Hi!

I've been using an Intel SRCU42e (LSI MegaRAID OEM) Hardware RAID Controller for years now. I had several arrays set up, with Windows Vista x64 as the OS.

This card went from my old rig to the freshly assembled X58 Classified, with no other Harddisks present than the ones on the RAID card.
The board (and BIOS) recognize the card, when Posting I see the BIOS from the RAID card, and can even get into the RAID BIOS, configure the whole adapter and see, that my arrays nicely carried over to my new build.
But for some strange reason, the Mainboard BIOS is uncapable to boot from it, although I can enable booting from this card in the Boot options menu of the board in the Hard Disk Boot Priority section (SCSI-0: (Bus 03 Dev 0E)PCI RAID))!
I constantly get "Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disk And Press Enter" after the POST completes!

When booting with a Linux DVD, I can see the arrays, with their partitions. Everything is ok (the array set to boot from contains an active, primary partition etc.). Linux recognizes the card, but apparently via its kernel modules, not via the BIOS.
I tried booting from a Vista or Win 7 installation DVD, but in this state Windows does not recognize a single disk!!! But it should, as the mainboard BIOS in conjunction with the RAID card BIOS should represent the Arrays to the system just like if harddisks were attached (and that worked with my previous system; how else could I have installed and boot Vista from it!)!

I've done a BIOS update from the original one (S61G) to the newest release (59), but to no avail. The IRQ for the card has changed from 255 to 10, but still not able to boot.


So the problem seems to be that the mainboard BIOS isn't capable of activating/using the RAID card's Int13h BIOS extension (though it is enabled in the adapter config!) to show the arrays to the system via the BIOS level! That means I will never be able to boot from this (expensive) card with it's (very expensive) disks???

I can't believe it! Aren't there other people with hardware RAID controllers out there? Anyone experiencing this kind of problem?

I need this system working ASAP, as I have to prepare for my exams!!!

"Boot Other Device" under "Advanced BIOS Features" is what you want to check.

Odd. Press escape during the POST and see what appears for bootable drive options, I guess.

Ok, if I change the Hard Disk Boot Priority to "Bootable Add-in Cards" (and the "SCSI-o: (Bus 03 Dev 0E)PCI RAID" as 2nd (!!!)), I am able to boot the previously installed Vista from the RAID card (which BSODs during the boot process, probably due to the hardware changes).

BUT when booting from a Win7 Installation DVD, I still get no drives listed!

Odd. Any further opinions? :(

ShockTheMonky
Did you install the raid controller drivers for win 7? If it doesn't recodnize the controller then it won't see the drives.

The controller is natively supported by Vista/Win7, and therefore there are no manufacturer-provided drivers. With my previous rig, I just had to boot from the installation DVD, choose a drive (array), and click install.

A Hardware RAID controller has Int13h BIOS extensions (can be disabled in controller BIOS), with which the mainboard can represent the card's arrays as simple harddisks to any operating system! That worked well with my previous board, but does not with the EVGA!

Considering the vast amount of other flaws in BIOS code for EVGA boards, I assume that this one adds to this category. Just curious if an Asus Board would work with this RAID card. And curious, too, why other RAID cards (i.e. Areca) seem to work for other users, but Intel cards don't work (for me)...

THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM for me, as I've purposefully chosen an X58-platform to get enough lanes for running a hardware RAID card, and the E760 is the only board to feature a decent slot layout, ECC support (regarding to Jacob, not tested yet), and available full-board waterblocks. A mainboard exchange to another brand/type would therefore represent a massive financial loss and time-consuming re-planning of the whole system; all because of a stupid BIOS flaw!

I will now open a service ticket pointing to this thread, and I can only hope that this issue can (and will!) be fixed via a BIOS-update. If there's another solution to my problem, I'd be glad to hear it.

doorules

i have had no issues with my LSI 9260-8i in Windows 7, it also has native drivers built into windows, all i have to do is first go into lsi card bios to setup array, reboot...then change boot order back to boot from cd, reboot,  and the cd is grabbed on reboot, install as usual.

That's exactly how it should work, and how it worked with my previous system.

doorules

have any luck after Killi ? hope you got it figured out bud

Unfortunately, not.
The European support has forwarded the issue to the colleagues in the US, as they, too, have no clue to what is wrong.

Today I'll try installing Windows to an ordinary SATA-HDD and see if I can access the arrays from within the OS.

UPDATE:

Yesterday I've installed Vista and Win 7 to a SSD connected to an ICH-SATA Port. Although the RAID arrays were not shown in the selection menu where you choose which drive to install Windows onto, the installation said "Windows is unable to find a system volume which meets its criteria for installation". I had to disable the RAID adapter's BIOS (to remove any signs of additional drives) to be able to continue the installation!
That means, the drives are not there, but then again there is something more than nothing... ;)

Windows 7 does not have a native driver for my RAID card, but Vista does. After installing Vista, the RAID card is listed in Device Manager under Storage, and Windows says "The device is working properly.", but no drives are accessible or even visible, no matter whether the RAID adapter's BIOS is enabled or not.
I've tried to inject the Vista driver into Win 7 (which succeeded), but with this OS, too, no drives are visible.

This evening I will try with a Linux live DVD and check if I can actually access the drives from within Linux.

Not only did I have to buy a separate HDD for testing, but now it seems I won't be able to utilize any of the RAID arrays even when booting from an ordinary SATA disk! Do I have to dump my 10 pcs. 15krpm-SCSI-disk, the corresponding enclosure with the backplanes, the controller and the cables etc.???

I really, really hope that EVGA can fix this one.

doorules

i went searching on intels site yesterday and could not find a W7 approved driver for your card, had vista and xp there, but no W7, funny that it would show up in Vista and not W7 though...have you requested any info from intel on this matter?

Microsoft has abandoned support for the mraid35x.sys-driver in Windows 7, but using the Vista-Version in Win 7 works just fine; so no need to bother Intel with this driver matter (although I find it a bit emberassing that Intel and LSI do not provide more recent drivers; Dell, who also has this OEM LSI card in its portfolie, has just recently released a driver for Win Server 2008 R2, which shares the same codebase with Windows 7...).

To prevent any misunderstandings: The card shows up in Vista and Windows 7 (the latter with the "selfmade" driver), but in none of these OS' the arrays are visible or accessible (though Vista supports the card natively).

I had to contact Intel support a while ago on another matter with the card, regarding information on how and when the Battery Backup Unit gets recharged. This is basic information, which has nothing to do with any kind of compatibility problems or whatsoever; nonetheless Intel would not answer this question because I did not use an Intel motherboard, "only" a Supermicro serverboard with Intel-Chipset and Intel-CPUs (!!!)!!
So I think asking Intel on this matter would be useless...

The card itself is perfectly ok, and when dealing with electronic components I am _extremely_ careful (to not say "paranoid") regarding static electricity... ;)

When booting Linux (tried with OpenSuSE), I've got a huge list of devicefiles from my arrays, and I'm able to mount them and get access to the data stored on them! So the card works, but for some reason the mainboard BIOS does some strange things with the boot device ordering, and does not represent the drives via the BIOS-level. Astoundingly, I'm not able to access the arrays from within a fully booted Windows where the driver should circumvent the BIOS routines. Apparently Windows behaves differently than Linux.

To me, it's more clear than ever that a mainboard BIOS flaw is the cause of the problems.