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Weird behaviour: Intel Rapid Storage Technology Raid0 Array

Tags:
  • Intel
  • Rapid Storage
  • NAS / RAID
  • Windows 8
  • RST
  • SSD
  • Storage
Last response: in Storage
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April 1, 2013 12:22:10 PM

Hi All at tomshardware,

So I've just seen some pretty strange behavior with my system! First i'll explain how it was set up.

Configuration:
System is built on a AsRock extreme 6 mobo with Intel i7-3770K cpu, AMD HD7950 gpu, a crucial M4 OS disk and two 500gig HDDs. The HDDs are configured in raid 0. I set it up by installing windows 8 on the SSD. I was planning to install a raid array so made sure to select raid and not AHCI mode. I installed Intel Rapid storage technology after the OS was installed and once that was done i rebooted and it then gave the option to enter raid configuration by pressing ctrl+I. I did that, left the M4 as non-raid then created a raid array and added the two 500gb drives as members. i booted back into Win8 and was able to format the drive and give it a name (Raid_Storage) and even done HDTune benchmarks. So everything was running fine.

The weird behavior:
It had been a while since setting it up but today i went to start moving stuff to the storage drives. i noticed the drive wasn't named as before and was only seen as a 500gig drive and Windows said it needed to be formatted. I was surprised so ran Intel RST again but on running it gave an error message and wouldn't start. I rebooted into BIOS and saw that it was set in AHCI mode! even though i specifically set it to Raid mode! I tried setting it back to raid but then it wouldn't boot so i set it back to ahci mode. i uninstalled and reinstalled Intel RST and after a reboot, the raid array was back to the way it was before and labelled as i had labelled it, raid_storage.

A few things to note, something had obviously either changed the configuration somehow or managed to mess up the Intel RST installation. i used to get the Raid initialization screen showing the drives and allowing ctrl+I to enter configuration. when i noticed the issues and was rebooting to check things out i realized i wasn't getting that at start up anymore. I noticed at times too that when booting it said something about repairing drives like you would get on a memory stick sometimes if its pulled out. the drive letter was the one for the raid array.

So it's really odd how it can go from a raid configuration and running perfectly fine....to the raid array not being recognized and the controller set to AHCI mode! obviously if it was set to AHCI mode the raid array wouldn't have been set up properly in the first place! And also, after reinstalling Intel RST, it works as before but is still set to AHCI mode!

At one point i used the internet flash option to update the UEFI Bios. that couldn't have messed it up could it? Has anyone else had or seen this happen before?

Thanks for reading!
Regards,

More about : weird behaviour intel rapid storage technology raid0 array

May 8, 2013 9:08:15 AM

DeanM said:
Hi All at tomshardware,

At one point i used the internet flash option to update the UEFI Bios. that couldn't have messed it up could it? Has anyone else had or seen this happen before?

Thanks for reading!
Regards,


Absolutely it would. Any time you update the BIOS on that motherboard you have to enter the BIOS and reset all the values. ESPECIALLY the SATA raid mode which defaults to AHCI. You should have received a message at the end of the BIOS update that you had to enter the BIOS setup and enter your preferred settings.

May 8, 2013 9:11:03 AM

Sorry - double post
May 8, 2013 1:19:15 PM

NMCowboy said:
DeanM said:
Hi All at tomshardware,

At one point i used the internet flash option to update the UEFI Bios. that couldn't have messed it up could it? Has anyone else had or seen this happen before?

Thanks for reading!
Regards,


Absolutely it would. Any time you update the BIOS on that motherboard you have to enter the BIOS and reset all the values. ESPECIALLY the SATA raid mode which defaults to AHCI. You should have received a message at the end of the BIOS update that you had to enter the BIOS setup and enter your preferred settings.


Hey NMCowboy,

I don't remember seeing a message but i might have been preoccupied or something. Thanks a mill for the response though! thats good to hear. Atleast i know that it was that and not something else. I assumed that would have been the cause but good to know for sure! I did go back into the BIOS though and when i set it back to raid mode as it had been set to before...windows wouldn't start! But now that i think about it, after reading your response, i'm wondering did i set it to raid mode, flash the bios and then install windows which would have then been on AHCI mode. I was fairly sure that it was some time after installing windows that i did the bios update but maybe not.

Thanks again for answer,
Regards,

EDIT: actually, it would have had to been installed on raid mode for the raid array to have been set up properly the first time around.
!