Supported Operating Systems
Microsoft Windows 7*
Microsoft Windows 7 x64 Edition*
Microsoft Windows 8*
Microsoft Windows 8 x64 Edition*
Microsoft Windows Server 2008*
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition*
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 x64*
Microsoft Windows 8.1*
Microsoft Windows 8.1 x64 Edition*
DriverVer=05/15/2013,12.7.0.1018
http://www.mediafire.com/download/taihmh…0.1018_BETA.zip
@ Pacman:
Thank you very much for offering a link to the first v12.7 RST(e) drivers, which probably will suit the best with the already available Intel RAID ROM resp. EFI SataDriver v12.7.0.1910.
Have you already installed them onto your Z87 RAID0 System? If yes, what is your first impression?
@ all users with an Intel PCH chipset (from 5-Series up):
Since I actually am still in holidays and cannot test any Intel RST driver, it would be great to get some user reports regarding these new RST(e) Beta drivers v12.7.0.1018. Please don’t forget to mention the installed OS, the chipset of your system and the SATA mode (AHCI or RAID) you are running.
Yes, i have them installed and so far they are working fine, performance is good (i’m using the 12.7.0.1910 SataDriver)
TRIM appears to be working, OS i have is Windows 8 x64.
Thanks for your feedback, which may encourage users with an Intel 6-Series or 7-Series Chipset system to try them as well.
Most important questions besides the performance:
1. Is TRIM active within the RAID0?
2. Are optical drives fully supported by these drivers?
Yes, TRIM as far as i can see works, also reported on station-drivers.
I have no problems with my optical drives, atleast so far, reads and burns without errors.
Yes, I have seen that, but what about OCZ SSDs with unsecure TRIM check results and SSDs with a Sandforce Controller?
That is good news. Are you able to boot off an EFI mode CD or DVD?
AFAIK the lack of the fully optical drive support in EFI mode was the main reason why Intel has pulled the v12.6.0.1033 drivers from their Download Center.
Ah, yes sorry.
About optical drives, i can boot from EFI dvd, it may also be a difference between 8 series and previous chipsets, i have not had any problems with booting, reading or burning with any ROM/Driver combo on my Z87 board.
But i did have some problems with some combos on my Z77’s.
Thanks for the clarification.
It will be interesting to hear resp. to read, if this issue has been solved for pre-Haswell systems.
By the way: The previously released Intel RST(e) drivers obviously were not able to handle more than 1 optical drive at all! This is what I have read at the Intel Communities Forum.
Pacman,
Do you have the 12.7.0.1910 Satadriver to share ?
Also are you using this on a Z87 board ?
I want to update my MSi Z87 GD65 board with the latest EFI satadriver, but having an issue Z87 Bios - Are modding these different ?
The 12.7.0.1910 Satadriver is in the package here http://www.station-drivers.com/forum/vie…php?f=32&t=4500 shared by asder00.
One last question 
Whats the purpose of the SataDriver.bin ?
I replaced the OROM with the SataOrom.bin, the SataDriver with the SataDriver.ffs, but what is the other file for ???
i don’t know which system may need the SataDriver.bin file. According to my knowledge all "normal" mainboards with an AMI UEFI BIOS only accept the SataDriver.ffs file.
You can try to insert the .bin file instead, but I bet, that you will get an FFS file error message by the Aptio MMTool.
Fernando – what about using this driver with an x58/ICH10R setup (AHCI)? Would it be usable? Would it be beneficial, in terms of performance and/or benefits? I’m currently on 11.7, which is the last driver at the end of the “train line” that Intel seems to natively support (as far as the INF’s go).
I saw your thread about the modded 12.6 INF’s in order to support the ICHR10R. If you haven’t done so already, would I be alright to mod the INF’s to enable support for my ICH10R?
I’m running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 with an Intel 320 160GB SSD in AHCI mode (on an eVGA x58 758 w/ i7 930).
@ Coldblackice:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
I am pretty sure, that the v12 Series Intel RST(e) drivers will work with your X58/ICH10R system.
Exactly that is the point. i doubt, that users with a pre-PCH Southbridge will get any benefit by using the v12 drivers, because they are optimized (until now) just for the upcoming 8-Series chipsets.
Yes, you can test any of the modded v12 Intel RST(e) drivers with your system. As soon as WHQl certified v12.7 drivers are available, I will offer >here< modded 32/64bit variants of them (provided I am back from my holidays until then).
Regards
Fernando
Ah, I see. Well, following the format of your modded 12.6’s, I “injected” the appropriate device and vendor id’s in 12.7, but I have yet to uninstall RST and then try these out (the f6 driver of 12.7, as it seems that it’s required because the installer executable wouldn’t work…right?).
I’m a bit worried about a bad driver “handoff” between 11.7 and 12.7. Should I generally be alright trying these modded 12.7’s out? (I understand the disclaimer that you’re not responsible for anything)
On the eVGA forums, however, a member there (Henry) apparently has an x58 that was able to install native, non-modded 12+ drivers just fine, all the way to 12.6. Not sure how he was able to do that – he claims it wasn’t anything special, just normal installing.
And side-related question – I’m currently using a custom modded BIOS (modded by Henry) that has a 12.7 OROM. Question – how do the OROM and Windows drivers function and/or work together? I’ve tried to get an answer to this on multiple sites/forums, but it seems that most don’t know, or at least have a real concrete hold on it (or care to explain). I’m confused as to why both an OROM “driver” and a Windows driver are needed.
And what happens if their versions mismatch (like if OROM version is higher than Windows driver, or vice versa)? Is it recommended to have specific pairings between the two, or is it sort of like the BIOS, where once Windows “takes over”, the BIOS steps out of the way and lets Window manage all the hardware directly?
And thanks for the help and welcome! I’ve had a number of recommendations for your tutorials and site from a number of different forums (eVGA, Overclock, [H]ard). And then I stumbled on the goldmine of information of your references to Intel RST, drivers, and modding! Wonderful!
The v12 RST installer doesn’t work for officially not supported AHCI and RAID systems, but this is not a big disadvantage for AHCI users like you, because you don’t get any performance or functionality gain by the RST Software.
The update of an AHCI driver is nothing to worry about, because Win7 has an inbox AHCI driver, which will allow you to boot into the OS in an emergency case (F8 option "Last good configuration").
If you force the installation by using the "Have Disc" button and skip all warning messages, you can install nearly each driver, even a totally inappropriate one. That is why I recommend to put the correct HardwareIDs of your Intel SATA AHCI Controller into the related INF file. This way you will get the best possible security to avoid a corrupted Operating System.
As you can see within the Device Manager, the OS needs special "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" or "Storage Controllers" to handle the storage devices (HDDs, SSDs and Optical Drives). The Intel RAID ROM is as part of the BIOS and is the "Firmware" for the Intel SATA AHCI and RAID Controller. That means, that it contains OS-independed all informations regarding the functions and the possible features of the related Controller. During each boot procedure the OS specific AHCI/RAID driver communicates directly with the BIOS and its Intel RAID OROM module. Both of them (driver and OROM) need each other and should match regarding the version branch (e.g. v11.2 or v12.7), if the users wants to get the best possible results.
Intels AHCI and RAID drivers usually are fully backwards compatible with older or even outdated OROM module versions. The only disadvantage of such mismatching combination (OROM version much older than the driver version) will be, that you will not get an optimized system. But if you have a vice versa situation (OROM version from a newer version branch as the driver) it may happen, that the combination doesn’t work at all, because the OROM information are not understandable for the related older driver.
If you allow Fernando, i’ll explain that ROM/Driver topic a bit further. Basically you can ask yourself - what is a BIOS for? It is there to be able to provide a generic access to all the hardware attached to the mainboard. There is no way to write a OS that could communicate with all the hardware out there if there weren’t the BIOS providing standard interfaces and ways to communicate.
So the "OS" is interpreting what you or services want to do, the "(MS AHCI/Intel RST) diver" translates it in a form the BIOS and Device (IDE/SATA resp P-/S-ATA) Controller understand it - still it’s more OS language-like (and so doesn’t consume much cpu-power), then the Device Controller translates it into a more hardware-like language (that can be done more efficiently than by OS/CPU). Further - think of a RAID Controller - you don’t want a "Software-RAID". Either it is possible it takes resources from CPU and it’s code isn’t that efficient as by a certain RAID Controller (sure this is also just some kind of CPU with OS, but it’s just for that purpose, independent from other components, and OS can be quite simple and optimized). Finally -to not forget that point- the hard drive has it’s own controller to execute the given command (if you think of SSDs, unlike HDDs there aren’t such Geometry/Track Sectors, Custers etc. the OS knows. You can’t theoretically, as it would be with HDD, open an SSD and say: OS said it’s located here, read it directly out. SSDs even use wear leaving, so just it’s controller knows, where it’s stored).
So to basically answer your question: for compatibility, performance, easier development.
Yet, you could build up a pc without a BIOS - just the OS. There are actually some machines (and with that i rarely mean PCs). But it’s another topic, you won’t see resp. recognize any devices yourself as they need a fixed hardware-setup and deeply hardware-layered written OS. And on some machines it’s hard to say if it’s just an BIOS or just an OS.
Anyway if you are still confused, read more about it f.e. at http://superuser.com/questions/395301/wh…ter-have-a-bios
Thanks guys! Much obliged.
Well, I’m about to finish modding my BIOS with the new Intel 12.7.1936 OROM asder released today.
Question – Is it vital that the replacement ROMs have the exact same names as the ones they’re replacing? I gather that it’s necessary if you want to do a direct “swap” (as otherwise, I’m guessing CBROM will just add the differently-named ROM onto the list as an extra module). Additionally, I can see that the BIOS file’s checksums are different when doing direct swapping of ROMs vs. releasing then adding ROMs.
But could you give a bit more info or background on the importance of this (replacing ROMs with exact same names)? Or is it just for “good measure”, or extra safe precaution, as you never know what user will have a motherboard that will complain/crash with differently named ROMs…?
After dissecting modded BIOS files of member of the eVGA forums (henry), I see that he doesn’t keep exact names between modded BIOS updates – he just inserts replaces the old ROMS with the new updated ROMs, which retain their newer version numbers in the filenames (e.g., sataorom.bin->Intel_v12701936.bin). Is he “playing with fire” in doing this?
If it’s definitely a vital necessity, or good measure, I’ll definitely follow procedure. But on the other hand, it’d be nice to be able to insert new OROMs with their respective version numbers, for future reference in subsequent updates.
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Random side question – In terms of Intel RST drivers (and new features in the 12+ series), would there be any benefit (or consequence) for me to permanently set my BIOS to “RAID” instead of “AHCI”? I’ve had it set to AHCI as I just run a single Intel 320 SSD 160GB (with subsequent hard disk data drives behind it), running of x58/ICH10R chipsets.
Given that ICH10R support dropped off Intel’s radar with RST 11.7, I’m wondering if I’d see any performance benefits or features for setting my system into RAID mode, even though I won’t be running a RAID? Or would it strictly be the exact same as if I’d kept it set at AHCI?
If there are any performance gains or features to be had, I’d be happy to switch it over, but if there’s nothing to be gained (or possibly even consequences to be had), I’ll just leave it at AHCI.
I can’t say for sure a thing about the same names, yet let me answer your question on AHCI/RAID.
If you aren’t going to set up a RAID of min 2 drives it’s best to stay with AHCI. It won’t give you any benefit, yet incresed boot and access time.
You just benefit from RAID Mode if you really set up a RAID (no matter if you go on OS-RAID0 for speed up or HDD Raid-1 f.e. for data protection).
Still you can get benefits from updating an raid rom - in cases it also controls AHCI mode - that depends on motherboard.