GA-Z87X-UD4H - RAID 0 Assistance

[monsterenergy22]

Hello,

I am about to put together a new build and need some assistance setting up RAID. Going to be using Win8.

I have a total of 4 drives and 1 optical drive going into my build.

1x SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series 256GB - OS/important application drive
2x WD Black 640GB - Data Drive
1x WD Black 1TB - Backup Drive

I was planning on plugging the following drives into each port

SATA0 - Main SSD
SATA1 - 1TB Backup drive
SATA2 - 640gb drive (first raid drive)
SATA3 - 640gb drive (second raid drive)
SATA4 - Optical drive

I was wondering if where I was going to plug in everything looked good?

I was also not sure on how exactly to set up raid with my single drives? I know I have to go into the BIOS and change it to RAID for the correct SATA ports, but what drivers do I need to install as well? Not sure which ones I need to download
GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1150 - GA-Z87X-UD4H (rev. 1.0)

Thanks ahead of time for your help and let me know if you need any more information!

[ysw]

after setting raid in bios, you will see post screen shows to press "ctrl+i " to go into intel raid rom.
press ctrl+i to intel raid rom, and select your 640gb hdds to set as Raid0 or 1.
boot from dvd-rom to install Win8.
if win8 cannot recognize raid hdd, you may need to provide intel preinstall driver (need to store in your usb pen drive).
then select your samsug ssd to install win8.

[monsterenergy22]

after setting raid in bios, you will see post screen shows to press "ctrl+i " to go into intel raid rom.
press ctrl+i to intel raid rom, and select your 640gb hdds to set as Raid0 or 1.
boot from dvd-rom to install Win8.
if win8 cannot recognize raid hdd, you may need to provide intel preinstall driver (need to store in your usb pen drive).
then select your samsug ssd to install win8.

Thanks for the reply, seems simple enough.
Does Windows usually recognize the raid setup?

[monsterenergy22]

Finally got the build done, but ran into some major problems when setting up RAID.

Installed Windows 8 just fine with only the SSD plugged in and was able to boot into Windows with no problem.

First I tried setting up RAID usiing UEFI RAID like the manual suggests, but whenever I set OS Type to Windows 8 and CSM Support to Never, I cant get any picture on my monitor. Tried several times and eventually had to reset the BIOS.

Then I tried using legacy RAID ROM, but whenever I set up my array and reboot, I get an error that Windows cant boot. I try selecting my SSD from the boot menu, but still says cant boot.

Any ideas?

[paaron]

Hi monsterenergy22,

are you using an external video card, or are you using the onboard video device? Also, what version of windows did you install? Was it a UEFI installation? Or was it a legacy installation.  This website contains information on how to check: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/29504-bios-mode-see-if-windows-boot-uefi-legacy-mode.html

When the system is in UEFI mode, with CSM set to never, then legacy functions are not available. Legacy functions include booting to non-UEFI operating systems (though the int 19h methods), running legacy option roms (off board video cards certified for Win8 will have both a legacy option rom and a UEFI option rom, but older cards will only have a legacy option rom and require CSM support) or because you might be modifying the functionality that was in the system when the operating system was originally installed.

When you boot into windows, and install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver, I believe you have the ability to attempt to build raids.

[monsterenergy22]

Im using an external video card and installed Win8 64bit pro. It was a UEFI installation.

Update 1:
Tried the process over this morning and did the following but still no luck. Also tried doing the UEFI RAID in step 5, but get no video signal again using external graphics card.

1) Disabled all ports but SSD on mobo.
2) Installed Windows 8 (4 partitions) on the ssd.
3) Booted into windows and verified that BIOS mode is set to UEFI.
4) Went into bios and only enabled ports with the drives for RAID (1 + 3)
5) Configured RAID volume using Ctrl-I (Shows as bootable, cant get that to change)
6) Enable all mobo ports.
7) Windows wont boot and BSOD.
Then tried disabling all ports but the SSD, and I get Reboot and select proper boot device.

Update 2:
Noticed my current bios version is F5 and the latest is F8. Gonna flash to the latest version and see if that fix the problem.

[monsterenergy22]

Mhmm found out some information that seems interesting, just not sure what to do with it.

When my mobo is set to AHCI mode, it shows that Windows Boot Manager is on Port 0 (My SSD) in my boot options. My PC boots just fine.

However, as soon I as change my mobo to RAID, the Windows Boot Manager is its own option to boot to in the boot order. Its not on the SSD any more like it should.

If I change it back to AHCI, it goes back to the SSD and boots just fine.

[monsterenergy22]

Thanks for both of yalls help, I really appreciate it. Finally got it working.

When I was installing Windows, I was doing so on a GPT formatted disk. Finally tried installing it on a MBR formatted disk, and it worked.