Skip to main content
Start a Conversation

Unsolved

This post is more than 5 years old

ChandlerL

44 Posts

154264

February 18th, 2007 19:00

Vista Installation solution for RAID setup/dual-boot that get worker_thread BSOD

The following instructions should solve the issue users have been having with installing Vista on Dell systems that use a RAID bios that, by default, is turned on.
 
Firstly, we know that going into your BIOS settings and changing the RAID BIOS parameter to Autodetect enables you to install Vista without any special instructions-- So if you're willing to give up a RAID array or willing to do a clean Vista install that wipes your old XP install then you're good to go.
 
However the above "solution" doesn't help those that wish to dual boot XP/Vista (probably a very good idea for now) and want to keep their entire XP install with all settings and files and/or are using an enabled RAID setup and wish to continue using that functionality (turning that functionality off would be tantamount to erasing your hard drives). See DELL shipped these RAID supporting computers with the RAID setting defaulted to ON even if your HD setup is not using it. So the default Windows XP installs shipped on these Dells REQUIRE this setting to remain on. If you turn it off, you will no longer be able to boot up your XP install without getting the same BSOD we see in Vista forcing you to do a clean install only. So how do we keep our RAID setups and/or install Vista in a dual-boot XP/Vista configuration?
 
These instructions are meant to solve the issue that people have been having with the "WORKER_THREAD_RETURNED_AT_BAD_IRQL" BSOD. Keyword: Worker Thread Returned at Bad IRQL (Keyword placed here to facilitate people that are searching the forums for this solution)
 
#1-- Forget the DELL drivers-- they don't work-- at least they certainly didn't for me and they're also out of date.
 
#2-- From Windows XP, go to Intel's site and download the latest (6.2.1.1002) Intel Storage Manager exe for Vista. Run it but don't hit the NEXT button through the prompts-- you don't want to install it-- the good news is that if you do install it into your Windows XP install by accident the Vista driver release does work with Windows XP as well so you won't have an unbootable XP install. *whew* Either way the reason why I want you to hold off its installation is because we need to pull drivers from it that you can only get to from the a temporary folder that is created when you run the Intel setup. (there is another way that uses flags but we'll skip that idea for now)
 
 
 
#3- Go into your Windows\temp ($windir$\temp) directory and look for the IIF folder-- this is a temporary folder created by the Intel Storage Manager setup. Dig into that folder looking for the Driver or Driver64 folder (it's inside the WINALL folder). The correct folder will have the "iaStor.sys" file within it along with a few others such as "iaahci.cat" and "iastor.inf" Take the contents of that folder and write it to the root directory of a floppy disk, USB key, or CD. Don't write the folder "Driver" or "Driver64" to your media-- just the contents (I'm trying to keep things simple). The 32bit drivers are in "Driver" folder and the 64bit drivers are in the "Driver64" folder.
 
#4- Cancel the Intel Storage Manager for Vista installation since you got what you needed from it.
 
#5- Now try and install Vista again-- run the install from Windows XP and do a clean install-- if you wish to setup a dual boot and have a partition ready be sure to select that destination. While you're going through the install, look for the Load Driver icon (it's quite small) and click it. Be sure the USB key, floppy disk, or CD is inserted/connected to your system and browse to it. Then select OK. It will take the Vista install a long time to find it (god knows why). You should eventually see the Intel RAID driver pop up as an option. Select it and click OK or NEXT (I believe NEXT is the available button).
 
#6- Vista install should then copy the drivers and continue with the installation.
 
#7- Keep the USB key, CD, or Floppy Disk inserted/connected throughout the installation-- the Vista install may need to reinstall the driver again and will look for it later in the installation-- without it you may BSOD again so don't eject the media or disconnect your USB key until Vista is running properly.
 
#8- Vista should now install for your system with RAID capability allowing you a successful installation whether dual boot or clean and no more WORKER_THREAD BSOD.
 
I hope this helps everyone who's been having major issues-- as a medium-business DELL customer, I am troubled that DELL hasn't posted these instructions for users of its higher end systems that have this issue (such as the Dimension 9200, XPS 410, 700, etc.) It took a number of install retries along with a measure of sharing everyone's frustration for me to realize that I needed to look outside of Dell's support site to find what is needed to remedy the issue.
 
I also took the time to erase my newly working Vista install and doing this over again using my instructions to make sure they worked. Not exactly a controlled experiment but good enough for now.
 
Regards,
 
Chandler


Message Edited by ChandlerL on 02-19-2007 12:48 PM

kuhnesito

140 Posts

February 27th, 2007 08:00

Hey, I got my 64bit Vista running in my machine and all seems well but I left it downloading some file overnight and when I got back to check it there was a message of how nvraid or somedriver had stoped working.
 
I just closed that window and the pc kept working great. sup with that?

ChandlerL

44 Posts

February 28th, 2007 12:00

Quote:

 

Absolutely. That's what I did to set up a Windows Vista / XP dual-boot without losing my nearly ancient Windows XP setup. I can boot either Vista or XP in RAID mode.

 

-Chan



Message Edited by ChandlerL on 02-28-2007 08:56 AM

proimage1

82 Posts

February 28th, 2007 13:00

Hey Chandler - I figured out why I had the wrong drivers listed earlier - when I downloaded from the link for the files - I did run the setup - BUT before I looked for the files - instead of leaving it on screen and going to the temp folder - I closed it out - therefore losing those - so the files that you noted were not there - this time - I kept the window open - then navigated to the temp folder and there they were - I then put them on a floppy and I'm ready to go - NOW - should I or should I not try and go through this again - I probably will - but not today - to much going on - BUT - when I do - I will post my results - I'm feeling pretty good about it working this time - but I've felt that way before and it didn't go well - at any rate - I for one really appreciate your help and support you have given all of us in this situation. Regards Tom

scott784

388 Posts

February 28th, 2007 22:00

Thank you again Chandler for responding.  So from your response the six files I outlined in my previous post are INDEED the ones you described all along.  And I understand you to say that a person can store them on cd, usb key, or whatever media they have and then when vista setup prompts for drivers, it should grab these files (assuming the user has the media attached to the computer-obviously), right?  I am thinking setup will grab them without user interaction but I am not 100% certain on that part.  Again, just trying to make all this crystal clear for the benefit of all.  I wished I had a spare pc to experient with but I like I've said, I do want to use raid in the future so this info is helpful for me too (even though I've already got vista and xp in a dual boot mode) but with raid off.  Here's those files again that I have stored to a blank CD. 
 
Iaahci.cat
iaahci.inf
iastor.cat
iastor.inf
iastor.sys (seems to be the most important file here)
txtsetup.oem
 
As Tom said, we appreciate your participation on this forum and all of your feedback :-)
 

Roger1955

561 Posts

March 3rd, 2007 19:00

Hi,
I'm having the   WORKER_THREAD_RETURNED_AT_BAD_IRQL issue during the vista upgrade process. Same error on three upgrade attempts. When I change the Raid On to AutoDetect, it blue screens after I save the setting and exit. Upon bootup, like my computer is saying "SORRY  I DON'T WORK UNLESS I'M IN THE RAID ON MODE". So how do I get pass this. I don't want to do a clean install, will these directions work for me? Thanks

richieds

3 Posts

March 11th, 2007 05:00

I tried changing my BIOS setting to RAID autodetect but then it simply would not boot at all. I'd get an error screen and have to turn off the PC and restart. When I changed it back it booted normally.
Safe mode didn't work either. I don't even have a second hard drive on my machine. I finally just gave up and am back to XP. Of course, I had to reinstall all the programs that the Dell cd removed and promised to reinstall when Vista was loaded. Just a big mess.

scott784

388 Posts

March 11th, 2007 06:00

Richieds, I can't say for sure about the Dell OEM upgrade dvd because I used the retail version of Vista Home Premium (although they should work the same). 
 
Anyhow, the blue screen you and Roger1955 described "will" happen if you attempt to reboot to the Dell factory installed version of Win XP "after" you have changed the BIOS setting.  The reason why is that when Dell installed Win XP at the factory the BIOS is configured to raid on so if you go into the BIOS and change it to autodetect you cannot reboot to factory XP version.
 
If you cannot get Vista to load with the BIOS set to raid on, you may want to consider doing a clean install of Vista (meaning that you boot from the DVD versus doing an install from the XP desktop).  This is what was done with my pc to force the installation of Vista......changed factory setting from raid on to autodetect, booted from DVD, and then proceeded with installation without a problem. 
 
Of course, since you are using upgrade media, you would have an additional step involved trying to boot from the Vista upgrade version.  I used the full version of retail vista home premium.  Anyhow, in your case, you might want to take a look at the following link.  I hope it helps.  Remember to back up any personal stuff first if you decide to do a clean install.
 


Message Edited by scott784 on 03-11-2007 03:41 AM

ChandlerL

44 Posts

March 11th, 2007 07:00

Quote

 

Yes, Roger. The instrucitons provided at the top of the thread are the exact instructions that should help you get past this where you want to install Vista on a system where RAID is set to Autodetect (ON) and you want to setup a dual boot XP/Vista install.

Chears.

 

Chandler

scott784

388 Posts

March 11th, 2007 07:00

Here is another link for you and Roger if you're interested in a clean install.....
 
 
If you choose to keep your XP factory install and upgrade off of that, you will have to leave the BIOS to raid on, no doubt about that.  You must decide what is best for you.  However, I for one, am a big advocate of a clean install over the inplace upgrade.
 
Regards,
Scott
 


Message Edited by scott784 on 03-11-2007 01:55 PM

richieds

3 Posts

March 11th, 2007 15:00

Thanks for the links. I'll save these messages for a future date. I would hate to totally mess up my daughter's new computer without good reason and I'm not seeing anything that compels me to go through this much trouble to install Vista. Since she isn't clamoring for it and XP was working just fine, I'll keep my fingers crossed that my aborted attempt didn't cause lasting problems and the new BIOS upgrade doesn't cause problems with XP. Hopefully, Dell will address this problem and supply a fix in a reasonable amount of time. I'm betting that Apple can't wait to get some new commercials out there depicting our pathetic attempts at upgrading to Vista.

akslarson

6 Posts

March 13th, 2007 10:00

Using this thread and others, I have successfully upgraded my XPS 410 with XP-Media Center to Vista. After all sorts of tinkering with XP, I was afraid to do a strict upgrade anyway, so went with a clean install. I couldn't find the RAID drivers in the directory mentioned, but a Search found them stored in several places on the HD. Luckily, I pulled out the right ones onto my flash drive. Then, after disconnecting from the internet, I ran the Dell upgrade disk from XP, choosing a clean install and not entering the Product Key. When it first rebooted into Vista, I interrupted the process and changed the BIOS to turn RAID to Autodetect. Everything went fine from there. When that was completed, I ran an Upgrade install from within Vista, this time connecting to the internet and entering the Product Key. No problems! Many thanks to Chandler and the rest of you who figured this out. Shame on Dell for not being on top of this situation.

akslarson

6 Posts

March 13th, 2007 10:00

Using this thread and others, I have successfully upgraded my XPS 410 with XP-Media Center to Vista. After all sorts of tinkering with XP, I was afraid to do a strict upgrade anyway, so went with a clean install. I couldn't find the RAID drivers in the directory mentioned, but a Search found them stored in several places on the HD. Luckily, I pulled out the right ones onto my flash drive. Then, after disconnecting from the internet, I ran the Dell upgrade disk from XP, choosing a clean install and not entering the Product Key. When it first rebooted into Vista, I interrupted the process and changed the BIOS to turn RAID to Autodetect. Everything went fine from there. When that was completed, I ran an Upgrade install from within Vista, this time connecting to the internet and entering the Product Key. No problems!

scott784

388 Posts

March 13th, 2007 23:00

akslarson,
It sounds like you did a good job of doing a clean install of Win Vista on your PC.  However, it appears you might have included an extra step that may not have been necessary for your particular situation.  Let me explain.
 
As Chandler had indicated, "If if you're willing to give up a RAID array or willing to do a clean install that wipes your old XP install then you're good to go."  That is, you're good to go by simply changing your BIOS setting and changing the RAID BIOS parameter to Autodetect with no further instructions.
 
However, the additional instructions Chandler outlined about extracting files from the Intel Storage Manager would be for those folks that want to dual boot XP/VISTA "and" want to keep their entire XP factory install with all the settings and files "and/or" are using an enabled Raid setup and wish to continue using that functionality.  As Chandler stated, turning Raid to autodetect is tantamount to erasing your hard drives.
 
Chandler also states, "See DELL shipped these RAID supporting computers with the RAID setting defaulted to ON even if your HD setup is not using it. So the default Windows XP installs shipped on these Dells REQUIRE this setting to remain on. If you turn it off, you will no longer be able to boot up your XP install without getting the same BSOD we see in Vista forcing you to do a clean install only. "
 
In my particular case, I got a dual boot system set up with XP and Vista at the beginning of February.  At that time, I knew of no other work around other than putting my BIOS in autodetect mode.  That was fine for a dual boot and no raid array needed.  However, the consequence for me was that I was forced to reinstall my XP drive along with Vista.  This obviously was very time consuming.....even though things worked out great.
 
So I just wanted to clarify that Chandler's additional instructions were to help people keep a raid setup and/or install Vista in a dual-boot XP/Vista configuration while keeping your factory XP settings protected."
 
On a different note.  Here's a simple scenario.  Let's say you only have one hard drive, don't use raid, and don't care about a dual boot system with XP.  In that scenario, you could just change raid to "autodetect" and you would then be good to go with a clean install of Vista.  And if you ask, "what if I want/need to install from the desktop with upgrade media?  Well, all you'd have to do is install (or reinstall) the qualifying media first under the autodetect setting.  Then do your clean install of Vista from that desktop (all of this being acomplished after you had already changed the BIOS parameter to autodetect.
 
So again, I just wanted to make the distinction here so no one is confused.  Again, great to hear you got Vista going.  In any event, it sounds like you are good to go now :-)
 

icestormak

8 Posts

March 18th, 2007 16:00

Hey all. I too am having problems. I have tried the fix posted here but it still did'nt work. It was getting late and I was tired too so maybe today I'll get it working. But before I start trying again I got a few questions. First I have an XPS 410 with one HD installed from dell. The RAID in BIOS is also set to ON by default. I installed a 2nd Drive and its connected to SATA3 ( yes I have SATA3 set to On in the BIOS). I want to install Vista Ultimate 64bit Retail on the new drive. But I do not want to loose my XP on the other drive. I'm getting the BAD IRQL msg too. I have all the new Drivers/BIOS update for Vista 64bit downloaded from dell and bured to a CD. I have not installed any drivers/BIOS updates yet. So my first question is: Do I wait to install these drivers/BIOS update after I get Vista going and Install them when I have vista booted? Or do I install them now with XP booted before I try to install vista? The only thing I have installed is the Intel Storage Manager drivers. I too went too far and fully installed this to get the files that chandler says to get. After I find out when to install the drivers I plan on trying again with Chandler's way around this problem. I tried it last night and I got futher through the install process. I got to the point where I selected which drive to install it on and clicked to set up and partition that drive and I got the BAD IRQL error again.

Message Edited by icestormak on 03-18-2007 12:56 PM

icestormak

8 Posts

March 18th, 2007 22:00

Well I got vista installed woot! Thanks so much Chandler! Here's what I did I installed a 2nd Hard Drive and turned on the SATA3 setting in my BIOS as this was the one on my motherboard I connected the HD to. I loaded Win XP and Formated the new drive. Downloaded all the Vista Drivers and burned them to a CD. I then did the procedure that Chandler said to do. Getting the files from the temp folder and burning to CD. Next I put in my vista CD (retail) and booted from it and installed vista as per Chandler's instructions. Upon the 1st reboot for the vista install i got a error. I ended up changing my boot order to #1 being my Primary XP Hard Drive and #2 being my new Vista Hard Drive. After I did this the vista install continued with no problems. Once I got to the Vista Desktop I installed the Intell Storage Driver. I was then able to remove the CD that I made as per Chandler's instructions. After that I installed all the Dell drivers starting with the BIOS update first. Everything seems okay so far. Upon start up I get the Windows boot manager asking me which OS I want to boot up. Both work fine and my XP is just as is was before I started all of this. I am having some problems with other drvivers. Such as for my Linksys wireless card. They dont have a 64 bit driver out yet. So for now no internet with vista unless I choose to run a cable to the computer. I haven't tried any programs or games yet. That will be next. Once again Thank You Sooooooo Much Chandler :)

Was this post helpful?

View All

No Events found!

Top