Well, I’ve found some old forum posts where some folks here helped someone get this working but that was in 2014. I thought y’all would be upset if I necro’d that old thread so started a new one.
First I’ll outline a little about my system, then describe in detail exactly what I did, then what happened… and see if someone can help me. I’m also not sure which section of the forums this would go in.
Okay, I have an Asus Sabertooth P67 motherboard with I7-3770K CPU. The rest of the system is irrelevant to what happened.
System configuration is this: 2 x Samsung 850 Pro 128GB SSD’s in RAID-0 (OS / BOOT)
2 x 750 GB Seagate standard 7200 RPM Sata-II, 3.5" desktop hard drives. In RAID-0, extra storage.
Both using the onboard Intel Matrix Raid raid.
Before today I was running Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit. Now a short while ago like 6-8 weeks ago I had used Intel Matrix RAID software inside windows 8.1 and re-created the raid-0 array of the two 750 GB drives. It used to be a 3-disk array but one was showing lots of red warnings via SMART and so I broke apart the array and re-created it with the two remaining healthy 750’s.
Then today I decided I finally wanted to go back to windows 7 again.
So I woke up, created a backup image of my SSD RAID-0 array… stored it on the 2x750 array and then powered down, unplugged the 2x750’s (just unplugged their sata cables inside the computer) then booted up again and booted to my flash drive with windows 7 install media on it and proceeded to install windows 7 ultimate x64 again. Formatting and wiping the SSD RAID-0 array in the process. So All was going fine, did a little initial configure of windows 7, installed some drivers, thought everything was good. Installed Intel Matrix RAID software in windows 7, rebooted fine, saw the 2 SSD’s in the raid software. Then powered down and plugged in the two 750’s. Powered up… showed green in Intel RAID BIOS during boot, everything appeared fine. Booted in to windows… clicked around, wasn’t seeing the 2x750’s exported as a single 1.4 TB storage device for some reason. Clicked computer management in control panel → disk management, nothing but the SSD array. Clicked intel raid software again it showed both 750’s, it showed the RAID-0 array combined as green check mark as healthy, but not exported to the OS for windows 7. Confused I did another reboot. This time however when I booted up, the Intel RAID BIOS screen showed both 750’s as “Incompatible” (red text). Thought “That’s strange…” booted to windows… raid software shows both 750’s, shows em combined as a raid-0 array, shows green check mark, shows healthy. Again, still not exported to the OS, can’t see what’s stored on em or access the data on em.
So now I’m at a loss. I have it sitting here in windows 7 (typing this on my laptop at the moment) doing “Verifying” for the 2x750 array (the only non-destructive thing the raid software will do) in some desperate hope that this will bring my array and data back… sigh.
Someone in forums reported last time they had a similar issue (Intel Matrix RAID with Incompatible Disk(s)) they modified their system’s bios to an older Intel raid rom and flashed it and it worked… I don’t know if that’s something I could consider or not… it’s scary though.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
@kithylin :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
You hopefully deleted the old RAID array before you tried to create a new one.
You forgot to mention the platform (MSM/RST) and the version of your currently installed
a) Intel RAID driver and
b) Intel RAID Console Software.
Maybe you got a mix of different Intel RAID Technology platforms (MSM/RST) and versions?
Anyway I recommend to make sure, that
1. there is an Intel RST RAID ROM within your mainboard BIOS (preferable TRIM in RAID0 modded v11.2.0.1527) and
2. you use an Intel RAID Driver and Software Set, which belongs to the "Rapid Storage Technology" (preferable v11.2.0.1006 WHQL).
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
I’m not sure about MSM / RST… I just use what ever is on the motherboard. And as for drivers I used what ever asus’s website listed as the latest driver for intel software in either Windows 8.1 / Win7.
And yes when removing the 3rd drive a few months back Process was as follows:
copy all data off → delete array → re-create array with just 2 drives → copy all data back.
That was all done within windows 8.1 with the latest intel software in windows 8.1 per asus website at the time.
Also in relation to: 1. there is an Intel RST RAID ROM within your mainboard BIOS (preferable TRIM in RAID0 modded v11.2.0.1527)
No I have never modified the bios for this motherboard to include anything other than the latest bios from Asus. It’s pretty scary to even consider that.
Sorry If I seem like a noob but… what exactly is MSM or RST in to do with Intel RAID? I assume RST is Rapid Storage Technology… and no I don’t have the latest Intel software listed there… I’ll try and hunt down your listed version # there in a moment.
Also earlier today I re-installed windows 8.1 on the two SSD’s to try and get the array for the 2 x 750’s to read again.
Under windows 8.1 I’m using Intel Rapid Storage Technology version 12.8.0.1016 at the moment. That was the latest on the Asus website… I’ll try some older versions maybe that will do it.
Exactly this procedure seems to have caused your current problem:
You obviously cloned your SSD RAID0 array data (inclusive the SSD RAID0 Partition Table) onto your HDD RAID0 array and replaced the previously existing HDD RAID0 Partition Table by a wrong one.
I suspect, that this is the reason why your freshly installed OS doesn’t see the HDD RAID0 array.
I can see how what I said would be confusing but let me clarify that. I used Acronis True Image 11 Home and created a backup image that imaged the entire ssd-raid-0 into one single *.tib file about 200 GB in size and stored it on the 2 x 750 array. That is what I meant by “Backup”, not cloning, just storing one large file on there. Then powered down system and unplugged both 750’s.
I’ve tracked down version v11.2.0.1006 WHQL of the intel raid software and we’ll try that and see what it says.
This is what I’m getting with version v11.2.0.1006:
But If I uninstall and back-step back to old Intel RST software version v9.6.0.1014 I get this:
Which you can clearly see the drives actually are still in raid-0 together… it just won’t export to the OS and I’m not sure why.
I do not recommend to "downgrade" the Intel RAID driver from any RST(e) version (from v11.5 series up) to a "classical" RST version (latest: v11.2 series) from within a running Windows OS. You may get a BSOD while rebooting after the downgrade.
If you want to use the by far best performing Intel RAID driver v11.2.0.1006, I recommend to do a fresh install of the OS by using an ISO file, where the in-box Intel RAID driver had been removed and the desired Intel RST driver v11.2.0.1006 had been inserted into the BOOT.WIM and INSTALL.WIM. The related guide can be found >here<.
What does the Disk Management of the OS show?
Maybe the HDD RAID0 has to be initialized and its partition(s) haven’t even gotten a drive letter.
Okay. I followed your guide in the bios mod section and updated my bios for my P67 Sabertooth to Update Intel OROM to v12.9.0.2006 TRIM-RAID0-MOD, and am now using drivers version v12.9.0.1001 in windows 8.1, but problem still persists.
Some pictures for you.
This is what I get now with current raid software matching my OROM:
Windows Disk Management as you asked… you can see array is not exporting, that is the problem.:
This is what I see while system is booting. (Ignore OROM version, this is old before I updated it with modded bios, photo taken some hours ago… update was done a few minutes ago):
It wouldn’t totally be the end of the world if I lost this data… I have some (partial) backups but they date back to september 2015… I would greatly like to try to get this recovered… and I appericate your help. I will look at your guide at what’s involved with Intel RST injection in to Windows ISO and see if I think that’s something I could handle.
Well it’s 4am here, I’m heading sleep… I’ll check in thread tomorrow or later today.
That is a good idea - good night!
Question for tomorrow morning:
Is it possible, that your HDD RAID0 array uses another Partition Table (MBR/GPT) than the other disk drives?
I greatly appreciate your effort of trying to assist me with this. You are kind to spend the time and all. And if I had not had this happen to me I likely would of never ended up on your forums, and found out how to upgrade the Intel OROM in my motherboard… which I am greatly pleased I figured that out and happy.
However about my two 750’s… I think I am going to stop trying to repair them as is and instead just delete meta-data, re-create raid-0 and -NOT- partition, and -NOT- initilize and -NOT- format. And just try some undelete/recovery software and see if I can read out data from it. And if that doesn’t work I’ll just chalk it up as a learning experience in life and computers and delete it and move on with my partial backups.
At this point with Intel Matrix RAID, it’s just not going to ever return to normal the normal way.
Thanks for trying. Also I will be trying to find other information in your forums later for different projects. So I’m still here to use your stuff and maybe contribute if I can to others.
Are you sure you connected them to the same ports, not sure if that matters?
Thanks but yeah same ports different ports… I’m just gonna give up and move on with my life, I’ve already spent 3 days not playing computer games trying to deal with this and some of my friends are missing me for gaming and I’m just gonna try recovery software and move on with my life.