VIA V-RAID Software Package Installation Guide

Updated: 2007-11-12

. Introduction

. Application License Agreement

. System Requirements

. Distribution Package Contents

. Installation and Remove

- Windows UI mode

- Silent Mode

. Multilingual Support

. Limitation and Known Issue

Introduction

This readme file provides information on VIA V-RAID software packages. VIA Technologies assumes no responsibility for any errors in this document. Any part of document MUST NOT be reproduced, transmitted, or translated into any language, or in any form without the prior written permission of VIA Technologies Inc.

n   VT8251 South Bridge SATA IDE/AHCI/RAID Controller

u   It supports four SATA connections to be configured as one of IDE, AHCI or RAID mode controller.

u   It supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD functions. The RAID 5 is a software RAID technology applied CPU resource to archive RAID 5.

n   VT8237S South Bridge SATA RAID Controller

u   It supports two SATA HDDs

u   It supports RAID 0, 1, and JBOD functions.

n   VT8237A South Bridge SATA RAID Controller

u   It supports two SATA HDDs

u   It supports RAID 0, 1, and JBOD functions.

n   VIA CX700/VX700/VX8x0 South Bridge PATA/SATA IDE/RAID Controller

u   It supports two SATA HDDs + two IDE HDDs.

u   It supports SATA RAID 0, 1, and JBOD functions.

 

This "VIA V-RAID Software Package" is used to install the drivers and utility which are needed for using the VIA VT8251, VT8237A, VT8237S, CX700/VX700, VX8x0 V-RAID controllers.

The supported platforms are described in System Requirement section.

Application License Agreement

 

Please read carefully before you download, install, or use any VIA SOFTWARE. VIA SOFTWARE means the software program you are currently trying to download, and all related updates supplied by VIA Technologies, Inc. (VIA).
By clicking on the I ACCEPT button, and by downloading and installing the VIA SOFTWARE, you accept all the terms and conditions of this Agreement.  If you do not agree to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, do not click the “I ACCEPT” button or use the VIA SOFTWARE.

Upon your acceptance of this Agreement, subject to the terms and conditions set forth herein, VIA hereby grants to you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide license to use the VIA SOFTWARE as follows:.

Restrictions. You are not allowed to modify, disassemble, decompile, or reverse-engineering the VIA SOFTWARE, or remove any proprietary notice or label on the VIA SOFTWARE. You may not transfer or distribute this software to any third party

Use of Software. The VIA SOFTWARE is licensed for personal use and may only be used in conjunction with VIA products.  If you wish to use the VIA SOFTWARE for commercial or any other purpose, please contact VIA directly.

Ownership and Copyrights.  The VIA SOFTWARE and the accompanying documentation are licensed, not sold, to you. All title and copyrights in and to the VIA SOFTWARE (including but not limited to all images, photographs, animations, video, audio, music, text, and other information incorporated into the VIA SOFTWARE), the accompanying printed materials, and any copies of the VIA SOFTWARE, are owned by VIA, or its third party suppliers.  The VIA SOFTWARE is protected by copyright laws and international treaty provisions.

Disclaimer of Warranty.  VIA MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, USE, OR PERFORMANCE OF THE VIA SOFTWARE FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE VIA SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS," AND VIA DISCLAIMS, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NONINFRINGEMENT WITH RESPECT TO THE VIA SOFTWARE. VIA IS NOT OBLIGATED TO SUPPORT OR ISSUE UPDATES TO THE VIA SOFTWARE.

Limitation on Liability.  TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL VIA BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, OR ANY AND ALL OTHER ECONOMIC LOSS OR COMMERCIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS VIA SOFTWARE, EVEN IF VIA HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Export Controls.  By clicking on the "I ACCEPT" button, you agree that the VIA Software will not be shipped, transferred, or exported into any country or used in any manner prohibited by the United States Export Administration Act or any other applicable export laws, restrictions, or regulations.

Termination. Your license will automatically terminate without notice from VIA upon any failure by you to comply with the terms under this Agreement. Upon termination, you must cease all use of the VIA SOFTWARE and destroy the VIA SOFTWARE along with all copies and merged portions in any form.

System Requirements

 

Hardware

This package should be installed on the system with VIA North Bridge, South Bridge and peripheral chipsets. The setup program will not support to be installed on other vendor chipsets. 

Software

This software package only supports Microsoft Windows© Platforms. The setup program will detect the current platform and install proper driver on your system. The supported platforms are list below:

Windows 9x Platforms

Windows 98se
Windows Millennium

Windows NT4 Platform 

Windows NT4                             Plus service packs 6

Windows NT 32-bits Platforms

Windows 2000                            RTM and above

Windows XP                               RTM and above

Windows Server 2003                 RTM and above

Windows VISTA                          RTM and above

Windows NT x64-bits Platform

Windows XP-x64                        RTM and above

Windows Server 2003 SP1-x64    RTM and above

Windows VISTA-x64                   RTM and above

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Distribution Package Contents

 

The setup program will display the released data and version for this package at dialog title.

There is specific version syntax for package identification:

Version field: X.YZ

The X is the major version of this package; and YZ represents the minor version.

Appended Alphabetic: A, B, C

The alphabetic is always appended after version field to represent the qualification by Windows Hardware Qualification Lab. The A means the first package for the same driver binary, B means the second released package for the same driver binary, and so on.

 

In this section, we show the detail file list of ZIP-compressed package in which include setup and driver files.

Setup files

0X0409.INI,                   INSTMSIA.EXE,                  INSTMSIW.EXE,                 ISSCRIPT.MSI,

License.mlf,                 PCIENUM.SYS,                   README.html,         SETUP.EXE,

Setup.ini,                     SETUP.ISS,                        SETUP.MLF,                SETUP.SCF,

viasetup.dll,               VIASetup.msi                    English.slf,             asia.slf, 

europe1.slf,                europe2.slf,                    europe3.slf,            europe3.slf,

165x300.bmp,                500x60.bmp

Components

viarAID: rAID dRIVER FILES

VRAIDDrv\component.cif, VRAIDDrv\MRaid.DLL, VRAIDDrv\VSDINST.DLL, VRAIDDrv\viaRaid.DLL, VRAIDDrv\VRaidX64.exe.

Driver files:

Windows 9x, Millennium

VRAIDDrv\win9x\vIAmraid.mpd

VRAIDDrv\win9x\vIAmvsd.vxd

VRAIDDrv\win9x\VIAmraid.INF

Windows NT4

VRAIDDrv\nt4\vIAmraid.SYS

VRAIDDrv\nt4\VIAmraid.INF

Windows 2000

VRAIDDrv\2K\vIAmRAID.SYS

VRAIDDrv\2K\VIAmRAID.INF VRAIDDrv\2k\VIAMRAID.CAT

Windows XP

VRAIDDrv\XP\x86\vIAmRAID.SYS

VRAIDDrv\XP\x86\VIAmRAID.INF VRAIDDrv\XP\x86\VIAMRAID.CAT

Windows Server 2003

VRAIDDrv\srv2003\x86\vIAmRAID.SYS

VRAIDDrv\SRV2003\x86\VIAmRAID.INF VRAIDDrv\SRV2003\x86\VIAMRAID.CAT

Windows Home Server

VRAIDDrv\srv2003\x86\vIAmRAID.SYS

VRAIDDrv\SRV2003\x86\VIAmRAID.INF VRAIDDrv\SRV2003\x86\VIAMRAID.CAT

Windows Vista

VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x86\vIAmRAID.SYS

VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x86\VIAmRAID.INF VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x86\VIAMRAID.CAT

Windows Server 2008

VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x86\vIAmRAID.SYS

VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x86\VIAmRAID.INF VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x86\VIAMRAID.CAT

Windows XP AMD64

VRAIDDrv\XP\x64\vIAmRX64.SYS

VRAIDDrv\XP\x64\VIAmRX64.INF VRAIDDrv\XP\x64\VIAMRX64.CAT

Windows Server 2003 AMD64

VRAIDDrv\SRV2003\x64\vIAmRX64.SYS

VRAIDDrv\SRV2003\x64\vIAmRX64.INF VRAIDDrv\SRV2003\x64\vIAmRX64.CAT

Windows Vista AMD64

VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x64\vIAmRX64.SYS

VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x64\vIAmRX64.INF VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x64\vIAmRX64.CAT

Windows Server 2008 AMD64

VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x64\vIAmRX64.SYS

VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x64\vIAmRX64.INF VRAIDDrv\VISTA\x64\vIAmRX64.CAT

 

RAIDTOOL: RAID Management Tool files

RAIDTOOL\component.cif, RAIDTOOL\RaidUtl.DLL, RAIDTOOL\RaidUtINT.DLL

Tool files: RAIDTOOL\UTILITY

Main program

RAIDTOOL\UTILITY\rAID_TOOL.EXE

RAIDTOOL\UTILITY\rAID_TOOL.CHM

raidtool\UTILITY\eRRlIST.MLF

Interface DLL

RAIDTOOL\UTILITY\Win2000-xp\drvinterface.dll

RAIDTOOL\UTILITY\WINNT40\ drvinterface.dll

RAIDTOOL\UTILITY\WIN98-ME\ drvinterface.dll

Language DLL

RAIDTOOL\UTILITY\Language\Lang_CN.dll

RAIDTOOL\UTILITY\ Language\Lang_EN.dll

RAIDTOOL\UTILITY\ Language\Lang_DE.dll

RAIDTOOL\UTILITY\ Language\Lang_NL.dll

RAIDTOOL\UTILITY\ Language\Lang_FR.dll

 

DRIVERDISKTOOL: Pre-OS Installation Disk Tool files

VRAIDDrv\DriverDiskPrep.exe, VRAIDDrv\DriverDiskPrep.ini, VRAIDDrv\banner.jpg

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Installation and Remove

 

There are two operation modes, Windows UI and command line, to execute installation and remove. The most popular is the Windows UI mode that provides convenient user interface and systematic operation. The command line mode, also called as silent mode, need user append more parameters behind SETUP.EXE as answer to make the setup program silence without pop any dialogs.

There are possible two types setup package you may have. One is compressed as a zip file includes visible setup and driver files. Another one is made as a self-extracted-execution file. In the following, we will show you the steps to complete driver installation and remove with both package types.

 

Windows UI mode

If the downloaded file is ZIP-compressed format, please extract it to proper location in your hard disk first. Then launch the SETUP.EXE by double-clicking. Otherwise, you could double-click the self-extracted-execution file and wait for few seconds for the self-extraction. The extracted file will be deleted automatically after setup has been terminated.

 

First time execution

If it is the first time to execute the setup package, you will only have the choice of installation.

Maintenance

After the first time execution, you could have choice to make Update and Remove. You will see two options, Update and Remove in the first shown dialog. If you are going to update the driver, please active the Update radio button and press next button to enter next steps. Else, if you are going to remove the installed driver in your system, please active the Remove radio button and press next button to enter next steps.

Control Panel\Add Remove Programs

There is another path to remove the installed driver is to go through “Add Remove Programs” service of control panel. An uninstall item is added after install , VIA Platform Device Manager, to handle all the installed VIA driver components.

 

Silent mode

The silent mode are usually applied to system maintainer for servicing hundreds systems that wont have interactive user interface. They would execute the setup through command line in console or batch file execution without closing any popped dialog popped or pressing next buttons. In addition, the command line parameters of these two types of downloaded file format get few differences.

 

ZIP-Compressed Package

In this type package, you could see a setup.exe in those extracted files. User could append parameters behind setup.exe as command line in console.

The present command line parameters are: -s and /z"reboot;remove:xx,yy,zz"

 

Parameter	Description
-s	It is a required command line parameter to enable silent mode operation. If this parameter is missed, the setup
-zParam1;K;ParamN	It passes predefined parameters to SETUP.EXE. Each parameter, Param1;K;ParamN, should be separated with semicolons. The predefined sub-parameters are: reboot It causes Setup.exe automatically to reboot after the silent mode operation completed. remove It is a switch to cause Setup.exe to remove components. If this parameter is absent, then SETUP.EXE will install components. kompnt:xx,yy,zz It is an optional parameter to assign specific component in this package to be install/remove. The xx,yy,zz should be replaced with component name in which is defined as same as the component folder name of this package.

 

Examples:

 

Command line	Execution
setup.exe -s	Silent install all included components but not reboot the computer.
setup.exe -s /z"reboot"	Silent install all component and reboot the computer.
setup.exe -s /z"reboot;remove"	Silent uninstall all include component and reboot the computer.
setup.exe -s /z"remove"	Silent uninstall all components but not reboot the computer.

 

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Windows Pre-OS installation Floppy Disk (F6 Installation)

Under Windows 2000 and later OS, except Windows VISTA and Windows VISTA-x64, while user intends to install OS on the disk attached on the RAID controller, they have to prepare a floppy driver disk including the pre-OS installation files and press “F6” while boot CD is starting.

The driver disk files had been prepared in this package. Please follow the steps to prepare it.

1.       Make sure the target system is already install floppy drive

2.       Prepare a empty and valid floppy disk

3.       Copy all files under \DRVDISK to the floppy without losing

4.       Power on the target machine and boot from the Boot CD. And press “F6” while the prompt appear on the button line

5.       After the booting process ask you to insert the floppy disk, please insert the prepared floppy disk to the floppy drive and press enter

6.       Choose the proper item to fit the OS and RAID controller you are installing. Each item shows the matched OS for it.

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Windows VISTA Pre-OS installation Floppy Disk

Under Windows VISTA and Windows VISTA-x64, while user intends to install OS on the disk attached on the RAID controller, they have to prepare a floppy driver disk including the pre-OS installation files and press “load driver” while setup program prompt it.

The driver disk files had been prepared in this package. Please follow the steps to prepare it.

1.      Make sure the target system is already install floppy drive

2.      Prepare a empty and valid floppy disk

3.      Copy all files under \DRVDISK to the floppy without losing

4.      Power on the target machine and boot from the Boot CD. And press “load driver” while the prompt appear on the setup programe

5.      insert the prepared floppy disk to the floppy drive

6.      Choose the proper inf file based on the OS Version you are installing. Please select .\VISTA\x86\VSMRAID.inf for Windows VISTA and .\VISTA\x64\ VSMRAID.INF for Windows VISTA-x64

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Multilingual Supports

 

The default-supported language in this package is in English.

If the executed Windows OS is in an un-supported language to this package, the user interface will be represented in English.

 

This setup package support 33 languages as below

 

East

Chinese(Simplified),	Chinese (Traditional),	Indonesian,
Japanese,	Korean,	Russian,
Thai,	Turkish.

West

Basque,	Bulgarian,	Catalan,
Croatian,	Czech,	Danish,
Dutch,	English,	Finish,
French(Canada),	French(France),	German,
Greek,	Hungarian,	Italian,
Norwegian,	Polish,	Portuguese(Brazi),
Portuguese(Portugal),	Romanian,	Serbian,
Slovak,	Slovenian,	Spanish,
Swedish.

All the language sequence is arranged as alphabetical.

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Limitation and Known Issue

Limitation:

þ   RAID5 solution for VT8251 only supports Windows 2000 and later version. Win9x, NT4 platforms are not supported.

Application Compatibility:

þ   “Everest and SpeedFan” program has problem on their coding that could not display the information of disks connected on VIA Storage Host.

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All copyrights are reserved by VIA Technologies, Inc.  http://www.via.com.tw/