website and extracted them to my USB drive but during the install
Win7 basically says they are not digitally signed drivers and installing
unsigned drivers is unsupported... so no drivers are installed. Is there a
work around for this? I don't see any older versions of these drivers on
Gigabyte's site so I'm not sure what to do...

http://support.amd.com/US/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

Motherboard/Chipset
7-Series <--- (780G+SB700)
All 7-series chipsets
Windows 7 - 64 bit

( http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx#2 )
AMD RAIDXpert Utility 55.3 MB 3.3.1540.19 3/28/2012

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/12-8_vista_win7_win8_32-64_raid.exe 30,773,416 bytes

What I typically use, is 7ZIP to burrow inside. This is the folder
path, to the driver files for an SB700 Southbridge. Five files.

$_OUTDIR\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\SB7xx\RAID\W764A\

07/15/2009 12:10 AM 7,969 ahcix64s.cat
07/10/2009 08:07 PM 3,471 ahcix64s.inf
08/13/2012 05:50 PM 72,192 ahcix64s.msi
07/14/2009 02:35 PM 226,616 ahcix64s.sys
07/01/2009 06:15 PM 1,339 nodrv.inf

; *******Localizable Strings*******
ATI= "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc."
Desc_amd640= "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller Driver"
NapaDesc= "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller"
NapaDesc_DC5750= "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller - DC5750"
ATI_Raid_ControllerDesc= "AMD RAID Console"

It appears the driver at install time, is an AHCI based one, used
to bootstrap the RAID process. That's all I can guess by looking at
those files.

You could try putting that directory of five files, on a storage device.
A floppy, or a USB stick perhaps. Then, start the install, and see if
there's an option to offer that driver set. Note that the set I
picked there, has no "TXTSETUP.oem" which would have been for another
OS.

By comparison, if I download the WinXP version (92MB), there's a folder
in there like this. Actually, some of the look-alike folders, don't
have a txtsetup.oem, so in fact the folders are not uniform in design.
I'm only offering this as an example, to show WinXP could be slightly
different.

03/20/2012 06:40 PM 8,194 ahcix86.cat
12/29/2011 03:58 PM 3,756 ahcix86.inf
08/13/2012 05:36 PM 71,168 ahcix86.msi
12/29/2011 03:59 PM 228,648 ahcix86.sys
11/15/2011 04:20 AM 1,689 txtsetup.oem

Anyway, extract the

$_OUTDIR\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\SB7xx\RAID\W764A\

folder, and put the five files where Windows 7 can find them. At
least the Localizable Strings description looks promising.

Best guess,
Paul

 

[Paul]

http://support.amd.com/US/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

Motherboard/Chipset
7-Series <--- (780G+SB700)
All 7-series chipsets
Windows 7 - 64 bit

(
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx#2 )
AMD RAIDXpert Utility 55.3 MB 3.3.1540.19 3/28/2012 <--- Oops...

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/12-8_vista_win7_win8_32-64_raid.exe
30,773,416 bytes

What I typically use, is 7ZIP to burrow inside. This is the folder
path, to the driver files for an SB700 Southbridge. Five files.

$_OUTDIR\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\SB7xx\RAID\W764A\

07/15/2009 12:10 AM 7,969 ahcix64s.cat
07/10/2009 08:07 PM 3,471 ahcix64s.inf
08/13/2012 05:50 PM 72,192 ahcix64s.msi
07/14/2009 02:35 PM 226,616 ahcix64s.sys
07/01/2009 06:15 PM 1,339 nodrv.inf

; *******Localizable Strings*******
ATI= "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc."
Desc_amd640= "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller Driver"
NapaDesc= "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller"
NapaDesc_DC5750= "AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller - DC5750"
ATI_Raid_ControllerDesc= "AMD RAID Console"

It appears the driver at install time, is an AHCI based one, used
to bootstrap the RAID process. That's all I can guess by looking at
those files.

You could try putting that directory of five files, on a storage device.
A floppy, or a USB stick perhaps. Then, start the install, and see if
there's an option to offer that driver set. Note that the set I
picked there, has no "TXTSETUP.oem" which would have been for another
OS.

By comparison, if I download the WinXP version (92MB), there's a folder
in there like this. Actually, some of the look-alike folders, don't
have a txtsetup.oem, so in fact the folders are not uniform in design.
I'm only offering this as an example, to show WinXP could be slightly
different.

03/20/2012 06:40 PM 8,194 ahcix86.cat
12/29/2011 03:58 PM 3,756 ahcix86.inf
08/13/2012 05:36 PM 71,168 ahcix86.msi
12/29/2011 03:59 PM 228,648 ahcix86.sys
11/15/2011 04:20 AM 1,689 txtsetup.oem

Anyway, extract the

$_OUTDIR\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\SB7xx\RAID\W764A\

folder, and put the five files where Windows 7 can find them. At
least the Localizable Strings description looks promising.

Best guess,
Paul

Sorry, forgot to correct the RAIDXpert thing... I left the wrong
string in my previous posting.

You want the RAID Driver, to get the OS to install. Things like the
RAIDXPert link, are for RAID Management, such as a RAID Console for
the running OS, the ability to send an email somewhere if the RAID
fails while the OS is running, that sort of thing. The RAIDXPert could
be based on Java code. RAIDXPert would be the layer above the basic driver.
The smaller RAID Driver is what you want for now. The RAIDXpert is for
later, when you're bored. You'll be downloading 29.3MB of stuff, to
get 300KB worth of files...

( http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx#2 )
AMD Raid Drivers 29.3 MB Version 12.8 8/15/2012

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/12-8_vista_win7_win8_32-64_raid.exe 30,773,416 bytes

$_OUTDIR\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\SB7xx\RAID\W764A\

07/15/2009 12:10 AM 7,969 ahcix64s.cat
07/10/2009 08:07 PM 3,471 ahcix64s.inf
08/13/2012 05:50 PM 72,192 ahcix64s.msi
07/14/2009 02:35 PM 226,616 ahcix64s.sys
07/01/2009 06:15 PM 1,339 nodrv.inf

You can probably just use the .exe file and run it. The reason I use
7ZIP on these things, is I hate to run installers for things I don't
have on the computer, and leave files all over the place. So extracting
with 7ZIP is my "clean" option. The only time this is a problem, is
with InstallShield protected downloads, where the 7ZIP can't deal with them.
The RAIDXpert file I downloaded first, I had to take that apart using
WINE in Ubuntu, to keep my Windows OS clean, and that file was a bust
in terms of having a driver in it. I couldn't see a driver folder
in the RAIDXpert thing. Maybe it's there, but it wasn't as obvious
as the folders in the 29.3MB file.

HTH,
Paul