ASRock H87M mATX - RAID issue/setup

[Phaze13]

Frustrating RAID setup. My experience with RAID is little although I had success with it on my last computer. I have two WD identical drives that I disabled the raid configuration on my old machine and I'm trying to setup on the new machine.

The new machine consist of the following:
Motherboard: ASRocks H87M mATX
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO (OS Installed)
HDD: 2 Identical WD Drives

What I did that didn't work.

In the BIOS (Hit F2) aka UEFI Setup Utility
Advanced Tab
- Storage Configuration
- SATA Mode Selection
I can choose IDE / AHCI / RAID

If I choose RAID I then go to the BOOT Tab, under Boot Option #1 the SSD drive is no longer visible. Only the two WD drives are there. If I restart the computer it will not boot into windows. Power Down and boot into BIOS changed back to AHCI and the computer boots up.

mmmmmmmmmm

So next I power down and disconnect the WD drives and boot into the BIOS. Only the SSD drive visible, run through the same steps above but this time when I get to the Boot Option #1 the SSD drive is listed as RAID. So I tried to reboot into Windows and it's a no go.

It seems like from what I can tell from the method above is to install an OS on a RAID setup. Not what I want to do. I just want my non OS WD drives in a RAID 1 configuration.
Frustrated, this is the last step in getting PC up and going. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any help or ideas appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Phaze13]

I found this tid bit of information in the UEFI Guide

"If you change SATA Mode after install of an operating system you might not be able to boot into OS normally. You should select SATA Mode prior to installing the OS"

Does this make any sense? Should I have selected SATA Mode (RAID) in the BIOS "UEFI" before installing the OS?

This sounds wack, but oddly enough may be my problem. If this is the case, this MB sucks (for me).

I noticed when you change SATA Mode to (RAID) in the UEFI and reboot back into UEFI all the drives are in RAID Mode. That's when the computer refuses to boot.

 

[Pitbully]

So from your post you want your SSD drive as your main OS drive, then a RAID 1 array from your WD mechanical drives?...

If so, I don't believe its possible with that board. You'd need a separate controller, which the H87M chipset, only has one SATA controller on it I believe. You set it to ACHI for your SSD drive, but it will change all the SATA ports to ACHI.

A Z68/Z77/Z87 chipset board has 2 controllers on it allowing you to do that.

 

[Phaze13]

Thanks Pitbully!

Do all z87 chipsets have two SATA controllers?

If not do you know of some that do?

What about the ASUS Z87 Plus
http:// https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87PLUS/

OR The MSI Z87 mATX Gaming
us.msi.com/product/mb/Z87M-GAMING.html#overview

The specs on most mb are not very forth coming on this (at least not to me).

Thanks!

 

[Pitbully]

It appears you have to go to the Asus Z87 Pro or the Gigabyte Express chipsets to get 2 SATA controllers. I've never actually looked for seperate SATA controllers to be honest.

The easiest way to tell usually is the SATA banks will usually have 2 separate colors, normally SATA 3 and SATA 6.

 

[Phaze13]

It appears you have to go to the Asus Z87 Pro or the Gigabyte Express chipsets to get 2 SATA controllers. I've never actually looked for seperate SATA controllers to be honest.

The easiest way to tell usually is the SATA banks will usually have 2 separate colors, normally SATA 3 and SATA 6.

Thanks for the help!

Looks like the Gigabyte one may be what I'm after both chipsets are available for RAID 1. I could use the (GSATA3 6/7) for the 2 HDD's in RAID 1. What is GSATA3?

Chipset:
6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0~5) supporting up to 6 SATA 6Gb/s devices
Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10

Marvell® 88SE9172 chip:
2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3 6/7) or 2 eSATA 6Gb/s connectors on the back panel, supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
* Use either the GSATA3 6, 7 connectors or the eSATA connectors at a time.
Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1

Where as the ASUS Z87 Pro may not offer RAID on the second chipset.

Intel® Z87 chipset :
6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), yellow
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
Supports Intel® Dynamic Storage Accelerator, Intel® Smart Response Technology, Intel® Rapid Start Technology, Intel® Smart Connect Technology*5
ASMedia® ASM1061 controller : *6
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), dark brown


I don't remember it being this difficult/ confusing the last time I did this.

 

[Phaze13]

Success with the ASRock H87M mATX RAID 1

1) Installed Win7 OS on SSD.
2) Formatted the 2 HDD's.
3) Booted into BIOS > Advanced Tab > Storage Configuration > SATA Mode Selection Select RAID
4) Save Changes and Close > Reboot > CNTL +i to select RAID Configuration > Configure RAID 1 for HDD's
5) Save Changes and Close > Reboot onto Bios > Advanced Tab > Storage Configuration > SATA Mode Selection Select AHCI
6) Reboot to Windows, only SSD drive is visible in widows.
7) Go to Disk Manager and a ONE 1.3TB unallocated HDD was showing. Right Click >New Simple Volume > Formatted
8) Boom New Volume (D) shows in Windows
Profit!

Before after step 4 Windows wouldn't boot back into windows if I didn't set the SATA Mode Selection back to AHCI.
Also Step 7 would should TWO 1.3TB unallocated HDD's if I deleted the array before Changing SATA Mode Selection to AHCI in the BIOS.
Now when restart the computer I do not get a chance to CNTR +i for the RAID Configuration anymore (I did on my old set up).

How do I know this worked?

The Properties for the new volume (D) Disk Manager > Right Click > Properties is: Intel Raid 1 Volume SCSI Disk Properties

I'm still 20% uncertain.

Put two word documents in Volume (D) powered down the computer, disconnected power and one SATA cable from one of the HDD's in the RAID. Powered back on computer and the word documents are in Volume (D)
Powered down again same process with the other drive and the word documents are there.

So it is writing to both Disks.

I'm still 10% uncertain............always a shread of doubt

So what was the big hang up for me here. Seem I thought I had to leave the SATA Mode Selection in RAID after setting up the RAID. Guess it's just used for creating the RAID.


Thanks for the help!