RAID 1 (data drives) on P5B Deluxe - No Boot [screenshots]

watterzz

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Jul 1, 2006
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I have Vista Ultimate installed on my primary WD Raptor and am trying to set up a RAID 1 configuration on my 2 other WD drives for document backup purposes.

Problem: Vista will not load after configuring the RAID 1 setup on the secondary drives

My system:

Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit
Intel Core2 e6600 @ 2.40 GHz
ASUS P5B Deluxe, Revision 1004
Corsair 2x1GB PC6400C4 Ram
WD Raptor X 150GB (Primary)
WD Caviar SE16 250GB (Secondary)
WD Caviar SE16 250GB (Secondary)

I have tried several things, but what makes the most sense to me are the following steps, which do not work.

With the system working fine, the BIOS looks like this, with all the SATA drives displaying properly. Again, the Raptor has Vista on it and the two additional WDs are empty, free for formatting and setting up the RAID 1.

DSCF1029.JPG


Then I go to the IDE Configuration seen above and configure the SATA as RAID as shown below.

DSCF1030.JPG


Then I save and exit back to startup where I enter the Intel Matrix Storage Manager by pressing ctrl+i. I create a RAID 1 volume on the two desired drives with the simple to use interface. The results of that are shown below, just before exiting the manager.

DSCF1031.JPG


Then I exit back to startup where I get a Windows Error as shown below.

DSCF1034.JPG


I start Windows normally and I only get as far as the next shot before it reboots itself.

DSCF1035.JPG


I have tried manually selecting the boot device by pressing F8 during boot, but it leads to the same problem.

DSCF1036.JPG


Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 

firemist

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I have not installed Vista yet so this may not apply but is worth a mention.

For XP the RAID drivers need to be added during the install of XP whether or not the install is on a RAID configuration. If the RAID drivers are not present and a RAID array is configured the system will hang/reboot when the system boots after the RAID is configured.

Does Vista have the RAID drivers built in or do you need to add them?
 
What happens if you have the ICH8R setup as RAID in BIOS, but only have the Raptor connected and try to boot into windows from the Raptor? If you can get into windows with this setup, try to update to the latest Intel RAID drivers and attempt to build your RAID1 again.

If you get the same error with just the Raptor connected, boot into windows with the BIOS set to [COMPATABLE] and [IDE] and try to install/reinstall the latest Intel RAID drivers. Reboot, set BIOS to [ENHANCED] and [RAID] then try to boot again with only the Raptor. If you still cannot boot into windows, you may need to do a repair installaion.

Post back what you try.
 

firemist

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I think if the controller is set to RAID in the BIOS the RAID drivers need to be installed for the system to boot properly. The system needs to recognize the contoller to get to any of the disks attached to it.

Does the system have two SATA controllers (mine does)? If so you should be able to move the boot disk to the other controller and set the boot order to that disk and boot even if the other contoller is set to RAID.
 

pinkcaddy

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Interesting problem. First off, Vista will not even load using the latest Intel drivers (at least that you get of the Asus CD) - Vista recognizes the RAID drivers upon install (and you should use them or you will not be able to install.

Has this configuration worked in XP? My only thought to is to make sure the two RAID1 drives are on the black Intel ICH8R SATA connectors (non-boot connections). Make sure your Raptor is on connection 1 (Red - bootable). Hope this helps.
 

CNeufeld

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I had the same problem with my P5W DH board. Made it to about the same point in the boot process as the OP.

For now, I'm using the Vista Dynamic Disk version of RAID 0, as I don't really need the space or performance. I will be eagerly following this thread for a solution! :)

Clint
 

richardnau

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Sounds to me like you're suffering from the fairly widespread issue of Intel RAID drivers with Vista - basically, the current Intel RAID drivers sometimes don't work with Vista. You can install and run OK with your discs in IDE mode, but as soon as you go into AHCI or RAID mode, you have problems, which can be:
* unable to install
* able to install but then can't boot up
* can install and boot, but then PC goes very slowly
* can install and boot, but then many RAID array errors.

There's a thread on the issue on MS TechNet, here: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=947248&SiteID=17

Ignore the title of the thread - the issue is impacting plenty of P5B Dlx owners. See also several threads on asus.com.

We're all waiting for Intel to fix the problem. Make some noise and help build the pressure.
 

watterzz

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This is what I tried and what eventually worked:

1. I installed the latest Vista RAID drivers. --> same problem: cycling reboot

2. I plugged the Raptor OS drive into a red boot connector and plugged the desired RAID drives into black non-boot connectors. --> same problem

3. I started from scratch, assigning the SATA as RAID, setting up the RAID 1 with Intel Matrix Storage Manager, and completely reinstalling Vista. --> WORKED with no problems. All Vista saw was one 250GB unallocated drive that I formatted as a simple volume in Vista.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and advice.

Note: Before I reinstalled Vista, I used its built-in complete PC backup option to make an image of everything on my external. I tried to put that image back on to save me from reinstalling all my programs, but once it finished loading the image, Vista wouldn't boot again! So I reinstalled...again...and just built everything up from scratch. But this is for another topic...