X399-HD not showing in UEFI boot list in RAID mode
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=6751
Printed Date: 19 Jul 2025 at 12:55am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: X399-HD not showing in UEFI boot list in RAID mode
Posted By: DbRbt
Subject: X399-HD not showing in UEFI boot list in RAID mode
Date Posted: 29 Nov 2017 at 5:26am
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Greetings from
a new ASRock owner! Recently purchased X399 Taichi board, managed to breeze through the basic setup with memory,
CPU, Video card, working perfectly and then hit a brick wall trying to switch
mode to RAID.
My basic
install was with a single SSD drive for
testing. This drive shows up
in UEFI boot list if mode is
AHCI.
 Great, I
thought... But, if
I switch to RAID mode (and reboot) the
drive is no longer available in UEFI/BIOS
boot list. No matter what I tried I could
not get the drive/volume to show up in UEFI boot list.
I contacted
tech support, but their response was not helpful. If anyone has been able to
successfully use RAID mode on this MB, I would be grateful for
pointers These are the
details of what I tried:
Please note that this problem is happening before even attempting
any OS installation... just UEFI/BIOS
As I mentioned, if I switch back to AHCI mode, everything works --
drive appears in boot list, and I can continue with OS
installation.
What am I missing? |
Replies:
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 29 Nov 2017 at 9:10am
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" rel="nofollow - DbRbt, sorry you are having so much trouble - most do, unfortunately. How did you install your copy of W10? Perhaps you used a USB stick created with Media Creation Tool. If so, how did you boot it? The USB stick would show up twice in your boot list - one with UEFI in from of it. That is the one you want to boot. If you did not or are not sure, you will need to install W10 again. You need to be installing W10 x64 version 1703 or 1709. If you can still boot into W10, hit Windows Key-R and type winver. You'll get an About with the details. Now what are you trying to do? Create a bootable RAID or a RAID data disk? The first must be done using the version of RAIDXpert2 (RX2) that is in the BIOS (under Advanced when RAID mode is set). You can create a RAID data disk in RX2 under W10. Do you want your RAID using SATA drives or NVMe drives? To start, please DL the RAID Installation Guide, here: http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X399%20Taichi/index.asp#Manual See Page 11 and up. Install the latest BIOS. Please ask any questions and you could also search the Forum for RAID threads. Enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 29 Nov 2017 at 11:42am
Sorry, but some of your statements don't make sense, or I don't understand them. Such as: When I switch to RAID mode I see a non-RAID volume created automatically and the physical drive is associated with it, however neither that RAID volume nor the individual drive is available in the boot list. A non-RAID or RAID volume would not be created automatically. You then said first it is non-RAID, and then it is a RAID volume. A volume is a partitioned and formatted drive. Creating a RAID array does not partition or format it at all, all it has on it is the RAID meta-data, the information about the RAID array itself. New or unpartitioned/unformatted single drives or RAID arrays will appear in the Storage Configuration screen, that is normal. Old BIOS firmware (or UEFI firmware run in Legacy BIOS mode (CSM Enabled, all CSM sub-options set to Legacy Only) in AHCI mode will list unpartitioned/unformatted drives in the Boot Order, but since they are really not bootable at all, what is point of doing that? UEFI firmware run in full UEFI mode (CSM disabled) or run in UEFI storage mode (CSM enabled, but the CSM sub-option Launch Storage OpROM Policy set to UEFI Only) will ONLY list truly bootable volumes in the boot order. That is, volumes with an EFI boot partition, GPT formatted, and of course full Windows installation. Those volumes will be shown in the Boot Order with this format: Windows Boot Manager (Drive Name) A drive or RAID array that will be the target for a Windows installation does NOT need to be seen in the Boot Order. I know we are accustomed to seeing those drives in the Boot Order with BIOS and Legacy emulated UEFI firmware, but as long as the drive/array is detected in the Storage Configuration screen, or by the RAID software, everything is fine. Just in case you are not following this procedure, whenever you change the SATA mode or any setting related to CSM (or really 99% of UEFI/BIOS options), you must Save and Exit the UEFI before the settings are truly applied. You had a single drive Windows installation done in AHCI mode, and then changed to RAID mode, and the PC no longer booted from the single drive. That is 100% normal. All you have from the single drive Windows installation is an AHCI storage controller and driver (see Device Manager), but you do not have a RAID storage controller active, with the required drivers in that Windows installation. Changing the SATA mode in the UEFI/BIOS is NOT communicated to Windows, and it has no idea which type of driver to load (IDE, AHCI, RAID) as well as which compatible RAID driver(s) to use. This is a known situation with Windows, and there is no current way around it besides a registry edit to allow changing the SATA mode. Even if you did the registry edit, Windows 10 still does not have the appropriate AMD RAID drivers to use for X399, so it would still not boot. Yes you can proceed with a Windows installation in AHCI mode, and you can also proceed with a Windows installation meant for an AMD X399 RAID array. Yes, in RAID mode the RAID array won't initially be seen by the Windows installation program. There are several reasons for that. You must do a Custom Windows installation, and load the AMD X399 RAID drivers, minimally in UEFI storage mode, or full UEFI booting mode. More explanation to follow. First you need to use the AMD X399 RAID manual that describes installing Windows 10 on an X399 RAID array: htt ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow"> 
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DbRbt wrote:Posted By: Pape
Date Posted: 30 Nov 2017 at 9:32am
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yup got the same issue. In AHCI the storage controller is in legacy mode therefore you havea MBR and a legacy booth system When you switch to raid the storage become UEFI. UEFI will not show a boot device until you have a UEFI OS installed on it. In short you need to reinstall windows in UEFI mode when you move to raid. If you want my full story look at my post on this forum call X399 Taichi and storage :) |
Posted By: DbRbt
Date Posted: 01 Dec 2017 at 2:18am
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MisterJ, parsec and
pape!
Thank you so very much for your exhaustive and detailed responses. They have helped me understand how UEFI actually
works, and I have managed to overcome the hurdle.
While I have decades of experience building PC's
behind me, this is the first true UEFI based system I built, and as you all
pointed out, the boot list no longer reflects all possible boot targets like in
BIOS or legacy emulated UEFI. That was my error. I kept expecting to see the HD in the boot
list before installing windows.
Once I installed windows, sure enough, I had a
Windows manager entry in the boot
list.
I am very grateful for your help and the
education.
Now I am struggling with an unrelated issue.
I actually installed Win7 -- "mostly". Managed to navigate through all the USB
and RAID F6(floppy) driver hurdles. Windows7 installs runs up to the point when the installation
process reboots into the new installation on the HD to finalize the settings.
At that point, it successfully boots into windows boot manager, but then is unable to start Windows -- generating an error that it either cannot locate the necessary file, or
the hardware has changed. So, I will have more fun trying to unravel this. -- On a side note, I also tried
installing Win7 in AHCI mode on an MBR partitioned disk. It was a champ! Breezed
through the installation and works perfectly. Thanks again, Dan
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Posted By: DbRbt
Date Posted: 01 Dec 2017 at 2:39am
I understand your confusion -- it is probably
coming from term "non-RAID", which is a term used in ASRock's UEFI for a specific >>type<< of RAID array -- just
their unfortunate terminology. I also used
the term volume, when I meant array... But, to address your question, the UEFI (in
RAID mode), does automatically create a raid array of type "non-RAID" for physical drives
which do not participate in any real RAID arrays. You can see it if you connect a new
drive, and then go into the RaidExpert2 EUFI
page. then click on entry to view existing arrays under array management. You will see an array of type "non-RAID" with the
physical disk, just connected to the system, associated with that
array.
In fact, in my travails, I tried deleting this
"non-RAID' array. And, while I was able to delete it, it would get recreated
automatically on the next boot. |
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 01 Dec 2017 at 4:50am
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" rel="nofollow - DbRbt, I call the "non-RAID" things ghosts. I also had a ghost RAID0 (I did create it (NVMe) but it did not work) that I could not delete. Neither ASRock nor AMD could help, so my MB is being RMAed. I hope to get it back soon - they have my old board and have assigned a new S/N. A real shame that I have to RMA a board because I cannot delete a ghost drive/array. If you have not looked at Pape's thread, please do, here: http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6722&title=x399-taichi-storage I think he talks about a W7 RAID but I cannot find it now. At least you can see my diatribe about W10 x64 >= 1703 only being supported by AMD. I suspect ultimately getting a W7 RAID to work is a lost cause, but if you are willing, I suggest you go back to BIOS 1.50. To do this you will need to save your data and delete all existing RAIDs, before down grading BIOS. At best you will be able to create only SATA RAIDs and the BIOS will look considerably different. I'll see if I can find you a link to the old instructions - let me know if you are interested. Thanks for keeping us aware of your travails. Enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: DbRbt
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2017 at 9:07am
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MisterJ:
I hope you have received your replacement board and that the
problem is fixed. I cannot comprehend that a board replacement was needed to
correct a UEFI setting error. Unbelievable! I guess CMOS clear or reset to
default did not clear the raid array definition? In Win I have 2 raid controllers installed properly, and 2 for which windows did not install drivers, but are listed in the device list. Apparently ( https://community.amd.com/thread/214160 ) these drivers have to be installed manually. But, I have to figure out which drivers to use, as they are not obvious. Best, Dan.
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Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2017 at 10:13am
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" rel="nofollow - DbRbt, I have received my replacement board and I have not tried to create a RAID yet, but the same ghost drives and RAID0 are still there. I really think there is something seriously wrong with the function design. I opened a new AMD ticket today to try to get some help. Have you seen this thread? http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6859&title=x399-fatality-1950x-raid-problems Looks like msco has the same problem as I. My NVMe drives (3X960) work great! Do you continue to run W7 and your RAIDs are all SATA? When I run RX2 and get "array 0 not allowed by current license level" it means that the drivers are not installed (in Windows) or RAID is not enabled in the BIOS. I do not know what the 2 means, but I think it is not really a license issue. Please keep us up to date. Thanks much and enjoy, John. EDIT: I looked at the rumors on the Samsung 970 and 980 and they look no faster than my 960s. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2017 at 12:12pm
The reason the Windows 7 installation, when installed in X399's RAID/UEFI mode, failed to boot is relatively simple if not at all obvious. While Windows 7 can be UEFI booting compatible, the Windows 7 installation file structure has a mistake in the location of the EFI boot loader file, or the hard coded path to that file is incorrect. That EFI boot loader file is what is used for UEFI booting, and without it a UEFI Windows installation cannot boot. The error message you quoted actually applies to the situation, the necessary file (EFI boot loader) cannot be found. A decent explanation of this and instructions for fixing the Windows 7 installation ISO file layout for UEFI booting can be found in the guide below. While this guide is about Windows 8 and 8.1, the information it contains about Windows 7 is valid and only applies to Windows 7. Scroll down to step 11 in the Option 2 section for the details: https://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html" rel="nofollow - https://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html The fix is a little tricky, and I've had both successes and failures creating the fixed Windows 7 installation media. Note that if you get Windows 7 installed and booting in UEFI mode, the question of whether or not the AMD X399 RAID drivers and RAID software will work with Windows 7 remains to be determined. This also explains why your Windows 7 AHCI/Legacy MBR mode installation worked fine. That type of installation does not use the EFI boot loader, so works fine with the standard Windows 7 installation media. RAID for X399 is callled "UEFI RAID" in the AMD manual, and UEFI booting seems to be required both for SATA and NVMe OS volumes. There might be a way via a BCD edit to get Windows 7 to use the EFI boot loader in its default location, if you could run it in a pre-boot environment. That would be after an X399 RAID/UEFI mode Windows 7 installation, with the OS volume somehow partitioned in GPT. Again, the RAID driver and software compatibility might make all the work a waste of time. ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: DbRbt
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2017 at 8:56am
MisterJ, apologies for the delayed response.
I am glad you received your replacement board, but it is strange that it still shows ghost drives. I tried to see if I will encounter the same issue. Played with creating/changing/deleting RAID arrays (through UEFI) on my board, but all operations worked as expected. I had been struggling with RAID drivers, and finally threw in the towel. The Windows version of RAIDXpert will not let me log in, and any RAID arrays I define in UEFI, show briefly in Windows, and then vanish, with a cryptic message about licensing, displayed by RaidXpert notification service in the taskbar. Drivers are installed in Windows, and UEFI is in RAID mode. I tried every available driver version, and RaidXpert version, to not avail. Reading the thread you pointed out, apparently it is not just Win7 that is having problems with RAID drivers, as I thought. I wonder if there any way to collectively draw AMDs attention to this problem. I gave up on AMDs RAID, and switched to mirrored dynamic volumes in windows. Not ideal, but at least they work. I am disappointed in AMD -- both their programmers and their support. It has been 9 days since I raised a ticket with AMD support, and not a peep out of them, except a message that my inquiry was sent to advanced support. That was 6 days ago. I hope they have been more responsive to your ticket.
Glad that your NVMe?™s are working well. Are you running them individually, or have you managed to build a RAID with them? I was planning to get a 960 or 970 (for my boot drive), but held off for 2 reasons: wanted to first try out the Taichi with SATA drives, before trying more exotic hardware (ha! thought SATA would be more straightforward, little did I know I would waste 3 weeks trying to get basic RAID going), and also, am waiting for more reasonable prices (they are hovering around $450 for the 1TB, and there have been no decent sales on them since September. I expected that with 970/980 release rumored for beginning of 2018, they would be actively reducing stock of 960.. but noooo). Thanks, and good luck |
Posted By: DbRbt
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2017 at 8:59am
Parsec, thank
you for the detailed response, and analysis. Yes, after many hours learning about how UEFI works, I came to the same conclusion that win7 messes up the linkage from the boot loader to the windows loader. The article you pointed out is superb. Thank you. I found a much more rudimentary discussion about efi file locations (step 11 you highlight in the article), and tried adjusting the locations of all the files mentioned, but it did not help. I think the path, referring to the partition location was incorrect in my case. I was planning to fix it manually using BCDEdit, but then found a tool (Easy Recovery Essentials) which fixed it automatically. Spared me the tedious command-line editing using BCEdit. I gave up on AMD?™s RAID. It does not work, and looking through the threads here, it seems the problems are not confined to just Win7. I am very disappointed in AMD -- both their programmers and their support. It has been 9 days since I raised a ticket with AMD support, and not a peep out of them, except a message that my inquiry was sent to advanced support. That was 6 days ago.
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Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2017 at 12:35am
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" rel="nofollow - DbRbt, I still have not given up on AMD UEFI RAID and truly believe I will slay this dragon. I hope you will not surrender either. AMD support basically told me the same thing - assigned an Expert, but I have heard nothing. I have successfully deleted all my ghost and created a NVMe array. The trick to deleting my ghosts was to delete the RAID0 (which still hung around) AND delete all the NVMe SSDs comprising the array. I then got a message saying something like "...no arrays exist...". I then created a RAID0 of all three of my NVMe SSDs. I made a USB stick using the MS Media Creation Tool: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 I booted the USB, install the ASRock RAID drivers that I had copied to the USB stick. My six drives (3 large and 3 very small partitions) then turned into one large drive (My RAID0!). I think the 3 small partitions (10 MB or so) are the RAID meta data. W10 install went fine! I strongly suggest you try this. It is a very good confidence builder! Lots of !!! I then tried the USB stick with my installation files and the six files would not turn into the one RAID0 no matter what drivers I tried. I do lots of things to create my USB including creating an ISO and using Rufus to write the stick. Apparently some thing is bad with my process or the way AMD Option ROM is working. Two specific things I do is Disable CMS and then ONLY UEFI devices show in the F11 boot selection menu. I also make sure the the RAID is GPT initialized using Diskpart. I have two experiments to run today to narrow down my problem and will report later, here: http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6859&KW=rufus&PID=41054&title=x399-fatality-1950x-raid-problems#41054 Please don't surrender, we can beat this monster. Enjoy, John. EDIT: I was successful today. Please see the thread I pointed to above. Also I should say that I did not set SATA to RAID, only NVMe RAID to Enabled and set CSM to Disabled. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: DbRbt
Date Posted: 24 Dec 2017 at 12:38pm
MisterJ, thanks for cheering me up?¦LOL! I have to say.. been using
RAID controllers since 1997, and have never had problems like this. I heard from AMD support..finally. They did not have anything substantive. They suspect a "config error", and asked for screen shots of UEFI. Sent them pics of UEFI and also of Windows initially recognizing the RAID1 array, and then their software blocking it with the idiotic "licensing" message. I'll let you know if they figure out the issue...but I bet it is AMDs UEFI or drivers causing it... because.... In the process of reconfiguring my drives back into RAID1, so that I can send AMD pics, I realized that this rabbit hole is much deeper than I thought. I encountered so many new problems (all within UEFI, unrelated to windows), that I am convinced AMD never before wrote RAID control software ?? seems it was written by complete dilettantes: 1. Encountered ghost arrays, which you spoke about. Apparently, UEFI does not like when disks are removed from an array, before the array is explicitly deleted. Reconnecting those drives back, even after being cleaned using DISKPART, still causes the array to reappear, but in a strange state,... plus the drives appear as individual arrays. At that point, the ghost array cannot be deleted. To delete the ghost array, the disks must be reattached to the ghost array, and then the array explicitly deleted. A different problem: 2. Disks which were part of a RAID1 array , after being removed from
the array, disconnected from MB, cleaned using DISKPART and reconnected, cause
an unrelated boot disk to go offline --
a disk which never had any relationship to the RAID array. The moment these
disks are again disconnected from the MB, the boot disk immediately comes
on-line (reboot is not required)!! The
only way I found to fix this is to initialize the drives (on a different
computer) using MBR scheme (GPT sometimes works and sometimes fails). After
that, reconnecting the drives back to
the MB does not cause problems with the boot disk. Amazing! This looks the AMD software was done with no QA testing whatsoever! Cheers! |
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 25 Dec 2017 at 12:28am
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DbRbt, I have lost track of your setup and RAID use. This is the advantage of posting your specifications in your signature for the setup part - please do. Now, if you will post what RAID arrays you are building - NVMe or HDD, etc, I will be good. My RAID0 boot device (3X Samsung 960). I posted this set of instructions for another user and I hope you are doing the same: For SATA array. 1. Boot into BIOS, hit F9 then F10 2. Boot into BIOS, set http://rover.ebay.com/rover/13/0/19/DealFrame/DealFrame.cmp%3cbm=713&BEFID=96477&aon=%5E&MerchantID=534734&crawler_id=534734&dealId=fvgmSgeaKS5Igtr_YsD8Qw%3D%3D&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.genuinenewparts.com%2Foem-parts%2Fjaguar-mode-control-t2r10130%3Forigin%3Dpla%26utm_source%3Dshopping%26utm_medium%3Dcse%26utm_term%3Dt2r10130&linkin_id=8058742&Issdt=171224111603&searchID=p19.a6262928dbf6490b8635&DealName=Jaguar+Center+Console+Mode+Control+2014+-+2015+T2R10130&dlprc=127.76&AR=1&NG=1&NDP=5&PN=1&ST=7&FPT=DSP&NDS=&NMS=&MRS=&PD=&brnId=14305&IsFtr=0&IsSmart=0&op=&CM=&RR=1&IsLps=0&code=&acode=731&category=&HasLink=&ND=&MN=&GR=&lnkId=&SKU=t2r10130" rel="nofollow - SATA mode to RAID 3. Set CSM to disable 4. F10 5. boot into BIOS 6. use RAIDXpert2 (RX2) to delete all drives you want included in the RAID and any arrays not needed 7. Create array, selecting each of your drives, one by one 8. F10 9. Boot into Boot Menu (F11) 10. Select install USB. You should see UEFI only version. 11. Install the RAID drivers in this order: 1-rcbottom - all your drives in the RAID will disappear 2-rcraid - you will see your one RAID 3-rccfg - you are good to go! 12. Install W10 on the RAID. 13. Enjoy. If you are creating an NVMe RAID: 1. Boot into BIOS, hit F9 then F10 2. Boot into BIOS, in PBS set http://rover.ebay.com/rover/13/0/19/DealFrame/DealFrame.cmp%3cbm=713&BEFID=96477&aon=%5E&MerchantID=534734&crawler_id=534734&dealId=fvgmSgeaKS5Igtr_YsD8Qw%3D%3D&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.genuinenewparts.com%2Foem-parts%2Fjaguar-mode-control-t2r10130%3Forigin%3Dpla%26utm_source%3Dshopping%26utm_medium%3Dcse%26utm_term%3Dt2r10130&linkin_id=8058742&Issdt=171224111603&searchID=p19.a6262928dbf6490b8635&DealName=Jaguar+Center+Console+Mode+Control+2014+-+2015+T2R10130&dlprc=127.76&AR=1&NG=1&NDP=5&PN=1&ST=7&FPT=DSP&NDS=&NMS=&MRS=&PD=&brnId=14305&IsFtr=0&IsSmart=0&op=&CM=&RR=1&IsLps=0&code=&acode=731&category=&HasLink=&ND=&MN=&GR=&lnkId=&SKU=t2r10130" rel="nofollow - NVMe RAID to Enabled 3. Set CSM to disable 4. F10 5. boot into BIOS 6. use RX2 to delete all drives you want included in the RAID and any arrays not needed 7. Create array, selecting each of your drives, one by one 8. F10 9. Boot into Boot Menu (F11) 10. Select install USB. You should see UEFI only version. 11. Install the RAID drivers in this order: 1-rcbottom - all your drives in the RAID will disappear 2-rcraid - you will see your one RAID 3-rccfg - you are good to go! 12. Install W10 on the RAID. 13. Enjoy. Please tell me where your install media came from (USB?) or how you created it. You can take screenshots in the BIOS using F12 with a FAT formatted USB plugged. Enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |