EX-58 UDP RAID setup HELP NEEDED

[Shirazz]

Ok heres where i am

I have two of these

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=869581

1.5tb seagate HDDs

and an EX-58 UDP mobo. I am also a noob at this (this is the first time I have built a PC), so bear with me.

I have plugged both into the appropriate SATA slots and enabled RAID in the intergrated periferals TAB in CMOS setup utility.

Issue 1: I can only see one HDD in the (1.5TB) in the standard CMOS Features tab (as ST31500341AS) if I plug either one in to either of the SATA slots or both into both the SATA slots. Same thing happens at windows 7 64 startup.

I havnt fully installed the OS yet as I was under the impression that, if I installed the OS onto ONE of the HDDs, it would have data on it while the other would not, which would not work in RAID 0. (this may be noob problem 1). I also do not know how to install RAID drivers but was under the impression the mobo would come with them ( it didnt)

Im aiming to have them both in RAID 0 with the OS installed on the array. I do not have another HDD, nor have I used either of the HDDs before, nor do i have a floppy drive.

Help me OC3D!

Also sorry for spamming up the chatbox.

 

[Shirazz]

will install OS on one drive now

 

[Pyr0]

after setting raid in the integrated peripherals section and rebooting, you will have to press ctrl+i to enter the intel raid setup and create an array before installing win7

all info is in the manual

 

[Rastalovich]

Once u have installed the OS on one drive, open up explorer and right-click on MyComputer (or Computer) and select Manage.

Go down to Drive Management and u should be greeted with something to the effect of a popup window that says "u need to initialize this drive b4 u can use it" (only in proper english obviously) - follow the instructions, being sure u select a quick format, and in no time u should have the 2nd 1.5Tb drive as a blank and available.

If this doesn't happen, the drive is not setup properly - which we'd have to look into.

If ur looking in the bios for the drives, they 'should' only be viewable if ur SATA mode is on IDE, which ofc makes creating a RAID impossible hardware wize.

If u set the SATA to ACHI or RAID before installing the OS, windows should see both drives, and also have a slightly longer boot as the Intel-based ACHI bios should kick in, checking drives as it boots and asking u to press [tab] or [ctrl-I] or similar to setup the raid. If the raid is created b4 u install the OS, u may need drivers at hand during installation (not sure), in which case the mobo's driver cd should assist, which driver it is I'm not sure either, but hey select anything Intel based, one at a time, and it should work eventually I'd be surprized that windows7 doesn't include basic Intel Matrix storage drivers these days tbh.

Also if u install the OS whist IDE is set for SATA, changing the SATA to ACHI/RAID afterwards should crash windows whilst it boots. Reason being that the OS doesn't have any drivers for it as it wasn't there during installation. There is a way around this - but u really don't wanna go there.

 

[Pyr0]

he wants to install win7 on raid

but isn't that what i just said? (press ctrl+I when booting to enter intel raid config)

and yes, win7 has some intel ahci and raid drivers built in

 

[Rastalovich]

Yeah, almost by the looks of it, cept the manual stuff is written along with an explanation along the way in some hope he'll learn what and why he has to do what he does.

But consider how long it took to type versus urs

 

[Pyr0]

thus mine is more straight to the point hehehe

 

[Rastalovich]

Why'd u have to edit it then

 

[Pyr0]

lol, just to add that all the info required is available in the manual

 

[Shirazz]

As I go to install win7, the setup only recognises one HDD, even though I have raid enabled, is this normal and should I continue with the install?

EDIT: I have read the manual and it doesnt tell me to press ctrl i anywhere during the setup, i have done pretty much everything ON the manual

 

[Pyr0]

no

as i said above, after enabling raid in the bios, exit and reboot and you should see a screen with white writing telling you to press ctrl+i to enter the intel raid config

in there, you select the drives and create a raid array.

after setting up the array, you install the os

 

[Shirazz]

Pyro, i appreciate your help, but im a noob, im not retarded. I read the manual, I know what im looking for, im not getting it. The prompt screen just isnt coming up.

 

[Msm2]

Why do u need Raid?

 

[Pyr0]

moar speed?

 

[Shirazz]

OK Pyro is a genius, USE THE BLUE INTEL CONNECTORS ON THE MOBO when setting it up, will work first time. But you cant boot off that (doh) now i need to find another HDD...

 

[Pyr0]

sry shirazz, i should have been clearer, it's only the GB ports that you can't boot from.

the blue intel ports should have no problems with booting from a raid array

 

[Shirazz]

ok, well not as OK as i thought, it wouldnt let me install windows to the new RAID 0 array, so, i installed another old 40GB HDD and put win7 on that, now i keep blue screening soon after start up.

Its telling me the raid array isnt bootable in the RAID menu, I have tried anyway to no avail. Im going to wipe windows now, does anyone know if when I install drivers through an OS they stay after the HDD is formatted?

 

[Shirazz]

Ok took the 40Gb HDD out, created two RAID0 partitions, one of 40GB and one which contained the rest and was able to boot to the 40Gb partition.

Fixed for now

 

[Rastalovich]

Ur blue screen would be something to the effect of iastor.sys blah blah