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[wetfit9]

I would like to set up RAID0 using WD V/Raptor 600gb SATA 3 drives. What do I need to do to set them up as my boot drive. I know I have to set up the RAID in the BIOS. But wonder are there anything other then that I need to do to make this my boot drive. I will be running windows 7 64bit. I am talking about on a X58A-UD5 rev 2 board.

Running
i7 980x cpu
Corsair Dominator's 2000mHz Ram
Meg. CPU cooler
Coarsair 1000HX PSU
5870 Vapor X in Crossfire

[Lsdmeasap]

I would like to set up RAID0 using WD V/Raptor 600gb SATA 3 drives. What do I need to do to set them up as my boot drive. I know I have to set up the RAID in the BIOS. But wonder are there anything other then that I need to do to make this my boot drive. I will be running windows 7 64bit. I am talking about on a X58A-UD5 rev 2 board.

Running
i7 980x cpu
Corsair Dominator's 2000mHz Ram
Meg. CPU cooler
Coarsair 1000HX PSU
5870 Vapor X in Crossfire

That may not turn out as good as you like, the Marvell controller is not the greatest at handling RAID, or SSD's under heavy loads, so it may freeze up or "Stutter" on you. I have only tested and noticed this with Single and RAID'd SSD's though, not sure if that would happen with mechanical drives or not - you could test and let us know

Setting up a RAID on those ports would be the same as the Intel ports, create the array in the BIOS by entering the Marvell RAID BIOS in the Integrated Peripherals page, then install windows using the Marvell RAID Driver.

Nothing much to do different than an Intel RAID, after you create your array in the BIOS F10 and reboot back to the BIOS and move the array to the top of the hard disk boot priority then install windows using the Marvell RAID Driver
ftp://download.gigabyte.ru/driver/mo...ootdisk_64.exe

Thanks for your answer !

To be 100% sure, I did a new setup of all, respecting the advices you pointed out to me. And I was lucky this time - stable booting, independent, if any removable HDD was in- or outside the SATA-rack. I stressed it in several ways, to be sure.

Just one strange behaviour/problem is still permanently occuring:

My new, actual setup with removable HDDs inside the racks is only working, if I connect the SATA mobile-racks to the ICH10. If I connect the racks to one of the 4 Gigabyte SATA-ports (Jmicron), then the PC searches for about 2 minutes for any drives on that ports and then finally displaying the message "no any drive found". And that's definitively wrong, because all harddiscs work very fine at ICH10, now. (In former test-situations with other hardware-setup on that board, the Gigabyte ports recognised HDDs well, means they're not damaged.)

In the BIOS I set both gigabyte ports to "port multiplier/normal mode" (not RAID, or other) and AHCI-mode, because each removable HDD should be independent from the other.

It's really strange, why these ports now dont see my removable HDDs, maybe you have a clue for me or what I can do, or what's wrong there ?!

Many thanks,
Mike

To connect the drives to the Gigabyte ports you will need to install the proper AHCI Drivers if you want them to be removable, and set the BIOS for those ports to AHCI.

No "Port Multiplier" Setting should be needed, only AHCI.

Although I just looked at your BIOS and remembered after a certain # BIOS (Can't remember which), these ports only function as RAID 0/1 and 2/3. So normal Port Multiplier is still RAID mode it looks like to me.

They might function if you do not set anything for those settings in the BIOS, can you disable RAID and set IDE still or just RAID modes? If you can leave them in non RAID no drivers would be needed and it would be IDE mode, but hot-swap would not have a safely remove icon meaning you would have to remove disks using the device manager.

There was a big fuss over these changes to RAID backup only a while ago when this board came out, so I think it may only be the first few BIOSes that allowed a non RAID use of these ports, and those BIOSes may not support your CPU so be careful if you start trying older BIOSes.

If you need me to I can dig up the old threads for you, let me know

[wetfit9]

The Marvell driver you used, were they the one that came with the board or the updated ones.

[Lsdmeasap]

The drivers I linked are the updated ones I believe.

Ohh, you meant in my testing, yes that was with updated drivers and/or no Marvell drivers (IE: MS drivers) in cases where I only used single SSD's. Like I said though that may only happen with SSD's, that is all I have used on those ports, but it is a widely known issue with SSD's on all motherboards using the Marvell 9128 chipsets. Which is all of the boards that allow RAID with SATA 6Gb/s, and that may also apply to single SSD's on boards with 9123 chipsets that do not allow RAID.

Try it out with your normal drives and let us know if you experience any issues.

[wetfit9]

Thanks for the quick reply, I will set up and test and let you know. To be sure I am on the right track and not to F**K things up.

Set the RAID up in the BIOS, save, move the hard drive up to the top of the boot list. Install windows. download the updated drivers.
Thanks again for your help and I will post back in a couple of days and let you know.

[Lsdmeasap]

Thanks for your testing, I know you wanted to setup this way anyway so it should be an easy test for you to do. Hopefully it will be ok and you can leave it like that, and then just let us know it's fine with mechanical hard drives.

Yeap, setup RAID in BIOS then save and reboot back to the BIOS. Then move RAID array to the top of the hard disk boot priority, then save F10 and install windows using the Marvell RAID/AHCI Driver linked above.

No need to update drivers or install any others after that, you will be good to go.

K, good luck with the install and let us know how things go, thanks!

[wetfit9]

Thanks for your testing, I know you wanted to setup this way anyway so it should be an easy test for you to do. Hopefully it will be ok and you can leave it like that, and then just let us know it's fine with mechanical hard drives.

Yeap, setup RAID in BIOS then save and reboot back to the BIOS. Then move RAID array to the top of the hard disk boot priority, then save F10 and install windows using the Marvell RAID/AHCI Driver linked above.

No need to update drivers or install any others after that, you will be good to go.

K, good luck with the install and let us know how things go, thanks!

then save F10 and install windows using the Marvell RAID/AHCI Driver linked above. That is where I am getting confused. I cannot download that link until I am in windows, but you install windows using the link. I am thinking install windows as I normally would off the CD and then download the link or am I missing something.

[Lsdmeasap]

Download it now, then put the extracted files on a USB stick. Then when you are installing windows 7, where you select the disk, choose advanced options/load drivers and browse to your USB Stick with the drivers.

[wetfit9]

I am a little slow today, thanks, I will report back in a couple days.

[Lsdmeasap]

No problem, I only chuckled for a second I promise