SATA drives don't show up anymore

[thursday1036pm]

I just finished puting together my new machine and was able to boot into the BIOS. Things looked good, all the drives showed up, etc. Then I set up a RAID-1 (mirror) array, and still, everything looks good. Then I start the vista install, being sure to use the RAID drivers provided on the DVD that came with my Mobo. It was chugging along, and at some point reset and reentered the install from the beginning (asking me for language, etc). I tried again and it fails (saying something about could not find a drive). The SATA drives (DVD, 2x HDDs) don't show up in the BIOS anymore either (however I can still boot from the DVD, which is a SATA drive). What the heck? Any ideas?

Mobo: P6T Deluxe V2
HDDs: 2x 1TB WD Caviar Black
DVD: 22x LG DVD w/ Lightscribe
OS: Vista Home Premium OEM

 

[thursday1036pm]

Oh, also interesting, the HDDs show up in the RAID creation tool ("Intel matrix Storage Manager"). So apparently they're not both dead, but for whatever reason the BIOS and Windows installer can't seem to see them.

 

[thursday1036pm]

Another quick note - I moved the SATA connections around and its still failing. The Intel matrix Storage Manager detected that I moved the things around though, so again I don't think its the HDDs, and possibly just the BIOS/Windows. Next step I guess would be to try a BIOS upgrade, but the ASUS download website is down. I don't even know if I have the latest version already or not (doubtful, I didn't upgrade earlier).

Version: 0102
Build Date: 12/18/08

Anyone else have this mobo and know the latest version? Know of any mirrors for download? Think if the BIOS can't see the drives because of wrong version, Windows install would fail?

 

[Crashman]

Oh, also interesting, the HDDs show up in the RAID creation tool ("Intel matrix Storage Manager"). So apparently they're not both dead, but for whatever reason the BIOS and Windows installer can't seem to see them.

Yeh, they won't show up in BIOS after they've been set to RAID, they instead show up in Intel Matrix Storage Manager. Make sure Intel Matrix Storage Manager shows them correctly configured, and you shouldn't need a driver for Vista to see the array (though you can update it during installation if you want to).

 

[jitpublisher]

^Yep, good answer there. Could be that the drivers you are forcing Vista to use are the wrong drivers.
Unlike XP, Vista has native SATA and RAID driver support. Let Vista install it's own drivers.