Setting up RAID 1 on MSI Z77A-G45 mobo

[sheisty_maestro]

Greetings all, I recently acquired two new hard drives that I wish to set up as a RAID on my system, the mobo is as listed in the subject with an Intel chipset, and the two hard drives in question will not be where Windows 7 64 bit Professional is installed, they are meant to be storage for media files and that's it.

So my first question is: do I need to activate the two new disks in Disk Management before I set them up as a RAID?

I did not do this as the manual for my mobo did not indicate a need to do so, and so I blundered ahead and did not activate them before setting them up as a RAID. After a successful setup, it restarted and then promptly BSOD'd my computer after POST, and did so in safe mode (any version, networking, cmd prompt, etc.) and Last Known Good Config. Resetting to defaults in BIOS fixed this and got me back up and running.

Where did I go wrong? Thanks in advance!

 

[drtweak]

If you have an Intel Controller it may have (but simplified and basic hardware RAID) built into it and you access it on boot up.

If not then you want to go in and initilize both of the disk and then right click on one and there should be an option to Add Mirror. You may have to make a partition one drive first and then do the Add Mirror option (Honestly I've made a lot of RAID's but never a Software RAID (A RAID handeled by windows and its kind of frowned upon because its more overheard on the system VS a Hardware RAID)

 

[Paperdoc]

So you got your system working again, right? Relief!

My guess is that, for whatever reason, when you installed the pair of HDD's and set them up as a RAID1 array, the BIOS by default also decided to make that new storage device the boot unit, and of course it could not do that! Resetting the BIOS may have fixed that problem. However, now I suspect your RAID1 array is not set up because the default setting in BIOS is NOT to have HDD's in RAID. Go back into your RAID management software and check. Is the RAID1 still there and valid? If not, re-create the RAID array. But this time when it is finished don't let the machine reboot by itself. During the next boot, go immediately into BIOS Setup and go to where you set up Boot Priorities. Set them the way you had before, and make SURE the RAID array is NOT listed as a possible boot device.

Once you are back into Windows you will need to load the RAID driver(s). Windows may well do this on its own for you. But if not, you might have to do that manually. I expect the RAID driver(s) will be on your CD that came with the mobo. Once that is done, Windows will be able to see and access that array as a "drive" in My Computer.

 

[sheisty_maestro]

@drtweak I set up the MSI Intel Rapid Storage Tech utility/driver so at the very least I now have the proper drivers installed. Being as how this is my first attempt at a RAID setup and not doing as much research as I otherwise should have beforehand is probably where I botched this the most. Thanks for the info on setting up a mirror in disk management, I didn't know it created more overhead so I would like to avoid that for this.

@Paperdoc I suspect you may be right, that it may have enabled the RAID as the boot disk... Gonna set it back up again and double-check this time around. I know I'm rushing this but I just want to make sure the faulty disk with 10 years of media (I already pulled it before doing this to make sure it doesn't go through any more undue strain) gets backed up ASAP and I'm chomping at the bit.

*Update*
Now I can't seem to get the RAID setup to work like it did before, it worked on the initial setup that failed. To illustrate, my step-by-step process is like this:

1. Activate RAID in BIOS. Simple. Done.
2. Upon reboot, I should either get the RAID creation splash page or spam Ctrl + I to initialize setup, which worked the first time but now does not, and results in the computer attempting to boot like normal, but BSODing shortly after the Windows loading screen starts up every time. This also being after I made sure the OS is the priority boot drive and not the 2 new RAID drives.

Intel Rapid Storage will not create the mirror itself either, so far as I can tell it will only monitor the health and performance of the drives... Also, according to another thread I read, Windows 7 64 bit should already come with the necessary drivers for setting up RAIDs, making Rapid Storage kind of unnecessary from what I can tell. So I have to go through the BIOS to do it, which now isn't working. All BIOS settings are default now, so I'm not sure what has changed to completely muck up the creation process... Any thoughts?

 

[Paperdoc]

Windows does NOT have RAID drivers in general, because there are so many different ways it is done. Thus, for most cases you need to supply the proper driver for your version of Windows, and for your particular RAID controller system. HOWEVER, it is possible that Win 7 64 bit has a driver for Intel's RAID system, since it has become so common.

I do find it odd that pressing CTRL-I won't get you into the RAID management system. As you say, the BIOS must first be set to RAID mode on the SATA ports. I can suggest three things to try:

1. Check which SATA ports you are connecting the two RAID HDD units to. Are they part of the main SATA ports group, or of some other group operated by a different controller chip? Are the Enabled?
2. When you set the BIOS to RAID mode for the SATA ports, or make any other setting change in BIOS Setup, remember to SAVE and Exit to make sure your changes are permanent.
3. Sometimes pressing keys to enter Setup or RAID management is tricky because the BIOS does not always look for a keypress just when you are doing it. I'm in the habit of holding such keys down through the POST process until the system gets through its initial stuff and responds to my looonnnggg "keypress".

 

[sheisty_maestro]

Apologies for the belated response, I went in for LASIK surgery so looking at a computer screen has been bloody murder for my eyes the last couple days. Brass tacks now: I still can't get the RAID to work.

I finally was able to make sure that the RAID was set to enabled, and was able to by holding down CTRL-I at boot get into the controller screen. However, when I finish setting up the RAID and exit, the computer reboots as there is no other option possible. Once the Windows loading screen shows up, it BSODs and that is it. However I noticed that it may not necessarily be the fact that there is a RAID set up, but it seems regardless of whether or not there is an active RAID, if the setting is enabled in BIOS it will still BSOD. Not sure why this is. Once I disable it, my machine works fine, just without a RAID.

Should I be disabling RAID immediately after setting it up? That seems counter-intuitive to me, but that's the only thing I haven't tried doing yet.

 

[drtweak]

Well the thing is unless you are booting off the RAID (Which you said you weren't) the whole "Not having RAID Drivers is causing my BSOD" doesn't apply to you.

When you start it up mash on the F8 button to get the advanced startup screen. Then select the "Do not restart on system failure" or something like that (towards the bottom half of the list) while you have the RAID on and give us the STOP CODE 0x000000XX where XX is usually a number letter combo (Sometimes its 3 numbers/letters and is a 0xc0000XXX combination)

This will help us understand what is causing the BSOD to beginw ith.

 

[sheisty_maestro]

Okay so here is why I can't set up a RAID the way I'm currently approaching it: http://www.overclock.net/t/1227636/how-to-change-sata-modes-after-windows-installation

In a nutshell, once the OS is installed you have to do a little registry editing to make switching between RAID and AHCI work properly without screwing up your computer.

So now it begs the question, do I go the hardware RAID route and shell out some more money or futz with my registry keys and potentially brick my OS?

 

[drtweak]

Again as long as the OS drive is not being changed between AHCI/RAID/IDE then it shouldnt be an issue. If it is being changed then yea you need to follow those steps and do the Regedit.

THAT Or as long as you add the RAID Drivers before you switch to RAID you will be fine.