• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Trouble installing windows 7 on RAID in UEFI

Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
System Name Hal
Processor AMD A8 6600K
Motherboard Asus A88x-Pro
Cooling Custom water
Memory 16GB Gskill Trident-x @2400MHz
Video Card(s) 2x EVGA GTX 790 SCC
Storage Samsung Evo 840 M-Sata
Case Corsair 900D
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Benchmark Scores TBD
As the title says, I'm trying to install Windows on a RAID array in uefi on my Maximus V Formula. When using legacy ROM I can install just fine but I go into CSM and change settings to UEFI only, I can build the array in the UEFI Raid driver (IRST tab in "BIOS") but the array does not show up in the boot menu and when I try to install windows (boot from UEFI DVD drive), The drive does not show up in the Windows install. The next thing I tried was to enable UEFI and legacy oprom in CSM, boot from UEFI DVD drive and install to the RAID array (probably detected by legacy oprom) and it will install. After first reboot, Windows Boot manager will show up as an option in the BIOS boot menu so I set that as first boot device and reboot. I will get to the starting windows screen and then BSOD (too quick to get codes) The last thing I tried was Changing to legacy mode and installing windows to a different drive. once installed, I initialized the Raid array as GPT and rebooted, changed csm back to UEFI only but they RAID array still doesn't show in the boot device list so I repeated the earlier process hoping that It might work because I had initialized as GPT but it still BSODs on starting windows screen. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2013
Messages
954 (0.25/day)
Location
Cumberland Plateau
System Name EVGA-FX | Lenny (Lenovo Y480)
Processor AMD FX-8320 @ 4.5GHz 1.416v | i7 3610qm
Motherboard Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0
Cooling Phanteks PH-TC14PE
Memory 2x4GB Corsair Vengeance @ 1600 | 8gb DDR3 @ 1600
Video Card(s) EVGA GTX780 Classified @ 1228MHz 1.615v | GT640m LE
Storage Crucial M500 480GB, WD Caviar Blue 500GB, WD Scorpio Blue 750GB | Samsung 250GB 840
Display(s) Qnix QX2710 1440p | 42" Vizio 3D LCD TV 1080p
Case CoolerMaster HAF XB Evo
Power Supply Seasonic G-650
Software Windows 6.3.9600
As the title says, I'm trying to install Windows on a RAID array in uefi on my Maximus V Formula. When using legacy ROM I can install just fine but I go into CSM and change settings to UEFI only, I can build the array in the UEFI Raid driver (IRST tab in "BIOS") but the array does not show up in the boot menu and when I try to install windows (boot from UEFI DVD drive), The drive does not show up in the Windows install. The next thing I tried was to enable UEFI and legacy oprom in CSM, boot from UEFI DVD drive and install to the RAID array (probably detected by legacy oprom) and it will install. After first reboot, Windows Boot manager will show up as an option in the BIOS boot menu so I set that as first boot device and reboot. I will get to the starting windows screen and then BSOD (too quick to get codes) The last thing I tried was Changing to legacy mode and installing windows to a different drive. once installed, I initialized the Raid array as GPT and rebooted, changed csm back to UEFI only but they RAID array still doesn't show in the boot device list so I repeated the earlier process hoping that It might work because I had initialized as GPT but it still BSODs on starting windows screen. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

I think you were on track with your first try. Windows installer probably needs the RAID driver in order to detect it on install.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
System Name Hal
Processor AMD A8 6600K
Motherboard Asus A88x-Pro
Cooling Custom water
Memory 16GB Gskill Trident-x @2400MHz
Video Card(s) 2x EVGA GTX 790 SCC
Storage Samsung Evo 840 M-Sata
Case Corsair 900D
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Benchmark Scores TBD
yup, tried that using the drivers from asus and from intel. still didn't detect the drive. Is it possible that there are different drivers for uefi vs legacy raid?
 

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
13,147 (2.96/day)
Location
Concord, NH, USA
System Name Apollo
Processor Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory 64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage 1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s) Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s) AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply 96w Power Adapter
Mouse Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software MacOS 12.1
yup, tried that using the drivers from asus and from intel. still didn't detect the drive. Is it possible that there are different drivers for uefi vs legacy raid?

Absolutely not. Running RAID on X79 worked exactly as it did on the nForce 4 when I had a Phenom II. There is only one driver, but you need to make sure to grab the right one. Most RAID devices have a special bare-bone RAID driver you can use for Windows installations.

I'm assuming you're using the Z87 PCH to handle RAID?

Edit: I'm assuming you're using the PCH. You should be able to download the RAID drivers here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...=2101&DwnldID=23060&keyword=RST+RAID&lang=eng

Keep in mind that you want "f6flpy-x64.zip" which contains the installation RAID driver for Windows. You should be able to load that up to a flash drive and be good to go.

Edit 2: I'm also assuming you're using 64-bit Windows. :)
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
System Name Hal
Processor AMD A8 6600K
Motherboard Asus A88x-Pro
Cooling Custom water
Memory 16GB Gskill Trident-x @2400MHz
Video Card(s) 2x EVGA GTX 790 SCC
Storage Samsung Evo 840 M-Sata
Case Corsair 900D
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Benchmark Scores TBD
I use "raid driver disk" files I downloaded from the asus website. extracted to a thumb drive. When I try to install in legacy mode, windows will see the array without even having to load the drivers but when I boot in uefi mode, nothing, even after loading the drivers.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
System Name Hal
Processor AMD A8 6600K
Motherboard Asus A88x-Pro
Cooling Custom water
Memory 16GB Gskill Trident-x @2400MHz
Video Card(s) 2x EVGA GTX 790 SCC
Storage Samsung Evo 840 M-Sata
Case Corsair 900D
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Benchmark Scores TBD
just saw your edit. I have tried those drivers and the ones from the asus site (I believe they are the same thing) with no luck. And yes, I am installing 64bit windows 7.
 

freaksavior

To infinity ... and beyond!
Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Messages
8,095 (1.28/day)
System Name ZeroUptime | M.A.S.S / MM1
Processor Xeon 2659 v3 / Xeon 2683 v4 / ARM A14
Motherboard Asus X99-E-10G WS / ASRock x99 usb 3.1 / Apple
Cooling NZXT Kraken / Noctua NH-L12 / Apple
Memory 16Gb DDR4 / 32Gb DDR4 / 16GB HBLM
Video Card(s) Powercooler ATI vega 64 / GT 7300 / ARM
Storage Samsung 970 512 Evo NVMe / A lot. / 256 + 512 External TB3
Display(s) Acer Predator X34 / Headless / Acer X34 Non predator
Case NZXT H630 |Rosewill 8bay 4u server chasiss / MMM1
Audio Device(s) Onboard / Onboard / Onboard
Power Supply Corais HX850 | Corsair TX750 / Internal 250w
Mouse g502 proteus core / Headless / g502 proteus core
Keyboard Corsair K95 Cherry Blue / Headless / K65 Cherry Red
Software Windows 10 / ESXI / Big Sur 11.2.2
Read the manual. It will tell you which driver to load.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
System Name Hal
Processor AMD A8 6600K
Motherboard Asus A88x-Pro
Cooling Custom water
Memory 16GB Gskill Trident-x @2400MHz
Video Card(s) 2x EVGA GTX 790 SCC
Storage Samsung Evo 840 M-Sata
Case Corsair 900D
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Benchmark Scores TBD
Read the manual. It will tell you which driver to load.

With all due respect, this is not helpful, and actually, it doesn't. in fact, I pretty positive it's not a driver issue at all. I believe it is an issue with raid in uefi.
 

freaksavior

To infinity ... and beyond!
Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Messages
8,095 (1.28/day)
System Name ZeroUptime | M.A.S.S / MM1
Processor Xeon 2659 v3 / Xeon 2683 v4 / ARM A14
Motherboard Asus X99-E-10G WS / ASRock x99 usb 3.1 / Apple
Cooling NZXT Kraken / Noctua NH-L12 / Apple
Memory 16Gb DDR4 / 32Gb DDR4 / 16GB HBLM
Video Card(s) Powercooler ATI vega 64 / GT 7300 / ARM
Storage Samsung 970 512 Evo NVMe / A lot. / 256 + 512 External TB3
Display(s) Acer Predator X34 / Headless / Acer X34 Non predator
Case NZXT H630 |Rosewill 8bay 4u server chasiss / MMM1
Audio Device(s) Onboard / Onboard / Onboard
Power Supply Corais HX850 | Corsair TX750 / Internal 250w
Mouse g502 proteus core / Headless / g502 proteus core
Keyboard Corsair K95 Cherry Blue / Headless / K65 Cherry Red
Software Windows 10 / ESXI / Big Sur 11.2.2
With all due respect, this is not helpful, and actually, it doesn't. in fact, I pretty positive it's not a driver issue at all. I believe it is an issue with raid in uefi.

I wasn't trying to be a jerk or anything, I had this issue with mine and i simply checked the manual for installation, it told me which drivers to load up. :ohwell:
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
System Name Hal
Processor AMD A8 6600K
Motherboard Asus A88x-Pro
Cooling Custom water
Memory 16GB Gskill Trident-x @2400MHz
Video Card(s) 2x EVGA GTX 790 SCC
Storage Samsung Evo 840 M-Sata
Case Corsair 900D
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Benchmark Scores TBD
I wasn't trying to be a jerk or anything, I had this issue with mine and i simply checked the manual for installation, it told me which drivers to load up. :ohwell:

Sorry, wasn't sure. I do appreciate the help. I've been trying to track down answers to this issue for a couple weeks now and I am coming up with nothing. it's very frustrating.
 

Kent_Diego

New Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2012
Messages
5 (0.00/day)
Need UEFI Boot Device

You normally cannot install UEFI from a DVD/CD-ROM drive or with the Windows DVD. If you Google around you will find how to make a special Windows UEFI install USB thumb drive. Set your BIOS to only UEFI. Unless you see a boot device with name starting "UEFI" you are screwed and will only be able to install using BIOS and not UEFI.
You will need two USB thumb drives. One for Windows and one for the Intel RST drivers. If your drives are over 2 TB you will need to format to GPT. If you search Youtube for this you will find a video by me with instructions.
 

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
26,259 (4.65/day)
Location
IA, USA
System Name BY-2021
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory 2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard Tesoro Excalibur
Software Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.
I point you here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167245

As far as I know, Windows can only be installed on GPT via UEFI if Windows is booted by a USB device (thumb stick, USB DVD drive, etc.). SATA DVD drives did not work for me. Windows setup is not obvious about if it is running on UEFI or BIOS. The only way to be sure is that, under BIOS, Windows will refuse to install on GPT.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
System Name Hal
Processor AMD A8 6600K
Motherboard Asus A88x-Pro
Cooling Custom water
Memory 16GB Gskill Trident-x @2400MHz
Video Card(s) 2x EVGA GTX 790 SCC
Storage Samsung Evo 840 M-Sata
Case Corsair 900D
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Benchmark Scores TBD
in my boot menu, the dvd shows up twice. Once as normal, and once with the UEFI before it. I have tried installing from the uefi cd drive but it still doesnt see the array. I will try the thumb drive idea. The array is 2 120GB ssd's (240GB). do you know if i still need to format GPT for drives under 2TB?
 

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
26,259 (4.65/day)
Location
IA, USA
System Name BY-2021
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory 2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard Tesoro Excalibur
Software Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.
The advantage of UEFI and GPT is faster boot times. You don't need to use GPT, no. You don't even need to use UEFI.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
System Name Hal
Processor AMD A8 6600K
Motherboard Asus A88x-Pro
Cooling Custom water
Memory 16GB Gskill Trident-x @2400MHz
Video Card(s) 2x EVGA GTX 790 SCC
Storage Samsung Evo 840 M-Sata
Case Corsair 900D
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Benchmark Scores TBD
The advantage of UEFI and GPT is faster boot times. You don't need to use GPT, no. You don't even need to use UEFI.

True. Based on what I've seen, boot times are much faster, especially when using raid. Boot time is one of the reasons why I want this to work. The other is, I just don't like being defeated by my pc. I'm currently ripping my windows disk to an iso to set up the thumb drive. I'll update with how things go.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
System Name Hal
Processor AMD A8 6600K
Motherboard Asus A88x-Pro
Cooling Custom water
Memory 16GB Gskill Trident-x @2400MHz
Video Card(s) 2x EVGA GTX 790 SCC
Storage Samsung Evo 840 M-Sata
Case Corsair 900D
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Benchmark Scores TBD
Set up the thumb drive, changed CSM options to UEFI only and booted to windows setup from the thumb drive. Setup didn't see the raid array so I loaded the RAID drivers (I tried the drivers from asus and the ones from intel) and still no luck. Any other suggestions?
 

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
13,147 (2.96/day)
Location
Concord, NH, USA
System Name Apollo
Processor Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory 64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage 1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s) Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s) AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply 96w Power Adapter
Mouse Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software MacOS 12.1

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
26,259 (4.65/day)
Location
IA, USA
System Name BY-2021
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory 2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard Tesoro Excalibur
Software Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.
Set up the thumb drive, changed CSM options to UEFI only and booted to windows setup from the thumb drive. Setup didn't see the raid array so I loaded the RAID drivers (I tried the drivers from asus and the ones from intel) and still no luck. Any other suggestions?
Did you follow the guide I linked you to? If the volume doesn't show up after doing the list disk command, then you have a problem (drivers don't support GPT, RAID array improperly configured, booted via BIOS instead of UEFI, etc.). If it does, you're good to go. I remember when I did it (it was RAID0), I didn't trust the setup user interface at all until I finished working with diskpart and refreshed. Once I refreshed, the setup user interface caught up to speed (even so, it only showed 2 out of the 3 required partitions for GPT).

It not working the way you expect it to may actually mean it is working the way it should under EFI/GPT.


Edit: Someone else had a similar problem as you are and found no solution. I suspect there might be a lot of poser motherboards out there that pretend to support GPT from UEFI but fail at it. I did my GPT install on an MSI board. MSI was the among the first manufacturers to fully adapt UEFI so they've had ample time to work out the bugs before I tried it (even then, there's quite a few).
 
Last edited:
Top