120gb pro not recognized when raid is set

[whiterabbit]

this actually an update.

mobo p35 abit 775 cpu with q9550

i have 3x640gb in raid 0 and a 750gb as backup.
i assume that when set in raid mode the matrix controller also has ahci by default.
The 120GB pro is also on that controller with the 750GB but not together in the raid volume.

The odd thing is when i set to raid, there is a message stating that AHCI BIOS NOT INSTALLED!

I always ignored it cause windows driver enable the ahci when PC is inside windows.

The problem I have is that when I set to RAID, the bios doesn't detect the 120GB pro drive. But when set to IDE or AHCI; works fine.

Does anyone have similar problem and found a solution?

Updating BIOS is not an option. ABIT is not supporting.

[robertf]

I had a very similar problem with the same drive.
I'm using an AMD M4A78T-E. Moved my 1TB HDD to data drive, kept my raid, did a fresh install of W7 on SSD.
I loaded the driver and changed my registry value to '0' and rebooted a couple of times.
My Device Manager lists AMD AHCI compatible Raid controller.
The SSD is in SATA port 5 and is recognized if the BIOS has that port set to IDE. But if I change it to Raid, it isn't seen. I had my old HDD working fine and my raid was fine.
Yup, I've used the Raid utility to make the SSD 'raid-ready' as a single drive.

In the time it took to get approved to post to the forums, I did something that helped.
My MB forces port 5 to be IDE or RAID if 1-4 is RAID, AHCI isn't an option. I thought my AHCI was loaded because I saw it in the Device Manager but it wasn't. I unplugged all my drives except the SSD and chose AHCI. I booted and noticed that the driver loaded and it asked me to reboot.
I did so and rebooted once again, this time replugging my drives back in and setting all ports to RAID.
Everything works now. Most Crystal benchmarks went up 4-20%, but 4k reads went down <1%. This reduced my WEI from 7.2 to 7.1. But everything does feel snappier.

[whiterabbit]

in order for your ssd to be recognized by the bios you move it to port 5?

Your IDE mode is a lot better than mine. My mobo has two controller, the intel IC9R and the jmicron. The intel use PCIe interface which is 3Gb/s but the jmicron is only PCI.

When I set the IC9R sata port to RAID, all 6 ports will be affected. Therefore, in order for windows to boot, i have to move the ssd to the other controller and set it to IDE mode.

Performace is cap at the 1Gb/s, which is equal to 125MB/s. WEI is only 6.9 vs 7.7 on the IC9R controller with ahci. If I had your score on IDE, I would not bother with AHCI.

ATTO disk for the IDE mode using PCI channel is write 142MB/s ans 164MB/s read. No where near the max the ssd pro can run.

I may have to invest in a dedicated sata II controller to fix this problem. Cost additional 30 bucks.

[robertf]

I did more research, since I wasn't happy with the 7.1 rating. I noticed I had 2.1 and upgraded to 3.1. RAR file? They should really have zip or exe or something.
Then I unplugged all the drives except the SSD, set BIOS to AHCI and did a fresh install of W7. I re-ran the test and got a WEI of 7.7.
But now it's taking me a while to get all my drives back online.
I kept switching between AHCI, Raid and IDE trying to get everything recognized.
I think I left one SATA plug loose and 'broke' my raid; they were like 50kb off. I downloaded Raidxpert and am currently rebuilding my 2TB RAID1, it's taking hours since they are green drives.
After that happens, I'll run more tests to see my score and whether I should stick with Raid or IDE for port 5.

[whiterabbit]

I just noticed that you stated RAID1. I have 3x640GB blue in RAID 0.

I think you get better result in the end with RAID because it also has the side benefit of AHCI.