AX4SPE Max SATA Issues

Hey all,

I have an old AOpen AX4SPE Max motherboard that I have been using as a file server. The board has four SATA ports, with two of them purportedly being able to perform RAID functions though they've always been flaky.

In the old configuration I had one 500gb SATA and two 300gb SATA drives. In the new configuration I would like to replace the 300gb drives with 750gb ones. Herein lies the problem.

Drives placed in the RAID ports cannot be booted to as far as I can tell, which means I need to keep the 500gb drive with the OS on it in one of the first two ports. However, the RAID ports also appear to not support my 750gb drives. Normally when booting up the SATA RAID screen shows what drive is in each channel followed by their capacity. However, if I have one of my new 750s in either port when it shows the screen it lists the model of the drive like normal but the cursor just blinks forever where the size would be written.

So, basically I either need to find a way to make those RAID ports just normal SATA ports or fix the issue itself. Any thoughts?