Windows 8.1 Wont see my Raid 1 Array

[ghostmail53]

I,m jumping in on this post cause I am using Windows 8.1 with a Asus Z87 Sabertooth mobo, a Samsung SSD for the OS and a few programs, and then my data that I access once in a while is on a 1TB spinning wheel.

I decided to buy another 1TB drive cause their cheap and run a Raid 1 mirror. 8 days later and 8 hours on the phone with Asus, (Less than incompetent), here's where I am and the Asus mobo manual is COMPLETELY useless.

1. I flashed my motherboard with current BIOS updates from Asus website.
2. I created the Raid 1 array in Bios, no problem. Windows doesn't see it.
3. Reloaded windows once the mobo had the Raid 1 setup and visible.
4. Downloaded with Intel software from Asus (Called Intel Rapid Storage Management Software). You open up the program and you can see your drives and there are several little utilities for managing) Everything registers A-ok, and successful.
5. Lastly, the hang up. Windows 8.1 doesn't see the Raid drives. Disk Management doesn't see the Raid drives.

Asus gave up today, and told me to get Windows 10 and try again, or buy a Raid card. And good luck!

Any ideas on how to get Microsoft Win 8.1 to see these disks? Or, should I get a Raid card? Im afraid of Windows 10 since Windows has been mostly garbage for decades. 7 64-bit and XP 64 bit were only good years I had. Lol

Thank you very much for any advice.

 

[USAFRet]

What is your purpose in the RAID 1?

Generally, a dedicated RAID card is best.
But a RAID 1 serves little purpose outside of a commercial situation.

 

[ghostmail53]

What is your purpose in the RAID 1?

Generally, a dedicated RAID card is best.
But a RAID 1 serves little purpose outside of a commercial situation.

 

[ghostmail53]

Thank you! I will go and get one of those tomorrow. As far as the Raid 1, I figured that the best way to protect my data against the inevitable hard drive failure, is to have another one running mirror.

 

[USAFRet]

Thank you! I will go and get one of those tomorrow. As far as the Raid 1, I figured that the best way to protect my data against the inevitable hard drive failure, is to have another one running mirror.

No, not even close.
A RAID 1 helps in one and only one instance...a dead drive. And if you really, really need actual 24/7 operations.
It does absolutely nothing for the myriad other ways you can lose your data.

Massive virus, accidental deletion, ransomware, other corruption...RAID 1 does nothing for that. It just happens on 2 physical drives at the same time.

There are much better, easier ways to protect your data.

 

[ghostmail53]

Thank you! I will go and get one of those tomorrow. As far as the Raid 1, I figured that the best way to protect my data against the inevitable hard drive failure, is to have another one running mirror.

No, not even close.
A RAID 1 helps in one and only one instance...a dead drive. And if you really, really need actual 24/7 operations.
It does absolutely nothing for the myriad other ways you can lose your data.

Massive virus, accidental deletion, ransomware, other corruption...RAID 1 does nothing for that. It just happens on 2 physical drives at the same time.

There are much better, easier ways to protect your data.

 

[ghostmail53]

Thanks again. I appreciate the advice. And yes, the only thing I expect from the Raid is to have 1 drive working when the other suddenly dies. For as cheap as I paid for it, why not?? Expect for the fact that I cant get Windows 8.1 to see it. But then again, its going to be real easy to throw a Raid 1 card on the mobo. I just never thought that was necessary from reading the pathetic and useless Asus manual. Once again, for 10 days and 9 hours of my time, I learned another lesson! Thanks again!

 

[ghostmail53]

Im coming back to report my unsuccessful results before quitting this project. Ive tried everything for hours and am still unsuccessful.

I bought a raid 1 controller card from Syba. Its a PCI-Epress add-on card. I loaded the drivers. Windows 8.1 will not boot in Raid mode. Only AHCI. Once in AHCI, Windows boots, but disk management doesn't see either drive, and neither does the Intel software (Intel Rapid Storage Technology) software.

I also tried another hard drive where I upgraded to Windows 10 from 8.1 and then disk management saw both hard drives, but told me that 1 was ok, and the other was offline due to a conflict with another drive and had an error exclamation mark and couldn't be changed to online. When set to raid mode in the Bios, once again, it wouldn't boot either.

Im frazzled. My imac was set to Raid and I used a small duel drive storage box and switched it to Raid 1 and IOS took it right in. With this mess, I've run out of solutions. The Asus board sees both drives, and can boot properly, Its Windows that is having the problem.

Does anything come to mind as a last resort?

Thanks!