Windows refuses to boot with Raid0 array when-

[Yahoosucks]

This involves a Gigabyte P55 USB 3.0 Rev 2.0 motherboard. I am a complete newbie to RAID.


I have two 1 tb 7200rpm Seagate drives. I recently bought a 2 TB Toshiba drive and backed up all of my files on it. I also installed Windows on it so it would be a bootable drive. My intention was to set the two Seagates up in Raid0 as a 2TB array which I've never done before. That was easy and Windows recognized the drive once I had the proper drivers. Ive booted to a fully functional copy of Windows on the array.

I am under the assumption that the two 'GSATA 'ports on the mobo are the only ones supported by the onboard raid controller so thats where the two Seagates are hooked up. However the problem is when I try to plug the Toshiba in to any of the remaining SATA ports. Windows fails to boot every time- no matter if I have the Toshiba drive set as a lower priority and the raid array as the first boot drive. Does changing the MOBO to RAID mode affect even the non GSATA ports? If so, why even have them?

I have to unplug both the RAID drives from the GSATA ports, reset the MOBO back to IDE mode and then run Windows repair on the Toshiba drive to even get it to boot without crashing after messing with the array. I want access to the Toshiba while on the Raid array so I can migrate all of my files to the Raid array. That way I have the performance of Raid0 but still have data on two drives for redundancy. There might even be a way to accomplish that with 3 drives but like I said, I'm new to trying to set up RAID.

TL:DR- Having 3rd non raid hd plugged up to SATA port causes Raid0 array with a working bootable copy of windows to fail to boot. Every. Single. Time.

Thanks for any help.

[dmdilks]

Both controllers support Raid. There are only two Gsata ports.

Chipset: Intel - (Blue)
- 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_0~SATA2_5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
- Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 


GIGABYTE SATA2 chip: Gsata - (White)
- 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
- 2 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATA2_6, GSATA2_7) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
- Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD

I would connect everything  to the blue ports. Leave the 2TB connected setup the raid with the the 2 - 1TB drives on that controller.

Plus make sure you set the Gsata controller back to IDE. You will have to setup the raid & re-install windows on that controller

Make sure you have that preinstall driver for that raid controller too. It is not the same as the Gsata controller.

[Yahoosucks]

Well I easily got the array to work and the 2 TB by simply using the ports you suggested so thank you. It makes me wonder what the hell the function of the GSATA ports- other to be a royal pain are.

But now I have another issue. All of my data is on the 2TB Toshiba- game installs, mods, pictures, hundreds of gigabytes of data and many hours worth of program downloads. I want to clone the 2 TB Toshiba to the 2 TB Raid array. However, no matter what I set the Toshiba priority to in the BIOS, the array will boot first. Changing the mobo back to IDE mode will allow the Toshiba to boot first but then of course WIndows sees the drives in the array individually.

So how in the world can I get the Toshiba to be the first boot drive but still have an active raid array? It ignores my boot priority set in BIOS every time.

[dmdilks]

First of all I'm sorry that I have to tell you this. But you can't clone a standard drive on to the array drives.

No cloning program will let you do that. Because of the way the drives are setup. Does the 2tb and the array have windows installed?

What I would do is take one of the games and try and run it from that drive. If it comes up with a directx error

All you have to do is reload the directx from the game. Some of the times it is in the games dir or look for it on the game disk.

If that works then I would copy and paste everything from the 2TB to the array. Most everything that you are looking for is in your documents folder.

The games are a different story they are all in C:\Programs (x86) folder. How I run my games are all on another and not on the OS drive.

That way you never have to worry about them if something goes wrong with the OS.

[Yahoosucks]

Thanks for the info. Is it a limitation of my mobo or would anyone be in the same boat? A few people at overclock seemed convinced you could do this, thats why I posted under the premise that you could. Here is the thread-

http://www.overclock.net/t/1416555/possible-to-clone-to-a-raid0-array



In any case, no big deal. I needed more room anyway. I guess I will just have to wait until I can afford a SSD when I want speed.

[dmdilks]

I'll have give it a try because I many computers. I'll set one up in array.