Second hard drive in RAID0 configuration is giving me grief

[digitaldias]

Here is how my screen looks like when this problem occurs. It is always after a cold start:

Serial ATA AHCI BIOS, Version iSrc 1.20E
Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Intel Corporation                     1F
** This version supports only Hard Disk and CDROM drives **
Please wait. This will take a few seconds

Controller BUS#00, Device#1F, Function#02: 06 Ports, 02 Devices
Port-00: Hard Disk, WDC WD1500HLFS-01G6U0
            (Drive is controlled by the RAID BIOS)
Port-01: Hard Disk, 
            (Drive is controlled by the RAID BIOS)
Port-02: No device detected
Port-03: No device detected
Port-04: No device detected 
Port-05: No device detected
AHCI BIOS not installed

I am not sure how, but sometimes, It helps to just do the XpressRecovery on my system. The computer is a no-name brand from Norways largest computer store, it is running a Gigabyte PE35-DS4 motherboard, BIOS has been flashed to F6, the latest I could find. The drives are two 10 000 RPM disks set to run raid0 (I work with large images)

I have had this issue for a long time, leaving my computer on at all time to avoid having to cold start it. I have no idea why the second drive goes missing - once it's up, all verification software I've tried report nothing out of the ordinary.

Could you guys help me figure out what is wrong? should I perhaps set a jumper or so on the hard drives to make them spin up in sync or something? (I read somewhere that AHCI is implied on RAID configurations, which among other things spins up one drive at the time - since these are 10k rpm drives, I speculate that maybe the second drive just takes too long to reach it's RPM)

In advance, thanks for reading, I hope for a quick solution to this, it's been bugging me for 3 years or so now :)

[digitaldias]

Re: Second hard drive in RAID0 configuration is giving me grief

I found and installed BIOS F7b, no avail - problem is the same - the AHCI controller hangs for a while on code 23 before it goes into 1F btw, if that helps you recognize the issue

[wazza300]

Re: Second hard drive in RAID0 configuration is giving me grief

When you flash are you unticking the keep dmi pool data box just before you flash? If not try that,try setting hdd delay to 0,any firmware updates for your drives?

[Chike]

Re: Second hard drive in RAID0 configuration is giving me grief

Maybe it doesn't take it long to reach it's rpm but takes it long to be ready for whatever reason.
How long does it take it to work properly?

[Acebmxer]

Re: Second hard drive in RAID0 configuration is giving me grief

Just putting my 2 cent in... In you sorta screen shot. You only posted the AHCI part of the boot sequence. Which does show one of the drives half missing. It shows it sees a drive there but not the model. At least the way you drew it out. If this is how it looks what does the Raid portion of the boot sequence show?

Also is it the same drive every time? Have you tried swapping the drives around to see if its the port that is bad?

It could be a compatibility problem with the version of the Raid rom and the drives. Might need a modded bios. (LSD needs to come back from his working vacation) I would make for you but I have no way of testing it.. I have done it for my x58 setup and P45. It should be no difference but I would rather some one more experience at it then me do it for you.

[digitaldias]

Re: Second hard drive in RAID0 configuration is giving me grief

Hi and thank you for your replies, I will try to answer them here:

I have flashed without clearing and also with clearing the data. I have also used the flash tool off a starteable USB drive as well as Qflash utility. Same result.
I have never seen an option to set delays on drives for this BIOS, so I cannot answer that.

The Raid info screen shows, naturally, that there is a member disk missing, and it then proceeds to fail.

It is consistently the second drive that is failing, each and every time. The smarter thing to do would perhaps be to just do a drive image of sorts (not sure how), then ditch the raid and live happily ever after, but I have never tried to back up a start up disk and not have it fail - if you know good software to do this, please share :)

[Chike]

Re: Second hard drive in RAID0 configuration is giving me grief

Delay For HDD is usually in Advanced BIOS Features after irtualization Technology.
The manual doesn't show it for this board though.

[Acebmxer]

Re: Second hard drive in RAID0 configuration is giving me grief

Hi and thank you for your replies, I will try to answer them here:

I have flashed without clearing and also with clearing the data. I have also used the flash tool off a starteable USB drive as well as Qflash utility. Same result.
I have never seen an option to set delays on drives for this BIOS, so I cannot answer that.

The Raid info screen shows, naturally, that there is a member disk missing, and it then proceeds to fail.

It is consistently the second drive that is failing, each and every time. The smarter thing to do would perhaps be to just do a drive image of sorts (not sure how), then ditch the raid and live happily ever after, but I have never tried to back up a start up disk and not have it fail - if you know good software to do this, please share :)

These are your boot drives or storge drives or both? You can try using Acronis True Image. That will make a back up. If this is a failing drive I just when through this my self. I lost a 1.5tb WD green drive. and about 1tb of data.

Download HwiNFO32. This program can read S.M.A.R.T info from the hdd's in raid config. See if the second drive is showing errors.

If you can get that data off the drives (even if its just the data and not the OS) Try swapping the drives around and see if Drive 1 continues to fail and not drive 2. Could be sata port that is bad or cable and not the hdd.