I have the ECS Z77-A2X motherboard listed here:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Product…uID=103&LanID=0
The latest BIOS supports Intel RST 11.X, UEFI, and secure boot. There is an option to enable Intel RST within the BIOS but no additional tab to manage the RAID arrays.
And I am trying to get UEFI boot on Windows 8 with a RAID 0 SSD setup. A clean install of Win8 with UEFI and secure boot enabled (USB boot, as CD won’t work in UEFI) ends up with a blank screen when selecting drive to install Windows 8 on. Originally, with legacy boot, the Intel RST option ROM will start after BIOS startup, which would mean a longer boot, but UEFI doesn’t have it and the RAID array won’t show up for Win8 installation.
I tried doing the Intel F6 driver install during Win8 installation but it always said there wasn’t a compatible signed driver.
So I tried modding the BIOS with the updated Intel SataDriver and updating the rest of the BIOS using the BIOS updater toolkit. The latest 1301101.cap BIOS from the ECS site modded fine, but using the AFDOSP in an MS-DOS USB boot and the AFUWIN in regular Windows 8 would always return “Error 18: Unable to start a secure flash session.”
I’m assuming that the BIOS is protected or something so that I won’t be allowed to flash a modified BIOS, and there’s not a lot of people using ECS motherboards so I couldn’t find a solution.
Is there an easier way to enable RAID in UEFI for the Windows 8 install or just a workaround for installing the modded BIOS?
@ boyang1724:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
If you have enabled the UEFI boot options, you should get access to the Intel(R) Rapid Storage tab, where you should be able to create and delete a RAID array.
Which driver version did you offer? It has to be v11.6.x.xxxx or higher.
By the way: Loading an F6 Intel RAID driver is not necessary anymore with Windows 8.1.
Since the BIOS of your mainboard is capsuled (as .CAP file), you may need a feature like the ASUS "USB Flashback" to get a modified BIOS successfully flashed.
Another option is the use of CodeRush’s "FlashToolKit" (FTK), but I don’t know, if it is usable with an ECS BIOS. >Here< is a guide how to use the tool.
Regards
Fernando
Thanks for the quick reply.
Correction from earlier, the ECS BIOS has the Intel Rapid Storage 11.0.X Option ROM, which is loaded after BIOS in legacy boot. The Intel RST that I found earlier was Intel Rapid Start, which is for SSD caching, not RAID. There is no option anywhere for Intel Rapid Storage in the BIOS nor a tab for it. The only way to gain access to it is to enable the RAID option in sata configuration, then to the standard Ctrl+I to setup RAID.
I tried offering Intel RST 11.7, 12.3, 12.5, and 12.8 drivers during the Windows 8 setup, but it never found any drivers that could be used. Using a Windows 8.1 ISO with UEFI installation still requires RST drivers, but now it freezes and gets a MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION whenever I select the 12.8 RST driver.
I tried CodeRush’s FTK, but it always comes up with an error that “asus bios file signature not found in input file.” The backup and flash reading worked ahead of that, but I think it’s the same with AFUDOS with the BIOS signature not matching or something.
If I am not able to install RAID UEFI Windows 8, will it be possible to install legacy and convert it later? I can’t get the Intel RST drivers working or BIOS modded, and since there’s not a lot of people with ECS motherboards, nor much support for them, I don’t think this will get fixed.
Again, much thanks for the help.
EDIT:
Oh wow. Fixed the MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION issue. Apparently default settings for Secure Boot in BIOS disabled loading the Option Rom. ECS has an custom option for Secure Boot where I can enable Option Rom, removable media, and has key management. Option ROM was disabled before but after enabling it, Windows 8/8.1 no longer freezes on install. Windows is currently installing and I’ll hopefully report back with no errors. Thanks again!
@ boyang1724:
It is a pity, that you obviously are not able to get the BIOS modules updated and cannot not find the "Intel (R) Rapid Storage" tab within the BIOS after having set the UEFI boot options.
Now to your Win8.1 installation problems:
Since I have a Z77 chipset mainboard with a similar SSD RAID0 configuration as you and had no problems to get Win8.1 installed onto the RAID array without the need to load any driver, you should be able to succeed as well.
Questions:
1. Which tool did you use to create a bootable USB stick?
2. With which file system (NTFS or FAT32) did you format the USB stick?
3. Which sort of SSDs (name and size) are you using?
4. Which sort of RAID array with which stripe size did you create?
5. Have you tried to unplug all storage devices except the RAIDed SSD and the bootable USB Flash Drive containing the Win8.1 image before you started the OS installation?
1- Used Rufus. DOS always booted up fine, but there was always the error with signatures.
2- FAT32
3- Vertex 4 128GBx2
4- RAID 0 128KB stripe
5- Everything was unplugged beforehand
I seemed to have everything working now. Refer to the edit on my last post. Apparently the ECS BIOS had a custom option for Secure Boot in addition to enable/disable. I didn’t realize that before, so the Win8.1 install would always freeze when selecting RAID drivers. I had to set the Secure Boot to custom and enable Option Rom loading, as default had it set as off, so I assume that was the freezing issue when Win8.1 got to select drivers.
UEFI boot with RAID 0 is fully working now, and BIOS POST time has dropped from 16+ seconds at legacy to 8 seconds with UEFI. The RAID 0 volume in device manager has a Microsoft 6.2.9XXXX driver now, so are the Intel RST drivers still needed?
I still wasn’t able to update the BIOS modules in the end, but was able to learn quite a bit with your BIOS modifying guides. Thanks so much for the help!
@ boyang1724:
Thanks for your quick reply.
It is fine, that you have solved your problem to get Win8.1 properly installed in UEFI mode.
The generic MS driver is only responsable for the disk management and not for the Intel RAID Controller.
You can check the actual Intel RAID driver version (will be the Win8.1 on-board v12.0.1.1018) by opening the "Storage Controllers" section of the Device Manager and doing a right click onto the listed Intel SATA RAID Controller > "Properties" > "Driver".
To get a better write performance I recommend to install the Intel RST(e) Drivers & Software Set v12.8.4.1000 WHQL, to run the RST Console and to do the Caching settings according to the advices I have layed down >here<.