Mac Pro SATA Performance Fixed under Windows XP

This gentlemen has been kind enough to set up a website on how to fix the SATA issues with the Mac Pro with XP. What is required is to slipstream the required SATA drivers into your XP disk prior to installing. Please follow the instructions on the page. You can ignore all parts except for the part pertaining to slipstreaming the drivers into the XP image.

http://web.mac.com/terrabit/iWeb/macpro/xp.html

Any questions feel free to ask. Works perfectly and is a workaround for F6 install method.

Mac Pro 2.66 Ghz (Macbook Pro Returned), Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Aug 28, 2006 7:32 AM

Reply
88 replies

Aug 30, 2006 5:19 PM in response to AndyR_UK

AndyR, thanks for the reply. That sounds very promising. I just have a couple follow up questions.
What do you mean when you say "You have to do the old F7 trick to load extra drivers." In other words what F7 trick and what extra drivers. Do you mean that you still have to install the same drivers that go along with Bootcamp anyway or the SATA drivers?
Lastly, when you bootup do you follow the same procedure outlined in Bootcamp by holding the Option key down to choose b/t Mac OS X or Windows.
Sorry for all the questions but this is all new to me. Thanks!!

Aug 31, 2006 12:30 AM in response to MaineMac

Hi MaineMac,

It is illegal to use an OEM version of XP that came installed on another machine to install XP onto your Mac Pro.

The Microsoft licence for the OEM version of XP can only be used on the machine that it was originally installed on.

The only version of XP that can be legally transfered between machines is the full blown expensive version.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Cheers

Andy

Aug 31, 2006 12:57 AM in response to kkapoor

And the worst part is that our system is not even 64 bit yet as of this time (not fully) only specific applications run in full 64 bit mode ... well , then again... if you look close we might get there ugly fast since a mac pro booted in verbose mode looks for ... 8 cores ... and errr windows is still somewhere with some 16-32 bit parts that does not help paging and processors management and is not yet SMP (symmetrical parallels processing) that us macheads have been enjoying since the G4 and 10.2. Really experiencing XP felt weird not because of the hardware at, all those machines are blazing regarding to xp standarts (i dont live much in the XP world , sorry , complains regarding Hardware where actually poor software is involved might just not be my favorite cup of tea).

And i hope bootcamp gets the fix out not only for xp but also all the .. Linux stuff going about , Windows is only one part of the picture and the real performance target does not seem windows to me at this time. And by the schedule Vista is being rushed out , Leopard inches ever closer to release each and every time (would love to get system wide ACL , Posix is GREAT , but its getting some wrinkles as a multiple group authorisation manager , well our dear Netinfo and consorts take it from there quickly.


Aug 31, 2006 10:26 AM in response to kkapoor

i already have windows up and running... as i've read, i can't insall the SATA drivers after the install, so i suppose i'll have to re-install windows. however, what's the best way to go about doing this? should i dissolve the windows partition and re-install, or can i do a repair-style install of windows? i'm just running off of the stock 250 drive, with a rather small partition, if that matters.

Aug 31, 2006 11:34 AM in response to robotconscience

I was in the same boat as you. I just rebooted with my new slipstreamed install disk in the drive, and booted off the windows install disk. Then chose to reformat the partition and start over. I don't know if a repair type installation would work, but give it a shot and report. I didn't have any other software installed on the XP side, so a complete re-install was no big deal.

Aug 31, 2006 8:15 PM in response to Bertrand Stern1

Umm...I'm no more of a fan of Windows than anyone else here, but windows has had SMP support since (at least) NT 4.0 (3.x may have introduced it - when were the dual P90's released? 94 or so?). All variants of XP have SMP capability, but the various releases throttle how many CPUs can be actively used (XP home is locked to a single CPU, if memory serves - pro may be limited to 2, but don't quote me on that). Windows server variants exist for up to 32-way SMP on 64 bit hardware. You'll pay for it, but it does exist.

Uptime and stability - that's another story. Weekly reboots of the windows servers are SOP in several datacenters that I know of, while the *nix boxes have uptimes measured in months...

Sorry. rambled a bit there.

Sep 2, 2006 6:23 AM in response to OmniKurt

I have it working but re the instructions:
OTE: FOLLOW THESE STEPS EXACTLY!
Click "Insert" - "Multiple Driver Folder"
Browser to the path of the IntelDrivers Folder (X:\MACXPINSTALL\IntelDrivers\)
Click "OK"
Click "ALL"
Click "OK"
Select "Intel(R) ESB2 SATA RAID Controller (Server ESB2)"
•••••••••••
i made some changes, i used the AHCI rather than raid, and i included only the xp drivers, not the 64 bit or vista ones

Before (when it didnt work), i was not doing the chipset drivers, so maybe that made the difference, but its wrong to use all of them coz the 64 bit ones crash the installer. And, the esb2 raid might work too, for all i know, but one of these changes i made must have worked , coz now i am getting 20x better performance from the drive . ( a dedicated sataI western digital)
(60mb/s vs 3.6 before !!). I just got a bit tired of experimenting so tried 2 changes at once.
By the way, installing the chipset drivers in the xp cd caused trouble with the audio drivers, but its all sorted now. I hope i can leave this install on until i update to a leopard/vista combo !!

Sep 2, 2006 8:13 AM in response to macguru9999

"By the way, installing the chipset drivers in the xp cd caused trouble with the audio drivers, but its all sorted now."

How did you get this sorted? I still have no sound and the Realtek drivers won't install - either from the Boot Camp drivers disc or even manual attempts with the drivers downloaded from their website. I'd REALLY appreciate if you could explain how you fixed this.

Mac Pro 2.66 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Sep 2, 2006 10:46 AM in response to Phil Shockley

How did you get this sorted? I still have no sound
and the Realtek drivers won't install - either from
the Boot Camp drivers disc or even manual attempts
with the drivers downloaded from their website. I'd
REALLY appreciate if you could explain how you fixed
this.

Mac Pro 2.66
Mac OS X (10.4.7)


I have no sound either? Installed Windows XP Pro via Bootcamp 1.1. Anybody out there with a solution?

Sep 2, 2006 10:54 AM in response to Phil Shockley

How did you get this sorted? I still have no sound
and the Realtek drivers won't install - either from
the Boot Camp drivers disc or even manual attempts
with the drivers downloaded from their website. I'd
REALLY appreciate if you could explain how you fixed
this.

Mac Pro 2.66
Mac OS X (10.4.7)


I have no audio either. Installed Windows XP Pro via Bootcamp 1.1 on separate hardrive (I refuse to let that inferior Windoze OS touch the same hardrive as my Mac OS). Anybody out there with a solution or suggestion for audio? Thanks.

Sep 2, 2006 11:19 AM in response to Phil Shockley


How did you get this sorted? I still have no sound
and the Realtek drivers won't install - either from
the Boot Camp drivers disc or even manual attempts
with the drivers downloaded from their website. I'd
REALLY appreciate if you could explain how you fixed
this.

Mac Pro 2.66
Mac OS X (10.4.7)


I have no audio either. Installed Windows XP Pro followed by Bootcamp 1.1 on a second hardrive (I refuse to let that inferior Windoze OS touch the same hardrive as my Mc OS) and although Bootcamp instructions state that it includes audio drivers, I have no sound. Anybody with a solution out there? Thanks!!

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Mac Pro SATA Performance Fixed under Windows XP

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