Gigabyte RAID problem

[chocolatechicken]

Hi all.


I've got a bit of a problem.

I've found myself a nice edition of Windows Home Server PK3 OEM that I like to use on my Gigabyte mobo. On it are 4 1TB HDDs connected to use in a RAID5 setup. Also a SSD is connected wich is fully used by my Windows 7 install.


Now my problem:
When I boot the HS install DVD it does not find any HDDs, even with the correct drivers loaded. BIOS notices my drives just fine but at the bottom of the drive detection screen it sais "AHCI BIOS not installed".

I also ran the test on AHCI but without RAID enabled. Now the line sais "AHCI BIOS installed"??


Does anyone know how to solve thisone?
I know it also possible to create the RAID in Windows Drive Manager. But its not the best option because it cuts in speed, wich on its turn cuts in gaming performance.


My rig:
Mobo: Gigabyte EP45-UD3LR - BIOS version F11b (latest)
CPU: Core 2 Duo e7400 @ 3.2 GHz
RAM: OCZ Reaper 1152 @ forgot clock
GPU: GTX 260 OC
PSU: Be Quit! PRO 850W
SSD: OCZ Agility 60Gigs
HDD: Western Digital 1TB Blue series (x4)

 

[vegettonox]

Hi all.


I've got a bit of a problem.

I've found myself a nice edition of Windows Home Server PK3 OEM that I like to use on my Gigabyte mobo. On it are 4 1TB HDDs connected to use in a RAID5 setup. Also a SSD is connected wich is fully used by my Windows 7 install.


Now my problem:
When I boot the HS install DVD it does not find any HDDs, even with the correct drivers loaded. BIOS notices my drives just fine but at the bottom of the drive detection screen it sais "AHCI BIOS not installed".

I also ran the test on AHCI but without RAID enabled. Now the line sais "AHCI BIOS installed"??


Does anyone know how to solve thisone?
I know it also possible to create the RAID in Windows Drive Manager. But its not the best option because it cuts in speed, wich on its turn cuts in gaming performance.


My rig:
Mobo: Gigabyte EP45-UD3LR - BIOS version F11b (latest)
CPU: Core 2 Duo e7400 @ 3.2 GHz
RAM: OCZ Reaper 1152 @ forgot clock
GPU: GTX 260 OC
PSU: Be Quit! PRO 850W
SSD: OCZ Agility 60Gigs
HDD: Western Digital 1TB Blue series (x4)

I was wondering if you could fill in some information for me, have correctly configured and saved the drives in a raid 5 array using the intel matrix raid utility accessed during post, "Press <Ctrl-I> to enter Configuration Utility" ?. If you haven't yet configured an array this would generally report a bios not installed message at least from my experience with raid utilities. Have you verified that you are in fact using the correct drivers and loading the drivers from a flash disk as home server is based on 2003 which cannot load from flash or disk based medias without slipstreaming ?

Verify you have completed the steps starting on page 80 of this motherboards manual http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Manual/motherboard_manual_ga-ep45-ud3l%28r%29_e.pdf

If you do not have a floppy drive available you can still take care of this provided you have a cd/dvd burner and a blank cd/dvd, download a free copy of nlite to dump the install disk for home server and then slipstream the correct drivers into the disk and then make a fresh disk with this, i have actually been forced to do this on a few laptops as they wont recognize my usb floppy drive or there are other circumstances such as finicky raid hardware (adaptec)

 

[chocolatechicken]

Hi,

I did configure my RAID5 (Made 2 partitions on it).

What I didn't knew is that Home Server is Server 2K3 based. I thought it was possible to load drivers from flash drives because the first few times I tried it and it told me that txtsetup.oem was missing some entries. But that problem I've already fixed.

I shall try nlite right away. I'll post the (hopefully positive) result a bit later.

 

[chocolatechicken]

Hi,

I've tried to slipstream my drivers on to a new disk together with Home server.
That kinda failed because I ended up with an ISO arround 800MB... .

I also launched a linux live CD wich couldn't detect any hard drives as well, as long my BIOS was in RAID. When selecting AHCI I didn't find any problems finding my HDDs. Normaly when a BIOS is configured in RAID, the disk that are not used in RAID are infact on AHCI mode. Even those I cannot detect.

I also tried to use an older version of BIOS firmware, with no luck of course.

I'm going to procure a floppy drive in order to try and load the drivers this way, but I think I'm going to hit the wall again because I think the driver is not the issue.

Fingers crossed.

 

[chocolatechicken]

Okay.


I contacted Gigabyte and they told me that the Intel Matrix Storige Controller on my board is limited to a max of 2TB, I poses way above 4TB.


Thanks for helping me.



Regards