New ASUS P5K Raid Setup, help needed please

[GeoffW]

Hi

I am trying to setup a RAID 0 system for the first time. I am lost as to what I am doing wrong. The manual is not great so could anyone walk me through it in detail please ?

Hardware Setup
2 Western Digital SATA2 320 Gig Drives
ASUS P5K motherboard

At the moment I have an IDE DVDROM but I will shortly change that to a SATA DVD Drive so I think I need to keep SATA2 connector on mainboard free for this. (SATA1 and SATA2 are bootable)

I have connected SATA HD 1 to SATA 1 port on motherboard (bootable)
I have connected SATA HD 2 to SATA 3 port on motherboard (nonbootable)

I have set in BIOS the jMicron eSATA/PATA controlled to be enabled and set to RAID

When I POST I press CTRL J to get the JMicron RAID BIOS menu but nothing, it just ignores it.

This is presumably telling me that it is not seeing a RAID capable disk setup. I tried moving my 2nd hard drive to the SATA_E2 connector on the back of the board instead, but that didnt help in getting it to recognise the CTL J sequence.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks

Regards Geoff

 

[GeoffW]

OK, I made a slight bit of progress but still basically stuck

If I have my 2 drives on SATA connectors 1 & 2, I never get the JMicron RAID prompt "CTRL J to enter RAID bios setup". (But I can see both drives are detected OK in the normal Bios screens)

However if I move my second hard drive to the SATA_E2 connector then during post I get the CTRL J prompt, and I can enter the Jmicron RAID Bios setup OK.

Now I am stuck though as the JMicron screen is telling me it can only see 1 Hard Disk, which is not enough to create a raid array.

I must be doing something obviously wrong here ?

I am puzzled where to go next with this, any ideas please ?


Regards

 

[SomeJoe7777]

This motherboard's south bridge chip is an ICH9, not an ICH9R, so the SATA1 through SATA4 connectors do not have any RAID capability.

The RAID capability on this motherboard only exists between the external eSATA connector on the back of the motherboard and the internal SATA_E2 connector, both of which are connected to the JMicron chip. (Refer to section 5.4.2 of the motherboard manual for confirmation).

If you want to boot from a RAID 0 on this motherboard, I suggest a dedicated PCI or PCIe x1 RAID card.

 

[GeoffW]

Hi SomeJoe

Thanks for your answer

Grrrrrrrrrr, that will teach me to do my homework properly before I buy a motherboard. Looks like I needed to buy the P5k deluxe version of the board to RAID two internal drives.

Plan B
Does this sound sensible as an alternative plan ?
Use SATA1 connector for my Windows non RAID drive, then I would purchase another 320 gig WD drive with an external SATA to eSATA enclosure.

I could then RAID 0 one internal drive with the external drive.

The advantage of this is that it gives me a more secure Windows drive, but the disadvantage is that it is another £50 to £60 and I have the clutter of the external drive.

comments welcomed from anyone

Regards

 

[SomeJoe7777]

You could do that, but if you're willing to spend that money on the external enclosure, you could probably get a decent internal PCI RAID card for a similar price, or spend a little more and get a good one.

 

[RaiderX303]

in the bios, go to SATA Configuration, change SATA Mode to RAID, reboot, after the jmicron screen another will come up saying press CTRL+I for Raid setup, press this and configure raid

 

[mike99]

Get one of these:-- http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=225506
Its a hardware RAID controller, no drivers needed. Motherboard and OS only see the RAID array,

Mike.

 

[Drag0nR1der]

Is it possible to get a cable to connect one of the internal drives to the external port (so an SATA to eSATA cable I guess, if such a thing exists). Then just run the cable through the back by removing a pci slot (or using a bracket with a hole in it).

I too have been caught out by this... I spent ages trying to get the damned array to work, then was pretty sure of what has just been confirmed on here. why on earth would anyone want to raid an external drive to an internal drive anyway, seems a bit silly to me, if they are going to put a jmb chip on the board they coudl at least have given it two internal connectors

 

[lp231]

Asus did make a motherboard exactly like yours but with ICH9R
It's called the P5KR.

An alternative you can look for is the P5K-E
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131196

 

[bkullmann]

You can get an e-sata to sata cable to connect the second raid drive internally - works great for me. Here is the link https://www.auspcmarket.com.au/index.php?redir=https://www.auspcmarket.com.au/members.php

Cheers

 

[WbarC]

I just built a new PC using an Asus P5K Deluxe and two WD 16000AAJS drives in a Raid 0 configuration. I connected the drives to Raid 1&2 internally. Crtrl+I to get into Raid configuration - No problem.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

in the bios, go to SATA Configuration, change SATA Mode to RAID, reboot, after the jmicron screen another will come up saying press CTRL+I for Raid setup, press this and configure raid

I just built a new PC using an Asus P5K Deluxe and two WD 16000AAJS drives in a Raid 0 configuration. I connected the drives to Raid 1&2 internally. Crtrl+I to get into Raid configuration - No problem.

As was told to the original poster back in JUNE, his motherboard is a P5K, not a P5K Deluxe, a P5KR, P5K-E, nor any of the other 10 different P5K variations that have an Intel RAID controller. His board has an ICH9 south bridge, not an ICH9R, and therefore he has NO RAID capability other than the JMicron controller.

He does not, will not, and will never get the Ctrl-I message because his board doesn't support that.

You guys who are posting 5 months after his problem has already been discussed need to READ the thread before you post.

 

[kees]

Yes It can work but the eSATA pin out is a mirror from the SATA.
Also IDE keeps working.
For the details http://www.geocities.com/fam_dejong

 

[fredtheaverage]

Yes It can work but the eSATA pin out is a mirror from the SATA.
Also IDE keeps working.
For the details http://www.geocities.com/fam_dejong

I too am going through the same process too, to install the raid0. You are almost there! I'm going to wind the esata to sata into the computer to have them inboard from there to where the drives are supposed to be.

I was told by asus and the weirdly written instructions in the manual on pg. 5-29 5.4.2, that if u use the esata on the back, and the esata_2 (my description is sata#5) that is on the momboard but near the backside of the case above the pci slots, you can do raid.
I was also told one ide port has raid capability also for the optical. I haven't done it yet but here's luck yo both of us.

 

[kramertj]

I'm hoping to run this cable too my internal drive to make the Raid0 work. Any thought? http://cooldrives.stores.yahoo.net/sata-cables-internal-to-external.html

 

[Guest]

http://www.dynamic-disk.com/dynamic-disk-resource.htmlhttp://www.dynamic-disk.com/resource/setup-software-raid.htmlHi, GeoffW:
Actually, I faced the same problem like you before. My friend give some advice. We can solve the problem with the help of this article--How to Setup Software RAID?And we can get some other operation information.
Hope you can solve the problem soon.