Windows 7 cannot install 64 bit AMD RAID driver

[fatman45]

Trying to install Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on an ASUS M5A97 mobo with AMD SB850 RAID, two WD 750GB drives configured as RAID 0. No drives are recognized by W7 install, so I choose Load Drivers. I put the drivers on a USB stick. Install finds the drivers there, starts loading them, then comes back with "Installing an unsigned 64 bit driver is not supported and may result in an unstable Windows installation." Round and round she goes. I downloaded the latest drivers from ASUS website. I'm willing to take the chance on loading an unsigned driver Bill Gates! I saw other posts on here that recommend clicking Repair instead of Install, but I don't see where that option is. All I am given as options is Upgrade or Install. Choosing upgrade tells me to boot Windows first. But this is a brand new install so... I see this problem has been ongoing for at least the last 18 months; surely someone has a solution that actually works?

ETA: I just found the disk for Windows 7 Ultimate x64 with Service Pack 1. I was hoping this obvious Microsoft issue might have been fixed but (drum roll please) - NO!!! BTW the ASUS drivers are WHQL...

 

[GhislainG]

Have you checked if there are newer drivers from AMD?

 

[RetiredChief]

Newest AMD driver is Ver 11.9 dtd 9/28/2011
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx

I think the "unsigned" is AMD's responsibility.
The verify that driver is signed is to prevent damage to systems using malware possing as drivers.
If Sure that the drivers are the drivers you want, then by pass the warning.

 

[fatman45]

GhislainG/RetiredChief - I did download those drivers on the AMD site; unfortunately, those are post-install drivers. They don't have a method of e.g. putting them on a USB stick and having the OS installer load them from there.

RetiredChief - The message is not a warning that can be bypassed, otherwise I would have gladly "taken the chance". But it is apparently a fatal error.

I also tried using F8 during boot of the install and chose "Disable Signed Driver Requirement" as my boot option, but that didn't work either (same result). So I decided on a new course. I changed the BIOS back to the default mode of AHCI. W7 didn't even ask me for a driver! And it "sees" both disks! It appears that the AHCI and RAID drivers are identical, so I'm going ahead with the install, then I will use Clonezilla to image the install, set the BIOS back to RAID, and restore the image. I'm hoping that will work (fingers crossed). If not, I'll be calling Microsoft support, which means ponying up my credit card until they finally admit it is their issue and refund it. ;-(

 

[RetiredChief]

Myself, I'd be calling AMD and asking
(1) when is a F6 driver going to be out, and
(2) why are your drivers UNSIGNED.

Wishing you look on the cloning method, But have a feeling that when the bios is changed From ahci -> raid the drive will not boot - But as you said it is worth a try!

 

[fatman45]

Thanks for the help guys. I threw in the towel and went with AHCI and only one drive. I'll use the other one on a new machine that I'm going to install CENTOS on.

 

[intrepidza]

I found a solution to this problem that will hopefully work for most. Some skill is necessary since it is a bit complicated. The component to make this work is an extra harddrive not essential to setting up the RAID array. I assume that you have a bootable Windows 7 x64 install, if not, do a fresh install to a single harddrive and follow these instructions:

1. Install the Windows 7 x64 RAID driver for your motherboard and re-boot.
2. Install the harddrives to be used for the RAID array.
3. Set the desired RAID array (0/1/5/10) up in your BIOS.
4. Boot into Windows 7 x64, making sure the RAID array is recognised.
5. Clone the bootable Windows 7 x64 harddrive to the RAID array.
6. Re-boot making sure you select the RAID array as boot device.
7. You now should have a bootable Windows 7 x64 RAID (0/1/5/10) array.
8. Add the original hard-drive to the RAID array if desired.
9. Enjoy

The problem with doing a fresh install of Windows 7 x64 to a RAID array is the driver signing required by Microsoft for the x64 RAID driver install. This is not present for the x86 RAID driver install, which can be done with ease. The Windows 7 x64 driver can be installed without a problem once Windows 7 x64 have been installed to a single hard-drive. Now you just have to clone this bootable hard-drive to the RAID array! Hope this helps.

 

[fatman45]

Best answer selected by fatman45.

 

[trunrg]

I found a solution to this problem that will hopefully work for most. Some skill is necessary since it is a bit complicated. The component to make this work is an extra harddrive not essential to setting up the RAID array.

intrepidza,
Currently this appears to be the only solution that works for me. Spent 2-1/2 days trying everything imaginable. Even starting with xp64 (couldn't get Raid drivers to work properly with it either). Absolutely ridiculous this is the only way to do a fresh install onto a Raid.

Oh, and make sure your base install drive is set as the FIRST BOOT DEVICE, or W7 won't install.

Thank-you for posting a valid "work-around".

AMD M5A97 LE R2.0
(AMD SB950 Raid Controller)
Sandisk 240GB drives Raid0

 

[Snuffy94]

I've been dealing with the same problem on a Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 motherboard. I downloaded the latest SATA Raid drivers from the Gigabyte site, extracted the file to a floppy. During the Windows 7 install when prompted to browse for drivers I browsed to the floppy, selected the W7 x64 SATA driver and it would not install. So, I went to the AMD site and downloaded the SB970 drivers. Extracted the SATA Raid drivers to the floppy, started the Win7 installed and selected the Win7 x64 driver that was downloaded from the AMD site and it worked. Afterwards, I compared the files that were downloaded from the Gigbyte site and the AMD site and there was an additional .inf file that was downloaded from the AMD site that was not in the file downloaded from the Gigabyte site nor was it on the Gigabyte driver disk. The additional .inf file that was part of the AMD drivers is nodrv.inf. This file has to be the difference maker in setting up the SATA Raid with the Raid option set in BIOS.

I found a solution to this problem that will hopefully work for most. Some skill is necessary since it is a bit complicated. The component to make this work is an extra harddrive not essential to setting up the RAID array.

intrepidza,
Currently this appears to be the only solution that works for me. Spent 2-1/2 days trying everything imaginable. Even starting with xp64 (couldn't get Raid drivers to work properly with it either). Absolutely ridiculous this is the only way to do a fresh install onto a Raid.

Oh, and make sure your base install drive is set as the FIRST BOOT DEVICE, or W7 won't install.

Thank-you for posting a valid "work-around".

AMD M5A97 LE R2.0
(AMD SB950 Raid Controller)
Sandisk 240GB drives Raid0

 

[konglo]

TA Raid drivers to the floppy, started the Win7 installed and selected the Win7 x64 driver that was downloaded from the AMD site and it worked. Afterwards, I compared the

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WoW Gold|Diablo 3 Gold|Guild Wars 2 gold|Diablo 3 Gold kaufen

 

[popatim]

<looks into the flames> I ... I foresee a ban hammer coming your way

 

[slpower]

I'm an experienced IT professional and familiar with RAID configuration in server environments... It did not help me when trying to assist my 15 year old with his second built and a motherboard replacement - with the primary intent of adding RAID support for his OS and data volumes. We went with a gigabyte / amd solution, moving away from an intel-based solution.

I spent 2 days reading forum posts and fearing I was going to have to go the clonezilla route - which is not the end of the world, but very inelegant for something that should work out of the box (as it did for my last intel-based motherboard build).

In the end, the answer was simple, but not made apparent by gigabyte, amd, or many of the forum posts...

Here it is:

1. Insert your fresh OS drive (assuming RAID 0 or 1 is your goal, I suggest only inserting one and not both of the drives you intend to RAID so you know which you're working with)
2. Activate RAID in the BIOS and reboot
3. Ctrl+F when the RAID BIOS setup screen appears (hold Ctrl+F down as it seems to blow by a momentary press)
4. Configure the drive as RAID Ready
5. Install Windows, Select to install latest AMD RAID drivers (download these and expand to USB in advance)
6. Install RAID Xpert in Windows
7. Shut down and install second hard drive
8. Go to http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c01827420 and read the simple instructions
a. The simple instructions are essentially to start RAID Xpert, verify you see your logical volume containing your single RAID Ready disk and your newly inserted second disk that you want to add to the RAID array (logical disk); select the logical volume, click the migrate tab, select the new disk you want to add, and OK. Screen will show progress as it adds the second drive.

HTH

 

[riseflake]

I have an asrock 990Fx extreme 3 and the driver disk from the site worked for me when installing win 7 64.

The link:
ftp://europe.asrock.com/drivers/AMD/SATA/Floppy_XP64_XP(v3.3.1540.13)_Vista64_Vista_Win7-64_Win7(v3.3.1540.22).zip

 

[Shevazk]

www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-and-RAID-Drivers.html