RAID 0 Setup w/ ASRock Z68 Extreme4

[jgoody]

Hello all,

I built the latest $2000 recommended build from Tom, and have a question.

The ASRock Z68 Extreme4 motherboard installation instructions said that I needed to create a boot disk to setup my RAID 0 configuration. Because I don't have a floppy drive, I just did the following:

-Set the controller mode in BIOS (UEFI) to RAID (and also AHCI mode)
-reset, pressed CTRL-I to enter RAID controller setup
-configured the RAID of two ADATA S599s SSDs to a striped array (RAID 0)
-Installed Windows, booting from my optical drive

Now, Windows recognized the two 64GB drives as one 128GB drive and "type" was blank (should this have said RAID?). I assumed that since it showed up everything was fine.

Install was successful, and the system had been running fine until a few days in and the 2nd ADATA SSD is not showing up on a cold boot. If I reset a few times everything comes up fine.

Questions:

1.) Did I do something wrong in the setup of the RAID 0 ?
2.) Any ideas as to what could be causing the 2nd drive not to be recognized on cold boot only if I did set it up correctly?

Thanks in advance!

-Jeff

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

1. No.
2. Sounds like you may have one drive that has something wrong with it, or maybe just the connections are loose. I'd check them to make sure. If you continue to have the problem, you will likely have to RMA the SSD.

 

[jgoody]

Thanks for the response. I double checked the connections and the problem still occurs. I thought that this would be an issue with the SSD, but I second guessed this because the drive is always recognized in BIOS, but on cold boots it sometimes just doesn't get recognized (it seems) by the RAID controller. The drive always works fine after I reboot until it is recognized.

This made me think it might be the motherboard or the setup for RAID...

As far as the drives themselves, I thought I'd try updating the firmware but the ADATA update software doesn't recognize the drives. I thought this was an indication I hadn't set the RAID up properly, but maybe their software just doesn't work w/ a RAID configuration.?

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

Yeah, RAIDed drives usually aren't recognized as individual drives for the firmware update program. If you want to update the drives, you will likely have to destroy the array (and all of your data) to do it.

 

[jgoody]

Thanks, Leaps-from-shadows. I replaced the SATA cable going to the drive that was periodically malfunctioning and so far so good. I'll hold off on any firmware updates.

 

[jgoody]

Best answer selected by jgoody.