Matrix RAID problem

[WilburNJ]

Hi,

I'm looking for some expertise on this board around a problem I'm having.

I have a D975xbx2 mobo and I just added two Samsung 750GB drives with the hope of setting them up in RAID1 format as a redundant data disk (not boot disk). My boot disk is a Raptor 150GB drive and I have a 300GB Maxtor data drive. All four drives are now attached to the Matrix SATA ports.

I have the Windows Vista Home Premium and it has the proper AHCI drivers installed and running all 4 drives as AHCI drives (BIOS set to AHCI as well) is no problem. WHen I set the BIOS to RAID and set the Matrix RAID setup menu to RAID1 the two Samsung drives, I go into endless Vista reboot cycles.

When I'm just in AHCI mode in the BIOS and I run the Intel Matrix dashboard (or whatever it is called), I can't do any actions there, although I see all 4 drives listed.

What am I doing wrong? Any guidance on any steps I missed would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks much,

Will

[DL126]

I'm pretty sure the problem is that you can't turn RAID on after Windoze is already installed.
You'll have to turn it on first ... then build the array consisting of the desired disks, then reinstall the OS.

An alternative would be to hook the desired RAID drives to the Marvell controller instead of the Intel based one.

[IRQ Conflict]

iirc the AHCI drivers either are the same as the raid or are installed with the raid drivers. I may be wrong though as It's been a long time. I would just reinstall the OS and make sure all is well.

[WilburNJ]

Thanks guys, but I'd like to avoid a reinstall. Too much of a hastle.

It should work because had installed the RAID drivers at my original install (I think so because I tried to RAID using Matrix in the past but had to use the Marvell ports instead). In any event, the Intel documents state explicitly that you can load Matrix RAID drivers after an installation of the OS if the OS is Vista (see this link and pdf of the Matrix manual it refers to: http://support.intel.com/support/mother ... tm#existpc).

So, anyway, I have an email into Intel and hopefully they will make some suggestions that fix my problem.

I'll post any resolution I find.

Thanks,

Wilbur

[IRQ Conflict]

I was wrong about the raid/ahci drivers being the same. But you are correct, Vista has these drivers included.

[WilburNJ]

Hi folks. Intel tech support was useless. The person simply told me to reinstall Vista and use the F6 option to install the Matrix drivers. This is in direct contradiction to the following paragraph in section 5.1 of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager 7.0 User's Manual:

"If using Microsoft Windows Vista, this is not required, as the operating system includes a driver for the AHCI and RAID controllers. Refer to Intel® Matrix Storage Manager Installation for instructions on how to installed an updated version of the software after the operating system is installed."

Here's some additional information:

Within Device Manager and under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers", "Intel(R) 82801GR/GH SATA AHCI Controller" is listed, whose driver is
"iaStor.sys" (file version: "7.8.0.1012").

Also listed under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" is "Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers 27DF", whose drivers are "atapi.sys", "ataport.sys", "intelide.sys", and "pciidex.sys" (file version: "6.0.6000.16632 (vista_gdr.080118-1500)").

Should this second controller ("Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers 27DF") be disabled because it is superseded by the other controller ("Intel(R) 82801GR/GH SATA AHCI Controller")?

Also, under "Storage controllers" in Device Manager, only "Microsoft iSCSI Initiator" is listed, whose drivers are "msiscsi.sys" and "iscsilog.dll" (file version: "6.0.6000.16386 (vista_rtm.061101-2205)". Is the Matrix RAID controller supposed to be listed here?

Those with successful Matrix RAID setups in Vista, would you mind checking your Device Manager settings under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" and "Storage controllers" and let me know what's listed there?

Thanks much for your help and any suggestions.

Will

[WilburNJ]

Bump.

Those with successful Matrix RAID setups in Vista Home Premium, would you mind checking your Device Manager settings under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" and "Storage controllers" and let me know what's listed there?

Thanks!!

[Kougar]

If you wish to enable Matrix RAID after installing Vista without ACHI already enabled, then you need to move your OS drive to a NON-ICH7 controlled port. This way enabling ACHI or RAID will not obscure the Vista install. I've had to do this with my own RAID arrays.

The problem is Vista DOES include ACHI and RAID drivers for ICH7R-ICH9R southbridges. BUT, you cannot change the setting after you install Vista, only before.... otherwise you must either rebuild/repair the boot up files to work again, or reinstall the OS. If you change the setting from standard to ACHI or RAID (which is ACHI anyway) then Vista can't properly find and load some of its files to boot normally, because it didn't configure itself that way during the install. Moving the OS drive to a non-ICH7R port is the easiest and quickest solution, the D975XBX2's blue ports should be the Marvel controller ports, so use one of those.

[WilburNJ]

Kougar,

Thanks fo the suggestion. Just so I understand better, if I move my boot disk to a marvell SATA port but leave my 2 data disks that I want to turn into a RAID1 format, I can do this despite Vista Home Pemium aleady being loaded on the boot drive? What exactly are the steps to be taken after the physical swap to Mavell?

Just to be clear, though, my system is aleady ACHI under Matrix, but just doesn't want to switch to RAID. I added ACHI support recently, post OS install. I used the method suggested on this board: http://forums.legitreviews.com/about14953.html.

Anyway, further claification would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Will

[Kougar]

Sorry for the delayed reply!

All you need to do is physically move the SATA cable to a marvel controlled port. That's it! You may also need to change HDD boot priorities under your BIOS so it boots from the correct HDD, but otherwise that is all that is required.

ACHI drivers are not the same as the RAID drivers, even though both use ACHI. If the OS was non-ACHI when you installed it, then my suggestion should still work fine.

[WilburNJ]

Kougar,

Thanks again for the suggestion and clarification. I'll try it on sunday and will report back.

Regards,

Will

[markallen]

WilburNJ,

I have a similar problem with Intel's matrix drivers only I'm working with XP 64-bit. I resolved this problem in the past by only installing the basic intel drivers and none of the matrix management software. Are you using an ATI video card? I had this workstation working perfectly using the intel raid drivers only, until yesterday when I was reinstalling the network drivers, I installed the matrix manager software as well, forgetting about this problem I had in the past. Now I'm in an endless reboot problem.

--Mark