Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
miniroot
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Post by miniroot »

Intel 8.7.0.1007 driver on XP SP3 on VirtualBox 2.1.2 still broken -- see above.
touristguy87
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by touristguy87 »

...so, the point of xp sp3 is to break the sata support in vb 2.1.x?
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by vbox4me2 »

For windows 2000 workstation and server.
You need 7.0.0.1001 (Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager Driver)

For windows XP Sp2 and Sp3.
You need 7.8.0.1012 (Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager Driver)

Tested extensively.
touristguy87
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by touristguy87 »

I tried for many hours to get this to work with an XP guest under Linux with VB 2.20.
So far no success.

It was fairly easy to create the driver disk image, get XP to read it, but it refuses to see a SATA drive and I can't even get the drivers loaded in XP after installing it on a
IDE drive. Oh and by the way the Intel side uses activex! So I couldn't get to the drivers (they've moved, I think anyway) and I had to get them from the Internet somewhere.

The main thing is that they are ICH6 chipset drivers and it seems that you would have to change the IDE controller type to ICH6 to use them, not just enable the SATA controller.

If I get it to work I'll change this, thanks.

ps the new 2.2 VB is somewhat unstable in seamless mode, at least with xp guests on a linux box

note I got past all these problems, it still won't work, at least not on my box. Network enabled or disabled, ACPI on or off...no go.
Last edited by touristguy87 on 12. Apr 2009, 21:54, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by vbox4me2 »

Only toggle SATA use, do not use the sata slot selection(s).
touristguy87
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by touristguy87 »

If you don't put it on the sata port, it won't use the sata driver to communicate with the drive. It'll use the IDE driver.

I finally found the whole management disk and installed that, and it works in xp (google for "7.8.0.1012") but just switching the drive back to SATA is not good enough.
XP will begin to load, but not finish loading.

I take it that now I have to modify the boot.ini or something, because the windows install is now on a different device.
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by vbox4me2 »

touristguy87 wrote:If you don't put it on the sata port, it won't use the sata driver to communicate with the drive. It'll use the IDE driver.
Yes it will, on vb's side it emulates, but the Guest will use the driver and sata calls.
touristguy87
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by touristguy87 »

...well, it works with the sata controller *enabled* but it sure as heck won't work with the drive on the sata controller.

I can't even get a 2nd drive to work on it, with the boot drive on IDE.

Device manager says that the boot drive is on the primary IDE controller under the ICH6 chipset, and the Intel management utility says that nothing is on the SATA ports.

It looks like a standard IDE drive on an ICH6 board. And simply refuses to boot if I switch the drive to SATA. With or without ACPI active.

It is at least finding the boot partition without requiring a change in the boot.ini. Just isn't coming up.

It's ok. What annoys me further about this (aside from the massive waste of time, I only tried this again because I wanted to install XP on a partition that is 2x as big as before) is the potential for losing access to the drive if the drivers change. It's bad enough that I lost seamless mode with the upgrade to vb 2.2, losing the whole install isn't worth it. This has to be the 5th time I've installed an xp guest, enough of this. This is one big reason why I switched to Linux in the first place.
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by vbox4me2 »

Its a long outstanding issue, emulation does give near enough sata speed with the proper drivers, hooking directly to the Host sata components hardly ever works. As far as I know this is related to how sata works, something with asynchronic writes, you need to do to sata on top of sata or emulate back to ide.
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by vbox4me2 »

Do you see the "Intel 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller" under the IDE tree ? If so it is using SATA calls dispite what you may think and a big HDD speed increase to prove it.
touristguy87
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by touristguy87 »

...I really don't see how this could be all that less cpu intensive in the first place, unless there's just something totally screwy about IDE.

And if that's the case, why not write something in the guest editions that handles this automatically?
This is nonsense.

Not that, of course, I don't care about better efficiency, of course, if you care about that, why make the users go through all these hoops to get it?
The driver tech is patented or something?

Well ok so if it's "switched on" that should give me a big speed-boost? Let's see.
Hm well I have to admit that it's definitely faster. Much faster. I haven't formally timed it but the responsiveness is definitely much better.

"Worth playing with"? Yes. If you know not to put the drive on the SATA port and then get into XP, which apparently won't work.
And to install the whole management utility, not just the SATA drivers. If that's necessary.
And above all else, not to put the drive on the SATA port and then try to install XP on it.
Just like the XP install won't complete if a network-card is active.
[all of this is on a Linux host]
LightScape66
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by LightScape66 »

These hints may work with Vista. But on my XP SP2 it doesn't work.
I tried serveral AHCI controller drivers from Intel but every time I get
a BSOD with STOP: 0x0000007B

Is there a way to use SATA with XP SP2 at installation time?
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by vbox4me2 »

Use driver version 7.8. Usage at install time can be done but not recommended, install with IDE, add/install driver(s) then change HDD settings for the VM.
Zaha
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Re: Vista kernel - IDE to SATA conversion VB 1.6.0 & 1.6.2

Post by Zaha »

I'm having the same problem with XP SP2, driver 7.8 and VB 3.0.8.

The system works ok if you activate the SATA driver but use only IDE disks. However, enabling any SATA disks (even if you boot from IDE, and enable another virtual disk as SATA) causes XP to hang on startup. There's no visual sign of a crash, but the XP boot screen never finishes (I let it run at least for 15 mins).
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