GA-73PVM-S2 Funny RAID Problem

[Dooza]

Hi All,
I am hoping someone can help with this odd problem.

I have a Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2 with 3 HDs, all SATA.

I have Windows 7 Home installed happily on a 300Gb Seagate drive, its been working fine for ages.

I recently decided to add 2 x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3's. I wanted this in a RAID, so went into the BIOS, and allowed the 2  drives to be in RAID. I then went into the RAID Bios and created the mirrored array. I boot into Windows and format the new disc that appears. I had already installed the NVidia RAID software and drivers. The software shows the single array with both discs being healthy.

I copied all my data over, but during this I kept getting warnings that the array was critical, but each time I would check the NVidia storage software and it showed it as healthy.

After a reboot the RAID Bios now shows 2 arrays both being degraded. When I enter RAID Bios it shows 2 arrays, both with just a single drive. When I go into Windows the Nvidia software shows the same.

I have tried this twice now and got the same results. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? Or is this a hardware fault?

Cheers,

Steve

[kkeyte]

Sorry to ask a question rather than to solve your problem, but...

I have the GA73PVM-S2H and am trying to install Windows-7. However, it's not recognising the two disks at all (which I have set to RAID-0 in the BIOS). I'm unsure how to get Windows-7 drivers for it and from where. I tried the Vista-32bit from the Gigabyte website, but they don't seem to get me anywhere and the drives are still not found.

Thanks.

Karl

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to both of you.

The board doesn't seem to support much in the way of Windows 7 drivers etc. I have just checked the site and there is very little there. I would suggest that you make sure that you have the latest BIOS anyway just to help.

If you can get into Windows try using Disk Management to see if you can import the drives and manipulate them from there.

[Dooza]

I used the Vista drivers, all went well and since I recreated the RAID and formatted it using a different option its been stable.

I don't use RAID on my primary windows drive, but when I have in the past I used the vista driver when installing Windows 7. You need the RAID driver on a floppy disc or USB memory stick. When the Windows 7 installer starts loading from the DVD, look out for a message about RAID, you need to press a special key, then load the RAID drivers, this will let the installer see your RAID array. Its all in the manual, and is standard for all RAID systems.

Dooza