Help with booting from RAID 0 array

CoffeeBlack · July 27, 2015

Hello,

I have a Sabertooth Z77 and I recently got two 850 evo 500GB drives. I'd like to have them in a RAID 0 array and boot from it, but I'm having trouble.

I know that this is definitely not recommended if it's even possible on my board, but I don't keep anything valuable on this computer. If the RAID fails and I lose everything, I won't lose any sleep over it.

So I set up the RAID in the setup menu and it says that the array is bootable. I then installed Windows 8 64 bit on the array with no problems. After I had gone through and installed all of the applications that I wanted, I restarted the computer to finish the installation for some of the programs. This is where the trouble starts. When the computer begins to reboot, I hit the Intel Smart Response (or maybe Smart Storage, I forgot exactly which one) and it starts initializing then aborts the initialization and says to insert boot media into the disc drive.

If anyone knows what my problem is, I'd appreciate any help. I'm hoping that it is as easy as installing a driver during the Windows installation.

I spoke with the Asus chat and they said that it's impossible. I'm not sure that I believe them just because the RAID setup page said that they array is bootable.

Oshino Shinobu · July 27, 2015

I have the same board and boot from an 840 EVO RAID setup, it's definitely possible. I did have some issues though, mainly getting the boot order to work. First thing I'd try is removing any other drives (just disconnect the data cable) and try booting. If it works, then you need to mess around with boot options to make it work. You can try removing all other devices from the boot order.

CoffeeBlack · July 28, 2015

I have the same board and boot from an 840 EVO RAID setup, it's definitely possible. I did have some issues though, mainly getting the boot order to work. First thing I'd try is removing any other drives (just disconnect the data cable) and try booting. If it works, then you need to mess around with boot options to make it work. You can try removing all other devices from the boot order.

I don't have any other drives in the system anymore. I've messed with the drive order a lot and disabled all other boot options. I did however leave my external Blu Ray drive plugged in.

I'm running into something else too where my I'm getting freezes in my bios. I don't know much about bios' and I'm not sure if that's a huge problem.

CoffeeBlack · July 28, 2015

SUCCESS! I just had to install the Intel raid drivers during windows installation. Downloaded them at work to a USB drive from the Asus website.

I can't believe the Asus support chat was so quick to say that I couldn't boot from RAID 0. This was even after I specifically asked if installing the drivers would do it.