Odd situation with ICH9R

Judas · Nov 17, 2007, 01:51 AM

Ok only ran into the "vista cannot install to this partition because it doesn't meet the criteria" issues once before with a SATA DVD-RW i was installing from... and simply using a IDE drive resolved the issue.... i wasn't able to figure out why it occured though in the first place....

however now i've got a pretty hefty issue.

I've right now, got 3 320gb SATAII seagate 7200.10's connected to the Gigabyte GA-x38-DQ6 intel controller, and using a SATA optical drive attached to the Jmicron (gigabyte) sata controller... (8 sata ports in total, 6 are intel ich9r and the other 2 are jmicron....)

I'm really at a loss as it appears as though if i set the intel ich9r to anything other then IDE mode, it doesn't show up as a bootable option in the bios.... and i've also tried disabling the jmicron controller as well... I think this is why vista refuses to install to the ich9r in raid... because it's already detecting it as non bootable.... I'm completely baffled but i haven't had much time to REALLY sit down and fiddle a whole lot...

I mean the jmicron controller is setup in ACHI mode (pure sata) yet boots from it, and then emediately requests the jmicron driver to continue reading from the cd rom drive (which is no problem as i load the driver from disc.. and volla)...

I've tried the latest gigabyte supplied ich9r driver, the official intel driver.... i'm really haveing a hard time figuring this out... as we speak, i gave up and set to IDE mode and loaded vista JUST so i could sit at home (finally at home) and get on the net and do something.

Anyone have any ideas?

I've tried booting from a USB optical drive to completely eliminate any issues with the controllers.... no go...

PangingJr · Nov 17, 2007, 02:43 AM

hmm, i've been using ICH9R for some times i can't think of anything odd about it.
it could be an odd situation with your motherboard's BIOS or how you set it up.

have you tried using an IDE DVD drive first and then replace it with a SATA one after Vista is installed?

setup your BIOS for using SATA RAID mode, and also enable the Onboard SATA/IDE Device (GIGABYTE/JMicron SATA2 Chip) and set it to IDE mode.
save your setting and then on next system boots enter the Intel RAID BIOS and utility and config your RAID array, once you are done, exit the utility, then you should see the BIOS attempts to boot a disk drive,
Control-Alt-Delete keys to restart the system and enter your BIOS and go to the Advanced BIOS Features/Hard Disk Boot Priority and to see if the RAID drive exists, and for you to select it as your first boot disk drive and drive controller...
then select the RAID drive as your first BIOS boot disk... and (also see below) set BIOS from booting the CD/DVD first and save/exit BIOS setup, and then install your Windows on the next system boots.

Gigabyte usually uses F12 key to enter a boot menu at the POST, you can use it to set your CD/DVD drive as the first boot device without having to enter the main BIOS setup.

Judas · Nov 17, 2007, 04:29 AM

Tried that.... .... but i'm going to try something different..... atm.. i'm tired... and it's late.... i may give things a go tomorrow....

PangingJr · Nov 17, 2007, 04:50 AM

a dud board then.
but don't just take my words for it yet, send the board to me, i will check it out for you.

PangingJr · Nov 17, 2007, 06:59 AM

unless the release BIOS on your motherboard is so buggy, which i can't hardly believe it's the case.

even though, upgrade the motherboard's BIOS is a must for this new motherboard,
but what i told you earlier should work right out the box for this motherboard, and no need any update BIOS in order to make that work.

Judas · Nov 17, 2007, 04:31 PM

I'll play with it..

i mean as we speak.. i'm just using the ich9r controller in non raid... enchanced ide mode for the time being...... windows had zero complaints installing straight away in this mode which i would have expected..

i've been running through a few things.... i've only had one oddity..... a completely hard lock in windows vista x64 ultimate shortly after i booted up and fired up the wireless internet and window media player + playing through digital audio... the sound actually started skipping in a manner i hadn't heard for a few years now.....

hasn't done it again since.... but that may be just some bugs i'm still playing with settings in the bios.

PangingJR, i'll get back to you when i get more settled into this board.... i don't think it's a dud... it may be just my own stupidity right now.

Necrosis · Nov 17, 2007, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PangingJr

a dud board then.
but don't just take my words for it yet, send the board to me, i will check it out for you.

Panging can I send you my board instead?

PangingJr · Nov 18, 2007, 02:11 AM

Necrosis,
seriously, what's wrong with your maximus SE, RAID?
and overall, how do you like your new board? and when comparing to your old P5W DH Deluxe what you like best about this new board?

---------------------------------

Judas,
update me when you find anything about the problem.
Gigabyte designs the Intel chipset and Intel ICHxR based motherboards that uses 2 storage controllers and have BIOS programmed in it in this similar fashion for quite sometime now,
and before releasing the X38-DQ6 they should not miss it.

Judas · Nov 18, 2007, 02:57 AM

yeah i'll let you know asap pangingjr.... at the time i just got a bit fed up and wanted my internet fix.. lol

PangingJr · Nov 18, 2007, 04:31 AM

what's wrong with your internet..?

about the last problem, are you sure you didn't miss anything?
well, obviously, that you can use the Intel RAID Option ROM, after you've already set BIOS for using SATA RAID mode, then with the Ctrl+I keys and that you be able to configure your RAID array,
but if your RAID array or volumes, after you have configured it, won't get detected by the BIOS, then this is not a small problem. i suggest you check with Gigabyte support about this.

and if you think the BIOS problem like that can be waited out, well, i think differently, i think the RAID function that embedded on the chipset and the platform BIOS should be first to check it out.

after that if you don't want to reinstall Windows again, it's a bit complicated, but i think it can be done. if you like to try, you can turn your existing Windows install to a RAID ready install, and then after that, you can use the Windows image to install on RAID volume. it's required that you have a disk/partition imaging software and a spare disk drive with a lot of free space.

Judas · Nov 18, 2007, 02:23 PM

PangingJR, my plan is to sort out the issue first..

I'm going to flash to the latest available bios on thier website... it's "beta" bios.. but actually 2/3rds of the bioses are beta...

Then i'm going to use 2 sata drives, setup in raid 0 ... leave the 3rd that is already got a windows setup working on it.... unplugged...

I'll report back.. i'll be starting this proceedure here soon...

Judas · Nov 18, 2007, 02:25 PM

OH,
btw nothings wrong with my internet..

i was just refering to getting a "fix" for my internet addiction

sorry for the use of the word...

PangingJr · Nov 18, 2007, 04:02 PM

just a reminder. if the BIOS that comes with your board is the first release version, then don't reflash with BIOS file that has its version too far apart if you gonna use the BIOS built-in Q-Flash utility to reflash your BIOS.
otherwise, for the first reflash use the DOS BIOS flash utility that come with the new BIOS file.

Judas · Nov 18, 2007, 07:17 PM

ok

typing this out on a laptop since i've been messing with my main machine for nearly 4 hours...

i've tried everything and now things have gotten worse....

i can't even begin to install windows

it's showing up in the bios as a scsi bootable hardrive.... great.... that's perfect...

i've made sure it's set as the only bootable device.....

still getting the bios issue.. and if i select icha mode..... i get the doesn't meet criteria and if i select IDE mode now, i get "windows is unable to recognize the volume"

used diskpart via the F10 shift key combo.... manually setup a partition, manually formated it, manually set it as a bootable Drive C: ..... windows still refuses to install to it due to criteria or whatever other errors i was getting...

I've tried disabling and unplugging everything.... i've tried to load up a single drive, 2 drives, 3 drives in any combination, i've even gone as far as to replace the damn sata cables..

one thing that strikes me as ood though is that in icha mode, the sata controller while loading up the drives, shows a single line stating

icha bios installed

in raid mode i get

icha bios not installed

and like i had stated, i can't even get ide mode to work anymore...

i'm wondering if i should disable NATIVE SATA mode .... i shouldn't have to though...

btw, all USB devices are unplugged and only a single flash drive is plugged in to load the drivers off it ... and as soon as that's done.... i remove it again

Judas · Nov 18, 2007, 07:22 PM

OMFG

just for shits and giggles again before i was going to move the drives directly onto the gigabyte sata controller....

i unhooked the sata optical drive from the gigabyte controller... for the 50th time, restarted booted from the usb hd360 hd-dvd drive..... and.....

got to the part where i could select a drive, they didn't have an error message...

i emediately plugged my usb flash drive in to load the latest intel raid driver and while loading the driver, it gave me the volume installation unsuitable message again... thinking wtf

i restarted... didn't plug any usb drive in at all this time.... went straight into the drive selection, picked the first drive, hit enter, and it's now installing..

holy hell .... i just spent nearly 5 hours getting this sucker to do at least SOMETHING...

guess i'll email gigabyte and ask why the hell this happened.... now the question.... would this work a 3rd time if i interupted the process right now...

still waiting for the expanding files to change from 0% to something else... shouldn't take this long