Raid Driver Update Question

[Jeff]

....have a server that I built.

W2003 OS, Raid 10 on a hardware controlled Adaptec PCI raid card with 4
drives.

The OS is installed on the Raid array.

To make a long story short, I need to update the Adaptec's driver.

I have the newest driver files from Adaptec, but if I go through Device
manager and attempt to update the driver there, and point to the folder
where the driver files are located, I'm told that "windows can't find a
better driver" in that folder (the current driver is much older).

I think that the problem is that I can't update a raid driver when the OS
itself is on the raid array in this manner.

....but I'm not sure how else to update this. All instructions I've found
speak about either initial driver installation when the OS is installed or
an install after a new raid card is installed, but not actually updating the
driver.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance

Jeff

 

[Paul]

...have a server that I built.

W2003 OS, Raid 10 on a hardware controlled Adaptec PCI raid card with 4
drives.

The OS is installed on the Raid array.

To make a long story short, I need to update the Adaptec's driver.

I have the newest driver files from Adaptec, but if I go through Device
manager and attempt to update the driver there, and point to the folder
where the driver files are located, I'm told that "windows can't find a
better driver" in that folder (the current driver is much older).

I think that the problem is that I can't update a raid driver when the OS
itself is on the raid array in this manner.

...but I'm not sure how else to update this. All instructions I've found
speak about either initial driver installation when the OS is installed or
an install after a new raid card is installed, but not actually updating the
driver.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance

Jeff

The INF file in the install folder will have something like this inside it:

PCI\VEN_13F6&DEV_0111&SUBSYS_09821019

Each hardware device should have its own set of numbers.
A driver won't install, unless the numbers read from the hardware, match
some lines in the INF file.

If the above line in the INF file, is missing the SUBSYS part,
that effectively wildcards the SUBSYS, so any instance of that
Vendor and Device would match. (But the reason for having a
SUBSYS in the first place, is to account for feature differences
in the usage of the chips. For example, on audio, some designs
would have three audio connectors, some have six and so on. The
installer may use the SUBSYS to handle the differences in each
board design.)

A program like Everest, can be used to list the PCI\VEN and
DEV.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

This is an (unofficial) list of PCI devices. For those cases
where nobody knows what the hardware does or who made it.
A list like this exists for USB as well. The official lists
are not available for download (presumably kept under lock and
key, at pcisig and usb.org).

http://pciids.sourceforge.net/pci.ids

So check what Everest says for the Adaptec card, in the
DevicesCI section, then open up the INF file in the Adaptec
installer, and see if they match. You could have the wrong
installer.

Paul