X58A-UD3R Win 2008 Server Installation and RAID

[MarcLoc]

Hi everyone, I thank you in advance for your help.

I am trying to install Windows 2008 Server onto a PC sonfigured as:

Gigabyte X58-UD3R, i7920, 6GB RAM, with the following HDD configs:

1x 500GB WD Caviar Blue hanging off the IDE cable as primary (with a DVDRW as secondary)

6x 2TB WD Caviar Green as one RAID 5 Volume hanging of the ICH10R SATA controller

2x 2TB WD Caviar Green as RAID 1 hanging off the Marvell controller

In the BIOS I have:
eXtreme HD Enabled
ICH SATA Control Mode RAID (XHD)
eSATA Controller Enabled
eSATA Ctrl Mode AHCI
GSATA 6_7 Enabled
GSATA 6_& Ctrl Mode AHCI
SATA3 RAID Mode Control Auto
GSATA 8_9 IDE Enabled
GSATA 8_9 Ctrl Mode RAID/IDE

When the install disk boots, it shows the 500GB drive, and I can select it for install (after crating a primary partition). Once I hit next I get "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation"

If I create two RAID 5 Volumes (one as 150GB, the second as the rest of the space) and I load the ICH10R drivers during install, the SW will install into the RAID 5 150GB volume... I can see the IDE 500GB drive, but cannot point the installer to it.

Ultimately, I want the OS on the IDE 500GB so I can leave the 6x 2TB drives for the RAID 5 array. Any ideas what am I doing wrong please.

Thanks!

Marc

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

I would suggest that in the lonmg run it is inadvisable to try and run the PATA and SATYA drives at the same time as this often leads to problems. Motherboards don't seem to be happy with using both sets of devices at once.

For your Windows install the favorite way would bne to disconnect all the drives bar the optical and boot drive before running setup. Once complete you can then connect the other drives and BIOS/Windows should find them.