[deltabugles]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could help me out... I have an MSI GT780DXR-405US and had a heck of a time restoring the machine. It is equipped with 2 500GB HDD's and I ended up having to clean both drives. The problem is, the RAID 0 stripe was eliminated. I noobishly installed Windows 7 on a single 500GB in IDE format only to leave the other 500GB drive OFFLINE and unrecognized once in Windows again... Prior to all of this happening, I had no idea that I needed to ctrl+I to delete the stripe and create a new RAID and I am not quite sure what I need/can do with the F6 function. Is that something that is hard wired into the BIOS or is the F6 driver something I need to download from Intel?... The machine boots into Windows (albeit much slower) but I get this error when I boot:



I am wondering what steps I need to take to re-establish my RAID 0 stripe and clean install Windows 7 again. (FYI, I have the Windows 7 CD/DVD)

Thanks!

This post has been edited by deltabugles: 19 February 2013 - 03:06 PM

[dietrc70]

You need to go into the RAID bios and delete the failed array. That will free up the disk listed as "member disk" for other purposes.

I don't think it's possible to install in IDE mode if the RAID bios is enabled. Your working system disk must be using the Intel driver included with Windows (otherwise it wouldn't boot). It's just in single disk (JBOD) mode, which is basically AHCI.

I believe the Intel RST software will let you do an online expansion from a single disk to RAID 0. Just install the latest version from the Intel website after you've deleted the failed array and check the options in the RST manager.

(If you are doing a clean install, you can use the F6 option to load the latest version of the Intel driver, which you can download from their website. Since you already have Windows running, you can just install the latest driver and management software from within Windows.)

This post has been edited by dietrc70: 19 February 2013 - 04:02 PM

[deltabugles]

dietrc70, on 19 February 2013 - 03:54 PM, said:

You need to go into the RAID bios and delete the failed array. That will free up the disk listed as "member disk" for other purposes.

I don't think it's possible to install in IDE mode if the RAID bios is enabled. Your working system disk must be using the Intel driver included with Windows (otherwise it wouldn't boot). It's just in single disk (JBOD) mode, which is basically AHCI.

I believe the Intel RST software will let you do an online expansion from a single disk to RAID 0. Just install the latest version from the Intel website after you've deleted the failed array and check the options in the RST manager.

(If you are doing a clean install, you can use the F6 option to load the latest version of the Intel driver, which you can download from their website. Since you already have Windows running, you can just install the latest driver and management software from within Windows.)

Okay so I go into the BIOS and make sure RAID is selected, then go into ctrl+I and when I delete the array, I assume it will wipe the drives again, correct?

Then I would need to recreate the array and then go onto to install Windows? Or do I hit F6 before I get to the Windows CD installation... I've been reading that you need to install RAID drivers from a thumb drive and hitting F6 is how to do it, I'm just fuzzy and need a succinct method. How do I get those drivers on my thumb drive?

It was my experience that when in RAID mode and get into the installation of Windows, when it tells me to select a drive (partition), nothing is there and I have no idea how to load the drivers (or where they come from)

thanks!

[dietrc70]

deltabugles, on 19 February 2013 - 04:18 PM, said:

Okay so I go into the BIOS and make sure RAID is selected, then go into ctrl+I and when I delete the array, I assume it will wipe the drives again, correct?

Then I would need to recreate the array and then go onto to install Windows? Or do I hit F6 before I get to the Windows CD installation... I've been reading that you need to install RAID drivers from a thumb drive and hitting F6 is how to do it, I'm just fuzzy and need a succinct method. How do I get those drivers on my thumb drive?

It was my experience that when in RAID mode and get into the installation of Windows, when it tells me to select a drive (partition), nothing is there and I have no idea how to load the drivers (or where they come from)

thanks!

Yes, creating a new RAID array from the ctrl-I menu will delete any data that is present on the drives.

If you want to do a clean install, first go to the Intel Download Center, do a search for RST, select the latest driver version, and download the zip file that starts with f6flpy... There is a 64 bit version and a 32 bit version, pick the one that matches your copy of Windows. Once you've downloaded the zip file, unzip it and copy the contents to a USB drive.

Next delete that dead array in the CNTL-I menu and create a new RAID0 array. Once the new array is created you're ready to install Windows onto it. When the setup program asks you to choose a partition, insert the USB with the Intel drivers, and press F6. You should get directory menu that will let you choose the USB drive. Windows should see the drivers and give you the option to install them. Once they are loaded the partition choice menu should reappear with the RAID0 array present.

[deltabugles]

dietrc70, on 19 February 2013 - 05:02 PM, said:

Yes, creating a new RAID array from the ctrl-I menu will delete any data that is present on the drives.

If you want to do a clean install, first go to the Intel Download Center, do a search for RST, select the latest driver version, and download the zip file that starts with f6flpy... There is a 64 bit version and a 32 bit version, pick the one that matches your copy of Windows. Once you've downloaded the zip file, unzip it and copy the contents to a USB drive.

Next delete that dead array in the CNTL-I menu and create a new RAID0 array. Once the new array is created you're ready to install Windows onto it. When the setup program asks you to choose a partition, insert the USB with the Intel drivers, and press F6. You should get directory menu that will let you choose the USB drive. Windows should see the drivers and give you the option to install them. Once they are loaded the partition choice menu should reappear with the RAID0 array present.

Incredible. Worked like a charm, thanks so much.

[dietrc70]

Thanks for posting back. You're very welcome. I'm glad everything worked.