UEFI RAID Setup- No drives Mapped/Detected?
Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: AMD Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock AMD motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4868
Printed Date: 01 Sep 2025 at 10:53am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: UEFI RAID Setup- No drives Mapped/Detected?
Posted By: sbcelicagt
Subject: UEFI RAID Setup- No drives Mapped/Detected?
Date Posted: 16 Apr 2017 at 11:04pm
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" rel="nofollow - I've tried every combination of settings I can think of in the UEFI control panel and I'm still at a loss. FM2A88M Pro3+ ITX motherboard. I have 2 hard drives installed (plugged into SATA_1 and SATA_2). Detected by the UEFI control panel interface, but when I follow the directive to change the RAID mode to UEFI and load up the EFI Shell, a message shows nothing is mapped and when I execute the 'drvcfg' command, I get a blank result.
My goal is to set up these 2 drives as RAID 1 for subsequent installation of linux (Amahi). Not sure what to do at this point. Any ideas of how to diagnose this problem?? |
Replies:
Posted By: sbcelicagt
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2017 at 11:30am
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Update: It helps if I read the WHOLE document. Especially the part where it says "for A88X chipsets." ;) ref http://asrock.pc.cdn.bitgravity.com/Manual/RAID/FM2A88M%20Pro3+/English.pdf" rel="nofollow - http://asrock.pc.cdn.bitgravity.com/Manual/RAID/FM2A88M%20Pro3+/English.pdf I had a few oddball hiccups where rebooting with the flash drive installed caused it to "forget" the UEFI "version" of the flash drive. When the UEFI version did show up in the boot menu (from a cold boot), I was able to successfully load the EFI shell and initialize the discs using the rcadm command as described. At least I think I was successful. The command to create a RAID 1 array from the 2 initialized disks was followed by a "created successfully" response. The next hurdle is trying to install Fedora 23 Server without crashing, but to at least find out if I got the drives set up correctly I tested out running a Windows 10 installation process up to choosing the OS location. That worked after loading the RAID drivers via USB so I have to assume that my problem now lies in getting Linux to play nicely. Not sure if I need to custom load "AMD RAID drivers" prior to running the installation process (I'm new to Linux). |
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2017 at 12:19pm
If Windows 10 needed the RAID driver for the AMD A88X chipset to recognize the RAID array, my guess is that is not a good sign for Linux having a built in A88X RAID driver. But I really don't know either way. I can tell you that Windows 10 has a surprising number of built in RAID drivers. That includes some for really old chipsets (VIA, Nvidia), and more exotic ones (LSI, HP.) That's why I'm surprised Win 10 did not have the A88X "Bolton" (I assume) chipset RAID driver. As you know from the AMD RAID manual, there are multiple flavors of AMD's RAID. My guess is if Windows 10 does not natively support the A88X RAID driver, why would Linux? A Linux support forum would be the best place to get that information. ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow"> 
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sbcelicagt wrote:Posted By: sbcelicagt
Date Posted: 19 Apr 2017 at 9:49pm
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Thanks for the suggestions. I found the root cause of the problem. The 2 old drives were previously setup in a RAID configuration on the old motherboard. Somehow it carried that information over to the new setup and made a mess of trying to setup the AMD RAID. I used a Windows10 install disk (USB flash) to run 'diskpart' to clear out the old information before trying again to create a new array. Good news: It appeared to work and I no longer get the fatal error from the installation GUI. Bad news: The installation GUI appears to recognize both drives as independent entities (sda1 & sdb1) (Mostly just a learning exercise at this point as I'm going to remove the array and go back to AHCI to continue installation. The general consensus from the Internet appears to be that unless you've got an expensive add-on RAID controller, using virtual RAID by way of motherboard firmware or OS software is a bit of a crapshoot anyway.) |
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 19 Apr 2017 at 10:26pm
The RAID configuration information is stored on the drives in the RAID array, that is normal. I could take drives in an Intel IRST RAID array from one Intel PC to another, and it would be recognized and work normally. But you can't move an Intel PC's RAID array to an AMD PC's RAID, or vice versa. Try moving one drive of that RAID array to another PC without cleaning it out first, and you'll have trouble. Cleaning it up takes more than simply deleting the data on the drives, as you have seen. Plus each RAID implementation is different, there is a RAID standard that Intel uses which is not used by AMD. AMD had multiple RAID implementations for their different chipsets, as you saw in their RAID document, which do not seem compatible. I accidentally connected one drive from an Intel RAID array that was still intact to my AMD Ryzen system. Windows was not happy with that, as well as the AMD RAID software. I had to remove that drive to get the PC back to normal. It seems the Linux installer does not have the A88X RAID driver, so they are seen as two drives. The AMD RAID Option ROM in the UEFI/BIOS is apparently not enough to allow it to function without the RAID driver. That also is not a surprise. RAID implementations are unique to a board's chipset, firmware, and software. There is a standard for RAID, but it is not used in the majority of implementations. The virtual RAID provided by an OS is yet another type, not compatible with others. A dedicated RAID card that can be used in any mother board will usually work, simply because it is the source of the RAID implementation. Move the card to another PC, nothing changes. ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: sbcelicagt
Date Posted: 20 Apr 2017 at 3:47am
| Yep - It's a lesson I've learned the hard way. The old AMD motherboard (Socket 939) used a Promise controller and I should have removed the array before taking it apart. Oops! |