Help me please!!! RAID 1 saga

L31mr0d

aagggghhh :mad: i'm seriously at my wits end with this problem, I can't seem to find any solution to it at all.

I've been trying to build my parents a HTPC since november, thats right, november. What I wanted was to setup up Windows MCE on the computer and have it run a RAID 1 setup so they would have all their photos, and videos backed up onto another drive but would also have the access speeds of a RAID setup.

The setup was:
Antec NSK1300, 300w PSU inc.
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8GHz Socket AM2
TwinMOS DDR2 PC5300 1024MB Dual Pack KIT (2x512MB)
Asus M2N-MX, nForce410+GeForce 6100, Socket-AM2, m-ATX
2 x WD Caviar SE 160GB 16MB cache SATAII
IDE BenQ DVD RW

My problem is that I can't get a stable RAID 1 set up. For some reason I can turn on the RAID functionality in the BIOS, then F10 into the RAID menu and set up a "mirrored" RAID 1 (i've tried striping blocks of optimal and 64K) I can then get through the whole installation of Windows, including the reboot and locale settings, but when I try to actually get into windows, it BSODs then resets.

Ok first I thought the PSU in the NSK1300 might be too weak, so I tried the same setup with my OCZ 700w, still the same, then I thought the drives where faulty, so i tested them in another machine. I had no problems. I then thought that the mobos sata controller could be faulty, so I replaced the mobo with a new one, a Gigabyte GA-M61PM-S2, and just to be on the safe side, I changed the HDDs for 2x250GB Seagate 7200.1 Barracudas.

To my amazement the problems STILL continues. I definitely thought different HDDs and a different mobo would solve this problem. I've tried the setup in and out of the case so the case isn't shorting something on the mobo, i've tried the RAID 1 in different sata ports, i've tried different sata cables, i've also tried XP with the sata raid drivers integrated, from the floppy, XP home, XP professional, XP MCE... all the same outcome, BSOD just before it gets into windows. The only 2 variables left are the CPU and RAM, i've stress tested the CPU for 8 hours, no errors, i've also ran memtest86 for 8hours, no errors.

WTF could it be?

astrofool

If you try boot into safe mode, does it stop at mup.sys? I had a similar issue and found that my board (DFI) was setting the RAM too stringently. Relax the RAM settings completely and see if that helps.

leeroybrown

It's going to be a Windows/Driver/Firmware/BIOS compatability problem. Have you installed Windows on a single drive without a RAID setup? If I were you I'd try to get it running Windows on a non-RAID install then create a separate RAID1 device on a pair of disks. Assuming that the onboard RAID controller allows you to do that it might help you figure out what drivers/firmware, etc you need to get it working.

I'd start by updating the motherboard BIOS if you haven't already done so.

L31mr0d

yeah it stops at mup.sys... although that tells me nothing, i've had the dreaded mup.sys problem before and it usually means its a hardware/driver problem.

I had that thought about RAM timings myself, but both of these board are mATX and are really meant for HTPC, so they offer NOTHING in the way of BIOS configurations, so I won't be able to change any RAM timings, unless I find some cracked BIOS, which I really don't want to put on my parents PC.

I updated the BIOS of the first mobo i'd bought and it changed nothing, in fact it made things worse, it used to pick up the HDDs and get to the Windows loading screen, after the BIOS flash it wouldn't pick up anything at the POST screen, the main reason I bought another one.

I haven't updated the BIOS in the present one, i'll try that next.

Also I neglected to mention, it works fine if I don't install on a RAID setup. I can have both drives installed and have 1 with the OS and it seems to install grand.

So dya think it might be the RAID drivers then? I've used the latest ones for nforce 430?

Also, another thing, I don't know if this matters... but when I start up my HDDs (both the Seagates and the previous WD's) make this kind of "crunk" noise, like they start to spin then suddenly stop. I haven't noticed this with any other HDDs in any of my previous PCs, it has me worried that the PSU might not be powerfull enough or something. Also the included Antec PSU only has a 20pin power connector, i'm using an adapter to make it 24pin. Could the mobo not be getting enough power from this 20-24pin adapter?

8T8

I can't say I know the solution but I have seen first hand NVIDIA's RAID behave oddly...

One workaround that may resolve the headache is to disable the NVIDIA SATA controllers and use a third party one like this Adaptec 2-port or 4-port PCI-e SATA RAID controller, may as well use the PCI-e ports for something & get better performance.

I used this in a similar situation for one system with a grumpy NV RAID controller, of course if it doesn't work in your case then it must be something else in the system.

Try what astrofool suggested with the RAM timings, in Gigabyte's bios press Ctrl+F1 and it will enable all the hidden bios settings which include the DRAM timings under advanced chipset settings I think but it's there in one of the sub menus.

zilog_jones

What about doing disk mirroring in software through Windows, i.e. making them Dynamic Disks in the Disk Manager and making the two disks mirrored through that.

Or does MCE not support this? Sorry I've only ever had Win2k Pro and XP Pro...

L31mr0d

I'm going to try a reinstall again tomorrow, i've updated the BIOS and got the latest SATA RAID drivers from the gigabyte website. I'm going to bite the bullet and not nlite them onto the MCE CD, i'll install them from the floppy just to be sure i'm doing everything by the book.

btw, if my PSU isn't supplying enough power to my components is there any way to test for this?

astrofool

Try just use 1 RAM stick? My problem was exact same btw, enable Raid, BSOD, no Raid, no BSOD, and ram timings fixed it

Also try and lower the HT multiplier from 5x to 1x, or basically set everything to be the lowest performance it can be and if it works, enable one by one from there.