OK, heres a summary of what i've tried to get the hardware raid working on my N40L.
I upgraded the BIOS to allow the Southbridge controller to be seen in the BIOS. I installed WHS 2011 on my SSD located in the ODD with the IDE value set to AHCI. I performed the actions as per this thread http://forum.wegotse...-raidready-hdd/ to upgrade the SATA drivers from being listed as "Standard" in Device Manager to a new entry called "Storage Controllers". I used the latest AMD Raid drivers as found in that thread. So far, so good.
I inserted 2x500gb drives into bay 1 & 2, booted into BIOS, changed IDE value from AHCI to RAID, performed a CTRL F to get into the Raid LD config utility and defined a LD with both 500gb disks set to RAID1 and saved this. Subsequent viewing of the LD view shows both disks as Raid 1 and "functional". At this point I left the SSD as this only has the OS on, so was not defined in the LD.
CTRL Y to reboot from this LD setup and the server doesnt boot into Windows. Instead it tells me there is a problem with windows and to either go into diagnostic/recovery mode or boot windows normally. Well normally doesnt work and going into recovery mode only offers to restore from a previous image (I have none - new OS), run memory tests or boot into CMD line. All of no use.
Setting back IDE value in BIOS to AHCI and the server boots normally into Windows.
Next, I define another LD view this time declaring the SSD (OS) as "Raid Ready" (and the IDE value changed back to "RAID"). The other LD view created for the Raid 1 is left as is. Rebooting gives the same issue. Offers me the recovery menu and if I choose "load windows normally" it just boot loops.
So a fairly disappointing and frustrating start to getting hardware Raid working.
I would appreciate any feedback onto what I could try, or where i've gone wrong.
Thanks in advance
Paul
I upgraded the BIOS to allow the Southbridge controller to be seen in the BIOS. I installed WHS 2011 on my SSD located in the ODD with the IDE value set to AHCI. I performed the actions as per this thread http://forum.wegotse...-raidready-hdd/ to upgrade the SATA drivers from being listed as "Standard" in Device Manager to a new entry called "Storage Controllers". I used the latest AMD Raid drivers as found in that thread. So far, so good.
I inserted 2x500gb drives into bay 1 & 2, booted into BIOS, changed IDE value from AHCI to RAID, performed a CTRL F to get into the Raid LD config utility and defined a LD with both 500gb disks set to RAID1 and saved this. Subsequent viewing of the LD view shows both disks as Raid 1 and "functional". At this point I left the SSD as this only has the OS on, so was not defined in the LD.
CTRL Y to reboot from this LD setup and the server doesnt boot into Windows. Instead it tells me there is a problem with windows and to either go into diagnostic/recovery mode or boot windows normally. Well normally doesnt work and going into recovery mode only offers to restore from a previous image (I have none - new OS), run memory tests or boot into CMD line. All of no use.
Setting back IDE value in BIOS to AHCI and the server boots normally into Windows.
Next, I define another LD view this time declaring the SSD (OS) as "Raid Ready" (and the IDE value changed back to "RAID"). The other LD view created for the Raid 1 is left as is. Rebooting gives the same issue. Offers me the recovery menu and if I choose "load windows normally" it just boot loops.
So a fairly disappointing and frustrating start to getting hardware Raid working.
I would appreciate any feedback onto what I could try, or where i've gone wrong.
Thanks in advance
Paul