Abit IC7-G SATA RAID0 and Disk Read Error

BorkyTorsk

Junior Member
Nov 25, 2003
10
0
0
Hi All,

I have two Samsung 80GB HDDs attached to SATA1 and SATA2 of an Abit IC7-G motherboard. These are set up as a RAID0 array...

When installing W2K to the array, everything goes fine up to the point where the OS wants to do its first reboot and where it goes from running off the CD to running of the HDD. At this point I get the error message:

A disk read error occured
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

I am at the point where I am about to throw the whole PC out the window. If I treat the two HDDs as separate devices (ie disable RAID0) then everything is fine and I get a good install to either drive. Hence the problem is with the ICH5R and not the HDDs. Now given that I brought this motherboard precisely so I could use a RAID0 array on the ICH5R and not have it suffer from PCI bandwidth bottleneck problems it is an understatement to say that I am not very happy.

Can anyone suggest *anything* before I have to disassemble my brand new PC and RMA the motherboard?
 

Tates

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 25, 2000
9,079
10
81
Ripped from this thread at ABIT Forums at ABXzone.com:
**If you are planning to overclock your system, go into "SoftMenu Setup" and make sure to set your AGP/PCI Frequency to Fixed. The ICH5R is sensitive to timings and may not recognize your RAID array if the frequency is increased.

Make sure you increase your DRAM voltage in "Soft Menu Setup" to at least 2.65v. 2.7v or 2.8v are recommended if you are overclocking.

1. Go into BIOS, select "Integrated Peripherals", "Onchip IDE Devices." At the bottom of the screen you'll see "Onchip Serial ATA Setting" with several choices beneath it. In "Onchip Serial ATA", select "Enhanced Mode" and them move up to "Onchip Serial ATA Mode" and change it to RAID.

2. You may need to go back to the top of "Integrated Peripherals" screen, and set IDE Bus Master to "enabled." This setting may need to be enabled depending on your particular hardware setup. This one is optional.

***Disable any other IDE hard drives you have by unplugging them or disabling their respective IDE Controller. You can reattach them later after you install WinXP. Make sure you don't disable the controller which has your CD or DVD drive attached to it.***

3. In "Advanced BIOS Features" set Hard Disk Boot Priority to "Bootable add in device". Select "Onchip SATA" to boot from the array on the ICH5R. Set the boot device order to Floppy, CDROM, Hard Disk.

F10 to save and exit the BIOS and reboot

During the POST, you will see the Intel RAID BIOS load. Hit Ctrl+I to create your RAID array. Select your stripe size. 16K, 32K and 64K seem to be the higher performance settings depending on what your main applications are, i.e. gaming vs. video editing. Other threads here and at ABXZone have gone into great detail on that issue.

When you install WinXP, select the "Full Format" to format your RAID array. Do not use the quick format. Users have reported problems with the quick format. Full will zip by quickly.

Press F6 to load drivers when prompted (pay attention, it may go by quick). Use the diskette driver version from Intel's website as it has been updated since Abit made their CD's. Intel RAID Drivers for F6 Install

- I have foud out (the HARD WAY) that it is imperative that IDE 1 is disabled to correctly be able to install XP.

 

BorkyTorsk

Junior Member
Nov 25, 2003
10
0
0
It turns out the non-gender specific parentboard was faulty. I RMA'd the board for a new one, set it up exactly as the last one and it booted without problem. And its FAST - coming from an XP-1600+ its a rocket-ship.