Gigabyte X58A-UD3R RAID problem

[fast930]

I'm new to RAID configuration and would appreciate some help getting RAID working on my new Win 7 Gigabyte X58A-UD3R build. I think I'm close, but just can't get the OS to mount my RAID 1 group as my D: drive...

Background:
Boot Drive = Corsair P256 SSD, non-RAID on the Marvel 9128 controller (works fine)
Optical Drives = BluRay and DVD drives on the Gigabyte SATA2 controller (works fine)
Data Drives = 2 x 1TB SATA drives in RAID 1 on the Intel ICH10R controller (the problem)

I've got the BIOS configured correctly per the manual (I think), (ICH SATA Control Mode = RAID(XHD))
I've created the RAID group in the ICH10R BIOS configuration utility
The Intel Matrix Storage Manager utility in Win7 correctly sees the RAID Volume
I can't get Win7 to show it as D:

Now, the instructions would have me copying the drivers to a formatted floppy disk and installing them when installing the OS. I figured that was applicable to XP or Vista and only required if the RAID was going to be my boot drive. Right??? And besides, maybe Win7 includes the driver already?

What am I missing here?

 

[r_manic]

I'm not sure what's the case with Windows 7, but AFAIK Windows Vista already stopped requiring the insertion of a floppy disk with RAID drivers. I'm not sure why 7 doesn't have the drivers you need for your setup, but if so, you can at least buy/borrow a USB FDD to load the drivers from.

 

[beamj]

Your boot drive is the SSD so using a floppy or usb/cd method to install the driver during installation is not necessary.

As far as your issue is concerned. Open disk management or whatever Win7 uses for disk management and see if you can format the new raid set. Chances are the raid set is there but is not formatted for use yet and therefor unable to be used as your "D:" drive

 

[fast930]

Best answer selected by fast930.

 

[fast930]

Solved - the magic was that I had to initialize the RAID set first with the Intel Matrix Storage Manager, then use Win7 Disk Manager to format the new drive and assign it a drive letter.

Thanks for the thoughts and guidance on this.

Now I need to figure out how to get Crystal Disk Info to see the disks in the RAID set. It saw them before formatting and mounting them, now doesn't even find them. Humm....

Thanks again!