Incompatible RAID controller?

[advntntn]

Recently as some may have read, I have been having trouble getting XP to boot onto a RAID 0 array, using the onboard RAID controller on my Intel D875PBZ motherboard (ICH5-R). I have two SATA Western Digital (WD) Raptor 36GB drives, hooked up to the Serial ATA ports of my motherboard.

I created the array from the Intel RAID BIOS then booted from the Windows XP CD. Pressed F6 to install the Intel RAID floppy drivers, XP would see the array (67GB; 2 x 33.5GB), prompt me for partitioning information then copy its files, at the end of which it would reboot.

(FYI: The boot order in the BIOS is set to the RAID array as the first boot device, followed by the CD drive I am booting from, with no other boot devices specified after that.)

The PC would reboot then show a "A Disk Read Error Occurred, Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to Restart" message. I could never get past it. I *could* install XP in a non-RAID single drive situation (even with the Intel RAID controller enabled but without an array setup), but not in RAID. Migrating to RAID from a single drive would produce the same results.

As a last ditch effort, I bought an Adaptec 1210SA SATA RAID PCI controller. Hooked up the HDDs to the PCI card, disabled the Intel RAID controller, created a RAID 0 array with the Adaptec card and followed the same path to install XP as I did before.

This time, XP booted! It actually booted using the Adaptec PCI card, then continued its install process. Yet, using the exact same procedure for the Intel RAID controller, XP refused to boot after the first part of the XP installation.

My question is, has anyone ever heard of a RAID controller being incompatible with certain make/model of HDDs? This is obviously the case, otherwise the drives would fail under the Adaptec card. Yet, the Intel RAID controller worked fine with a pair of Seagate 120GB SATA drives I used to have.

 

[advntntn]

UPDATE.

I setup a RAID 1 array instead, something I hadn't tried. So naturally I had a 33.5GB disk after creating the array. I went through the process of installing XP, the first part. After booting (the point where the BIOS would give me the Disk Read Error message), I seen this on the Intel RAID information:

ID: 0
Name: RaptorRAID
Level: RAID1(mirror)
Strip: N/A
Size: 33.5GB
Status: Degraded
Bootable: N/A

(the following two blocks are sub-entries from the above line block)

ID: N/A
Name: WDC WD360GD-75GH
Level: 634 (partial serial number of drive)
Strip: Port 0
Size: 33.5GB
Status: Error Occurrd
Bootable: N/A

ID: N/A
Name: WDC WD360GD-75GH
Level: 560 (serial number of drive)
Strip: Port 1
Size: 33.5GB
Status: Normal
Bootable: N/A

Ah ha! All I did was run through the first part of the XP install. So, maybe SATA Port 0 of the M/B is faulty with regard to RAID. So I downed the PC, switched the cables going into each port. If the hard-drive is faulty, then the "Error Occurrd" would move.

After switching cables, then installing the first part of XP, I got this:

ID: 0
Name: RaptorRAID
Level: RAID1(mirror)
Strip: N/A
Size: 33.5GB
Status: Degraded
Bootable: N/A

(the following two blocks are sub-entries from the above line block)

ID: N/A
Name: WDC WD360GD-75GH
Level: 560 (partial serial number of drive)
Strip: Port 0
Size: 33.5GB
Status: Error Occurrd
Bootable: N/A

ID: N/A
Name: WDC WD360GD-75GH
Level: 634 (serial number of drive)
Strip: Port 1
Size: 33.5GB
Status: Normal
Bootable: N/A

Note the serial number of the drive has changed, but the "Error Occurrd" has not moved with the drive serial number, meaning the drives are OK. I assume that RAID functionality on SATA Port 0 is defunct, no longer works correctly. I'm not sure what the actual meaning of "Error Occurrd" is, I'd like to see more detail.

Anyway, this gets me a step closer.

 

[Viper96720]

But didn't you also get an error using the adaptec card also? Try installing each drive individually don't RAID them. Then run the WD diagnostics on them.

 

[MDE]

Have you ruled out bad cables?

 

[advntntn]

With the Adaptec card, I setup only a RAID 0 array and everything went fine. Granted, I didn't setup a RAID 1 with the Adaptec card.

I tried installing XP on a single drive, then installing the IAAR once XP was installed and migrating. Once it successfully migrated and tried to boot into XP, I got the same "Disk Read Error" message, just as if I setup the array via the BIOS.

I already ran the WD Diagnostics, both drives check out fine with no errors at all.

I'm suspecting SATA Port 0 on the M/B is faulty with regard to RAID - if such a thing is possible. I did have XP suddenly shut down on me a few times, maybe it's to do with the bad SATA port. Of course, this would explain why the Adaptec card works, as I'm bypassing the potentially bad SATA port on the M/B.

 

[advntntn]

MonkeyDriveExpress:

Yes, I've ruled that out. I used one set of Adaptec SATA cables I had, then used the original red Intel cables, then used the blue Adaptec cables that came with the SATA PCI card. I ruled that out on Thursday at 2.45am.

Thanks for the idea though.

 

[MDE]

It was worth a try

 

[Viper96720]

Sounds like the MB then. Didn't notice it went fine with the adaptec when I read your first post before.