Setting up SSD and Raid 0 hdd

[leendert86]

Hi all,

I have just purchased some new drives, a vertex 3 120 ssd and 2x 2 TB samsung hdds.
I have managed to install windows on the ssd drive and boot windows from it, I have setup the 2 hdds as raid0 and put all my backups on it on my previous setup(without the ssd)

I have set my sata controller to idd, but when i boot my 2 hdds dont show up as one under the disk manager.
When i set the controller to raid or ahci i cannot boot windows.
Can anyone tell me how i can get my drives to work?

Hope somebody can help me

 

[Dereck47]

What motherboard do you have and what ports are your ssd and hdds connected to?

 

[leendert86]

i have a asus M4A89GTD pro.
I have now just put my SSD drive on sata 5 (set on ide) and my 2 hds on sata 2 and 3 (set to raid)
when i now boot, in disk manager my 2 hdds dont show up at all :/

 

[Dereck47]

Look at page 3-13 of your motherboard manual.

Your OnChip SATA Channel should be set to Enabled, your OnChip SATA Type should be set to RAID, and your SATA Port5 - Port6 should be set to AHCI.

 

[leendert86]

onchip sata channel is set to enabled, i cannot put ports 5-6 on ahci, only raid or ide :/

 

[RetiredChief]

Set Controller for Sata ports 0->4 to Raid. Connect Only your SSD to sata port 0 and install Win7 (Need to reinstall and recommend you delete the two partitions before re-install). Once you have windows 7 working then connect the Twoo HDDs to Sata port 1 & 2 and setup your raid Volume

OPPs that was for an INtel MB and you have a AMD MB. SO ignore, would have deleted, but others may benifit if they have a Intel MB.
Your SSD requires that it be set to AHCI, as IDE will yield poor performance. If you put it on the last two ports and only have Ide/Raid the question then becomes, does the AMD raid drive support passing trim when the SSd is not a member of a Raid Volume (Intel does). If the AMD drive does allow trim to pass, then do a reinstall to the SSD with the Bios set to Raid - BUT need an Answer on if the SSD will work on thoes two ports when set to raid - Vertex III are "Plug & Pray SSd's

 

[Dereck47]

Your SSD needs to be in AHCI mode for maximum performance.

The 1st thing you should do is get your SSD working properly. When that is done then you can get your RAID array back up.

Try these steps:

1.) Disconnect all of your drives and connect your SSD to Port SATA1
2.) Set your SATA mode to IDE and boot into Windows
3.) You need to apply a Windows Registry fix in order to change your SATA mode from IDE to AHCI without having to reinstall Windows from scratch. Read Post #2 from this link for instructions on how to modify your registry: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?67697-Guide-to-enable-IDE-AHCI-without-reinstalling
4.) When you have done the Windows Registry fix reboot into BIOS and change the SATA mode to RAID. Save your settings and boot into Windows. Any drives that are not part of a RAID array will automatically default to AHCI mode, which is what you want your SSD to be in.
5.) After the reboot shut down your pc and connect your HDDs to Ports SATA2 & SATA3
6.) Boot into Windows. Since you had previously created the HDD RAID array you should see one drive letter for your SSD and one drive letter for your RAID array.

 

[leendert86]

Thanks for the replies, i will try it in the morning!

 

[Wamphryi]

Don't put all your data files on a RAID 0 that is striped RAID meant for performance not redundancy against disk failure. People only put stuff on a RAID 0 that they are are willing to risk losing. As there are two drives and the loss of one will cost all the data on the array then you are effectively doubling your chances to lose Data. RAID 1 is the option to protect against data loss due to a single HDD failure.

Your SSD (as has been stated) should have been set up on the ACHI standard not IDE. IDE bottlenecks at 133 MHZ thus limiting the SSD's performance. The RAID array should have been set up at BIOS level before installing the OS. Be very careful. Deleting and reapplying RAID normally results in data loss. Make sure all your Data is safely backed up somewhere before trying to put these drive back in the correct configuration.

 

[pat]

Your SSD (as has been stated) should have been set up on the ACHI standard not IDE. IDE bottlenecks at 133 MHZ thus limiting the SSD's performance.

No. IDE simply means that the controller will use the compatible controller instruction so that any OS will install without the need for drivers. That was true 10 years ago when controller were using the old PCI bus but not now. Setting the controller to AHCI or RAID dont move the controller to a faster bus, it just "reprogram" the controller with another set of advance instruction to accomadate new HDD or RAID. And By the way, SSD are still IDE drive, just like current HDD. The only difference is that the IDE controller now uses a serial interface to talk to the HDD opposed to using a parrallel bus like it was the norm 10 years ago. That why you now have S(erial)ATA opposed to the old P(arrallel)ATA.

To OP. Set SATA 1-4 (or 0-3, depending of the naming on the motherboard) to RAID. Connect the SSD and install Windows. You will need the RAID drivers when asked for drivers at installation. Now, connect the 2 HDD, setup the RAID in RAID BIOS and you will be good to go. Actually, don't stress about loosing data with RAID 0. As with any kind of storage, important data should always be backed up. even a RAID 1 or 5 isn't safe from controller crash or virus corruption..

 

[leendert86]

Your SSD needs to be in AHCI mode for maximum performance.

The 1st thing you should do is get your SSD working properly. When that is done then you can get your RAID array back up.

Try these steps:

1.) Disconnect all of your drives and connect your SSD to Port SATA1
2.) Set your SATA mode to IDE and boot into Windows
3.) You need to apply a Windows Registry fix in order to change your SATA mode from IDE to AHCI without having to reinstall Windows from scratch. Read Post #2 from this link for instructions on how to modify your registry: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?67697-Guide-to-enable-IDE-AHCI-without-reinstalling
4.) When you have done the Windows Registry fix reboot into BIOS and change the SATA mode to RAID. Save your settings and boot into Windows. Any drives that are not part of a RAID array will automatically default to AHCI mode, which is what you want your SSD to be in.
5.) After the reboot shut down your pc and connect your HDDs to Ports SATA2 & SATA3
6.) Boot into Windows. Since you had previously created the HDD RAID array you should see one drive letter for your SSD and one drive letter for your RAID array.

I have put my controller to AHCI and reinstalled windows, after the install i have put my controller to raid. My SSD and my RAID volume both are shown during the boot but after the windows logo i get a quick blue screen and pc reboots :/

 

[Wamphryi]

Thats because when you installed Windows you had it set to IDE mode in BIOS and this is the driver it tries to load. Now it needs the AHCI.

 

[leendert86]

But i had reinstalled windows while the controller was set to AHCI so windows should have the AHCI drivers right?

What i have done now is reinstalled windows again while in IDE mode, installed raid drivers from Asus, and used the regedit method to swap to raid, rebooted with controller set to raid but again i get a bluescreen.

I really dunno what else I can do, I'm about to give up on the RAID

 

[RetiredChief]

You did right, it's just that you can not switch to raid in bios after setting up using ahci as far as I know. I'M not a AMD person. But you may have to use the AMD raid (AMD equvalant AHCI) driver during install, Requires custom install and selecting Have driver and selecting the "F6" driver download you put on a Thumb drive.

Two comments.
(1) You should probably be wipping the drive using secure erease fro OCZ tool box.
(2) OCZ SF 22xx controller drives can be very picking on how they are installed and in what configuration (Reason I refer to them as Plug-&-PRAY PSS - I have two agility III's ) - Just hop over to OCZ forum, might also find a fix, if there is one.