In order to install an operating system onto a single Serial ATA hard drive when the system is in RAID mode or AHCI mode, the F6 installation method must be used to load the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager driver during operating system setup.

Note: The F6 installation method is not required for Microsoft Windows Vista*.

F6 Installation Method

Perform the following steps to install the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager driver during operating system setup:

1. Press the F6 key when prompted in the status line with the "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver" message. This message appears at the beginning of Windows* XP setup (during text-mode phase).

   Note: Nothing will happen immediately after pressing F6. Setup will temporarily continue loading drivers. You will then be prompted with a screen asking you to load support for mass storage device(s).

2. Press the S key to Specify Additional Device.

3. You will be prompted to "Please insert the disk labeled Manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk into Drive A:' When prompted, insert the floppy disk containing the following files: IAAHCI.INF, IAAHCI.CAT, IASTOR.INF, IASTOR.CAT, IASTOR.SYS, and TXTSETUP.OEM and press the ENTER key.

4. After pressing ENTER, you should be presented with a list of available SCSI Adapters. Select your controller from the list. The up and down arrow keys can be used to scroll through the list as all controllers may not be visible. The list can include:
   • Intel® 6300ESB SATA RAID Controller
   • Intel® 82801ER SATA RAID Controller
   • Intel® 82801FR SATA RAID Controller
   • Intel® 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller
   • Intel® 82801FBM SATA AHCI Controller
   • Intel® 82801GR/GH SATA RAID Controller
   • Intel® 82801GR/GH SATA AHCI Controller
   • Intel® 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller
   • Intel® 82801GHM SATA RAID Controller
   • Intel® ESB2 SATA RAID Controller
   • Intel® ESB2 SATA AHCI Controller
   • Intel® 82801R/DO/DH SATA RAID Controller
   • Intel® 82801R/DO/DH SATA AHCI Controller
   • Intel® 82801HBM SATA AHCI Controller
   • Intel® 82801HEM SATA RAID Controller
   • Intel® 82801HEM SATA AHCI Controller
   • Intel® 82801IR/IO SATA RAID Controller
   • Intel® 82801IR/IO SATA AHCI Controller

5. The next screen should confirm your selected controller. Press the ENTER key again to continue.

6. At this point, you have successfully F6'ed in the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager driver and Windows setup should continue. Leave the floppy disk in the floppy drive until the system reboots. Windows setup will need to copy the files from the floppy again to the Windows installation folders. Once Windows setup has copied these files again, you should then remove the floppy diskette so that Windows setup can reboot as needed.

7. During Windows setup, create a partition and file system on the RAID volume as you would on any physical disk.

Note: If you wish to use the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager graphical user interface in Windows, you will need to install the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager by running the Setup.exe process after these steps have been completed and the operating system has been successfully installed.

This applies to:

Intel® Matrix Storage Manager