990FX RAID 0 with EVO SSDs: Windows doesnt recognized array during installation

[mnick]

I'm having a hard time trying to setup my new Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 motherboard with Windows 8 64bit using the onboard AMD RAID controller. What I'm trying to achieve is to install Windows 7/8 Pro 64 bit on the Samsung SSD drives in a RAID 0 configuration. I've tried a lot of different configurations which I'll go over in a moment. I've spent the better half of this last weekend reading the forums and I just can't find a solid answer. I'm starting to believe its unsupported?

Here is a overview of the hardware environment-

* 990FX R2.0 running Firmware 2501 (latest)
* SAMSUNG 850 EVO-Series MZ-75E250B/AM 2.5" 250GB SATA III 3-D Vertical SSD ** Running as RAID 0 ** (OS Drive)
* WD Red NAS Hard Drive WD30EFRX 3TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" ** Running as RAID 1 ** (Storage Drive)

// * RAID Hard Drive Configuration *

I've confirmed that I'm using the AMD RAID controller.
I've configured the BIOS to use the SATA configuration as RAID.
I've built the RAID0 in the Legacy RAID ROM with the Samsung disks, with default settings (I've also tried with other settings within the RAID configuration).
I've built the RAID1 in the Legacy RAID ROM with the WD disks.
I've verified that after configuring the two RAID arrays that the BIOS sees the logical disks.

// * Attempt at installing Windows OS *

I get the same results whether I'm using a USB drive(s) or DVD ROM discs, I've gone as far as using different *.ISOs even when creating them with Rufus. The part that I get stuck on is the Windows installation does not recognize the RAID array containing the EVO drives. I've tried RAID 0/1 and both don't show up. The RAID 1 WD array shows up, no problem. I haven't tried to install to this as this isn't my end goal,

I go to load the RAID controller drivers from Asus's website and AMD's website and they don't work. I'm not able to get the AMD driver to even display on the list. Asus's driver shows the driver available and it loads it but still does not display the RAID 0 SSD array. On that note here are some details as to what I've tried-

I removed the WD drives from the equation (only the SSDs are connected) but the array does not show up under Windows Vista/7/8 Pro 64 bit installations.
I've unchecked the "hide drivers that aren't compatible with my system" when loading the drivers and individually loaded each of the the drivers on the list (even though they all show the same driver ahcix64s.inf).
I've canceled out of the loading drivers screen and swap USB ports (wild guess as previously suggested)
I've tried different USB drives, different USB ports (2.0 vs 3.0).
I've removed all the disks from arrays and they all show up during the Windows installation when the board is configured for AHCI.
I've tried the AMD SATA 3.0 controller ports on the board.
I've tried to install AMD's drivers even with "hide drivers that aren't compatible with my system" unchecked, including 32 bit as this supposedly has worked for some, without luck.

I'm sure there is more that I've tried but honestly, my head hurts. I'm open to suggestions at this point hence this forum post.

What is the workaround? Install the OS on a drive I don't need, as a temporary OS and then install Win8 64 bit Pro onto the RAID 0 from the GUI and reboot but upon rebooting, unplug all the drives except for the RAID 0 which contains the SSDs?

I was going to check the firmware on the EVO drives as I haven't explored that avenue yet.

Anyhow, thanks for reading

Cheers!

 

[USAFRet]

Backing up a few steps, why RAID 0 on the SSD's?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

 

[mnick]

Backing up a few steps, why RAID 0 on the SSD's?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

I hadn't seen that benchmark. I read a similar benchmark test a while back that showed it did benefit from running RAID0

EDIT: Here was the article, if I recall-
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2365767/feed-your-greed-for-speed-by-installing-ssds-in-raid-0.html

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Very little benefit in real world usage from RAID 0 with fast SSDs like the Samsung 850s. That is true even with Intel's superior controllers and drivers.

 

[mnick]

Very little benefit in real world usage from RAID 0 with fast SSDs like the Samsung 850s. That is true even with Intel's superior controllers and drivers.

I would have been better buying 1 of the EVO PRO drives instead of two of the non pro drives then? Is that what you are saying?

 

[USAFRet]

Very little benefit in real world usage from RAID 0 with fast SSDs like the Samsung 850s. That is true even with Intel's superior controllers and drivers.

I would have been better buying 1 of the EVO PRO drives instead of two of the non pro drives then? Is that what you are saying?

2 independent SSD drives are very little different than 2 SSD drives in a RAID 0 array.
Either Pro or EVO, RAID 0 makes little difference.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

^ This. The Evo is a fine drive.

 

[mnick]

I've already purchased the drives for this setup so I would like to troubleshoot the issue still.

Thanks for the benchmark report though, it was very helpful.

 

[USAFRet]

I've already purchased the drives for this setup so I would like to troubleshoot the issue still.

Thanks for the benchmark report though, it was very helpful.

If you're not doing a RAID 0, there should be no issues.

 

[mnick]

I've already purchased the drives for this setup so I would like to troubleshoot the issue still.

Thanks for the benchmark report though, it was very helpful.

If you're not doing a RAID 0, there should be no issues.

I would like to do RAID 0 though.

 

[USAFRet]

I've already purchased the drives for this setup so I would like to troubleshoot the issue still.

Thanks for the benchmark report though, it was very helpful.

If you're not doing a RAID 0, there should be no issues.

I would like to do RAID 0 though.

For the added complexity and fail potential, and the zero performance increase.....why?

 

[giantbucket]

what about doing a RAID1 for the OS? give that a whirl. it'll be just as fast and way more resilient. i plan on doing that on my office server setup, so in a way i'm curious if you'd be able to get in running in RAID1 instead.

 

[Dereck47]

I go to load the RAID controller drivers from Asus's website and AMD's website and they don't work. I'm not able to get the AMD driver to even display on the list. Asus's driver shows the driver available and it loads it but still does not display the RAID 0 SSD array.

I went to ASUS' website and downloaded a .zip file with their SATA drivers.

Just to verify, when you load the drivers during Windows install, you're pointing to the following directory on your USB drive? :

AMD_RAID_XPVistaWin7-8-81_VER121329_3815403/Driver/Disk/RAID/Win8/x64

After you load the drivers try these 2 things:

1.) Remove the USB drive.
2.) Don't click "Next" to go forward with the Windows install. Go "Back" one or two screens and then go forward with the install and see if Windows recognizes your array.

A similar thing happened to me in 2009 when I put my 2 60GB SSD's in RAID-0.
I also have an AMD motherboard and spent hours trying to get Windows to see the array.
For some reason that I don't remember now I went back instead of forward after loading the drivers and Windows recognized the array. I had also removed the USB drive that I used to load the drivers.

Don't know whether going back or removing the USB drive was what finally enabled Windows to see the array.

 

[USAFRet]

what about doing a RAID1 for the OS? give that a whirl. it'll be just as fast and way more resilient. i plan on doing that on my office server setup, so in a way i'm curious if you'd be able to get in running in RAID1 instead.

And what benefit does a RAID 1 for the OS drive bring?

 

[giantbucket]

what about doing a RAID1 for the OS? give that a whirl. it'll be just as fast and way more resilient. i plan on doing that on my office server setup, so in a way i'm curious if you'd be able to get in running in RAID1 instead.

And what benefit does a RAID 1 for the OS drive bring?

if one drive craps out, the system keeps running? sounds like a great benefit to me. SSD are already fast enough on their own, but from what i know they don't fail gradually, so the mirror is a nice thing to have.

 

[USAFRet]

what about doing a RAID1 for the OS? give that a whirl. it'll be just as fast and way more resilient. i plan on doing that on my office server setup, so in a way i'm curious if you'd be able to get in running in RAID1 instead.

And what benefit does a RAID 1 for the OS drive bring?

if one drive craps out, the system keeps running? sounds like a great benefit to me. SSD are already fast enough on their own, but from what i know they don't fail gradually, so the mirror is a nice thing to have.

RAID 1 can help only in the case (unlikely) of a drive fail.
It is not a backup.

And if you actually monitor them, an SSD will give plenty of warning.

 

[USAFRet]

And if you create, and update, an image of that drive and save it elsewhere....a RAID 1 is again not needed.
I can bring back the OS drive in a hour or so. No big deal.

 

[giantbucket]

And if you create, and update, an image of that drive and save it elsewhere....a RAID 1 is again not needed.
I can bring back the OS drive in a hour or so. No big deal.

sure. but the OP already has a pair of SSDs, and is adamant on a RAID array of some kind. might as well pick the safer one that actually is redundant.

and yeah, for a home environment a RAID on OS is kinda silly.

 

[USAFRet]

And if you create, and update, an image of that drive and save it elsewhere....a RAID 1 is again not needed.
I can bring back the OS drive in a hour or so. No big deal.

sure. but the OP already has a pair of SSDs, and is adamant on a RAID array of some kind. might as well pick the safer one that actually is redundant.

and yeah, for a home environment a RAID on OS is kinda silly.

'raid array of some kind'.....deciding on which one relies on what you want it to do.

RAID 0 - zero performance benefit, and potential fail issues
RAID 1 - Little benefit for the OS part.

In either case...why?

 

[mnick]

I've already purchased the drives for this setup so I would like to troubleshoot the issue still.

Thanks for the benchmark report though, it was very helpful.

If you're not doing a RAID 0, there should be no issues.

I would like to do RAID 0 though.

For the added complexity and fail potential, and the zero performance increase.....why?

I wouldn't say that it has 0 performance increase. There is little benefit imo.
Additionally, what I'm trying to setup *should* work and now its to the point to where I'd like to figure out why its not working, ha!

what about doing a RAID1 for the OS? give that a whirl. it'll be just as fast and way more resilient. i plan on doing that on my office server setup, so in a way i'm curious if you'd be able to get in running in RAID1 instead.

I've tried RAID 1 as well and it did not work. When I take the drives out of RAID mode and back to ACHI mode, both of the drives show up during the installation, no problem.

I go to load the RAID controller drivers from Asus's website and AMD's website and they don't work. I'm not able to get the AMD driver to even display on the list. Asus's driver shows the driver available and it loads it but still does not display the RAID 0 SSD array.

I went to ASUS' website and downloaded a .zip file with their SATA drivers.

Just to verify, when you load the drivers during Windows install, you're pointing to the following directory on your USB drive? :

AMD_RAID_XPVistaWin7-8-81_VER121329_3815403/Driver/Disk/RAID/Win8/x64

After you load the drivers try these 2 things:

1.) Remove the USB drive.
2.) Don't click "Next" to go forward with the Windows install. Go "Back" one or two screens and then go forward with the install and see if Windows recognizes your array.

A similar thing happened to me in 2009 when I put my 2 60GB SSD's in RAID-0.
I also have an AMD motherboard and spent hours trying to get Windows to see the array.
For some reason that I don't remember now I went back instead of forward after loading the drivers and Windows recognized the array. I had also removed the USB drive that I used to load the drivers.

Don't know whether going back or removing the USB drive was what finally enabled Windows to see the array.

Yes, that is correct. I've downloaded AMD_RAID_XPVistaWin7-8-81_VER121329_3815403. I've extracted the contents of the zip file and actually moved the whole RAID part of the directory tree and tried every single driver in that folder with no such luck.

I will try you second suggestion in that order. I did read something similar and tried to swap USB ports after the setup loaded but no such luck there either.

Thanks for the replies!! Even with "no performance gain" in striping the SSDs, I'd like to get this to work just because at this point. In theory it should work and that is what I'm focused on now, unfortunately.

 

[mnick]

I go to load the RAID controller drivers from Asus's website and AMD's website and they don't work. I'm not able to get the AMD driver to even display on the list. Asus's driver shows the driver available and it loads it but still does not display the RAID 0 SSD array.

I went to ASUS' website and downloaded a .zip file with their SATA drivers.

Just to verify, when you load the drivers during Windows install, you're pointing to the following directory on your USB drive? :

AMD_RAID_XPVistaWin7-8-81_VER121329_3815403/Driver/Disk/RAID/Win8/x64

After you load the drivers try these 2 things:

1.) Remove the USB drive.
2.) Don't click "Next" to go forward with the Windows install. Go "Back" one or two screens and then go forward with the install and see if Windows recognizes your array.

A similar thing happened to me in 2009 when I put my 2 60GB SSD's in RAID-0.
I also have an AMD motherboard and spent hours trying to get Windows to see the array.
For some reason that I don't remember now I went back instead of forward after loading the drivers and Windows recognized the array. I had also removed the USB drive that I used to load the drivers.

Don't know whether going back or removing the USB drive was what finally enabled Windows to see the array.

I did try your second solution suggestion with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 but both yielded the array not showing up during the installation. After I load the drivers and try to go back a few screens or close the setup and start over, it asks for the USB drivers again and I can't move forward without them.

 

[Dereck47]

Sorry it didn't work for you. Like I said same thing happened to me and it took me about 6 hours of tinkering to finally get Windows to see the array.

 

[popatim]

did you format the raid0 array in the legecy raid bios?

edit - and are all the drives plugged into AMD ports? (I see you also have AsMedia ports on that board too)

 

[oilboyhere]

I'm in the exact same boat, this is really frustrating. I have done all the above and still haven't gotten it to work. If you figure something out please let me know. I even went as far as purchasing another board thinking that my old board (which was the same as yours) was faulty. I'm having the same problem on the new one which is a Gigabyte 970A-UD3P. The only difference between our 2 scenarios is when I set mine to a raid 1 setup it found the drives after using the drivers from amd's website.

 

[giantbucket]

i'm gonna try this on my office server this week - though it'll be a RAID1 on 840 EVO drives. difference is mine is an intel build, not AMD. and i'm doing 2012R2 Essentials server. so yeah, it'll be totally different, but i'll post out of curiosity.