Asus Rampage III SATA SSD read failure

EMGReiser

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Hey all,

I just finished building my first rig. So far so good, except for the fact that the bios doesn't read my hard drives. I have an 80GB Intel X-25M and a 1TB WD Caviar Black. They're hooked into a Asus Rampage Extreme III. Being this my first time, I've been following the directions of my peers, and I don't quite know what to do. I had some initial trouble posting due to the RAM not being seated properly, but now everything (except the drives) reads fine. I've tried switching cables on the SATA ports, but no dice.

Any ideas, folks?
 

suat

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Dec 17, 2009
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Is your mb BIOS up to date ?

Did you check Intel and WD web sites to see if your SSD and HDD require firmware updates to be recognized ?

I suggest you leave only the drive on which you want to install OS (probably SSD) and connect the other drive (probably WD) after OS installed.
 

defcon_asus

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I have the exact same problem. MOBO ASUS Extreme III but with slight changes to drive setup.

I have 2 SSD 80GB Intel X-25 in Raid 0. Windows 7 is installed on these and boot fine.

I have 2 HDD 1 TB WD Caviar black, SATA3, 6g/s hooked up in the dedicated ports on the mobo. My intention was to set these up in Raid 1 for data storage. But, Windows7 doesn't list these drives in neither Raid 1 or non-raid config as 2 X SATA3 (individual) configuration (and yes, BIOS was updated when making changes from raid to non-raid attempts). Windows7 only sees the SSD as Drive C: and the HDD never become available.

Then I tried hooking up the 2 HDD in the SATA2 ports (6 on the board in one cluster). Raid or non-raid, windows7 still won't see them. At the BIOS level, the drivers are loading and both configurations do show. I have not been able to see/use any HDD within Windows7 while my SSD is functioning fine.

Also, when I did make a change in BIOS to configure SATA3 as non-IDE, my SSD's wouldn't boot anymore and had to re-install everything!

I read the suggestion above about firmware updates for SSD/HDD and will give that some research tonight. But I'm really nervous about other configuration attempts as I don't want re-install Windows7 on SSD again!

Has anyone figured out how to get other drives to be recognized (Raid or non-raid) when using SSD Raid 0 on this board??

Any advice, tips would be much appreciated!
 

First, start a new Post.

Next, running (2) RAID's using the MOBO as the 'Controller' is NOT a good idea. Next, the WD do not offer TLER support which is also BAD idea, and lastly WHY get SATA3 HDDs - I can see it if your MOBO is all SATA3, but you WD is less than 1/2 SATA2 speeds.

WD with TLER - http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=2

Further, the SATA3 'Marvell' does NOT run/support RAID - PERIOD??!! :pt1cable:

Rampage III Extreme - http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=jy0uafxYBCrJwksC&templete=2

Intel ICH10R controller
6 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
Intel Matrix Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10

JMicron® JMB363 PATA and SATA controller
1 xExternal SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
1 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s port

Marvell® 9128 PCIe SATA 6Gb/s controller
2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports
 

defcon_asus

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Sorry if I missed those details... first time posting. On that note, wow! What a terrific site and so much expertise out there willing to share best practices... much appreciated!!

The 2 x HDDs (SATA3 6 g/s WD 1TB Caviar) were always hooked up to the Marvell Serial 7-pin SATA 6.0 gb/s connectors (there are 2 on mobo colored red) with the special cable provided. No matter if I config these as Raid or non-raid within BIOS (Marvell CTRL-M during POST), Windows7 never made these drive available although it does see them in System.

The 2 x SSD's Raid 0 have always been connected to the ICH10R Serial 7-pin SATA2 connectors (there are 6 ports in one area of the mobo, colored gray). These work fine and Intel Matrix Storage Manager (during POST) and Windows7 works fine. Windows7 is installed and boots fine.

Having failed all attempts to get the HDD's SATA3 to work in this configuration (and one full re-install later..), I moved the HDD's to the ICH10R SATA2 ports connections. I tried both RAID 1 and non-raid config, Intel recognizes both configuration during POST, but Windows7 refuses to see anything else but the SSD's. Mind you, I am still using the SATA3 cable that came with the mobo and perhaps I should be using standard SATA2? At this point, I don't mind raid or non-raid or even slight drop in performance (this will only be used for storage of video/pictures for editing). I'm dreading another re-install so hoping for near-conclusive advice although re-installation is only costing me time as the system is still in genesis mode. No data loss... just time!

To all you geeks, experts, techies and casual reply-ers.. many thanks for sharing your experience!!
 

Did you Format them? There's no such a thing {in reality} as a SATA2 vs SATA3 cable - all the same, but different colors only. Also, in the BIOS if that's what you 'might' mean the { BIOS: SATA2 list } will not list SATA3 port connected SSD/HDD/HHD.


Okay.


There NO drop in performance with ANY HDD on SATA2 {SATA 3.0 Gb/s is the Interface only}; at best your WD 'SATA3' HDDs are 1/2 {~126 MB/s} the SATA2 speeds are 300 MB/s per device.

Again, IF Windows OS is seeing them then Format the WD's, {VERIFY that they are not corrupted is some OLD 'RAID' pairing - if so Delete the pairing for the WD} and as I stated if you want (2) RAIDs then purchase a Dedicated RAID Card.

"IF" it were me I would do the following. Also, RAID 0/1 is as simple as it gets - No Parity calculations so a cheap RAID will suffice {if you get one with a Large cache then either RAID battery backup or UPS}. The only RAID Controller that I recommend are Adaptec, but there are many others; just verify # Internal Connections & PCIe Type.

Dedicated RAID - SSD
MOBO ICH10R - WD HDD

Useful Port link {but 1 RAID not 2} - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/278015-30-mobo-ideal-sata-ports-settings-ports
 

defcon_asus

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Dedicated RAID - SSD
MOBO ICH10R - WD HDD

Thanks for the reply. I will try that.

1 Raid(0) for SSD's and the WD HDD will be non-raid on mobo ICH10R (all 4 drives therefore connected to the ICH10R Serial 7-pin SATA2 connectors). I will also format the HDD just in case (... maybe that's the part I missed because it should all work in the current configuration as they are all physically connected to the SATA2 ports).

... to be continued tomorrow after more head scratching and some :sleep:
 

defcon_asus

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There NO drop in performance with ANY HDD on SATA2 {SATA 3.0 Gb/s is the Interface only}; at best your WD 'SATA3' HDDs are 1/2 {~126 MB/s} the SATA2 speeds are 300 MB/s per device.

Again, IF Windows OS is seeing them then Format the WD's, {VERIFY that they are not corrupted is some OLD 'RAID' pairing - if so Delete the pairing for the WD} and as I stated if you want (2) RAIDs then purchase a Dedicated RAID Card.

"IF" it were me I would do the following. Also, RAID 0/1 is as simple as it gets - No Parity calculations so a cheap RAID will suffice {if you get one with a Large cache then either RAID battery backup or UPS}. The only RAID Controller that I recommend are Adaptec, but there are many others; just verify # Internal Connections & PCIe Type.

Dedicated RAID - SSD
MOBO ICH10R - WD HDD

Jaquith... can't thank you enough! Loved it that you wrote "If it were me..." because that gives ideas! This was my first build, purchased all the parts, waited patiently for the deliveries (and screamed at delivery personnel for not being on time). Although I've installed/upgraded video cards, sound cards and memory in the past, I never configured RAID or had to install a drive... maybe you know where this is going...

I thought that once the BIOS is configured and Intel Matrix and Marvell controllers all set in BIOS that everything else would be fine. Your comment about "did you format" was puzzling me. Long gone are the DOS command prompts and "format" wasn't an option in BIOS. So, for all you other first timers out there, right-clicking on "my Computer" and selecting "Manage" revealed a whole new world! Sometimes, it's the simplest things.

But all that you said remains true. Marvell does not support raid config (9123) on this mobo so connecting my HDD SATA to 6 gb/s ports was pointless. My SSD and HDD drives are now all connected to the ICH10R SATA 3 gb/s ports and amazingly, both my RAID configs now work (now that a volume has been set for the HDD). RAID 0 for my SSD and RAID 1 for my HDD. Didn't even have to re-install operating system (it was almost anti-climatic).

You set me on the path, Jaquith. Thanks a bunch :hello: