Windows 7 - Adaptec 29160 driver NOT installed - HOW?

Hi all,

Hope it's ok to bump a fairly old thread but I am having a similar issue.

My system has an Adaptec 29160 (with the 3.10.0 BIOS) with an Atlas 15K drive that I currently boot WinXP (32 bit) from. I am trying to install Windows 7 RC 64-bit in a dual-boot configuration to another SATA drive, but it won't let me since without the 64-bit drivers it can't see the Atlas 15K drive to write the updated bootloader to.

I am really hesitant to do anything further to my partitioning to allow booting from one of the SATA drives, but the drivers posted in this thread don't seem to work for my attempts at Win 7 (I put them on a USB drive and can see that drive in setup but it won't see the drivers apparently).

Short of a massive repartitioning (my other drives are mostly in extended partitions and the like due to not planning on dual booting when I built it a few years back), is there anything else to try? (and is Vista 64-bit this problematic, or is there a chance MS will fix this by the final Win 7 release? It seems kinda weird it can't see drivers that should be built in)

Thanks!

Justin42, look at my post in this thread #23 to see if helps.

Paragon Partition Manager Pro v.9.0 may have the tools you need.

However, my best advice is to wait until the Windows 7 x64 rtm is released, since it's happening so soon, before doing anything.

If you intend to create a 64 bit OS system using scsi drives, I advise you upgrade your scsi adapter. If you intend to create a 64 bit OS system using sata drives, then I still advise you to upgrade your scsi adapter.

If you intend to dual boot, with a 32 bit & 64 bit OS, then I advise you choose one or the other, but not both.

Hi, thanks for the response. Not sure if I want to put that much effort in at this time, especially since it would risk putting my fully functional system in a bit of a comatose state. I'm just frustrated since I only need it to write the boot loader to the SCSI drive, I don't care if it doesn't recognize the HD or burner attached to the 29160 in Win 7. I'm pretty much done with SCSI at this point anyway so I don't want to put any more money into SCSI cards or the like. (my next build will be SCSI-free, and this computer is getting up there in years from back when a 29160 +15K RPM drive was pretty awesome. )

I did find this, which seems to be bad news-- Adaptec does not look to be planning Ultra160 SCSI support for Windows 7 (I swore I read it WAS supported-- although it says updated July 2, 2009 so maybe they changed it?):
Answer

I am going to email them to complain; after all, the card is NOT listed as End-of-life (as many supported cards are!) and still available on their website for $329. Seems hard to believe when it has functional Vista drivers available that they can't just at least do a small tweak and release "unoptimized" drivers at some point.

Anyone else having issues with the Ultra160 cards should email as well, they may change their minds if they see the cards are still in use.

I did try to install Vista x64 and upgrade from there and it still choked at the 29160 driver. I don't know even if I found a way around the bootloader issue if it'd be an issue having the card plugged into the system. Not sure if it's worth trying to a 32-bit Vista->Windows 7 upgrade since it sounds like a few people have had small successes with that.

(Edit to add, just got a response from Adaptec that they will pass my concerns on to the engineering department but aren't making any promises...)

Hi,

got same problem as others, bot no solution works.

Have an Maxtor Atlas II @ 39160 Adaptec card and no acceptable drivers.
Trying to install Windows Seven x64 RTM (7600.16385.090713-1255).
If booting from DVD, SCSI drives not recognized at all.
If trying to install from XP (never used Vista) Atlas drive is shown in list, but "Windows cannot be installed to target drive"

If I try to load any from upper posted driver - installation failure - no trusted drivers.

Any idea for that ?

I came scarily close to getting it to work but it froze the last minute using this process: Installed Vista 32-bit on the partition I want Win 7 on. I did not enter a product key, just let it do the trial thing. Upgraded to SP1, did NOTHING else. Used the Adaptec Ultra160 6.2 drivers from 2002 (the XP 32-bit set) and "forced" it to upgrade to those drivers. Vista complained they were unsigned but let me use them. Put in the Win 7 DVD and selected upgrade (I know, not good, but I'm trying to make this work) It actually worked on upgrading and I started getting excited I finally cracked the code! It chugged along for over an hour, rebooted a few times, but hung at the final "detecting and installing your devices" (I forget the exact phrase, it was very very late a couple nights ago). I went to bed and let it sit for a few hours and it hadn't moved. Restarted the PC and there was a "restore previous version of Windows" on the boot menu (I THINK "Windows 7" was there too but I can't remember why I didn't select it).. it took about 15 minutes, "restored previous operating system" and booted me into Vista. boo. I am wondering in hindsight if it wasn't just the 29160 drivers, but something else hanging, so I am trying to get as many drivers as I can installed in Vista before I try it again.

Have no Vista.
Upgrading from XP64.

Trying to use drivers from Vista, but seems not certified for seven.

Got reply directly from adaptec.
Not a good news.

"
Greetings from Adaptec,

Thank you for your message.

Sir, we are very sorry but there are currently no windows 7 drivers for Adaptec 39160 and there are no chances to have any release of the drivers in the near future.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

Thank you for using Ask Us.
Best Regards
"
Adaptec Technical Support

Hi,
This is my first post here, so hi to all!!

This is my experience with a 29160 card and windows 7 64bit. At the time you are installing it asks for the drivers (I am using the ones posted here) but windows 7 does not recognize them as signed.... but it does when windows is already up and running (I saw this when I installed the 32bit version on a secondary ide drive)...so this is what I did...

I installed Windows 7 64 bit on a IDE drive, once installed I installed the drivers and I was able to see the card and the scsi drives (within windows 7) attached to it after that.
At this point I created a ghost image (using ghost_11) of windows and then I dump the image to the scsi drive.
Turn off the machine, disconnected the IDE drive and booted from the SCSI drive..
Windows 7 64-bit booted just fine and happy!!!

It seems like if these drivers are not signed and then Windows 7 installation refuses to take them during the install but it does take them just fine with no problem when windows is already up and running...

Just my two cents...

Hi guys, i having the "usual" same problem, i am trying a Vista 64bit upgrade to WIndows 7 64bit.

In Vista, popped in the Windows 7 disc and tried upgrade. Error for the SCSI card, tried the 19160 and 29160, anyway, now trying to install into the 19160 with a single SCSI 15k ROM disk. getting to the point where it says to load drivers, it fails, it's asking for "signed drivers".

Just to follow up on my own situation, I bit the bullet and managed to find a pretty cheap 29320A on Ebay ($30 shipped). After a bit of a mess swapping it in (As I didn't have enough free PCI slots to have both SCSI cards in at once without moving stuff) everything took fine in XP, and I went ahead and installed the Windows 7 x64 RTM as a dual boot with absolutely no problems at all.

Not a great solution, but it was so relatively cheap that I figured spending any more time going around in circles wasn't worth it!

I still hope Adaptec comes out with Ultra160 drivers, there seem to be a few minor incompatibility issues with my Asus P5WD2 motherboard (the 29320 doesn't allow the onboard SATA chipset to initialize during POST for some reason, although it works fine once Windows boots. But it means I can't see my ESATA drive until Windows is booted which is an issue as I had used it to Ghost to) which I'd prefer to go back to running the 29160. (I only have 1 HD and 1 CDRW left on SCSI so performance isn't the issue)

Thanks to all for posting here and trying to work out solutions. I still say you should email Adaptec support requesting Windows 7 drivers, there is no way they would be THAT difficult, and if they get enough requests they'd hopefully see the light. (the Windows 7 drivers for the 29320 have copyright dates of like 2003/2007 so they probably just recompiled the Vista drivers there.)