HD RAID 0 Windows 7 x64 Boot Problem

[Celegon]

Hey guys. I need your assistance with a problem I'm having. I'm currently using one 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black as my main drive and have two 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue's ready to combine for a Stripe Raid 0. I'm going to use HDClone to "clone" (ex. copying) my main hard drive onto the Raid 0 array (as my Tech friends have done this successfully many times using HDClone (also, that this is the only program that will copy from a non-raided SATA drive to a SATA Raid 0 correctly/perfectly)). Anyways, the problem goes like this: First, I boot into the BIOS and change the Storage Configuration from IDE to RAID and Save and Exit. Computer restarts. Second, I boot into the NVIDIA MediaShield to set up my RAID 0, set it up and make sure it's not bootable (since I need to boot into my main HD that runs Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit version), and then quit out of the Raid Utility and the computer restarts. Once it restarts, it goes through POST, displays the Array and the other HD (the Caviar Black), and then goes to the Windows Logo where it crashes/restarts again and again at the same spot (like an endless loop). My Tech friends said it was because I was missing some Raid drivers, but I can't seem to find them due to my OS version. If I go under ASUS's website to download drivers for my motherboard (this being an ASUS M4N98TD EVO motherboard), they don't have any Raid drivers for Windows 7 x64 (but they do have one Raid driver under Vista x64, but only to create a Raid Driver disk). I checked my support DVD that came with the motherboard to see if it had anything for Raid drivers, but it didn't (only the Create a Raid Driver Disk option). I checked NVIDIA for an update to the MediaShield Utility and found the latest version supported, and installed it, but it didn't fix the problem. Any suggestions on what to do?

 

[pat]

changing to RAID enable AHCI to your sata port and since you switched from IDE to RAID, AHCI drivers where not mounted when you first installed W7. To correct this, either you reinstall W7 with proper ahci drivers, or find a way to install AHCI driver to an existing W7 installation. can be done, but will need a good knowledge of the registry.

The easiest way to to would be to simply unplug the stand alone drive, reinstall W7 on the RAID (you'll benefit from increased read speed) and use the standalone drive as a backup/storage drive. That a bit like my setup as I use puresync to maintain a full synchronised backup between folder on the array and some stand alone drive.

 

[Celegon]

changing to RAID enable AHCI to your sata port and since you switched from IDE to RAID, AHCI drivers where not mounted when you first installed W7. To correct this, either you reinstall W7 with proper ahci drivers, or find a way to install AHCI driver to an existing W7 installation. can be done, but will need a good knowledge of the registry.

The easiest way to to would be to simply unplug the stand alone drive, reinstall W7 on the RAID (you'll benefit from increased read speed) and use the standalone drive as a backup/storage drive. That a bit like my setup as I use puresync to maintain a full synchronised backup between folder on the array and some stand alone drive.

I found a guide with instructions on how to install the AHCI drivers to my existing Windows 7 installation, and it worked. The guide can be found at: http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-7-rc-after-installation/#comments. However, my original problem still remains, even though I have AHCI running successfully. Any more suggestions?