ga-880ga-ud3h v2 raid issues!!!!!!!!!

[snitzle_iii]

the situation want to use raid 1 for my comptuer
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i have a wd 650black (<6months old, however i think it might be going bad)
i have a seagate 1tera (new harddrive just bought yesterday)

i would like to raid 1 the wd and the seagate and get the wd rma and then transfer data to the wd when i get a new one.  summer school is about to start and all my classes are online

i also have 1 sata (old as hell)
i also have 2 ide (old as hell)

*note* was trying to set up raid from a new install of windows 7
i have never used raid before

i tried to follow the how to raid in the manual however i was never able to get the option to use the control+g funtion to enter the raid set up utility.  i was only able to get the control+f funtion to enter the raid option rom utility.  *althought i think i might have seen the control+g funtion once i could be wrong

my bios settings for the setup follows as
onchip sata enabled
onchip sata type raid
onchip sata port 4/5 type disable
onchip sata raid 5 support disabled

as well as
onboard sata/ide ctrl enable
onboard stata/ide ctrl mode as ide

during install windows 7 was giving me dificulties as for w/e reason the first 5 times it would not detect the drive and finally it would randomly show up as a 640g drive.  at this time i was installing windows x64 so i as instructed put the drivers on a usb pen, during insall it said that the drivers for x64 were not being accepted and that i use x86 (sata and raid drivers).  i figured since the drive was dected that i go ahead and install windows. ...i got all my updates and started installing progs and boom all of a sudden i get a msg that my raid is critical.  i looked around and i forgot what program i ran, but it showed that i did not have a proper shutdown.  now i am trying to get data off the old 3x hard drives and migrate them to the new raid, but MAGICALLY my comptuer looks like i never installed ANY of my programs, but shows that i have installed a bunch of updates.  can someone please explain to me what settings i should have in my bios to have

raid 1
as well as the abilty to ahve other ide/sata drives installed.

[GW]

I have a ga-870A-ud3 v3 not a ga-880ga-ud3h v2,

but I was planning on ending up with a raid mirror ( raid 1 ) as well after testing different raid modes.

without reading the user manual for the ga-880ga-ud3h v2 for differences I would note:

the disabled on the on chip set Raid 4 / 5 ports  raises questions with me - might want to review other options for 4 and 5.

my recollection on my board was the Ctrl-G was for the add on Gigabyte Raid Chip not the AMD chipset Raid,
but my recollection may be faulty, and/or your board may be slightly different.

I do not believe you mentioned setting a GIGABYTE RAID chip into RAID mode in BIOS, not sure if this is even relevant to your board and/or intent.

Also you did not mention updating with Raid and Chip Set downloads form Gigabyte, I assume you already have.

And I also recall that changing your bios setting from IDE to RAID on a drive after installing an operating system requires a re-install
Not sure the later applies in your case.

If I get a moment I will compare your board to mine.



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In any event I would appreciate your posting what worked for you when you get it up and going.

Thanks,  GW

[GW]

Turns out your ga-880ga-ud3h is very similar to the ga-870a-ud3  in the raid provided, how you turn it on,  and how you configure it.

Both Motherboards have two sets of internal SATA connection points capable of supporting RAID.

Six blue SATA connection points and two white SATA connection points.

BLUE are controlled by the SATA controller built into the AMD  southbridge chip (AMD SB850 chip )
BLUE are configured by the ON CHIP SATA settings in the BIOS.
BLUE connection RAID arrays are created using the Control F bios utility.

White are controlled by the SATA controller built into the add on Gigabyte SATA/IDE chip added to the mother board by GIGABYTE.
White are configured by the ON BOARD SATA settings in the BIOS.
White connection RAID arrays are created using the Control G bios utility.

The manual talks about installing a bootable operating system on a Blue RAID array.
NOT SURE  if you can also install a bootable operating system on a WHITE RAID array.

Control G Raid utility might not have worked because it only works with the WHITE SATA connections and you apparently disabled RAID on the white connectors by configuring the ON BOARD RAID controller ( the one on the Gigabyte add on chip ) to all IDE, thus disabling RAID on the white connectors and apparently also disabling the Control G function.

Control F utility worked because you enabled RAID on some of the BLUE connections by setting the ON CHIP RAID controller ( one built into the AMD South Bridge chip )  Thus also activating the Control F utility.

Reading the explanation, in your mother board manual, for the possible values for BIOS On Chip SATA settings, and,
reading the explanation of the values for BIOS On Board SATA settings, and,
also reading Chapter 5 / Appendix in your motherboard manual will greatly help.

Please let us know how you get it working.

Thanks,

GW