z370 extreme4 won't boot from SATA0 with RAID on

Dear Dr.zapp,

 

Thank you for choosing ASRock.

 

Regarding your case, the system cannot boot because your system is installed in AHCI mode.

When you switch to RAID mode, the system cannot recognize the AHCI boot manager.

Please refer to below link to change the AHCI mode to RAID mode.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/588c6cc0-03f0-44c4-b9dc-49143db95000/changing-from-ahci-to-raid-without-reinstalling-win-10?forum=win10itprohardware

Or you can install your Windows again in RAID mode.

 

Thank you!

Yours truly,

ASRock TSD

dr.zapp wrote: I upgraded my motherboard from a z77 extreme4 to a z370 extreme4 with an i5-8600k, 16 GB RAM. I have a boot drive, a backup drive and 2 additional for a RAID0. On initial setup I plugged only my boot drive into SATA0, as instructed in the manual. Set up the UEFI for everything, set the SATA controller to AHCI (because that is what I had it set on for the previous motherboard) and it boots fine. I install drivers, everything is going smoothly, so I shut down and plug in my two RAID drives into SATA2 and SATA3 (which is what they were plugged into on the previous board), turn on RAID, it detects the RAID0 instantly. So I reboot.  This is where it gets weird. I get a warning that I have a non-system disk, so I go to the UEFI to double check my boot drive order, and while all my drives are detected correctly, SATA0 and SATA1 are not listed in the boot drive options. So thinking the RAID maybe only works on the SATA_A channels (I've run into this issue before), I plug the RAID into A1 and A2. Still not able to select SATA0 for booting, however my two RAID0 drives now are. So I swap the RAID0 to SATA0 and SATA1, put the boot drive in SATA_A1, and it is now visible in the boot options. System boots fine, RAID0 is intact.  To double check, I unplug the RAID0 and plug the boot drive into SATA0, and I can't select it from the boot setup. I turn off RAID, and poof, SATA0 is now selectable for boot. So why can't I boot from SATA0 with RAID enabled? Thanks for any ideas.

dr.zapp wrote: Thanks for the response, but it is not helpful. If it was related to AHCI mode, then it would at least start Windows, and then blue screen. However, It doesn't even recognize the drive is plugged into SATA0. As I explained previously, I have turned on RAID, and the system OS (windows 10) was installed WITH RAID enabled. I am NOT trying to boot from a RAID, I just want to boot from the single drive plugged into SATA0. If I turn off RAID, then SATA0 is bootable. If I turn on RAID, it is no longer selectable in the UEFI boot menu.

Sorry but the explanation of your situation is missing important details. Your two posts contradict an important point. Also the response from ASRock is at least partially correct.

Your first post states you installed Windows in AHCI mode on the Z77 PC, and then you also set the SATA mode to AHCI (the default) in the UEFI of the Z370 board. You also describe connecting the two RAID 0 drives and then "... turn on RAID", which is not installing Windows in RAID model. Then your second post states you installed Windows 10 in RAID mode. I have highlighted and underlined the three statements. Please clarify the situation.

You also have a misunderstanding about the two different SATA controllers on your board. You have an Intel and an ASMedia SATA controller, the ASMedia controller ports are the SATA3_A1 and A2 ports. These two SATA controllers are separate and cannot work together, and the SATA3_A1 and A2 ports do not support RAID. Intel RAID only works with the six Intel SATA ports, SATA3_0 - SATA3_5. Note there is a SATA mode setting for both of the SATA controllers in the Storage Configuration screen, with the ASMedia supporting AHCI and IDE only. An Intel RAID array will not operate when connected to anything other than an Intel SATA controller.

An Intel RAID array is not tied to a specific Intel SATA port. You can connect an Intel RAID array to any Intel SATA port, or move them to different Intel SATA ports.

What entries in Device Manager do you have for both of the SATA controllers? Did you install any SATA and/or RAID drivers on the Z77 board, or the Z370 board?

It seems you moved your OS/boot drive (which had Windows installed in AHCI mode) from the Z77 PC to the Z370 PC, is that correct?

Next you said you have two drives in a RAID 0 array from the Z77 PC. You said the Z77 PC OS installation was done in AHCI mode, so how did you have an Intel RAID array created on an AHCI OS installation?

An Intel RAID array will be detected fine in the UEFI/BIOS with the SATA mode set to RAID, but booting Windows after changing from AHCI to RAID mode won't work. The Windows installation does not have an Intel RAID driver installed, so the Intel RAID functionality is not available.

As ASRock support said, a Windows installation done in AHCI mode cannot simply be changed to RAID mode, without first performing a Windows registry modification. Windows otherwise does not know it needs to install an Intel RAID driver.

Your situation with the OS drive does not make sense, and I cannot know what is happening without a clear description. Booting Windows with the Intel SATA mode toggled between AHCI and RAID will result in who knows what regarding what driver is installed for the Intel SATA controller.

If you created the RAID 0 array with Intel IRST RAID on the Z77 PC, what version of the IRST software were you using?

I figured it out. With UEFI you won't see the SSD as a possible boot device from the bios. You will see it during the windows installation process. So, duh, I learned something.