AMD RAIDXpert says RAID not initialized

[dhannant]

Hello,

tired of losing my files during HD crashes so I setup a RAID 1 with 2 brand new 500gig HDs... then installed windows on the RAID... Everything went fine. BIOS, BIOS Setup and Windows all see the RAID.

Since it's my first RAID I was researching online and found AMD RAIDXpert was something I can use to manage the RAID from inside Win7 rather than restarting and entering RAID Setup... so I got that. But it says that it's not initialized. It says it's functioning and there are no problems but since it's not initialized I can't use the features such as "migration, rebuild (shaded... maybe because it's working properly), synchronization" etc...

so now my question is... is the RAID working? do both HDs look the same even though it's not initialized. If not then what should I do? Please don't tell me I have to reformat and start over lol... besides that... there was no option to initialize so how can I do that from this program if I have to setup and install windows first? Doesn't initialization erase everything? I'm kinda confused.

 

[Dereck47]

I believe you have to create the RAID array with AMD RAIDXpert rather than through your motherboard's BIOS if you wish to initialize it and use the other features of the software.

Here's a link to the User Manual: http://www2.ati.com/relnotes/AMD_RAIDXpert_User_v2.1.pdf

 

[dhannant]

ok but even if that were true... initialization basically formats the HD and starts from scratch... so then I'd have to reinstall windows again along with the RAIDXpert? wow that seems extremely inefficient... since windows is install on the raid array I don't see how I could even manage this... Is there another program that may be better to use than RAIDXpert that can do the same functions... such as manual synching?

 

[Dereck47]

Sorry, I don't know.

 

[dhannant]

meh it's ok... I don't know either so hopefully someone else that reads this will have an idea... lol

 

[Reuel13]

I had the same problem. I tried to set up RAID5 in BIOS, but it would only recognize 810 MB of my 3 TB drives (3 of them), so I used RAIDXpert to do it. When I go to check redundancy, I get the "not initialized" error. Has anybody found a solution yet?

 

[jedward]

My solution involving the AMD RaidXpert interface - not initialized issue was done by following these steps.
Logging into web interface for RAID, choosing Logical Drive View on the Left navigation panel.
In the middle using the create option and allowing the defaults to be chosen. Next I selected my disks to be used for
my RAID 5 array and assigned a name to my Logical Drive. NEXT is the most important screen because the standard
FAST INITIALIZATION did NOT start the process. I had to DELETE and RECREATE using the FULL INITIALIZATION.

YOU WILL LOOSE ALL DATA SO... I suggest checking the INIT status before installing any OS or Data for fear that the RAID
is not functioning as it should. You must have the ability to perform the migration, rebuild features greyed out if you do not.
Side note, one thing to check after creating but before installing OS or Data is to try a Redundancy Check and SHOW EVENT.
This will tell you right away if you have a problem with creating/initializing your RAID setup.