baffled by this RAID issue

Terrier_Jimlad · 9 Feb 2010 at 19:46

I am currently running Windows 7 (x64) off of my SSD in AHCI mode, all running fine for a few weeks now. I've got 3 x Sammy F1's that I want to put back in to RAID as they are all sat as individual drives at the moment

So, downloaded the RAID drivers, along with the Intel Storage Manager crap from gigabyte website, installed, rebooted, all ok.

So, rebooted the PC, in to BIOS, enabled the mode as RAID(XHD), saved settings and rebooted. Hit CTRL+I when prompted, got in to the Intel Storage Manager setup, chose my RAID options and disks etc, all ok ready to go. Saved and exitted, started booting up, got to Windows 7 loading srcreen, BSOD too quick for me to read and reboots over and over

The RAID drivers and software are installed fully, so why the BSOD? It's not like im installing Windows on to the array, they're just slaved 1tb disks

Never come across this before, although the last RAID setup I did was back on XP

Am I being a tool and missing something?

Spec in sig

Cheers
Jim

DavyBoy · 9 Feb 2010 at 19:52

I had a similar issue before with my system, I had Vista installed on a single HDD and I had a pair of raptors in RAID-0 which I wanted to use for game installs, but it would only get as far as the Windows loading screen and then it would BSOD just like you've described above.

I came to the conclusion that it wasn't possible to run the OS on a single drive when RAID was enabled, though I don't know if that was the case or not, maybe I missed something simple in the BIOS.

Hopefully someone here can explain why this happens though as I'd be interested to know more about it myself.

Terrier_Jimlad · 9 Feb 2010 at 20:52

time to dig out the trusty manual - RTFM

Terrier_Jimlad · 9 Feb 2010 at 21:32

Sorted it mate, it was the way the controllers were handling the disks that werent in the array, if you're using a similar board this might help you.

Basically on the UD5 there are 6 SATA ports coloured blue, and 4 GSATA ports coloured white. The 6 sata are controlled by the Intel controller, the 4 white by the Gigabyte controller. If you want to use a RAID array, all of your RAID disks must be on either one of the controllers, and they cant have mixed disks on them.

So, I put my SSD and DVD drive in SATA ports, and put my 3 x F1 disks in to 3 of the GSATA ports, left the SATA mode as AHCI and turned the GSATA mode to RAID and walla, we're off and running and all is a-ok

The only downside is, I have no idea how reliable the Gigabyte stuff is over the Intel stuff, guess we'll find out soon enough lol

DavyBoy · 9 Feb 2010 at 23:33

Thanks for that mate, I thought that it would work like this however, I wasn't kean on using the GSATA ports as I've read that the controller is supposed to be pants, the only thing I have hooked up to the white ports on my X58 UD5 is my DVD writer.

I no longer require my system to be setup like this anymore, I was just curious as to why it wasn't working before when I did try it.

Glad you've got it all up and running now though mate, hopefully the GSATA controller is ok.