X58 Raid - boot failure

[Avon]

I have an MSI 7522 X58 Platinum mainboard with ATi 4830 video card and 3GB of memory, additionally I have 4 x 500GB (WD Caviar Blue) drives that I want to configure as follows:

Disk 0 - operating system (including Windows Vista Recovery Environment) - this works, but with small (i believe unrelated) script problem for OEMFactoryRestore process.
Disks 1, 2 & 3 to be configured as RAID 5. (these drives are initialised and formated, but I don't think that that is part of the problem).

The operating system was installed with the BIOS Setting 'Integrated Peripherals' - ' On-Chip ATA devices' - 'RAID Mode' set to 'IDE'.

When the setting is changed to 'RAID' the computer fails to boot. I can however configure the drives into the RAID as required, but it maked no difference whether I do that or not - regardless of their configuration the computer fails to boot.  I suspected that this might be because VISTA was installed with the settings at IDE so I attempted to re-install the operating system from the DVD, but it then reported that there was no boot manager.  I then reverted the BIOS to IDE mode and the computer booted correctly, additionally, I tried booting from the DVD and it worked correctly.

It appears that the problem is related to the BIOS once RAID is selected - so I then tried to install the 'Intel IAA RAID for ICH10R' from the MSI X58 Platinum driver page, I downloaded the file 'Intel_ICH10R_RAID_all_MB.zip' then unzipped it and executed the file 'iata_enu' this seemed to be heading down the right path, until it stopped and said 'This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing this software'.  I thought to try this download with RAID selected in the BIOS, but since I can't boot with that selected I am now lost for what to do next.

Any ideas gratefully received.

Regards,

Peter Morris

 

[Jack the Newbie]

Okay, there are two controllers onboard: Intel ICH10R and JMicron.  Both host different SATA ports and both support RAID.

First important question:

Which SATA Ports are your hard drives connected to?

Second important question:

Which one of the two controllers did you set to RAID mode? (Tell me the exact BIOS path to the option you used)

 

[Avon]

Jack,

The drives are connected to SATA Ports 2, 3 and 4.

I used the following selections in BIOs:

'DEL' to enter
'Integrated Peripherals'
'On-Chip ATA Devices'
'RAID Mode' - changed from IDE to RAID, then used CTRL-Shift-i to access RAID setup.

I think this is correct because the alternative: 'Drive Boost Controller' allows RAID 0/ RAID 1/ or JBOD which are the options for SATA Ports 7/8.

Let me know your thoughts.

Regards
Peter Morris

 

[Jack the Newbie]

Okay, great.

Keep RAID Mode = RAID set in BIOS.  Upon restarting the system, access the firmware based Intel Matrix Storage Manager Console and configure the Array to your needs/wants. (Check the Appendix about Intel ICH10R RAID in the mainboard manual [-> Appendix C] for explanations and screenshots)

When the Array is properly configured, try to reinstall Vista and integrate the Intel ICH10R RAID Drivers during Windows Setup Routine:

http://global.msi.eu/index.php?func=driverfile&dno=7555&i=0

See if that works.

 

[Avon]

I will do that, but I believe it is a repeat of what I have already attempted though I dont have a floppy drive so attempted to us USB drive instead (I need to use the USB as this contains the configuration set and autounattend answer file.

Perhaps more importantly, when I attempted this last time it said it couldn't find a 'bootmgr', even though I checked that it was attempting to boot from th DVD.  any thoughts on this aspect?

Regards

 

[Jack the Newbie]

I will do that, but I believe it is a repeat of what I have already attempted though I dont have a floppy drive so attempted to us USB drive instead (I need to use the USB as this contains the configuration set and autounattend answer file.

I was not sure about the precise steps you took as you did not mention every one of them.  That is why I mentioned them.  Also, you did not mentioned anything about integrating drivers and I am not sure if you used the right one for Vista either.

Perhaps more importantly, when I attempted this last time it said it couldn't find a 'bootmgr', even though I checked that it was attempting to boot from th DVD.  any thoughts on this aspect?

That means you never got to the Vista Setup Routine?

 

[Avon]

no problem with being asked questions about what I'm doing - diagnosing problems from afar is difficult and I'm grateful for you help.

You're correct in saying that I don't get to the Vista Setup Routine.  I've just tried again, checked the setting up of the RAID Volume and also that the system was set to boot from the DVD.  After POST I got the following:

CD-ROM Boot Priority ..Boot ready
Press any key to boot from CD or DVD

I pressed 'space' and then received the following appended to the last line above"  '....Missing Operating System'. 

It appears unable to boot from the DVD while RAID is selected.

What next? I'm at a loss (going to wash the car for therapy!).

Regards

Peter Morris

 

[Jack the Newbie]

Is that an IDE/PATA optical drive you have?

 

[Ivan45nm]

you could try putting your boot drive on the sata ports for jmicron controller on your board , and make sure you set it to ide in BIOS

Delete to enter BIOS, Integrated Peripherals/Extra RAID/IDE Controller set this to Enabled
Next step is the setting bellow needs to be set to ide,BIOS/Intergrated peripherals/Raid Mode/IDE

Also you will need to move your sata connection for drive 0 to the jmicron sata ports on your motherboard

 

[Jack the Newbie]

What if the whole array is supposed to be the bootable system hard drive?  He wants a RAID 5 Array to hold Vista.  So, your suggestion basically is a proposal to change the whole plan.

 

[Ivan45nm]

What if the whole array is supposed to be the bootable system hard drive?   He wants a RAID 5 Array to hold Vista.  So, your suggestion basically is a proposal to change the whole plan.

I dont think thats whats hes trying to do from what i can make of it he wants vista on one drive and a Raid 5 array on the other 3 ?

 

[Jack the Newbie]

My mistake. 

 

[Avon]

We're getting - slowly.

I have a SATA DVD drive and having transferred it to the JBMicron SATA 7/8 port I can now boot from the DVD with RAID selected in BIOS for the Integrated peripherals.

All seems to be going well, but then the VISTA install decides it cannot find a suitable volume on which to install itself!

Grateful for any ideas

Regards

Peter Morris

 

[Jack the Newbie]

All seems to be going well, but then the VISTA install decides it cannot find a suitable volume on which to install itself!

Did you remember to integrate the Intel SATA ICH10R RAID Drivers when you get a chance to do so in the Setup Routine (ICH10R floppy driver)?

 

[Avon]

For some reason the process never asked about installing RAID drivers, and I found elsewhere on the net a statement that VISTA doesn't require the F6 driver install method.

However, I seem to have found a solution (more by accident than deliberate thought!).  I inadvertently set the RAID Mode to RAID, but didn't create a RAID volume.  I then managed to boot from the DVD (it is now attached throught SATA7/8.  This successfully installed VISTA on the first drive.  I then created the RAID Volume <Ctrl> <I> using the Intel Matrix Manager.  I initialised and formated this in VISTA and all appears to be well.  Its a complicated process, but finally success.

Thank you both for your assistance - it was very much appreciated.

Have a good Sunday.

Regards

Peter Morris