Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA?

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? I am curious if I need to install the Intel INF file Utility on my Windows XP Pro (Build
2600.xpsp2.030422-1633 : Service Pack 1)? Currently running fine but I'm not using any
USB2.0 devices or SATA HDs yet.

My P4(800) Springdale Chipset system is up-to-date with all the Windows XP Service Packs,
Driver Updates and Critical Updates found at the Windows Update page. My SATA and USB 2.0
controllers show up in Device Manager without problems. However, my mainboard manufacturer's
website has an Intel INF Utility posted for my board (a DFI PS83-BL using the latest BIOS)
and I've pasted this Utility's Readme file description below.

Also, my mainboard BIOS offers an "enhanced" mode option for enabling SATA which is supposed
to allow for "both" SATA Channels plus 4 PATA devices (2 masters and 2 slaves) from the
regular IDE controller. Furthermore, you can also choose to flip the SATA devices from 0 to
1 and 1 to 0.

I've emailed DFI many months ago several times about this but something must be getting lost
in translation, as they have never responded.

I searched newsgroups for this topic with Google which yield both "yes" and "maybe" answers.

Also some postings seem to warn about "switching from PATA to SATA on existing WinXP
installations." I get the feeling that something really bad will happen if I did that, so
I'm concerned because I need to upgrade to larger HDs. I would like to get a pair of SATA
160 Gb units. I plan to clone my existing PATA HDs using DriveImage7 and then switch to the
SATA connectors (which will also free up the standard onboard IDE controller for my DVD,
Burner and Zip drives).

Currently running with 2 - PATA 60 Gb Maxtors, each set as a master from the motherboard's
standard IDE controller (only WinXP Pro ... no other operating systems):

HD #1 - C and D (C Drive Primary Booting with D as a logical, both NTFS);
HD #2 - E and F (both logicals for data files and image backups, both NTFS)

Is this a bad thing to try and do I need the Intel INF file Utility installed prior to doing
this?

BTW, I thought WinXP (with the latest Service Packs) already supported SATA, USB2.0, etc
hardware? Is there a way under Device Manager, etc where I can check to see if my drivers,
etc could benefit from running the Intel INF Utility listed below:

*********************************************************
* Product: Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility
* Release: Production Version
* Version: 5.00.1012
* Target Chipset#: Intel(R) 82865G/PE/P, 82875P
* Date: March 12, 2003
*********************************************************
* 1. OVERVIEW
************************************************************
The Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility installs
to the target system the Windows* INF files that outline to
the operating system how the Intel(R) chipset components will
be configured. This is needed for the proper functioning of
the following features:

- Core PCI and ISAPNP Services
- AGP Support
- IDE/ATA33/ATA66/ATA100 Storage Support
- USB Support
- Identification of Intel(R) chipset components in
the Device Manager
************************************************************

Any help or thoughts would be greatly, greatly appreciated, Thanks .... JS

Windows XP588

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? I can only answer in reply that my mainboard Intel 875PBZ,
runs quite well with my XP Pro install and has 2 SATA
160's running off the on-board SATA connectors and a
primary master DVD multi format burner installed and
running fine.

I have no special or specific Intel software installed and
have no problems.

The INF util may add some more bells and whistles and a
pinch of functionality but you don't really need it.

Bill Gould

>-----Original Message-----
>I am curious if I need to install the Intel INF file
Utility on my Windows XP Pro (Build
>2600.xpsp2.030422-1633 : Service Pack 1)? Currently
running fine but I'm not using any
>USB2.0 devices or SATA HDs yet.
>
>My P4(800) Springdale Chipset system is up-to-date with
all the Windows XP Service Packs,
>Driver Updates and Critical Updates found at the Windows
Update page. My SATA and USB 2.0
>controllers show up in Device Manager without problems.
However, my mainboard manufacturer's
>website has an Intel INF Utility posted for my board (a
DFI PS83-BL using the latest BIOS)
>and I've pasted this Utility's Readme file description
below.
>
>Also, my mainboard BIOS offers an "enhanced" mode option
for enabling SATA which is supposed
>to allow for "both" SATA Channels plus 4 PATA devices (2
masters and 2 slaves) from the
>regular IDE controller. Furthermore, you can also choose
to flip the SATA devices from 0 to
>1 and 1 to 0.
>
>I've emailed DFI many months ago several times about this
but something must be getting lost
>in translation, as they have never responded.
>
>I searched newsgroups for this topic with Google which
yield both "yes" and "maybe" answers.
>
>Also some postings seem to warn about "switching from
PATA to SATA on existing WinXP
>installations." I get the feeling that something really
bad will happen if I did that, so
>I'm concerned because I need to upgrade to larger HDs. I
would like to get a pair of SATA
>160 Gb units. I plan to clone my existing PATA HDs using
DriveImage7 and then switch to the
>SATA connectors (which will also free up the standard
onboard IDE controller for my DVD,
>Burner and Zip drives).
>
>Currently running with 2 - PATA 60 Gb Maxtors, each set
as a master from the motherboard's
>standard IDE controller (only WinXP Pro ... no other
operating systems):
>
>HD #1 - C and D (C Drive Primary Booting with D as a
logical, both NTFS);
>HD #2 - E and F (both logicals for data files and image
backups, both NTFS)
>
>Is this a bad thing to try and do I need the Intel INF
file Utility installed prior to doing
>this?
>
>BTW, I thought WinXP (with the latest Service Packs)
already supported SATA, USB2.0, etc
>hardware? Is there a way under Device Manager, etc where
I can check to see if my drivers,
>etc could benefit from running the Intel INF Utility
listed below:
>
>*********************************************************
>* Product: Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility
>* Release: Production Version
>* Version: 5.00.1012
>* Target Chipset#: Intel(R) 82865G/PE/P, 82875P
>* Date: March 12, 2003
>*********************************************************
>* 1. OVERVIEW
>**********************************************************
**
>The Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility
installs
>to the target system the Windows* INF files that outline
to
>the operating system how the Intel(R) chipset components
will
>be configured. This is needed for the proper functioning
of
>the following features:
>
> - Core PCI and ISAPNP Services
> - AGP Support
> - IDE/ATA33/ATA66/ATA100 Storage Support
> - USB Support
> - Identification of Intel(R) chipset components in
> the Device Manager
>**********************************************************
**
>
>Any help or thoughts would be greatly, greatly
appreciated, Thanks .... JS
>
>
>.
>

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? 865 chipset was not around when XP was released, so, yes, you should do
the Intel Chipset INF update. The one you listed is old tho, go get the
latest from the intel site,

http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/inf/

install this AFTER you've installed XP and SP1 and done all the
necessary Windows Updates.

while youre there, get the RAID Driver too, IF (and only if) you want to
use the ICH5R RAID feature.

http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? followup:

1) Yes, you should do the inf file update. It'll provide all the
necesary info to XP to let it use the 865 chipset to its fullest. This is
a simple update and should not affect anything you've got right now. It
is highly recommended. Get the latest inf files from the intel site.

2) re: SATA. if you go into your bios and change the "on-chip IDE
controller" (or something like that) setting to "enhanced mode" you'll
enable the ICH5R SATA channels (while keeping the other two IDE
interfaces), and they will show up as IDE-3 and IDE-4 (each a single
channel, master-only, no slave). This should also not alter anything in
your current setup, since you won't have anything attached to them at this
time. If/when you do attach a drive(s) to these channels they will show
up as new drives, after the existing drives (later drive letters in XP).
You could set them up as RAID 0 or 1, using the Intel RAID BIOS feature
(cntrl-I at boot up), and at that point you will need to have the IAA-RAID
Edition installed (install it first, then attach the drives). If you do
that then those two drives will show up as a SINGLE additonal drive, again
w/ a later drive letter. This will, by definition, be a data drive.

If you want to install XP to that RAID 0 drive you need to change the
BIOS boot order, so that the on-chip SATA RAID Device is the first device
in the boot order. THIS WILL END UP ALTERING THE DRIVE LETTERS THO, the
new RAID drive will (probably) end up being d, e, or even f, depending on
how many of the other HD's and optical drives you leave installed [it wont
be C, that's for sure; it's not a problem, just something that often
throws people]. you should NOT simply restore a DriveImage to this new
RAID array, since the XP install in that image won't have the RAID drivers
- you'll need to do a clean XP install to the array, and you'll need to
have the floppy disk w/ the intel raid drivers on it; press F6 right up
front in the XP install process and feed it the floppy when it asks.

There should be info in your Motherboard manual about all this. The
intel site will also have info.

Good luck.

Best Bet in the future: go to the motherboard maker's site, and see if
there is a forum there; ask those users, they're sure to know exactly how
to do these things for that brand of motherboard. Look for a FAQ
there too.

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? Thanks for your help .... very much appreciated. However I don't have a RAID controller on
this DFI 865 board (it's more like and Abit IS7 I think) .... just two single non-RAID SATA
connectors.

Will I still lose C Drive if I simply replace my old drives with SATAs?

Thanks again .... JS

<EMail@HideDomain.com> wrote in message news:EMail@HideDomain.com...
> followup:
>
> 1) Yes, you should do the inf file update. It'll provide all the
> necesary info to XP to let it use the 865 chipset to its fullest. This is
> a simple update and should not affect anything you've got right now. It
> is highly recommended. Get the latest inf files from the intel site.
>
> 2) re: SATA. if you go into your bios and change the "on-chip IDE
> controller" (or something like that) setting to "enhanced mode" you'll
> enable the ICH5R SATA channels (while keeping the other two IDE
> interfaces), and they will show up as IDE-3 and IDE-4 (each a single
> channel, master-only, no slave). This should also not alter anything in
> your current setup, since you won't have anything attached to them at this
> time. If/when you do attach a drive(s) to these channels they will show
> up as new drives, after the existing drives (later drive letters in XP).
> You could set them up as RAID 0 or 1, using the Intel RAID BIOS feature
> (cntrl-I at boot up), and at that point you will need to have the IAA-RAID
> Edition installed (install it first, then attach the drives). If you do
> that then those two drives will show up as a SINGLE additonal drive, again
> w/ a later drive letter. This will, by definition, be a data drive.
>
> If you want to install XP to that RAID 0 drive you need to change the
> BIOS boot order, so that the on-chip SATA RAID Device is the first device
> in the boot order. THIS WILL END UP ALTERING THE DRIVE LETTERS THO, the
> new RAID drive will (probably) end up being d, e, or even f, depending on
> how many of the other HD's and optical drives you leave installed [it wont
> be C, that's for sure; it's not a problem, just something that often
> throws people]. you should NOT simply restore a DriveImage to this new
> RAID array, since the XP install in that image won't have the RAID drivers
> - you'll need to do a clean XP install to the array, and you'll need to
> have the floppy disk w/ the intel raid drivers on it; press F6 right up
> front in the XP install process and feed it the floppy when it asks.
>
> There should be info in your Motherboard manual about all this. The
> intel site will also have info.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Best Bet in the future: go to the motherboard maker's site, and see if
> there is a forum there; ask those users, they're sure to know exactly how
> to do these things for that brand of motherboard. Look for a FAQ
> there too.

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? In microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support John Smith <EMail@HideDomain.com> wrote:
> Thanks for your help .... very much appreciated. However I don't have a RAID controller on
> this DFI 865 board (it's more like and Abit IS7 I think) .... just two single non-RAID SATA
> connectors.

If it has the ICH5R (note the R) then it can do RAID; regular ICH5 can
not. ABIT IS7 does have the R, that's the mb I've got :-)

> Will I still lose C Drive if I simply replace my old drives with SATAs?

if you remove the old HD's and install a SATA into the IDE-3 plug then
yes, that new HD will most likely not be seen as C [on my setup it's E; I
have a CD/DVD burner on IDE-1, a zip on IDE-2, and a RAID-0 pair on
IDE-3/4. Zip is seen as C: (that's a known XP wierdness tho, it treats
it like an HD), CD/DVD as D:, and first partition of HD as E:].

=====================

Look for a KB artical on how XP assigns drive letters. I can summarize
briefly:

IDE channels are searched in order, 1 to N. The first Active Primary
Partition found is assigned C:, the next primary partition on the next HD
found is D:, etc until all primary partitions are found. Then the IDE's
are searched again, and any logical partitions [inside of each Extended
Partition] found are assigned the next available letter, in order.

Disk Manager will let you change the drive letters, but NOT for the system
volume NOR the boot volumn [which can be the same]. [System volumn holds
boot.ini and ntldr in the root; Boot volumn holds the /windows directory.
And yes, they really should be named the other way, but MS named them this
way long ago and we're stuck w/ it].

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? No it does not have the ICH5R .... no RAID. It is like a non-RAID Abit IS7 .... just a
plain vanilla 865PE chipset board.

DFI's website has a statement in the support section that says my board (DFI PS83-BL rev. A)
does not support a "booting" SATA HD ........ That note was dated back in May 2003. Since
then however, they have released 4 BIOS updates for improving lots of other stuff, but based
on my test, it looks like I'll have to wait still longer for a BIOS update that gives me the
ability to boot from a SATA HD (assuming the 865PE chipset, etc supports that feature).

I wonder if other brands of "non-RAID 865PE "chipset motherboards support "booting" SATA
HDs?

I may have to start a new thread in some of the other groups asking that very question.

Thanks .... JS

<EMail@HideDomain.com> wrote in message news:EMail@HideDomain.com...
> In microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support John Smith <EMail@HideDomain.com>
wrote:
> > Thanks for your help .... very much appreciated. However I don't have a RAID controller
on
> > this DFI 865 board (it's more like and Abit IS7 I think) .... just two single non-RAID
SATA
> > connectors.
>
> If it has the ICH5R (note the R) then it can do RAID; regular ICH5 can
> not. ABIT IS7 does have the R, that's the mb I've got :-)
>
> > Will I still lose C Drive if I simply replace my old drives with SATAs?
>
> if you remove the old HD's and install a SATA into the IDE-3 plug then
> yes, that new HD will most likely not be seen as C [on my setup it's E; I
> have a CD/DVD burner on IDE-1, a zip on IDE-2, and a RAID-0 pair on
> IDE-3/4. Zip is seen as C: (that's a known XP wierdness tho, it treats
> it like an HD), CD/DVD as D:, and first partition of HD as E:].
>
> =====================
>
> Look for a KB artical on how XP assigns drive letters. I can summarize
> briefly:
>
> IDE channels are searched in order, 1 to N. The first Active Primary
> Partition found is assigned C:, the next primary partition on the next HD
> found is D:, etc until all primary partitions are found. Then the IDE's
> are searched again, and any logical partitions [inside of each Extended
> Partition] found are assigned the next available letter, in order.
>
> Disk Manager will let you change the drive letters, but NOT for the system
> volume NOR the boot volumn [which can be the same]. [System volumn holds
> boot.ini and ntldr in the root; Boot volumn holds the /windows directory.
> And yes, they really should be named the other way, but MS named them this
> way long ago and we're stuck w/ it].

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? I do boot from my SATA, no problem.

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? "Ronald Rey" <> wrote in message
news:e%EMail@HideDomain.com...
> No it does not have the ICH5R .... no RAID. It is like a non-RAID Abit
IS7 .... just a
> plain vanilla 865PE chipset board.
>
> DFI's website has a statement in the support section that says my board
(DFI PS83-BL rev. A)
> does not support a "booting" SATA HD ........ That note was dated back in
May 2003. Since
> then however, they have released 4 BIOS updates for improving lots of
other stuff, but based
> on my test, it looks like I'll have to wait still longer for a BIOS update
that gives me the
> ability to boot from a SATA HD (assuming the 865PE chipset, etc supports
that feature).
>
> I wonder if other brands of "non-RAID 865PE "chipset motherboards support
"booting" SATA
> HDs?

Ronald,

As I have stated elsewhere in this thread, I use an Intel D865PERL
motherboard and boot with no problems from a Hitachi/IBM 160GB S-ATA drive,
which was in fact GHOSTed from a 120GB parallel ATA drive. This is an ICH5R,
but set to non-RAID mode - which makes it identical to an ICH5 as far as the
OS, BIOS and drivers are concerned.

Booting from the S-ATA drives is certainly "supported" by the chipset - it's
not really governed by the chipset, though, as much as the BIOS. And I have
yet to see an ICH5 or ICH5R based board that *doesn't* support booting from
S-ATA - this capability is in the Intel BIOS Writers' Guide for ICH5, and as
such is a baseline capability. Which is why I'm very, very surprised that
DFI have apparently messed up in this way. I've looked on their site but
can't see anything about not booting from S-ATA. Can you quote the URL?

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? David ..... I found that info on the DFI FAQ list for you regarding the DFI PS83-BL mobo ...
looks to me like DFI has indeed messed up and I need to start hounding them. The only
problem is DFI's Tech Support for North American Customers never, ever bothers to respond
.... at least not to my 5 or 6 emails over the last few months. That's mighty pitiful ......
YOU HEAR THAT DFI !!!!!):

http://www.dfi.com.tw/Support/mb_faq_us.jsp?FAQ_ID=1560&SUBMITTED=No&PAGE_TYPE=US

Anyway David, you can see from this link they have highlighted in RED that their 856PE board
does not support booting from the SATA HD ...... I'm going to point this out to Fry's who is
selling a lot of these. Also there is no warranty for North American Customers! The
website says something like "sorry Charlie but you got to work out defect problems with your
retailer" ..... I'm getting tempted to throw in an Intel Branded 865PE board. I wonder if I
can do that without having to go through a Repair Install of WinXP since the chipset is the
same and I've not enabled the onboard sound?

"David Hollway [MVP]" <EMail@HideDomain.com> wrote in message
news:4033fd4e$0$10339$EMail@HideDomain.com...
> "Ronald Rey" <> wrote in message
> news:e%EMail@HideDomain.com...
> > No it does not have the ICH5R .... no RAID. It is like a non-RAID Abit
> IS7 .... just a
> > plain vanilla 865PE chipset board.
> >
> > DFI's website has a statement in the support section that says my board
> (DFI PS83-BL rev. A)
> > does not support a "booting" SATA HD ........ That note was dated back in
> May 2003. Since
> > then however, they have released 4 BIOS updates for improving lots of
> other stuff, but based
> > on my test, it looks like I'll have to wait still longer for a BIOS update
> that gives me the
> > ability to boot from a SATA HD (assuming the 865PE chipset, etc supports
> that feature).
> >
> > I wonder if other brands of "non-RAID 865PE "chipset motherboards support
> "booting" SATA
> > HDs?
>
> Ronald,
>
> As I have stated elsewhere in this thread, I use an Intel D865PERL
> motherboard and boot with no problems from a Hitachi/IBM 160GB S-ATA drive,
> which was in fact GHOSTed from a 120GB parallel ATA drive. This is an ICH5R,
> but set to non-RAID mode - which makes it identical to an ICH5 as far as the
> OS, BIOS and drivers are concerned.
>
> Booting from the S-ATA drives is certainly "supported" by the chipset - it's
> not really governed by the chipset, though, as much as the BIOS. And I have
> yet to see an ICH5 or ICH5R based board that *doesn't* support booting from
> S-ATA - this capability is in the Intel BIOS Writers' Guide for ICH5, and as
> such is a baseline capability. Which is why I'm very, very surprised that
> DFI have apparently messed up in this way. I've looked on their site but
> can't see anything about not booting from S-ATA. Can you quote the URL?
>
>

Windows XP Perform Maintain >> Do I need the Intel INF Utility for SATA? On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 11:08:28 -0800, "John Smith"

>I am curious if I need to install the Intel INF file Utility on my Windows XP Pro (Build
>2600.xpsp2.030422-1633 : Service Pack 1)? Currently running fine but I'm not using any
>USB2.0 devices or SATA HDs yet.

>My P4(800) Springdale Chipset system is up-to-date with all the Windows XP Service Packs,

What chipset is "Springdale"? If as old as 800MHz PIII and Celeron,
XP should know what it is, but if as new as 800MHz-base-speed P4, it
won't. Typically you *start* the system build process with the .inf
before anything else; if you've lived this long, I'd be inclined NOT
to retro-fit it in case it creates a PnP and WPA storm.

>My SATA and USB 2.0 controllers show up in Device Manager without problems.

Nice.

>Also, my mainboard BIOS offers an "enhanced" mode option for enabling SATA which is supposed
>to allow for "both" SATA Channels plus 4 PATA devices (2 masters and 2 slaves)

That's another setting I would NOT change on the fly. Win9x (Win98xx,
WinME etc.) can't work with S-ATA in combination with P-ATA in
enhanced mode; it wants to see no more than 4 ATA(PI) devices.

>Also some postings seem to warn about "switching from PATA to SATA on existing WinXP
>installations." I get the feeling that something really bad will happen if I did that, so
>I'm concerned because I need to upgrade to larger HDs. I would like to get a pair of SATA
>160 Gb units. I plan to clone my existing PATA HDs using DriveImage7 and then switch to the
>SATA connectors (which will also free up the standard onboard IDE controller for my DVD,
>Burner and Zip drives).

Good luck - XP's brittle when it comes to this sort of thing. File
level copies fail outsight, image transfers may or may not work, may
need some fiddling. So I choose my HD for life.

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