Attempting to fix RAID5 with 2 non-member disks after BIOS update

Here is my situation: I am running 4 x 6TB drives in RAID5. I set these up using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) RAID creation tool through my BIOS. The RAID is used for storage and my OS is running on a seperate SSD. My motherboard is ASUS GRYPHON Z97. After a BIOS firmware update, 2 of the 4 disks fell out of my RAID configuration and it now only shows 2 member disks, with the other 2 disks as non-member. I formatted my SSD and installed a fresh version of Windows 10. The RAID problem remains.

I found a forum thread with many useful suggestions (https://www.overclock.net/forum/320-raid…k-error-30.html)

I am looking to follow the below instructions provided in that thread which seem to be the best for my situation:

1. Uninstall Intel RST from Windows. This step is critical! If you do not do this, you will lose all your data when you get to step (4)!
2. Reboot into the RAID console, reset all member disks to be non-member
3. Create a new array with the exact same parameters (name, stripe size) as the original one
4. Reboot into Windows, run TestDisk, start "Quick Search"
5. Stop Quick Search immediately after it has started, immediately start the "Deeper Search"
6. Wait until Deeper Search had found the correct partition (should take under 10 seconds), stop it from scanning
7. Mark the partition as Primary, write partition data to it
8. Reboot into Windows and everything should be hunky dory!


HOWEVER… it appears to me (although I’m a nooblette) that Intel RST must be used with my motherboard, as it is built into the BIOS as the only way to set up RAID configurations. I am unable to boot into Windows in RAID mode, and I get inaccesible boot device error. When I boot into Windows in ACHI mode there’s no problem, however the RAID of course does not appear. When I boot into Windows in ACHI mode, it also appears that Intel RST is uninstalled as a program and there are no drivers for it, so there is nothing for me to uninstall.

How do I begin this recovery process with any confidence that when I recreate the RAID (using the above instructions) and I boot in with RAID mode enabled that Intel RST wont just load up and start to initialise my disks automatically and I will lose everything?

Appreciate the help of anyone who can assist.

RST is in BIOS and is a driver/program in windows too, they are referring to this (the latter) at step #1

Here’s how to enable RAID in windows, without RAID drivers installed (which sounds like you didn’t do, or do not have same version RST driver as you have in BIOS now)
Open registry Editor from Windows in AHCI mode, find and make the following changes
Change all “Start” Values in these keys to 0 in the registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci\Start
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pciide\Start
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV\Start

That’s as far as I can advise here, other than flash back to the older BIOS version and fix the RAID from there. I would do this, array may be fine here, or easily resetable from RST interface pre-boot, not sure.
But, from here, in windows, you could update your RST drivers to whatever version RST is in the BIOS you want to update to, then it would go over much better on the BIOS update again next time around.

If you tell me your previous BIOS version, and the new one, I can check and let you know which version RST is in each, so you can get the correct drivers installed.