Raid disappears after xp install. Present in bios gone after install?

[boomhowar]

This is my first raid so i'm still learning. I've searched the forums and have googled my question but can't find an answer. My problem is that my raid seems to disappear after xp install.

Here are my specs:
Motherboard p5mt-m (http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?modelname=P5MT-M&SLanguage=en-us)
p4 3ghz
1gb ecc kingston
2 80gb seagate barracuda SATA
windows xp

I've selected RAID and on board serial-ata bootrom in the bios as instructed in the manual in the above link. The computer boots and I can enter the raid configuration menus by pressing control - m and I set up the raid to raid 1 and both drives indicate they are online.

I don't have access to a floppy so I've downloaded the two raid drivers from above link (82801 GR/GH SATA Raid + LSI MEGARAID) and I've slipstreamed them into my xp cd with nlite.

I boot to xp install and am able to select only one present 80gb hard drive to install windows on (so as of now the raid is seemingly set up correctly as the install only sees one hd). I install windows and I can see the status indicator lights on each of my hard drives working in sync. During post the RAID controller also reports that both HD's are online and working.

Here's the problem: after install when I log into windows, xp sees both hard drives as C: and D:, drive C has used 3gb of data and drive D has used 1.5gb of data. WHAT HAPPENED TO MY RAID?! I know both drives were formated before install so during install my raid worked for first 1.5gb of transfer?

I have repeated this scenario 3 times with same effect. What gives? What am I doing wrong? How can raid be present in bios and xp installation and then gone after install?

 

[SomeJoe7777]

1. The LSI drivers should not be necessary - your motherboard manual makes no mention of any LSI controller.

2. On the Intel RAID setup menu (the first menu you get in the BIOS after pressing CTRL-I), make sure there is only one RAID volume set up. If there are multiple volumes set up, delete the extra ones until there is only one volume.

3. Make sure there are no other hard drives connected to the machine during Windows installation, including internal and external drives.

 

[boomhowar]

First let me thank you for taking the time to reply and even reading the manual! THW forum is great.

1. The LSI drivers and LSI Logic Embedded SATA RAID Setup utility that I can configure (CTRL-M) are at 5.1.4 of the manual or page 111 of 150 for my adobe reader.
My manual also describes Intel Matrix Storage Manager (page 100 of 150), but my post shows nothing of this and pressing CTRL-I/L many times during post never enters this specific manager.

2. In the LSI setup utility both of my drives seem to be properly configured for raid 1. I've configured them based on what my manual directs (also, LSI default raid is to raid 1 unless changed). During my post my array displays and everything appears to be good. Also when I install windows and during the part of install where you select what drive/partition to install windows to, I only see one drive...this leads me to believe that my raid 1 is working during the beginning of the windows install. Am I right in believing this? --but as soon as windows finishes installing and I can log into windows I then see both of my drives, one with 3gb of data on it and the other with 1.5gb. *both drives are formatted before install, so did my raid work for first 1.5gb of transfer? I know this doesn't make sense..

3. No other drives or cards are connected. One cd rom and two hard drives is all I have.

There are two different drives that I've downloaded. One is intel storage matrix which is needed for windows to see my sata and the other is LSI. I have tried combinations of slipstreamed xp cd's with both or only one of these drivers but the only combination that shows my hard drives is one with the intel storage maxtrix driver present and the only combination that shows my drives and shows them in raid is when I slipstream intel storage matrix with lsi megaraid.

SomeJoe thanks in advance for any more time you have in helping me.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Well, I did find the part of your manual that talks about the LSI controller. This is very confusing because the board layout pictures and SATA connectors do not show any LSI chip or additional SATA connectors that would be connected to an LSI chip. Only 4 SATA connectors look to be present, and they're connected to the ICH7R.

I suggest this: Turn the BIOS option "Onboard Serial ATA BOOTROM" to "Disabled", but leave the "Configure SATA As" set to "RAID".

See if this causes your POST to show the Intel RAID manager (Ctrl-I) instead of the LSI RAID setup utility.

If so, set up a RAID 1 using the Intel utility, then reinstall Windows.

 

[boomhowar]

Joe,

Thanks for all of your time. I tried all of your suggestions and here's how I got it to work finally.

After reading through my entire manual again I found that on page 43/150 there was a jumper hidden between two pci slots that when switched from pin 1-2 to 2-3 activated the intel raid utility and deactivated the lsi raid utility. --very bad tech writing from asus in my opinion and should have been addressed in the raid section, but oh well.

Also, the only way I was able to enter the intel raid utility was to "Configure SATA As" set to "RAID" and Turn the BIOS option "Onboard Serial ATA BOOTROM" to "enabled." This allowed me to construct my volume. However, with this setup windows setup could not detect any hard drives even when all of the drivers were present. Only after "Configure SATA As" set to "AHCI" did windows finally recognize my hard drive in setup.

Additionally, in the raid driver installation section asus tech writers confused which driver should be used "Intel (R) 82801FR SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH7R)" is not a driver and should have read "Intel (R) 82801GR/CH SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH7R)"

Thanks again for all your time and help in leading me to a solution!! Hope this forum helps anyone else who has my hardware.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Ya, that's terrible documentation by Asus. They never even mentioned this jumper in the manual.

Anyway, I'm glad you got it working.