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ChandlerL

44 Posts

154179

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#1-- Forget the DELL drivers-- they don't work-- at least they certainly didn't for me and they're also out of date.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

srivport

1 Message

March 25th, 2007 19:00

Scott:
 
Is there someplace (this forum or elsewhere) to help a non-techie such as myself understand how to create a dual boot XP/Vista setup?
 
I want to set up a home desktop recording studio. I bought the machine you apparently have, the XPS 410 dual core, 2.63 GHz processor, huge amount of SDRAM and all the rest.
 
I bought it specifically to run Pro-Tools home recording software.
 
Dell shipped the box with Vista. Pro-Tools won't work with Vista. I need to install Windows XP on a machine that was shipped with Vista.
 
Is this a task for a non-technical person? Or do I need help?
 
David

proimage1

82 Posts

March 25th, 2007 21:00

@srivport wrote:
Scott:
Is there someplace (this forum or elsewhere) to help a non-techie such as myself understand how to create a dual boot XP/Vista setup?
I want to set up a home desktop recording studio. I bought the machine you apparently have, the XPS 410 dual core, 2.63 GHz processor, huge amount of SDRAM and all the rest.
I bought it specifically to run Pro-Tools home recording software.
Dell shipped the box with Vista. Pro-Tools won't work with Vista. I need to install Windows XP on a machine that was shipped with Vista.
Is this a task for a non-technical person? Or do I need help?
David


This should answer all of your questions - great place to learn a ton of stuff - they have bailed me out several times - good luck !

http://www.vistatweakpro.org/

Message Edited by proimage1 on 03-25-2007 05:36 PM

akslarson

6 Posts

March 25th, 2007 21:00

Receiving non-Vista compliant and non-Vista-upgradeable software for computers advertised as Vista-ready brings up another issue. In my case it is Roxio MyDVD. I certainly wouldn't haven't purchased this software if I had known. By the way, I am not interested in dual-booting because I want my software to act cooperatively in an integrated system

naoiseribh

4 Posts

March 27th, 2007 21:00

Could anyone advise me on the following scenario?
 
I have just purchased a dimension 9200 set up with Vista and RAID with two hard drives installed.  I want to remove Vista altogether because most of my existing software and hardware only works with XP and would be too expensive to upgrade. 
 
Would I be correct in assuming the steps I would need to take would be as follows;
 
  • Turn RAID setting to 'autodetect' in the Bios.
  • Boot the computer with the XP os in the drive so the os can be installed from CD.
  • Continue to install the XP operating system on the hard drive.
  • Install XP drivers as and when needed.

Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of or a better method of achieving this? 

What collection of XP drivers would I need to have at hand?

Any advice appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

 

gwint

4 Posts

April 2nd, 2007 18:00

Hi:

I have a question about ChandlerL's work around for the Dell raid compatibility issues when setting up a dual boot Vista/XP machine. I just purchased 2 Dell E520 machines with dual core 2600 processors, 2 ghz ram, 250 ghz hard drives, 1 w/ Vista Home and 1 w/ Vista Premium. Vista is on Drive :C and :D, with :C being the primary drive. I shrunk the hard drive to create another partition (F) for XP Pro, configured a dual boot option and added the entry for XP using Easy BCD 1.52. Now when I re-boot I get the menu option for Vista (set to default) and for XP. I now go to load XP on the :F partition and it gets to the first re-boot and goes BSOD. I then re-boot and go into the BIOS, then Drives, then find that the BIOS is set to RAID by DELL. I change this setting to "auto detect" and re-boot. XP now loads fine, but when I reboot and try to open Vista, I get message that says Vista needs to repair itself. It will try to repair for quite a while and then return a "repair failed" message. If I re-boot and go back into the BIOS and set the Raid back to the Dell default of "Raid On" and re-boot, I am now able to open Vista with no problems, but if I do this and try to open XP, It goes BSOD. This seems to be the opposite of the scenario your solution is meant to fix, so the question is, will the same fix you outlined correct the problem of having to change the BIOS every time I want to switch operating systems as well?

gwint

4 Posts

April 2nd, 2007 19:00

Oops, the message I just sent needed of couple of clarifications regarding the raid set up. Please disregard the message prior to this and replace it with this one instead.

Hi:

I have a question about ChandlerL's work around for the Dell raid compatibility issues when setting up a dual boot Vista/XP machine. I just purchased 2 Dell E520 machines with dual core 2600 processors, 2 ghz ram, 250 ghz hard drives, 1 w/ Vista Home and 1 w/ Vista Premium. Vista is on Drive :C and :D, with :C being the primary drive. I shrunk the hard drive to create another partition (F) for XP Pro, configured a dual boot option and added the entry for XP using Easy BCD 1.52. Now when I re-boot I get the menu option for Vista (set to default) and for XP. I now go to load XP on the :F partition and it gets to the first re-boot and goes BSOD. I then re-boot and go into the BIOS, then Drives, then find that the BIOS is set to "RAID On" by Default. I change this setting to "Auto Detect / ATA" and re-boot. XP now loads fine, but when I reboot and try to open Vista, I get message that says Vista needs to repair itself. It will try to repair for quite a while and then return a "repair failed" message. If I re-boot, go back into the BIOS and set the raid settings back to Dell default setting "Raid On" and re-boot again, I am now able to open Vista with no problems, but if I do this and try to open XP, It goes BSOD. This seems to be the opposite of the scenario your solution is meant to fix, so the question is, will the same fix you outlined correct the problem of having to change the BIOS every time I want to switch operating systems as well?

gwint

4 Posts

April 2nd, 2007 20:00

I am not quite clear as to how best to solve my problem in other words. In the scenario outlined in the previous post, new Dell E520 that came loaded with Vista Home Premium and wanting to create a dual boot machine with XP Pro using one hard drive and keeping Vista on the default drives :C and :D with Raid On being the default BIOS setting from Dell, what is the easiest way to do this in regards to the BIOS raid settings? Do I re-install Vista from boot up after I re-set the BIOS to Auto Detect / ATA first? I presently have Vista loaded on :C and :D, and XP loaded on :F with the BIOS set to Raid on for Vista and Auto Detect for XP as that is the only way the 2 OS's will work. Sorry for the redundancy of my 2 posts, just trying to get it right!

ChinchX

1 Rookie

 • 

28 Posts

April 2nd, 2007 20:00

gwint, i wish i could help you with the answer to your question, but i honestly don't know the answer.. i'm sure one of the others can help you out though.. but i just wanted to give you a little tip:

you can actually edit your posts if you find something you want to correct or whatever, just click the little thing at the top right of your post, "options" and you can go to "edit message" and you can make your changes and then hit "post" and it will update your message. i noticed you wanted to make corrections to your original post.

chrisvandette

2 Posts

April 11th, 2007 19:00

hello i just did my e520 with xp pro and vista home premium on one 250gb hard drive i set the raid to auto not on with the xp pro cd i set up 2 partitions on the smaller first partition i formated it then installed xp pro then once xp was loaded and okay . i loaded vista . all i did was have vista format the second partition one the hard drive then installed it.. i did not add any extra raid controllers or anything .. i did not use any boot programs , when i start my computer it asks if i want to run vista or a older version of windows if i do not change or select anything ot automatically goes into vista... any questions let me know chris

scott784

388 Posts

April 15th, 2007 02:00

Do any of you have the Phillips DVD drive?  If so, have you been to support.dell.com and updated your firmware to the latest release for your Phillips DVD drive?  Have you updated your BIOS to the very latest edition?
 
I cannot say for others.  However, (for my machine) either one or both of these actions fixed the iaStor) errors in my PC which finally allowed me to install raid with no problems...unbelievably!  (Obviously also changed raid back to "raid on" and changed BIOS settings for an actual raid array)
 
Also, have all of you seen the post by Intel?  After 2 months of saying they could not "replicate" the problem, it seems Intel has FINALLY acknowledged the issues with the IaStor errors and raid problems in certain chipsets.  See their link below:
 

 

I know a lot of what I am saying is a repeat of other users.  This issue has now been discussed in forums since the release of Vista.  However, I "do" want to emphasize that I took no other action. I did not move the Sata ports.  (My 2 hard drives remain on ports 0 and 1, DVD drive on Sata port 2 and DVD-RW on port 3 and raid is set to on in the BIOS).  Also, while I have participated in this thread, I never actually used Chandler's solution because I had already crashed my system at that point (of his posting) and set up a a dual boot (XP and Vista on separate hard drives) with BIOS reset to autodetect).  However, I kept up with this forum because like everyone else, I have wanted to know the solution for leaving raid on.

 

I made the transition back to "raid on" in the BIOS with a raid 0 array (as of a few days ago).  So far things are running great....just with the firmware and BIOS update.  (Previously, I had the BIOS changed from raid on to auto detect to force the installation of Vista...without raid).

 

So even if you don't have a Phillips DVD drive, you might want to check to see if there is a firmware update for your particular DVD drive.  Also, make sure your BIOS is updated to the latest one.



Message Edited by scott784 on 04-15-2007 12:26 PM

ChinchX

1 Rookie

 • 

28 Posts

April 15th, 2007 11:00

thanks for the followup, scott. every little bit helps!

i am still running XP and i have pretty much given up until SP1 comes out or at least the issue is fully addressed and not just bandaged. i would backup my data, but i have a 500GB RAID 0 setup and only a 250GB external drive. something tells me that my drives are gonna be wiped out or corrupted or something if i try to upgrade..

so i'm too scared ;) but i'm glad you got your setup goin though! that's awesome.

hey speaking of drives, mine is listed as TSST TS-H553A. TST corp is the brand? from what i've seen on google searches, it looks like this is identical to a samsung drive. maybe it was re-branded or something? who knows.. but that's interesting that the cd-rom drive was causing your iostor errors.

scott784

388 Posts

April 15th, 2007 15:00

Yes, it is interesting that my Phillips DVD rom drive was causing the problem (along with "possibly" the BIOS needing another update).  Although Intel has not offered a solution for everyone, the dvd drive is one of the causes Intel mentions.  It's been 5 days now and no problems with the raid setup or iastor errors so I am keeping my fingers crossed that all is good!
 
Since I previously had a good dual boot system (with raid previously set to autodetect and no raid array)....I don't know if I would've made the plunge 5 days ago with this new setup myself.  However, a few minor bugs developed in my dual boot system (XP and Vista) and when I tried to fix it, I made things worse.
 
So that's what got me into the migration back to raid on and now a raid 0 array.  I do have to say, it's easier maintaining one OS system now versus two and I like Vista.  I just miss having Quicktime and to a lesser extent RealPlayer.  Just have to be patient until those 2 apps offer full support for Vista.  Until then, I will not put them on my machine.
 
P.S. ChinchX, I would keep in mind that your TSST TS-H553A. TST drive is "possibly" all or part of the solution whenever you want to try getting Vista going again.


Message Edited by scott784 on 04-15-2007 12:30 PM

ChinchX

1 Rookie

 • 

28 Posts

April 15th, 2007 16:00

actually just checked and my drive has the latest firmware that is on dell's site.. so that won't be a fix for me unfortunately.. i did notice the slightly newer model of my dvd drive has a later update that addressed an issue about OS installation freezing or going slowly.. but not on my drive.

no matter.. i'll just wait it out and be patient.

MK2002

5 Posts

April 30th, 2007 18:00

Your solution seems great. So got trying to do same with my windows 2003 installation on Dimension 9200. But the Intel Matrix Storage manager file should work for Windows 2003 too acc to Intels website but does not. I cannot even manage to run the exe file Iata621.exe file to extract the files. Could anyone figure out what the problem be? It would be great to get any inputs on this. I have the Dimension 9200 running now on Auto Detect/ATA mode in BIOS as i encountered STOP error trying to install with RAID on mode... Thanks

iPromo

2 Posts

November 12th, 2007 16:00

Anyone got this to work with windows 2003 server install??? Please help. I've been beating my head over this box for 3 days. Need this server running. ANYONE?

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