SSD showing up as a raid array

[saear]

I just received a OCZ Agility 2 120gb and have installed it in my PC as just a storage drive with windows 7 ultimate on a standard HHD raid-0. I'm going to put the OS on the SSD but I'm unable to atm. The SSD drive doesn't show up under my bios or windows. My raid controller however sees it and will create a drive with it as "Nvidia Span 111,79g".

My question it windows 7 installation doesn't see the new drive unless I make it into a raid array. I cannot find any other way to make this into a standard drive to install windows on. Is it normal to have a single SSD recognized as a raid array?What am I missing?

Windows 7 umltimate 86x
Asus m2n32 sli deluxe
2x WD in raid-0 (primary OS)
ocz agility 2 (not doing anything)

 

[mikey5802]

Do you have your IDE config set to RAID in the BIOS? Your post shows you're using 2WD drives in a RADI 0 with the OS installed. Many people don't recommend having the OS installed on a RAID array. The BIOS won't see the individual drives, it will only recognize the RAID array. That's may be why you're seeing the SSD as a RAID array.

You could set your IDE config to AHCI, which should allow your system to see the SSD, then reconfigure your RAID array in Win 7 using the Intel Matrix software. Also, the Win 7 TRIM funtcions supposedly won't work on your SSD unless it's configured for AHCI. If you go that route, you would also need to set Plug and Play OS to YES in the BIOS, to allow Windows to control/administer the RAID array (for devices not required for booting).

On my system, I have IDE config set to AHCI with a 128 GB SSD (Patriot) as my boot/OS/main applications drive and 2 WD 300GB Velociraptor drives set in a RAID 0 (configured as a striped array) in the Intel Matrix software.

Works just fine.

 

[saear]

excellent advice I did as you said and got my drive to be recognized. However I'm not sure how to set my drive controller to AHCI in the bios. I've look multiple times but cant find anything. Any advice?

asus m2n32 sli deluxe

 

[foscooter]

You can set up a SSD in RAID, without being part of an array!

Once you set up SATA as RAID, you'll loose the option to set up ACHI. DON"T WORRY. If a drive is not part of an array, it will default to ACHI, provided it's an Intel based mobo supportting ACHI.

 

[mikey5802]

excellent advice I did as you said and got my drive to be recognized. However I'm not sure how to set my drive controller to AHCI in the bios. I've look multiple times but cant find anything. Any advice?

asus m2n32 sli deluxe

It should be part of the IDE config optino in the main BIOS screen. Same setting you would select to set it for RAID. What options do you have available in that setting?

 

[foscooter]

It should be part of the IDE config optino in the main BIOS screen.

Do you mean SATA config vs. IDE config?

 

[mikey5802]

It should be part of the IDE config optino in the main BIOS screen.

Do you mean SATA config vs. IDE config?

Should be the same thing. This is an older bord so it probably doesn't have an AHCI option in the BIOS, unless ASUS has an updated BIOS that does have it. Have you tried setting it to SATA, instead of RAID?

 

[mikey5802]

Looks like that board doesn't support AHCI in the BIOS. You may have to set it to SATA or IDE and see if Win 7 will let it use the AHCI driver built-in to windows. The ASUS website doesn't have AHCI drivers for that board that can be d/l'ed.

What does your user guide say about SATA/IDE config and what options can be selected?

 

[foscooter]

ACHI is for Intel based mobo, so I doubt a BIOS update would help.

ACHI only boost about 10% over non-ACHI. Don't worry about it too much.

@OP, are you there? Solved?