RAID Array won't show up in XP x64 using MSI K8T-Master 2

[kylef]

I have a SATA RAID 0 array defined in the RAID controller's BIOS.

But Windows detects the SATA controller as a regular ATA controller, not as a SCSI/RAID array.

Do I have a BIOS setting incorrect somewhere?

In Device Manager, I see two controllers under "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers":

- Via Bus Master IDE Controller
- Via Serial ATA Controller

The question is, how can I get rid of the last one and make it show up as a RAID controller?

Thanks for any help!

 

[kylef]

I really could use a hand with this if anyone has ideas. Thanks!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Replied in your other thread with where to find help with this board. My guess is if you ran the installer from windows as opposed to making a floppy and f6 during setup, that it installed it as a standard SATA controller instead of SATA RAID, but obviously I can't say for certain since I use a RAID5 card in mine not the VIA SATA.

 

[kylef]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Replied in your other thread with where to find help with this board. My guess is if you ran the installer from windows as opposed to making a floppy and f6 during setup, that it installed it as a standard SATA controller instead of SATA RAID, but obviously I can't say for certain since I use a RAID5 card in mine not the VIA SATA.

Unfortunately, I tried to reinstall Windows and used the F6 option this time around, and it had no effect.

The controller still shows up as a standard "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller" and the disks show up separately in Disk Management.

This is getting frustrating. I can't seem to get a RAID array to be recognized by Windows x64!

I'm about to revert back to 32-bit Windows here. I'm not even convinced that will work, either...

 

[darkswordsman17]

Not to be asinine, but you do have the proper drivers correct? Like when you F6 when installing Windows, does the drivers show up as a RAID driver or a regular one (for instance the floppy that came with my board had a RAID driver for the nforce4 chipset as well as a standard IDE/SATA driver and then had two separate drivers for the other SATA controller).

 

[kylef]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
Not to be asinine, but you do have the proper drivers correct? Like when you F6 when installing Windows, does the drivers show up as a RAID driver or a regular one (for instance the floppy that came with my board had a RAID driver for the nforce4 chipset as well as a standard IDE/SATA driver and then had two separate drivers for the other SATA controller).

Haha, no worries. I understand you're trying to help!

During the "Specify Mass Storage devices" phase of setup (after F6), the driver description that loads says "Via RAID Controller Windows Server2003/x64" or something very close to that (I didn't write it down).

Unfortunately, after Windows boots successfully, Device Manager no longer mentions anything about RAID and it shows up as "Via Serial ATA controller".

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

I just configured my comp with a RAID 0 array, and I had to partition the drives after loading the drivers. The first time, when I didn't load the drivers, the windows partitioning program saw 2 separate HDD's (and this was after I configured them as an array in the BIOS). When I had the drivers loaded, I saw one array that was the size of the 2 HDD's. (This was in WinXP BTW).

So my questions is, when you first install windows and you need to partition the drives, do you see one drive or two.

If you are seeing two drives, then there is a problem with the drivers because windows still isn't recognizing the array.

If it is a driver problem, then maybe it is something VIA is working on, or maybe you can find a newer version than fixes the problem.

Also, what OS are you installing onto? It looks like either XP-64 or Server2003. If you go to Via's website they have 3 RAID drivers for XP-64 depending on which chip your mobo uses. It looks like your Mobo uses the VIA southbridge for RAID, so maybe somehow you are using the drivers for a different RAID chip.

Anyhow, good luck and let us know how things go.

-D'oh!

 

[kylef]

Well, I ended up giving up the battle and I installed Server 2003 (32-bit edition). I just couldn't get the 64-bit Via SATA RAID drivers to work correctly.

Everything works great in 32-bit mode. The drives show up exactly as I would expect, as a single drive on a "Via SATA RAID Controller".

I guess Via still has some work to do on their 64-bit drivers.