iTunes 7.2 Vista Intel RAID
May 30th, 2007
Well it appears that iTunes still doesn’t work with Vista (32bit or 64bit) if you have an Intel RAID’ed setup. The HDs go nuts so badly that the machine becomes un-usable. Over the past months (read probably a year), I’ve been fiddling and trying to find a solution to this but never get anywhere.
Have seen a few other people moan about the same problem but it appears that it’s still not sorted. Might even bother to log a fault with Apple about this 
.
iTunes 7.2 has got to be one of the quickest try outs on a PC I’ve ever done. I think it’s safe to say it was on here for about 2 mins tops.
** FIX in COMMENTS **
Chris, I had the same problem till today. This is what I did, I really hope it helps, cause this issue is been a real pain in the ass:
1. Installed Quicktime Alternative Lite last week (without the player). http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm
2. Updated BIOS and all drivers, including the last Intel Matrix Storage Console (v7.5.0.1017; comes with drivers).
3. Installed iTunes 7.2. It didn’t installed Quicktime; I guess it detected that I had the last codecs installed (QT alternative).
4. Rebooted before opening iTunes for the first time.
5. Opened iTunes; I have tested it with songs and movies, and everything is working (1 hour).
Hopefully it stays this way; I don’t plan replacing QT alternative with the real one, at least not for now.
My PC specs:
MoBo = D975XBX2
CPU = Core 2 Duo 2,13GHz
RAM = 2GB
Video = Asus EN8800 GTX
HD = 2 disks Seagate Barracuda 250GB in RAID 0
Good luck.
Wow cheers for that
, I’ll give it a go tomorrow AM and report back.
WOW it worked … thank’s soo much Wolfarelli. Pitty you didn’t post your URL as I’d come and praise ya
.
I’m uploading the Intel Matrix Storage Console 7.5.0.1017 right now as it was a little tricky to track down.
Direct link – Intel Matrix Storage Console 7.5.0.1017
to be fair itunes is teh suxxors as you l33t speakin’ folks might say anyway.
Just wanted to add my $0.02, it worked for me too! I’m running a RAID 10 (4x500GB Western Digital RE2 500GB Model WD5000YS) on an Intel ICH8R (Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6) under Vista Ultimate x64. I had several problems even getting Vista to install, but with the help of this site I was able to install:
http://www.flyingnerd.com/intel-raid-problem-under-windows-vista/
During my search for a fix I came your site as well, and I had read elsewhere that iTunes was wrecking havoc on Intel RAID setups under Vista, so I was cautious about trying this.
Anyway, long story short, it worked like a charm, no problems running iTunes 7.2 on my system. Thanks!
Thx alot guys! Finally my ipod is synching again!
Great!
I have downloaded the new Intel Storage Console, but how do I reset the error message?
Hi there Ward, if you follow the instructions that Wolfarelli posted in the first note it’ll all start working perfectly for you
.
You might want to deinstall iTunes first, do a reboot then follow the points.
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! phlhoordtwrgyq
Hey, thanks for the workaround.
However, I have a slight problem. When I try to install the Intel Matrix Storage Console you have linked, I get an error message saying it’s not a valid win32 application.
So, I skipped that part from the instructions from Wolfarelli. And now, itunes still seems to have the same raid issues.
Besides itunes, I’ve had a hella more problems with Vista x64 on my machine. If you have a similar configuration as I do, you will know what I mean.
My configuration:
- Vista Ultimate x64
- Intel Core 2 Duo 6600
- Asus P5B-Deluxe WIFI (P965/IC8)
- 4GB DDR2
- Geforce 7950GX2 1GB (SLI on single PCI-E slot)
- 2 Raptor 150GB on RAID 0
- 4 Segate 320GB on RAID 0
- 2 WD 500GB on ESATA RAID 0 for backup
Problems I had:
- Vista installation: Fixed with MB bios update
- 4GB RAM + SLI: Whenever I enable SLI mode, Vista boots up with no screen. Fixed with Nforce beta driver (160.03)
- SyncToy (PowerToy) doesn’t work on Vista x64: Fixed with workaround
- iTunes Vista on RAID: Still having issues
- No custom screen resolution above the monitor’s native res: Switched to Dell 2407WFP from Asus 2032W
- Network sharing with MACs: By default, Vista can’t connect to a MAC on the same local network if both of them are not in the same workgroup. Fixed by moving both machines to the same workgroup. To do this you have to change the MAC’s default workgroup which isn’t so simple.
And numerous other problems that I can’t think of now. Most of them were fixed, but it gave me such a headache.
Hey there Jeff, 64 bit is your problem. I used Windows XP 64bit for about a year then Vista 64bit for about 8 months. In the end I’ve gone back to 32bit due to compatibility problems. There’s no software at all out there that truely uses the 64bit platform correctly. MS Office, all Adobe apps and a shed load of drivers are all 32bit still.
Only think I miss since going back to 32bit is the full 4Gb of RAM on the PC. But it sees 3.2Gb which is more than enough really.
In answer to your question that Intel RAID Matrix thing and fix are only good for 32bit
.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
After 6 months of seeing the error message, “A RAID volume is failing…” pop up when I started my Vista 32-bit HP system, which resulted from attempts to play downloaded TV show files in iTunes, my problem is fixed! I’m able to play video in iTunes. It’s kindof a miracle, or feels like one, to be honest.
I was close to either doing a system restore back to factory settings or having to replace my hard drives, and now I don’t have to do any of that garbage!
Chris, your blog rules, and Wolfarelli, your suggestion to download the latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager was just the ticket. I didn’t have to deal with the Quicktime Alternative Lite solution, however; regular old Quicktime seems to be working fine.
Three things, however.
1. I updated to the very most recent Intel Matrix Storage Manager, v.7.6.0.1011.
2. After updating, I enabled the volume write-back cache in the Intel Matrix Storage Console, based on this advice from another blog post:
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004446.html :
“After countless hours of updating drivers, trying, rebooting and failing, I stumbled upon a “fix.” With the newest Intel Matrix Storage Console installed (v. 7.6.0.1011 and no, that upgrade didn’t solve anything) I went into the console and enabled the “volume write-back cache” on the RAID 0 drive and voila! .mov files play flawlessly.
The help documentation says that the ENABLE mode is only for RAID 5, but it somehow makes a difference in RAID 0 with Quicktime.”
3. Before doing all of this (and before even learning about it at all), I had a fellow at HP tech support take me into the Intel Matrix Storage Console and right click on each of the 2 “failing” RAID volume ports. I clicked “Mark as Normal” — this ended the annoying popup about the failing RAID volume as well as the “error (0) occurred” thinger that had also showed on the black pre-startup screen for the last 6 months. I don’t know if this would have resolved itself upon updating the Intel Matrix Storage Manager/Console, but I’d assume it would.
Thanks again!!
Ain’t the interweb great
. Amazed at how many hits this post still gets 
.
Cheers for the added notes and glad we helped out.
BIIIG abrazo to you all!
i have one of those sony hd-video-machines (viao rm1n) with vista32 and raid0.
itunes crashed, quicktime crashed, sony vegas didn’t start at all (on a sony computer!!)
after days i found this website, did the update to the current intel matrix storage manager 7.8xx and enabled the “volume write-back cache”
… and now everything is working..:)
even with quicktime.
thanks!!!
I downloaded and installed the SP1 RC date 12/14/2007 yesterday. I uninstalled it today as my Intel RAID did NOT like the results. The machine crashed each time I did any significant activity on the RAID drives which hold my D, E, and F partitions. I even tried the registry “hack” discussed in other posts. Fortunately, my machine is again stable after removing the SP1 RC. I’ve got an Intel DQ965GF, E6700, 4 Gb Adata RAM, Maxtor 320Gb SATA C: Drive, 2 x Maxtor 320Gb SATA RAID 1 D, E, F drives. Vista 32 Ultimate, Intel RAID 7.8, latest BIOS and drivers from Intel site.
Running outta time…my itunes and quicktime is back. But in the bios it still reads ERROR for the two harddisks i’ve got. But the strange thing is my RAID 0 reads NORMAL and bootable. Is this an hardware problem or just an itunes/vista/intel bug making my harddisks think its dying/failing.
New to computers at 16 years of age :p THANKS in advance, glad if you will reply. Thanks!!!
Well I’m running a different system now with Vista x64 on a RAID 0 Array on an nVidia chipset.
The funny thing is that it works perfectly until I load iTunes. Still works fine but very now and then a tool tip pops up in the system tray saying that there is an Array fault. It’s a complete lie just iTunes doing something daft.
Why they haven’t worked out how to write a decent bit of software by now I’ll never know !
Thanks Thanks…Really glad some confirmed that its an lie/bug. I just went and reinstalled vista last night as well. But still cant get rid of the error messege about the hdd in the ports. Thanks