DS3P RAID & Vista

Glyph · 25 Jul 2007 at 10:44

I'm having a problem getting Vista to boot with a RAID1 array and have a question concerning this MB.

Firstly I'm not using RAID on the system volume. I installed Vista on a clean drive and am simply looking for some redundancy for my data.

Vista boots fine without RAID but when I switch on the Intel RAID and config a RAID1 the system blue screen almost immediately after it starts to load Vista. Unfortunately it also reboots in short order so I don't have a chance to read the error.

So my question is this; Why do I have two RAID setups on this MB and which one should I use? I've installed the drivers for both the Intel and JMicron chips but haven't tried the JMicron setting yet.

Any insight or advice on this would be great.

BUFF · 25 Jul 2007 at 12:23

The Intel RAID is superior.

jbloggs · 25 Jul 2007 at 14:14

I think (althought I could be wrong) to setup RAID on the Intel ICH_R, it has to be done at the time of the installation of the OS, using F6 plus drivers on floppy or USB Flash Drive, then you can add other HDDs in certain modes after the setup is complete.

The Intel controller is, as already stated, superior than the JMicron.

With the setup you have now, (I think) you can setup RAID on the jmicron, simply by adding the HDDs, entering RAID BIOS, set it up, exit, boot into Windows and install drivers for said controller, and the new volume should then appear.

If any of above is wrong I'm sure some kind person will set me right.

Glyph · 25 Jul 2007 at 15:32

jbloggs said:
I think (althought I could be wrong) to setup RAID on the Intel ICH_R, it has to be done at the time of the installation of the OS, using F6 plus drivers on floppy or USB Flash Drive, then you can add other HDDs in certain modes after the setup is complete.

I was under the impression that the adding of the driver during installation was to enable Windows setup to be able to recognise the RAID volume in order to be able to install the OS on it.

Now I'm not disagreeing or arguing as this is only conjecture on my behalf but it seems to me that a RAID driver should work whether installed prior to OS installation or post.

I did update Vista with the drivers from the disk following the install, one of I believe was for the ICH_R RAID but I can't get on the website at the mo to double check.

I'm going to try the JM RAID driver this eve to see if I can at least get that to work.

Glyph · 26 Jul 2007 at 08:14

Right, after much investigation and many reboots at least this part of the problem is resolved. JBloggs is absolutly correct; If you are configuring your OS to use RAID the driver has to be added during OS installation. You can't add or change the system volume driver at a later date.

Now if I can only get Vista setup to recognise a non raided system drive with a raid driver I should be okay - but that's another thread.....