Setting Up RAID Drivers (ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer)

[Invex09]

I'm trying to install RAID drivers on my new motherboard, the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer, and having trouble. The manual refers to loading drivers from a support CD, but I can't get anything to load from the CD. I can setup RAID through the BIOS but a different member driver of the RAID reports as failed everytime I restart the computer. I think it has something to do with the drivers.

I explained the issue in great detail here in a previous post: RAID0 SSDs Fail on New ASRock Motherboard - Intel - Motherboards
but I think the length of that post is scaring people off. So I figured I'd give a quick summary here and see if anyone had any ideas on the issue Im having.

Thanks and any help would be great appreciated!

[parsec]

Re: Setting Up RAID Drivers (ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer)

I read the first post in your thread in Tom's forum, so that's what I'm going by.

It sounds like you are starting fresh with your RAID 0 arrays, which is a good idea.

Now for the bad news, sorry to say. Your Vertex 2 SSDs, which use a SandForce SF-1200 SSD controller, are not compatible with the Intel SATA controller used on your Z97 board. Actually, the incompatibility started with the Intel 8 series chipsets, the Z87 for example.

At one time there was an information page about this in OCZ's SSD forum, but since Toshiba bought OCZ, the existing OCZ forum was completely removed, and this information with it.

The incompatibility is apparently caused by the SF-1200 controller's non-compliance with certain SATA standards. The Intel SATA controllers on their 8 series chipsets and beyond comply with newer SATA standards, and/or are simply more strict in their SATA standards compliance. This is at the hardware level, so using older IRST drivers won't make a difference.

Sorry to say, but nothing can be done about the problem with the Vertex 2s, they won't work used as non-RAID drives too.

Your Agility 3's, which use the SandForce SF-2281 controller, don't have this problem. They should work fine in RAID 0 on your board.

Windows 7 has a basic Intel RAID driver included, so in theory you should not need to load a RAID driver during the installation. I always load the latest RAID driver during Windows installation, the one you need is SATA Floppy Image ver:13.1.0.1058, from your board's download page:

ASRock > Fatal1ty Z97X Killer

Download an unzip that file, and copy the folder or contents of the folder to a USB flash drive, and choose that driver with the Load Driver option during the Windows installation. You must choose the Custom Installation option to get the Load Driver option.

[Invex09]

Re: Setting Up RAID Drivers (ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer)

Thanks for the help! That was the problem, it was my Vertex 2 SSDs. That's weird that the motherboard was reporting the drives as healthy members of the RAID array when I would create the RAID and then wait until a restart to report them as failing. Anyways, thanks again, I didn't know where to look so you saved me a big headache.

[parsec]

Re: Setting Up RAID Drivers (ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer)

Glad I could help, but sorry for the bad news. Ironically, if your Z97 board had an ASMedia or Marvell SATA chipset, you could use the Vertex 2s on those SATA ports.

The SandForce 1200 SSD controller problem with Intel 8 and 9 series chipsets is not well known. I found a statement about this in a thread in the new OCZ SSD forum:

Vertex 2 3.5 issue with new MB - Resolved - OCZ Storage Solutions Support Forum

The problem you had with the Vertex 2' in RAID 0 is exactly what usually happens, the SSDs are not recognized consistently when the PC boots. If they are recognized, they may work fine, until the next boot.

You could use the Vertex 2s with your board if they were mounted in a USB HDD/SSD enclosure, since the problem is limited to the board's Intel SATA interface.