XP, MAC PRO & SATA
 
Simple Fix! (last updated on the 10th September 2006) 
As you may or may not be aware, there exists a small compatibility problem between the Mac Pro and the recommended installation procedure for XP service pack 2 using Apple’s BETA boot camp application. The problem degrades a single modern SATA hard drive performance from 60-100 Megabyte/s throughput down to a mere 3792 Kilobytes/s. If you are currently running XP on your Mac Pro, you will most likely have this problem. The problem is that currently Intel’s XP SATA drivers (for the Intel 631xESB chipset found on the Mac Pro) MUST be included as part of the Windows XP installation disk and installed as part of a new installation, and not as an after-thought. (Don’t ask me why, I don’t know!) What is promising is that Apple’s techies may be able to correct the problem *without* a full reinstall by comparing a working implementation vs a broken implementation and performing a post-install patch so the two systems are binary equivalent. I expect that the next major Boot Camp reversion will make this page redundant. Luckily for us Mac users, the windows community has been busy building automated tools that allow us to install device drivers and windows fix-packs directly onto installation disks to perform clean installations. The ability to install fix-packs means that your Windows XP Service-Pack 1 installation disc can be updated and used to build a Windows XP Service-Pack 2 disc as required by the latest Intel chipsets and boot camp. A big *thanks* to the people on the forums at macrumors.com for their extensive feedback! The updated page includes improvements and suggestions based on your postings! People seeking further assistance should read the above forum. Requirements You will want to download (or own a copy) of the following items: * Any legal copy of Windows XP Home or Professional (full installation disk) * (conditional) Download Service Pack 2 Network Installation Package (if required) * (optional) Download WPA_KILL by searching www.filewatcher.com * (optional) Download RemoveWGA from www.FirewallLeakTester.com * Download nLite for free (and make a small donation) * Download .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package * (optional) Download RVM XP Hot Fix Package (website) * (optional) Review other add-ons on that website * Download Intel’s 5000X chipset drivers (thanks to ars technica for first publishing) * Download Intel’s 631xESB chipset SATA drivers (version 15/05/2006 7.4.0.1005) * Download ImgBurn bootable CD burning tool (and make a small donation) * Download SiSoftware Sandra Light from here (benchmarking tool) * Download Apple’s Boot Camp for remaining essential Mac Pro Drivers. (Now available as 1.1.1) * (optional) Download HD Tune for double checking results. Optional steps are not required for minimal installations. Does it work? Yes, there are several independent confirmations that this technique works on Mac Pro’s. (that is, according to postings in the forums at macrumors.com) I have updated the website to incorporate minor corrections and clarifications based on extensive feedback to improve your installation experience. ( If there are Intel Mac Books or IMacs experiencing SATA problems might trying searching for appropriate drivers from Intel’s website to replace the Mac Pro drivers in this manual. To do this, run SiSoftware Sandra Light, identify the name of your northbridge and southbridge chip sets, and down load the appropriate drivers from the Intel website. If someone can validate this technique and email the appropriate chipset details, i’ll link to the correct drivers from this website. )
 Building your custom XP boot disk The first step is to download all the files into an installation directory (lets say C:\MacXP) on a working Windows box. This might be your currently booting XP on the Mac Pro, or any other modern windows box. I strongly recommend spending a few hours searching through the AddOn’s for nLite. These packages allow for Adobe Acrobat Reader, AVG Antivirus, and other freely distributable tools to be installed auto-magically in your installation. The custom XP boot disk *should* work on other computers as you are simply installing optional drivers for the Mac Pro. Second step (*updated*) is to make a directory for the device drivers (e.g., C:\MacXP\IntelDrivers) and then a unique directory for each of the Intel device drivers (e.g, C:\MacXP\IntelDrivers\IntelDriverA, C:\MacXP\IntelDrivers\IntelDriverB, ...), copy the drivers into the respective folders and expand the contents. IntelDrivers (Main Dir) ----IntelDriverA (Sub Dir 1) --------Unzip the 32bit folder here ** SATA Drivers ----IntelDriverB (Sub Dir 2) --------Unzip the whole thing here ** Chipset Drivers Third step is to install the .NET framework required by nLite. I would also ensure that service Pack 2 is installed on your operating system your are building the XP boot disk from. Fourth step is to install ImgBurn if you don’t already have a CD burning tool installed. (I selected ImgBurn because it was donation ware. Furthermore it worked for me, even on the crippled SATA drive on my MacPro default XP installation). We will use the nLite tool to build the custom bootable cdrom. By following the steps above you have all the modules ready to pass into nLite when it requests it. The nLite installation process is very well described here and I recommend you follow its instructions. During the “Task Selection” stage of the nLite installation, you will want to enable “Integrate Drivers” as a minimum. The working directory for nLite should NOT be C:\MacXP\, but C:\MacXP\Scratch or any other blank directory. When you come up to Integrating the device drivers you MUST install the Intel Drivers you have downloaded. (*updated, thanks to the macrumors forums*) Click "Insert" - "Multiple Driver Folder" Browser to the path of the IntelDrivers Folder (C:\MacXP\IntelDrivers\) Click "OK" Click "ALL" Click "OK" Select "Intel(R) ESB2 SATA RAID Controller (Server ESB2)" Click "OK" Click "Cancel" Click "Next" ..and continue following the nLite instructions. Fifth Step is burn the .ISO image file generated by nLITE. (*updated*) I recommend that you burn at 2x or 4x speed on crippled Mac Pro SATA Installations. At a bare minimum, test your settings to ensure that a “test run” burns correctly and that the buffers do not empty. Sixth Step is to perform a re-install of Windows XP using your custom boot disk. (*updated*) This must be a complete CLEAN reinstall of XP. If you are using the “Mighty Mouse” supplied with the Mac Pro, please disconnect it before booting up the custom XP CD. Windows XP first-stage installation (text mode) and the Mighty Mouse do not like each other, resulting in the keyboard not accepting input in some systems! Plug the Mighty Mouse back in when you are in the graphical stage of the XP installation. From this point on the Mighty Mouse and Keyboard should work without problems. I also recommend disconnecting all non-essential peripheral during the XP installation, based on the following Forum Positing: “Had a problem with the Windows XP installation stalling at 34 minutes during "Installing Devices" and found the solution. I shut down the computer and unplugged all of my Firewire devices (includes iSight, iPod, disk drives, etc.) and then restarted onto the Windows XP disk. The Mac Pro tried to boot the aborted installation and then restarted the installation. No stall this time, so apparently one or more Firewire devices was causing the trouble. Looking good... finalizing installation now” When selecting a File System for XP, the modern NTFS file system can be read but not written by OS X. If you want easy file transfers, ensure you have at least one FAT-32 partition in your system. In most cases you will want to use FAT-32 for your XP installation. Seventh Step is to run SiSoftware Sandra Light software to confirm that you have reasonable hard drive performance that reflects the drives installed in your system. You can also double check the results / settings using Hd Tune. Eighth Step (*updated*) is to install the Boot Camp drivers to get the audio, keyboard, video, networking and other important devices operational. Be sure to reboot as required after XP announces drivers are installed, do you want to reboot? You Do! !!! Party !!! Question (posting): I still have a question mark next to "Base System Device", and four exclamation points next to "PCI Express x4 ports 3, 5, 6, and 7" (in the device driver manager of XP). I figure the four PCI Express notifications are for the unused slots on the Motherboard. Any idea what the Base System Device is referring to? Am I missing a driver, or is this normal? Answer: To the best of my knowledge, this is normal for now. Question: Do I need to install the intel chip drivers on the CD? Answer: YES! The device drivers for Intel’s northbridge and southbridge chipsets needs to be included as part of the original installation. Apparently installing the very same drivers after installation does not work. I expect Apple will find a work around in the next major revision of Boot Camp! Question: Do I need Apple’s Boot Camp tools? Answer: YES, you specifically need the Windows drivers included in Apple’s Boot Camp tools! Boot Camp has 2 stages. The first stage repartitions a default Mac OS X installation, so that OSX sits on the first part of the harddrive, and XP can sit on the second part of the harddrive. This step is not required. You can avoid this step by installing a new harddrive and installing XP on its own dedicated drive. Doing this does not fix the SATA performance problem in my experience. The second stage builts a device driver cd that includes essential device drivers for Mac Pro devices on XP. You MUST install the device drivers to get the best XP experience on the Mac Pro. Question: Will i need to re-install Windows XP at a later time? Answer: Definitely. I have found that windows installations degrade over time and become unreliable. I tend to reinstall Windows every 12 months or so. I suspect when Apple release a significantly revised Boot Camp that there may be reason to perform a clean install simply to benefit from updated drivers. * When linking, please use http://macprojournal.com/xp.html in preference to IP addresses. Thanks.http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=223679http://www.alltheweb.com/http://www.filewatcher.comhttp://www.FirewallLeakTester.comhttp://www.nliteos.com/http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=enhttp://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/updatepack.htmlhttp://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=816&OSFullName=Windows*+XP+Professional&lang=eng&strOSs=44&submit=Go%21http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/macpro.ars/1http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/detail_desc.aspx?strstate=live&productid=2487&dwnldid=11207&agr=y&lang=eng&prdmap=2487http://www.imgburn.com/http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/952306152/1http://www.apple.com/bootcamp/http://www.hdtune.com/http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=223679mailto:webmaster@macprojournal.com?subject=Other%20Intel%20Drivershttp://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=511http://www.nliteos.com/guides.htmlhttp://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=223679http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=2770493&postcount=211http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=2797198&postcount=326http://macprojournal.com/xp.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8shapeimage_2_link_9shapeimage_2_link_10shapeimage_2_link_11shapeimage_2_link_12shapeimage_2_link_13shapeimage_2_link_14shapeimage_2_link_15shapeimage_2_link_16shapeimage_2_link_17shapeimage_2_link_18shapeimage_2_link_19shapeimage_2_link_20shapeimage_2_link_21shapeimage_2_link_22