Win7 Pro 64 bit does not recognize my Gsata RAID 1 mirror drives
Greetings folks.
Unit runs. Updated bios to the latest on Gigabyte web site (f9 revision)
Set up with both hard disks on the Gsata connections in RAID 1 mirror. Loading windows 7 Pro 64 bit, can’t get hard disks to show. Win asks for a driver for the HDD. (Last one I built a year ago on similar Gigabyte motherboard showed as a single drive in Windows representing the mirror.) Successfully ran WD data lifeguard on both disks separately. Do I need to install a driver for my hard disks?
I've done some research on Microsoft web site and this seems to be a common problem but there are no generic solutions
Here is my configuration:
Processor: Intel LGA 1156 i5-760
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3
RAM: Gskill F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK. Have 4 sticks and they are being all recognized.
Two HDD’s in RAID 1: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Two CD ROM drives: One Sony AD-7240 (last years model) and one Sony AD-7260 (this years model). Both drives are working fine.
Video board: Gigabyte GT-240 with 512 k of RAM (GV-N240D5-512I)
Power Supply: Antec eartwatts 650 W.
Case: Antec Solo
Any ideas of how to proceed would be appreciated. I really want to keep the mirror. Now I'm wondering if I should try eSata instead. I have ACHI/Raid enabled in both Gsata and eSata. I tried posting images of my BIOS settings, but can't seem to get them to cut and paste in properly.
Sweet Success, but still a little confused as to why
Ok, Z,
I'm writing this post on my new machine, thanks to your advice. I left my two HDD's on Gsata inputs and reset them to JBOD's. Then loaded windows far enough to see if there were any drives visible and yes, they were both shown. So I backed out of the Win install, and reset them as Gsata RAID 1 and they were invisible again. I experimented with adjusting the "on board SATA/IDE control mode", i.e. Gsata, to AHCI mode, and I attempted to set up RAID and could not get BIOS to put me in the Gsata RAID setup screen using control + G. So adjusting to the RAID mode does indeed enable the RAID setup screen.
So, I removed the two sata cables from Gsata inputs and put them in two empty Esata inputs, left the E sata BIOS settings with eXtreme hard drive (XHD) set on enabled, left the PCH sata control mode right below it set on RAID (XHD), I changed onboard sata/IDE control mode (Gsata) to AHCI mode from the previous RAID mode, onboard sata IDE device to enabled mode (probably could have left this disabled, as I now have nothing plugged into Gsata jacks). Booted through BIOS and set up RAID 1 in Esata. No sweat doing that. Booted into Win 7 pro 64 bit setup and one drive appeared just as it did for me last year when I setup another RAID 1. It looks to the OS like a single drive. So I loaded Windows, drivers, got online, updated windows, downloaded AVG antvirus free and I'm virtually done less loading other utilities, and possibly MS Office if I can find a cheap enough copy. Also need Zone alarm firewall.
Thinking more about what happened, I'm still confused as to why Gsata did not work for me. This mobo is a Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 which, according to my mobo manual on page 25, "conform to SATA 3GB/s standard and are compatible with SATA 1.5 GB/s standard" for the Gsata2_6/7 connectors. So my mobo has no 6 GB/s capability. I can't help it but think that there may have still been some set of BIOS adjustments to get the Gsata to work. I had the Onboard lan boot ROM disabled and the onboard USB 3.0 controller enabled. Would either of those settings have affected Gsata?
Oh well, it's running and life is good.
Thanks Z!!!
Hope this helps fix your raid problem
I just built a new system using a gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3. I have been building systems for about 20 or so years now,ya back when you installed windows 3.0 with like 13 Floppy disks. Anyway this is the most impressive board i have used and i have build like 40 systems using anything from a cheap $40.00 mobo to a sweet ASUS $500.00 board, but this is by far the sweetest MOBO i have used so far. To the point when i did my install i set up my new system to use the new Intel smart response Technology and that uses a SSD drive in raid. Well anyway i installed windows 7 64 bit, installed the MOBO chip set drivers and so on and so forth. After all was said and done i then installed the smart response software that intern is supposed to set my system up in raid for me. The system rebooted and it was downhill from their, That is where your problem sounds just like the one i had. So after getting on line with my laptop because my system would not boot it would just set their looking at me i found some instructions on a way to fix the problem. What i did is put my operating system CD in and then did a reboot and got into the BIOS i found the settings to change my system to the raid settings i wanted and set it up as CD for first boot device. Exited and and saved. Then at the boot i hit any key as instructed to install the operating system.Told it to install operating system on drive1, It installed Windows 7 did the reboot and at that time i got back into the bios and changed boot order to HD 1 and then CD exited let it boot and it started rite into Windows 7. It did the finishing touches on the install and it did one last reboot back into Windows 7. "Ran perfect" Then i was also able to set up the smart response software and run my system in raid with drive c as operating system drive and the SSD drive as the cache drive. Rebooted one last time and it runs so fast, Like flames should be shooting out the back of my system it runs so fast. My last boot into Windows 7 from the second i hit the power button to where i could use the system fully booted up took 29 seconds. I have to say i am so happy with this motherboard and it cost me with shipping from newegg like $155.00 well Worth the investment. The kicker is i was using an ASUS Rampage II Extreme MOBO and this just cooks rite by that one like it was standing still. Hope this helped you in some way to figure your problem out or anybody reading it that had the same problems.Good luck.