Here's my story. I'm an intern for a small engineering firm and one of our employees purchased parts to build 3 of the exact same computers. Only one employee has real experience building computers (the one who purchased the parts), but he works out of state. I have build one computer before and I really enjoyed it so I volunteered.
Building the computers were no problem, everything went together flawlessly. The parts include:
Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth x79
CPU: i74820k LGA 2011
PSU: 600W PSU
Graphics: GeForce 760
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro SSD
HDD: 2x WD 1TB
HDDs are plugged into the SATA3's (brown ports) and the SSD plugged into a SATA6 (black). I had the SSD plugged into the SSD caching (white port) but when in RAID, not even BIOS would detect the SSD. So I plugged it into a SATA6.
After building the first computer, I installed Windows 7 x64 SP1 with the computer set to AHCI (which was default) mode. After I set Windows up on the SSD, I was informed I needed to RAID 1 the two HDDs. I went into BIOS and changed it to RAID mode, did the whole ctrl+I process to set up the RAID. It prompted me to re-install Windows onto the SSD, which was fine. The Mobo didn't have the RAID drivers, which was hard to believe, but I loaded those and installed. Everything went flawlessly. I cleaned the disk and erased Windows.old from the computer. After assigning a drive letter, installing drivers, and windows updates, the first computer was done.
Second computer: I built it in no time with the exact same SATA configuration and decided to set up the RAID 1 process without setting up Windows in AHCI like I did in the first one. This shouldn't have been a problem at all, I would just load the RAID drivers during the Windows install and everything should work out perfectly, right? Not at all. When I loaded the drivers from a flash drive, I had to uncheck the box that said "Hide drivers that aren't compatible for this hardware." Once I did that, my drivers showed up and I could click them, but after trying to install the right driver it gave me an error saying "No new hardware detected." I scoured the internet trying to find out what was going wrong and why it wasn't working. I re-downloaded the drivers over and over and tried different flash drives with no success.
The next day I came to work and decided to install Windows on the SSD in AHCI first, load the drivers, and then switch to RAID1. Though I don't understand why this worked, it's what happened with the first computer, so I wasn't asking any questions. Computer two was set up and finished.
Third computer: I did the exact set up that was giving me success. Installing Windows in AHCI, loading the drivers, switching to RAID and then going from there. However this computer wasn't working, Windows won't detect the SSD to install the Windows onto. In BIOS, all three of my hard disks are detected but just won't show up.
I scoured the internet again and tried to figure out what was going on. I switched it back to AHCI, booted into Windows on the SSD and went to registry editor and switched some 3's to 0's, updated every single driver, and switched back to RAID. Still no success. At this point, every single driver is the same on all 3 computers. All of the SATA configurations are all the same on the three computers.
I was clueless. I think I might have tried to change all of the 0's back to 3's, changed some other things maybe, I'm not really sure. But after switching from AHCI to RAID and back several times, the SSD would no longer boot to Windows in AHCI. So I wanted to format the SSD so I could just start fresh. I plugged this SSD into the 2nd computer to try to format it. I turned the computer on with both SSD's and 2 HDDs plugged in. The "Windows is starting" screen showed up but then the graphics cut out and wouldn't do anything. I thought that was weird, so I disconnected the SSD from the 3rd computer to just boot the 2nd computer. The same thing happened, the Windows is starting screen, then black. I have no idea what went on now. I tried several times to get the computer back up but I couldn't do it. Now, in the RAID settings screen that flashes on startup, the status of the RAID 1 was "Initialize" instead of "Normal." I deleted that RAID and set up a new one and tried to boot. Still a no go. I eventually just had to reinstall Windows and set the whole thing up again. 2nd computer was now working again.
Back to the 3rd computer. Still clueless on what's going on, I reinstalled Windows and set the computer up in AHCI after confirming that I could set up an automated backup instead of a RAID 1.
Here are my main questions throughout this process though.
1. Why is the same process giving me 3 different results and what's going on with the 3rd computer?
2. Why wouldn't the 2nd computer boot after plugging in the 3rd computer's SSD? Did it have to do with that or was it something going on with RAID? Could this happen again after plugging in a blank SSD? We're a subsidiary of a larger company and they kind of banned us from making our own computers, but finally said "You're on your own, but don't come to us with any problems." But if one of these RAIDs fails all of a sudden, like the 2nd computer, and we lose some data, our owning company is going to have a meltdown. I really don't want that to happen so would an automated backup in AHCI be more reliable than RAID?
Sorry this is long, but I wanted to be thorough with my process. I hope someone can shed some light on what's going on here, and thanks for reading!
Building the computers were no problem, everything went together flawlessly. The parts include:
Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth x79
CPU: i74820k LGA 2011
PSU: 600W PSU
Graphics: GeForce 760
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro SSD
HDD: 2x WD 1TB
HDDs are plugged into the SATA3's (brown ports) and the SSD plugged into a SATA6 (black). I had the SSD plugged into the SSD caching (white port) but when in RAID, not even BIOS would detect the SSD. So I plugged it into a SATA6.
After building the first computer, I installed Windows 7 x64 SP1 with the computer set to AHCI (which was default) mode. After I set Windows up on the SSD, I was informed I needed to RAID 1 the two HDDs. I went into BIOS and changed it to RAID mode, did the whole ctrl+I process to set up the RAID. It prompted me to re-install Windows onto the SSD, which was fine. The Mobo didn't have the RAID drivers, which was hard to believe, but I loaded those and installed. Everything went flawlessly. I cleaned the disk and erased Windows.old from the computer. After assigning a drive letter, installing drivers, and windows updates, the first computer was done.
Second computer: I built it in no time with the exact same SATA configuration and decided to set up the RAID 1 process without setting up Windows in AHCI like I did in the first one. This shouldn't have been a problem at all, I would just load the RAID drivers during the Windows install and everything should work out perfectly, right? Not at all. When I loaded the drivers from a flash drive, I had to uncheck the box that said "Hide drivers that aren't compatible for this hardware." Once I did that, my drivers showed up and I could click them, but after trying to install the right driver it gave me an error saying "No new hardware detected." I scoured the internet trying to find out what was going wrong and why it wasn't working. I re-downloaded the drivers over and over and tried different flash drives with no success.
The next day I came to work and decided to install Windows on the SSD in AHCI first, load the drivers, and then switch to RAID1. Though I don't understand why this worked, it's what happened with the first computer, so I wasn't asking any questions. Computer two was set up and finished.
Third computer: I did the exact set up that was giving me success. Installing Windows in AHCI, loading the drivers, switching to RAID and then going from there. However this computer wasn't working, Windows won't detect the SSD to install the Windows onto. In BIOS, all three of my hard disks are detected but just won't show up.
I scoured the internet again and tried to figure out what was going on. I switched it back to AHCI, booted into Windows on the SSD and went to registry editor and switched some 3's to 0's, updated every single driver, and switched back to RAID. Still no success. At this point, every single driver is the same on all 3 computers. All of the SATA configurations are all the same on the three computers.
I was clueless. I think I might have tried to change all of the 0's back to 3's, changed some other things maybe, I'm not really sure. But after switching from AHCI to RAID and back several times, the SSD would no longer boot to Windows in AHCI. So I wanted to format the SSD so I could just start fresh. I plugged this SSD into the 2nd computer to try to format it. I turned the computer on with both SSD's and 2 HDDs plugged in. The "Windows is starting" screen showed up but then the graphics cut out and wouldn't do anything. I thought that was weird, so I disconnected the SSD from the 3rd computer to just boot the 2nd computer. The same thing happened, the Windows is starting screen, then black. I have no idea what went on now. I tried several times to get the computer back up but I couldn't do it. Now, in the RAID settings screen that flashes on startup, the status of the RAID 1 was "Initialize" instead of "Normal." I deleted that RAID and set up a new one and tried to boot. Still a no go. I eventually just had to reinstall Windows and set the whole thing up again. 2nd computer was now working again.
Back to the 3rd computer. Still clueless on what's going on, I reinstalled Windows and set the computer up in AHCI after confirming that I could set up an automated backup instead of a RAID 1.
Here are my main questions throughout this process though.
1. Why is the same process giving me 3 different results and what's going on with the 3rd computer?
2. Why wouldn't the 2nd computer boot after plugging in the 3rd computer's SSD? Did it have to do with that or was it something going on with RAID? Could this happen again after plugging in a blank SSD? We're a subsidiary of a larger company and they kind of banned us from making our own computers, but finally said "You're on your own, but don't come to us with any problems." But if one of these RAIDs fails all of a sudden, like the 2nd computer, and we lose some data, our owning company is going to have a meltdown. I really don't want that to happen so would an automated backup in AHCI be more reliable than RAID?
Sorry this is long, but I wanted to be thorough with my process. I hope someone can shed some light on what's going on here, and thanks for reading!
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