ASUS M4A79XTD EVO RAID problem

[Senupe]

Hello guys.

I need some help from you as i've been stucked with my project.
I recently bought a NEW pair of these Western Digital WD5000AAKX-00ERMA0 and an A-DATA Premiere Pro SP900 to use the SSD as OS drive and the HDDs for RAID 0 to be used as storage for games and files.

I'm using an ASUS M4A79XTD EVO but none of my efforts have been fruitful. I must clarify my board have two different controllers for the SATA Ports: 1-4 Southbridge, and 5-6 Marvell controller. The problem starts as every time i set the board at RAID usage the drives don't recognize anymore (none of them independently of the port i'm using). If i want to be able to boot even from my SSD i have to connect it to the ports 5 or 6 and then set this to IDE Mode (already installed the OS in the SSD on AHCI mode before starting the RAID).

I made a pair of videos t oshow you what's going on (the quality is awful as it was in the night) and how the problem of recognizing the drives on the board it's solved as i change to AHCI mode; there, everything goes back to be recognized but if i start booting to the OS the following message after post appears "S.M.A.R.T. cappable but command failed" on the ports i have the HDDs and that delays the boot as long as 5 minutes every time i need to turn on the PC.

Also if i set RAID mode and try to boot on the RAID manager no drives are recognized and the options are locked.

The HDDS are NEW i got them packaged and just tried to use them. I would appreciate any help you can give me (the HDDs have warranty if i need to change them).

Here are the videos:

Video: RAID to AHCI
Video: RAID Manager

 

[ruff0r]

Hello guys.

I need some help from you as i've been stucked with my project.
I recently bought a NEW pair of these Western Digital WD5000AAKX-00ERMA0 and an A-DATA Premiere Pro SP900 to use the SSD as OS drive and the HDDs for RAID 0 to be used as storage for games and files.

I'm using an ASUS M4A79XTD EVO but none of my efforts have been fruitful. I must clarify my board have two different controllers for the SATA Ports: 1-4 Southbridge, and 5-6 Marvell controller. The problem starts as every time i set the board at RAID usage the drives don't recognize anymore (none of them independently of the port i'm using). If i want to be able to boot even from my SSD i have to connect it to the ports 5 or 6 and then set this to IDE Mode (already installed the OS in the SSD on AHCI mode before starting the RAID).

I made a pair of videos t oshow you what's going on (the quality is awful as it was in the night) and how the problem of recognizing the drives on the board it's solved as i change to AHCI mode; there, everything goes back to be recognized but if i start booting to the OS the following message after post appears "S.M.A.R.T. cappable but command failed" on the ports i have the HDDs and that delays the boot as long as 5 minutes every time i need to turn on the PC.

Also if i set RAID mode and try to boot on the RAID manager no drives are recognized and the options are locked.

The HDDS are NEW i got them packaged and just tried to use them. I would appreciate any help you can give me (the HDDs have warranty if i need to change them).

Here are the videos:

Video: RAID to AHCI
Video: RAID Manager

Are you using the latest Bios?
Are you using an USB keyboard? did you try using an PS2 Keyboard when entering the Raid Manager?
Did you try only one hard drive at the time and enter the Raid manager to see if it shows up?
Did you try only the HDD and set up a raid and be able to boot from it?
Also note when you install Windows while using your controller as IDE/AHCI it will use different drivers as the RAID mode and will not be compatible or bootable from previous installations on those Hardrives even when used as single drive.

 

[Senupe]

Are you using the latest Bios?
Are you using an USB keyboard? did you try using an PS2 Keyboard when entering the Raid Manager?
Did you try only one hard drive at the time and enter the Raid manager to see if it shows up?
Did you try only the HDD and set up a raid and be able to boot from it?
Also note when you install Windows while using your controller as IDE/AHCI it will use different drivers as the RAID mode and will not be compatible or bootable from previous installations on those Hardrives even when used as single drive.

Thanks in advance for replying.

1. Yes, i'm using BIOS 2101 (the lastest one listed on the Asus support website here)
2. Yes i'm suing a PS2 Keyboard, the mouse is the one wich works at USB.
3. Nop
4. I'm not trying to boot from the Hard drives, i want to use my SSD as boot drive and then use the RAID 0 devices to storage.
5. I disconnected every single drive except the SSD while installing windows because i knew i would need the AHCI driver if i wanted to run Windows 7 on it and use it as boot drive, so i'm trying to configure this HDDs as RAID but after i installed the OS.

I'm gonna try point 3 and see if the manager shows one drive connected.

 

[ruff0r]

Thanks in advance for replying.

1. Yes, i'm using BIOS 2101 (the lastest one listed on the Asus support website here)
2. Yes i'm suing a PS2 Keyboard, the mouse is the one wich works at USB.
3. Nop
4. I'm not trying to boot from the Hard drives, i want to use my SSD as boot drive and then use the RAID 0 devices to storage.
5. I disconnected every single drive except the SSD while installing windows because i knew i would need the AHCI driver if i wanted to run Windows 7 on it and use it as boot drive, so i'm trying to configure this HDDs as RAID but after i installed the OS.

I'm gonna try point 3 and see if the manager shows one drive connected.

Set your controller to raid install windows on the SSD while having your Raid 0 as well and it should work