Disks APPEAR Missing But AREN'T on X79S-UP5-WIFI

[RootWyrm]

Gigabyte support has been worse than useless with this issue, so maybe one or more of you have seen it. Because I can honestly say I haven't.

Here's the setup.
Marvell (G-SATA): Disable
Intel C606 SATA: Enable, RAID
Intel C606 SAS: Enable, non-RAID

Disk Layout:

Intel C606 SATA:	SATA3.0: HGST 1TB 7200 (Array01)
	SATA3.1: HGST 1TB 7200 (Array01)
	SATA2.0: HGST 1TB 7200 (Array01)
	SATA2.1: HGST 1TB 7200 (Array01)
	SATA2.2: HGST 1TB 7200 (Array01)
	SATA2.3: No Device
Intel C606 SAS:
	SAS0: Crucial M500 SSD
	SAS1: Crucial M500 SSD
	SAS2: STEC SSD
	SAS3: STEC SSD
	SAS4 through SAS7: No Device

Now, this is well, well within the C606's and X79S-UP5-WIFI's capabilities to run even factoring in the OROM issues. G-SATA and PXE to disable and life is good.

Windows Setup absolutely cannot find the disk controllers or the disks with RAID enabled. ANY of the disks. Not the RAID set, not the SAS attached SSDs, nothing. Immediately I suspected it was an F6 driver issue, grabbed my USB drive full of F6 drivers, went down the whole list. 12.8.6.1016 is loading as signed and OK, but not finding the disks. Any of them. Not a single one. (Windows 7 Ultimate SP1, x64.)

Suspecting an RSTe issue I've run into before with STECs, I broke out my trusty instrumented FreeBSD boot stick and cranked things up.
Cue lack of surprise as FreeBSD finds not only the controllers just fine, but all of the disks and GEOM properly identifies and confirms the array as being in the UNINITIALIZED state. It is not any of the RSTe issues. I also confirmed that I'm able to write to and read from all the disks in other OSes.

Fine, maybe it's a stupid BIOS issue. Well, one, F4 bricked a second board. GREAT JOB THERE, GIGABYTE. No reports my &*$#@. Second, every single BIOS is exhibiting identical behavior from F3 through F4 and F5a. And as if that's not weird enough? If I set the SATA to AHCI mode, it detects all the SATA disks just fine but none of the SAS disks. Try it with the Shrike F4v's installation ISO (which is setup for SAS w/RAID5 enabled) and it has the same results - cannot see anything on SAS, cannot see anything on RSTe RAID, sees only SATA.
Even if I was only getting a partial (SATA present, SAS missing or vice versa) I'd obviously being some disks rather than no disks. Or I wouldn't see the disks when it's in AHCI mode. But that is not the case.

And obviously if it was a controller fault, I wouldn't see any of the disks or I'd see partial results in other OSes. Nope - the disks and controllers are just fine. If it was a screwup on my part in the F6 integration, I'd see the same symptoms on a working system. Also negative results there - disks show fine. DriverQuery confirms that the F6 drivers for everything are loaded - Chipset, Controller, Network, all check out green. I have played with the BIOS and settings FAR more than any sane man should, with no progress or success. Behavior absolutely does not change.

I am at wit's end on this one. It has got to be something in Windows setup obviously, but what the hell is it?

[RootWyrm]

Re: Disks APPEAR Missing But AREN'T on X79S-UP5-WIFI

Yes, yes, bad form but needs a fresh post to keep things coherent.

Just on a random hunch, I grabbed my Windows 7 RTM base and applied the usual magic to it. Suddenly, disks magically appear! ALL the disks! Cue "WTF?!"
Rip out SCU F6, try again with 7 SP1. No love. Rip out SCU F6, try 7 RTM, only missing SAS.
Okay, so SP1 is broken. Let's figure out how broken. Rip F6 drivers out of the WIM, put them on separate USB. First load, no dice. Second load, they work. Full power cycle with CMOS clear, go through the same steps, it reproduces perfectly. Prior versions (12.8.1.1000, 12.8.4, 12.7.2) exhibit identical behavior.
Maybe it's a load order issue? No, alas, it is not. No order or combination thereof on SP1 media works. At this point I've ruled out everything that isn't SP1. And it's not that the F6 drivers aren't working - it's that they aren't working only on the first load.

It really is the weirdest behavior I have seen in years. Especially since obviously Windows 7 RTM should be far more broken than SP1 as far as F6 drivers.

[ktmchris]

Re: Disks APPEAR Missing But AREN'T on X79S-UP5-WIFI

Gigabyte support has been worse than useless with this issue, so maybe one or more of you have seen it. Because I can honestly say I haven't.

Here's the setup.
Marvell (G-SATA): Disable
Intel C606 SATA: Enable, RAID
Intel C606 SAS: Enable, non-RAID

Disk Layout:

Intel C606 SATA:    SATA3.0: HGST 1TB 7200 (Array01)
    SATA3.1: HGST 1TB 7200 (Array01)
    SATA2.0: HGST 1TB 7200 (Array01)
    SATA2.1: HGST 1TB 7200 (Array01)
    SATA2.2: HGST 1TB 7200 (Array01)
    SATA2.3: No Device
Intel C606 SAS:
    SAS0: Crucial M500 SSD
    SAS1: Crucial M500 SSD
    SAS2: STEC SSD
    SAS3: STEC SSD
    SAS4 through SAS7: No Device

Now, this is well, well within the C606's and X79S-UP5-WIFI's capabilities to run even factoring in the OROM issues. G-SATA and PXE to disable and life is good.

Windows Setup absolutely cannot find the disk controllers or the disks with RAID enabled. ANY of the disks. Not the RAID set, not the SAS attached SSDs, nothing. Immediately I suspected it was an F6 driver issue, grabbed my USB drive full of F6 drivers, went down the whole list. 12.8.6.1016 is loading as signed and OK, but not finding the disks. Any of them. Not a single one. (Windows 7 Ultimate SP1, x64.)

Suspecting an RSTe issue I've run into before with STECs, I broke out my trusty instrumented FreeBSD boot stick and cranked things up.
Cue lack of surprise as FreeBSD finds not only the controllers just fine, but all of the disks and GEOM properly identifies and confirms the array as being in the UNINITIALIZED state. It is not any of the RSTe issues. I also confirmed that I'm able to write to and read from all the disks in other OSes.

Fine, maybe it's a stupid BIOS issue. Well, one, F4 bricked a second board. GREAT JOB THERE, GIGABYTE. No reports my &*$#@. Second, every single BIOS is exhibiting identical behavior from F3 through F4 and F5a. And as if that's not weird enough? If I set the SATA to AHCI mode, it detects all the SATA disks just fine but none of the SAS disks. Try it with the Shrike F4v's installation ISO (which is setup for SAS w/RAID5 enabled) and it has the same results - cannot see anything on SAS, cannot see anything on RSTe RAID, sees only SATA.
Even if I was only getting a partial (SATA present, SAS missing or vice versa) I'd obviously being some disks rather than no disks. Or I wouldn't see the disks when it's in AHCI mode. But that is not the case.

And obviously if it was a controller fault, I wouldn't see any of the disks or I'd see partial results in other OSes. Nope - the disks and controllers are just fine. If it was a screwup on my part in the F6 integration, I'd see the same symptoms on a working system. Also negative results there - disks show fine. DriverQuery confirms that the F6 drivers for everything are loaded - Chipset, Controller, Network, all check out green. I have played with the BIOS and settings FAR more than any sane man should, with no progress or success. Behavior absolutely does not change.

I am at wit's end on this one. It has got to be something in Windows setup obviously, but what the hell is it?

What is this Shrike F4V installation ISO? I'm assuming that you have put in an altered system bios, which has enabled the RAID5 capabilities of C606 SAS. Are you sure you are not dealing with artifacts of this bios?

Personally, when building custom WIM's for installation, I find that some drivers just wont co-exist with others in the pre-boot environment. I've discovered this mostly with creating custom USB 3.0 boot sticks for Win7.

Where did you get this RAID5 enabled F4V bios? I have the same board and was wondering if someone had attempted this.

KTM Chris

[RootWyrm]

Re: Disks APPEAR Missing But AREN'T on X79S-UP5-WIFI

What is this Shrike F4V installation ISO? I'm assuming that you have put in an altered system bios, which has enabled the RAID5 capabilities of C606 SAS. Are you sure you are not dealing with artifacts of this bios?

Personally, when building custom WIM's for installation, I find that some drivers just wont co-exist with others in the pre-boot environment. I've discovered this mostly with creating custom USB 3.0 boot sticks for Win7.

Where did you get this RAID5 enabled F4V bios? I have the same board and was wondering if someone had attempted this.

KTM Chris

No. This was on a stock board, one which is going back to the vendor for a full refund as manufacturer defect. I am beyond tired of fighting with Gigabyte's anti-customer idiots claiming to be tech support. The F4 release BIOS is completely broken. Don't believe me? Turn off full screen logo show, which is supposed to present boot information. Yep. Like I said: Official F4 release BIOS is broken beyond redemption. It's one of -six- boards now going back as defective or falsely advertised, all getting full refunds, to be replaced with another manufacturer entirely.

And no, this is not a co-existence issue. I have been doing this for many, many years. I thought it was an issue with the SCU INF since it follows new Windows 8 recommended format, but it is not. At this point, I've ruled the affected board as defective from factory. It was exhibiting signal dropouts on SCU A+B under load, which is probably root cause. Apparently nobody bothered to QC any of the SAS or SATA ports.

As far as the F4v variant, I'm not at liberty to say where I got it nor do I have rights to redistribute it. (Also, you can't flash it without an SPI flasher and a clip anyway.) Frankly, every penny put into trying to use these boards was a waste of money though. Determined that the F4 release BIOS is so badly broken that it is impossible to repeat; even before factoring the uncorrectable design defects.