Hello everyone,
I am a total newbie here. After searching for a solution to my problem on the 'net it seems to me that I may have landed on the right forum. Can someone please tell me what to do here?
My problem:
I have a SuperMicro Motherboard X7SPE-HF-D525
http://www.supermicro.com/products/mothe…SPE-HF-D525.cfm
* Intel® Atom™ D525
* Intel® ICH9R Chipset
* 6x SATA (3.0Gbps) Ports
RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (Windows Only)
It is currently running Windows 2003 Server 32bit. It has three 1 TB drives in RAID5
When I connect two more Seagate 3 TB drives to it, the BIOS detects the drives (model and serial#) but shows them as around 800GB
After reading a lot on the 'net…I hear it is a common problem. BIOS needs to be updated. Unfortunately SuperMicro has not released an updated BIOS for this Mobo for a very long time. I am already running the latest version on their site : BIOS Revision: R 1.2b
It has a ICH9R so it “should” work. I tried downloading the latest version of Intel RST but it does not even install on my OS:
File name: SetupRST.exe
Version: 12.9.0.1001
Date: 12/12/2013
What do I do?
Seems to me I may need to flash a updated BIOS, right? I have never modded any BIOS ever 
@ rajdude:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
This problem can only be resolved by an update of the Intel RAID ROM version, which is within your mainboard BIOS. Your on-board Intel SATA RAID Controller needs an Intel RAID ROM v10.5.x.xxxx or higher to see and handle >2 TB sized RAID partitions. My recommendation is to insert the Intel RAID ROM v11.2.0.1527 into the latest BIOS for your mainboard.
This is neither the latest Intel RST driver version nor recommended for your Intel ICH9R Southbridge. I recommend to install the Intel RST driver v11.2.0.1006, which is matching the Intel RST RAID ROM v11.2.0.1527.
This is correct.
It is easier than you may think, but maybe you will find someone, who will do it for you.
Regards
Fernando
Thanks a lot, Fernando. That is what I was afraid of…well upgrading BIOS probably will not be too hard.
Meanwhile I have an update:
I re-flashed the latest version of BIOS from SuperMicro’s website. I had to reset the BIOS options and do a bunch of other things…but something very interesting happened after that:
Now the BIOS correctly identifies the 3 TB drives (as 2.7 TB)! YAHOO!
The build date of this BIOS is 7/19/2013
It gives RST BIOS version as ver. 10.8.0.1303
Now the problem is that the OS does not see it, RST also does not see it. RST still thinks that the ports are empty. The RST application version shows up as 10.1.0.1008
Which RST version should I install… ver 10.8?
I’m searching for it…is that a download you have here?
@ raydude:
Meanwhile I have downloaded and opened the latest BIOS for your mainboard.
Interesting result: It contains the Intel RAID ROM v10.8.0.1303, which should be able to manage >2 TB sized RAID partitions.
Nevertheless I recommend to update it to v11.2.0.1527.
The appropriate tool for the OROM update of your mainboard is the AMI MMTool v3.26.
You have to temporarily rename the BIOS file from X7SPA3.719 to X7SPA3.ROM, before you can open and modify the BIOS.
This is how the MMTool GUI should look, when you are going to replace the Intel RAID ROM module (screenshot has been taken after the update):
EDIT:
This is what I just had written.
No, I recommend to install the Intel RST driver v11.2.0.1006 WHQL, but before you do that, you should uninstall the RST Software from within the Control Panel > "Add/remove Programs" utility.
Thanks Fernando…I will look at this BIOS mod soon. Gotta get the server up and running…kids are waiting for their movies
At this time I have downloaded your software "Intel RST Drivers & Software Set v11.2.0.1006 WHQL multilingual extracted by Fernando.7z"
I’ll try to install it and see if that works.
Thanks again!
Don’t install it on top of the other RST package! Please read the EDIT part of my last post.
Don’t install it on top of the other RST package! Please read the EDIT part of my last post.
Uh-Oh…I already installed it over the old version…the server is rebooting…
Well…if it does not work…I will do as you said…uninstall and re-install.
Thanks again!
Update: It works!
Thanks a MILLION for your driver-software, Fernando! your upload is priceless! I searched it high and low but could not find it.
It works flawlessly…RST installed on top of the old version…it detects the 3 TB drive. I was able to format it and use it in Windows OS now. Data is being copied from the old to the new disk.
I wanna look into the possibility of the BIOS upgrade to the one you recommend.
Question…
What will the version 11 BIOS upgrade and software upgrade give me?
Better performance?
That’s great!
Yes, a better performance and probably a more stable system (both v11.2 series drivers and OROMS have been developed together by Intel as being twins).