RAID 0 on ASUS Rampage IV Extreme detailed help needed

Hi guys I am sorry for double post I know this has been discussed before but believe me I´ve read everything but didn’t succeed on doing RAID 0 between two SSDS (Vertex 3) on ASUS RAMPAGE IV.
If anyone wondering I´ve got my defective board replaced by Amazon and now I got it to work fine, I tried to use the RAID drives that come on Motherboard CD but they didn’t work.
I found this tutorial written by Cisco Guy but I didn’t understand it completely, if anyone could provide some detailed information on how to succeed doing RAID 0 on ASUS RAMPAGE IV I would be glad.
At the moment I am following Cisco Guy tutorial I was able to transfer window to a flash drive but I didn’t find the (RAID Enterprise: Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise Driver) on the version 3017016 F6 I’ve found here http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=20507 a newer version that was reported to work fine but when I try to install it on my computer to get the files transfered to the flash drive I get an error (Your system doesn’t meet the minimum requirements). So I can’t get the files from the A folder as he recommended. I am able to get the drivers package if I transfer them will it work?
On Asus site there is this version V3.0.0.2003 268MB executable there is a drivers folder but I don’t know what I need to transfer to my flash drive in order to raid 0 work http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_2011/Rampage_IV_ExtremeBATTLEFIELD_3/#download
In summary I need to know how to do RAID 0 on ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME
Please try to help me with as much detailed info as possible.


cisco guy [H]ard|Gawd, 9.6 Years

Status:
Quote:
Originally Posted by heelix
One last note. I have one last machine that does not have the BIOS updated. Should I use the 0604 BIOS or pull one that was updated to 0906?
I have abandoned using the Windows DVD, or the mobo CD drivers to install new X79 PC, and its even worse in RAID mode.

Fwiw all ASUS X79 mobo at this minute come with RSTe oprom of 3.0.0.1184 in bios and 3.0.0.1111 or 3.0.0.1112 on mobo CD RSTe driver. The mobo CD drivers will work with ship bios as long as you use the Marvel port to install windows (enable oprom in bios). But if you update bios first you are dead meat with mobo CD RSTe. The 3001111 and 1112 drivers are only avail on CD, the first bug fixed driver is the 3.0.0.2003 on ASUS site for all X79 mobo.
IOW the mobo CD RSTe only works (poorly) with ship bios. And there were a bunch of bugs to fix, including the error you mention!
Intel once again lays out a big fart.

Setting up RAID and installing Win 7 to it makes things even worse.

Thirdly Intel has commenced a parallel intro of two mobo lines - the Romley and the Wiamea bay. You are using WB and Intel brand Xeon Server uses Romly. Romley has working SAS ports and its SCU (SCSI Control Utility)

Nothing SAS has any relevence to your mobo or any enthusiast X79 mobo. These drivers are also on the ASUS mobo CD, and why I dont know. ASRock and GB dont have them.

There have been 3 major RSTe updates from ship:
3002003
3003020
3017016

Ea drivers has the bugfixes of the prior - its cumulative

So heres what you do to insure an error free Win 7 install
You have to start fresh
You have to start fresh
You have to start fresh.
Killdisk (zero fill freeware) any spinner drive for about 5% from DOS boot CD
Secure erase any SSD
Any drive that was previously RAID MUST have the RAID metadata removed (not formatted) by the above routines
If you hhave some RAID compliant mobo you can set RAID and use the reset as non RAID option for the drives

Win 7:
Must use factory embedded SP1, and even better if you have an Win 7 X64 SP1 ISO with the 122 updates already added. And none of that "precracked" warez shit.

You then update bios to latest first before anything.
If the light stays on for a long time you have done something wrong and could fry the chipUpdated bios will not work with mobo CD RSTe 1111 1112

Next gto to Intel site and download 3017016 F6 and post install .exe. You will see "A" versions and "S" versions
Ignore S versions. You want the A F6 X64 only

Then you download freeware wintoflash (latest beta works fine) and make a bootable Win 7 USB 2.0 stick formatted NTFS. If you format FAT32 you will be making GPT. After making the USB you then create a new folder called drivers and dump the F6 X64 A in there. Place the USB in a KNOWN USB 2.0 port in I/O plate and set bios USB to auto. By having add driver folder on USB with Win 7 install you avoid focus problems.

First I would like to thank Cisco guy, without his tutorial I would never have done this.
For those that might be stuck as I was trying to figure whitch ones are the proper drives to be on the flash drive here follows what I´ve done.
1 – On BIOS go to ADVANCED OPTIONS – SATA CONTROLLER – AND CHANGE IT TO RAID
2 – Save & Reboot
3 – Press Ctrl + I
4 – Create the RAID 0 with the drives that you would like
5 – START INSTALLING WINDOWS
6 – IT WONT DETECT ANY HARD DISKS
7 – Click load driver
8 – LOAD THIS DRIVER http://www.mediafire.com/?fv1w5j2fkm5n7yl
9 – NOW IT WILL DETECT ALL HARD DISKS – INSTALL NORMALLY

I, too, am grateful for cisco guy's fantastic posts, but I seem to be having even worse luck than most. My driver installations always dead end at the message: "To continue installation, use the Load Driver option to install 32-bit and signed 64-bit drivers. Installing an unsigned 64-pit driver is not supported and might result in an unusa le windows installation." I have tried every version of the drivers available from Asus, Asrock, Intel, and the link posted in the message above. The only drivers I have not tried are those specified in cisco guy's tutorial, which are not available on intel's download site. Every driver triggers the same message when I try to install.

MTFatboy3006 said:

I, too, am grateful for cisco guy's fantastic posts, but I seem to be having even worse luck than most. My driver installations always dead end at the message: "To continue installation, use the Load Driver option to install 32-bit and signed 64-bit drivers. Installing an unsigned 64-pit driver is not supported and might result in an unusa le windows installation." I have tried every version of the drivers available from Asus, Asrock, Intel, and the link posted in the message above. The only drivers I have not tried are those specified in cisco guy's tutorial, which are not available on intel's download site. Every driver triggers the same message when I try to install.

Click to expand...

Try the driver I posted on step 8 mediafire link. (worked for me w/o problems).

addenda:

-3017016 has been pulled by Intel - it is gone from the internet
-The mediafire download given is for (up to) 3003020 which installs as 3003011 in dev man
-The R4E has later bios oprom than other mobo like the X79 Deluxe, so, depending on each particular config you may get unsigned X64 drivers error, no install with 3003020. If so you can force them by installing with 3002003, then go to Win 7 DVD and repair your computer, wait till it finds\highlights the install and use "add drivers" option at bottom (browse to F6 files on USB stick - iaAHCI.inf or iaStorA.inf [raid]) with 3003020

Edit: just saw other post
You didnt give mobo and bios info
RAID or AHCI?
You must use Win 7 with SP1 already embedded by MS

Just noticed on Intel site they have a newer 3003020 dated 2-26-2012, but same .inf
PBG is Plattsburg chipset family
Do a search at Intel download center for RSTe
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...40&keyword=RSTe&DownloadType=Drivers&lang=eng
I wonder if this one is signed

My mediafire upload has the txtsetup.oem file


I am also wondering if disabling DEP in bios helps
Do a "find" in your mobo PDF for "execute" (disable bit) and make sure disabled

I actually posted inaccurately, since the thread is about the Rampage IV Extreme and my motherboard is the Maximus IV Extreme, the x79 board. I have the i7 3930k processor, 32GB Corsair Vengeance RAM, Two Corsair Force GT 120GB in RAID 0, and two spinners I want to run as a data disk in Raid 1. I would try forgoing RAID altogether, but 120GB will be too small for my C drive. I will try the more recent driver link you posted, although I think I tried it once, and I will try disabling DEP

You have too much RAM for setting up your mobo
I always use 2 sticks of el cheapo 1333 1.5V in D1 B1 (NOT same color on Formula!!)

>Need to know RSTe oprom showing in upper right of Intel RAID controller screen (hit pause key to hold it) (force bios in boot tab)
3.0.0.1184?

>Need to know bios you have now

Also if one or both SSD you want for O/S had any RAID before, you must remove them as volumes in Cntrl-I to get rid of metadata, they both must show as normal before RAIDING. Also must have dif ser #'s. In any case, if previously used, should be secure erased

I assume you know if you are using a FAT32 USB stick with Win 7 and AHCI drivers, you will be making a GPT drive - must be NTFS for MSDOS MBR. And dont use USB 3.0 stick or port or a case USB port - you have no drivers loaded. You ARE using USB stick with Win 7 and drivers - right??

I seem to have searched myself stupid looking for drivers. My mobo is, of course, the Rampage, not the Maximus.

I don't have any cheapo ram, but I could try stripping down what I have. The computer was actually assembled by an online retailer, but it crashed almost immediately, and I am in a position to have to solve the issue myself. I erased all of the discs and started with fresh RAID

oprom is 3.0.0.1184

am actually using SD card instead of USB stick; I didn't have 4gigs or more of jump drive sitting around, and I am 60 miles of gravel or 120 of highway from any place to get one. (Thus not sending pc back to vendor). MOBO seems all right booting from card reader, but format may be an issue. Newest wintozip beta did not allow NTFS, only FAT 16 or FAT 32. If this doesn't work, I'll have to download older versions until I find one that does. Install begins fine, though, it just doesn't get far.

pdf reader did not find any occurences in the mobo manual of execution, execut, DEP, or any other permutation I could think to query. Google's closest match to disable dep in rampage iv extreme bios was your post (#5). I'll sit up tonight with the paper manual, but I'm not optimistic.

Windows setup shows no compatible drivers in the Feb 26 package from intel and hides 19 incompatible. Hopefully better luck tomorrow. Starting to regret paying more and waiting longer for the 3630k rather than an amd cpu

O.K. I think I got it
Maximus IV Extreme is not X79
You sent us on a wild goose chase - lol
You need intel 11.1.0.1006 (or earlier)
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=20984
sheesh

I apologize; I have been reading so many forums I confused myself. My motherboard is the Rampage IV Extreme, not the Maximus. I also called wintoflash wintozip.

Is there a way to force an unsigned driver during windows seven installation?

Alternatively, can I combine SSDs in a single volume without raid 0?

you can force an unsigned driver AFTER Win 7 install using repair your computer which I mentioned above.
You are going to have to get a damn USB stick
No you cant make a single vol on 2 drives without RAID
Third time - what bios?
You aint makin this easy
You only been on forum 1 day - this isnt a spooferoo is it?

No, this is legit, and I usually communicate much more clearly

oprom is 3.0.0.1184

BIOS Version 0803 x64

O.K. You have the ship bios which is NFG
You need to flash to 1101
ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/asus/mb/LGA2011/Rampage_IV_Extreme/

Now you can flash bios with system off
You download the bios and RENAME it to R4E.rom
Then you put it on USB 2.0 stick and put it there naked by itself/no folder in the root.
Then you stick your USB FAT32 stick in the correct white port in I/O plate.
Press the button for a count of five and let it do its thing
In other words we cant go any further without you finding a USB stick from somewhere. I cant get past doing the bios update as things stand.


Last 2 question:
You bought the PC already built from a vendor and it had Win 7 on it, but it crashed after you took delivery. So you are attempting to redo the install to try and fix things?

And you didnt answer - have the 2 120GB SSD ever been used before?

I have 2GB usb sticks I can use for the bios--done, and thank you.

Yes, I received the pc assembled from a vendor. GPUs didn't work, Windows crashed when I tried to reinstall nvidia drivers, and I could not get RAID to work after that.

The ssds were new when installed (unless the vendor is really, really shady) but of course had windows installed on them when I received shipment. I wiped them per your instructions and started a fresh install. the first time around, but the RAID drivers never did take.

I am having issues getting the SSDs wiped again (my bootable killdisk stick seems to have quit on me), but in a couple of days I will have a 4GB+ usb stick for windows install and will have clean drives. Will report back success or no.

Yes, I bought the PC pre-built, it crashed, and I am trying to redo the install to fix things. At my geographic location, shipping the entire PC back to the vendor is a last resort.

you cant wipe an SSD with killdisk - thats for spinners
SSD have no sectors, only 4096B addresses
You need to do a secure erase which is done from a utility from your vendor, but there are some third party softwares that work well (Intel Toolbox, OCZ Life, SSD Tweaker, HD Tune 5 pro)

You have to set RAID in bios and boot with 2 SSD plugged in and hit cntrl I and then delete any RAID volume showing or "reset as non RAID" a RAIDED pair. The metadata on a RAIDED pair is a bitch to get rid of - it keeps it around for recovery.

Your vendor may have also created a GPT RAIDed pair
Plug in SSD and then start Win 7 DVD - repair your computer - tools button on top left and then cmd prompt

diskpart
lis dis

and look for asterisk in GPT column
also look to see if it shows 2 120GB drives or 1 240GB volume


Better yet, forget about SSD for now, just throw some junk spinner HDD to Intel SATA6 Port #1, and nothing else

So, you have 2 Nvidia cards?
A FULL equip list would be nice at this point
Right?

And as far as WinToFlash wont let you do NTFS:
You format drive first in NTFS then dont allow format in Advanced mode.
Fwiw is called HD USB (Hard Drive USB)

That's a lot of good information to work with. I'll provide the hardware info for now, and get to the rest as soon as I can.

As for the nvidia cards, I neglected to mention that long step in my process for the sake of keeping posts brief. After windows crashed in RAID, I installed Windows onto one drive in AHCI and tried to get the GPUs working. after extensive efforts, I confirmed both GPUs were faulty, and returned them to the vendor. I am waiting on replacements.

In the meantime, I have plugged in an old Radeon HD 2400 Pro from my old system to run the monitor, since the R4E has no VGA/DVI ports, and I have no USB adapter. The Radeon works fine as a VGA/DVI output.

The Complete Hardware List is:
NZXT Swithch 810 case with card reader and Fan Controller
Rampage IV Extreme mobo
i7 3930 K Processor
LG supermulti blu-ray rw
2x Corsair 120 GB force gt ssds
2x Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200 Watt Power Supply
Radeon HD 2400 pro video card (pending replacement of 2x Sparke 2GB GTX 560s)
8x 4GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
Dell SE198 WFPf LCD monitor
USB mouse and keyboard


Computer functioned for two days in AHCI, but began crashing (probably due to ship bios, I see now) when SSD neared full, so I began trying to set back up in RAID. I don't think 120 GB will be a big enough volume down the road.

Concerning skipping SSDs for now, have considered installing windows on 1 barracuda in AHCI, installing RAID drivers, buying Acronis, making universal image, and copying image to SSDs in RAID 0. I'm uncertain if universal image created with Acronis would include RAID drivers, though.

I will check if SSDs are GPT RAIDED and look for third party secure delete that works, and redo wintoflash on SD card (pending purchase of USB stick)

Dont forget to use only 2 sticks of RAM in slots B1 D1 per manual
Windows will make a 4X page file on your SSD and leave you with no space

Make sure you set XMP profile in AI Tweaker

Keep the BRD unplugged till you get things going, you have a 50% chance of it being detected

Acronis has probs with X79
Use hard cloner Casper V7, free 30 day trial.
No image, idiot proof, never fails
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/smartclone.aspx
Can also be scheduled for useage
You can clone one boot drive to another drive, switch boot order in bios and boot the other.
I have been using it since vers 3

And this

Bios are updated
BD rom is disconnected
all HDDS disconnected for now
Ram is stripped to two cards in B1 and D1
Killdisk is overwriting one barracuda (12.5 hrs remaining--had to use usb 2.0 connection to laptop)
AI overclock profile is set to XMP
Installation card is rewritten in NTFS

Order of operations:
connect one freshly overwritten seagate barracuda
set BIOS to AHCI
Install Windows 7
download and install F6 from Intel
Download Intel Toolbox and Casper v7
Connect and secure-delete both SSDs
Set BIOS to RAID
Create RAID volume
Copy boot volume from Barracuda to RAID 0 SSDs using idiot-proof casper v7
switch boot order in bios to prefer RAID 0 SSDs
test SSD Boot
connect second barracuda and kill both barracudas
create RAID 1 data volume
if all is hunkey-dorey, reinstall other 6 ram cards, set up user profile, install all drivers and updates, etc.

Do I have it right? Will I need to create a partition smaller than 200GB prior to installing on the barracuda so that it can clone to the 212-or-so GB RAID volume, or is the size of the unused portion of a volume irrelevant when cloning?

On a spinner HDD you only have to wipe (zero fill) about 25GB
On a 500GB drive thats 5%
That gets rid of all the Master boot record stuff, and unsupported geometry you may have like CHS or Large from an older mobo. And now you can make it either MBR or GPT.

You have to have your already made Win 7 plus added RSTe F6 driver stick (drag and drop) to use for install, so you have to download F6 before install. You need them TO install.Then after install starts, you create primary parttitions and format them ea time, then click the add driver box (advanced) and steer install to drivers on stick. Make sure your first partition is the one targeted for Win 7 (highlighted)

Hard cloning has no limit - will Do GPT 4TB
You can clone one partition or one drive to another as long as the cloned partition/drive is big enough to hold it.
The free trial does not have scaling tho, you need the paid edition
In other words you might have 60/60/400/400 4 primary 1TB HDD and you clone to a 2TB, it would make it 120/120/800/800

Very important - UEFI bios and Win 8 will NOT do extended/logical if it increases partition count past 4
I think Win 7 may make 3 primary and one extended with logicals. Dunno for sure since I havent made a logical in five years
The 100mb no letter reserved is considered one primary, so that leaves you three during install. If you prepartition the drive BEFORE install you will not get 100mb MS reseved

Success at last! Huge thanks and kudos to Cisco guy, who seems to be the only one on the web willing and able to tackle this problem. If anyone else simply cannot load the RST drivers during install, on a rampage iv extreme, this is what you need:

1. Every word Cisco Guy has posted on this thread.
2. a bootable parted magic usb (see Corsair ssd help forum) or your SSD's downloadable toolkit, if available.
3. two spinners for a raid 1 backup array
4. the paid edition of casper v.7 (the automatic scaling is worth the fifty dollars)

In addition to configuring and flashing BIOS per cisco guy's instructions, I had to:

A) Copy my boot disk from the spinner I set it up on to an SSD to boot from the asmedia port--my spinner would not boot from it Starting fresh, I would install to the SSD in the first place. I set up my windows user profile as TEMP, because I intend to set up my profile later so that all personal files and data saves to the storage array.
B) Plug the boot disk into the asmedia port
C) Set up BIOS to RAID
D)Set up Raid 1 storage array during reboot using CTRL I with two CLEAN spinners pluggede into Intel SATA II ports (black)
E) Hold F8 to select SSD as boot device (through asmedia port)
F) In windows, run the RSTe setup program from intel (use Cisco Guy's link) to configure RAID drivers
G) Reboot to SSD again
H) Clone boot disk from SSD to RAID 1 array using casper
I) Shut down, disconnect ALL drives all storage devices except the RAID array
J) Boot to the RAID array. Shut down.
K)Plug in SSDs to the Intel SATA 3 ports
L) Boot to parted magic and secure delete SSDs
M) Reboot, set up RAID 0 array using CTRL I
N) Use Casper to upgrade boot disk to RAID 0 array
O) Reboot, make sure SSD array is set up as primary boot device in BIOS
This worked for me. Now to reformat storage array, configure registry and set up permanent profile, plug in the rest of my RAM, and so on.

THANKS CISCO GUY !!!!!

sub'd
Thanks for the write up. My Asus R4E is coming and I have 2 120GB Vertex MAXIOPS that I will put them in RAID 0.

Smart move on the Vertex--OCZ has a toolkit you can use within windows. In hindsight, I would have gone with vertex drives. Good luck with your build!

RAID SUCCESS!

I could kiss these guys. Post #2 worked. I am going to hold onto that file for dear life. It is the only thing that worked.

FYI:

Acronis and the Intel x79 / C600 chipsets... Acronis still does not have support for it... and I went through EXTENSIVE testing with them and most of the major Linux distros.

(It appers that the people like us willing to spend considerable cash on LGA 2011 motherboards aren't valuable enough customers for them to fix the issues... even 5 months after the original post of this thread. [...and the point in time that I showed them what the problem was by pointing them to working distros of Linix.]

CASPER is it... and I don't know if anyone else has X79 support at this point. Any updates on that front?

GB