SuperMicro RAID Windows can't see drives (Solved)

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Visseroth

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Jan 23, 2016
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I'm having a heck of a time with this server I'm trying to load 2019 on.
The setup is 2 RAID 1 arrays, 1 consists of 2 250GB SSDs the other is 2 2TB drives.
The motherboard is this board...
The driver is supposedly this driver...

For the life of me when I load the driver it doesn't see the drives.
I've tried with EFI enable and legacy, obviously both using Intel RAID 1

Any ideas are appreciated as I'm at a loss as to why I can't see the RAIDs
 

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
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Just to cover the basics, when you say you don't see the drive, what do you mean?
Not see it as a drive (such as d: )? don't see it in device manager?

Of course, as you mention having 2 RAID arrays, I assume you have configured the arrays already via BIOS etc..

In any case, you may need to initialize (I believe that is the terminology in MS world) the RAID volumes, meaning setup a partition table and create partitions on it.
 
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Visseroth

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Jan 23, 2016
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Yes, both arrays are configured via the BIOS so the BIOS does see the drives just fine as well as the Intel RAID controller but Server 2019 is unable to see the arrays no matter the driver I load and I've tried a bunch.
I also thought it needed to be initialized though I didn't see a option for that, I will however look again, that's the only thing I've been unable to do thus far, but I'll dig around and see if I can find that option.
 

RTM

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Jan 26, 2014
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You can try opening the disk management interface, I believe the command is diskmgmt.msc (in run or via the start menu), if the disk is available to the OS, you should be able to initialize it there.
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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If Windows can't see RAID drives during installation, there is always...always, only one culprit. The RAID driver.

The Supermicro page for that board does not even list a driver.

btw, Windows does not need a third party RAID driver for Intel onboard SATA RAID. It should be able to see the RAID drive(s) natively. You need the RSTe (now VROC) driver and software for managing the RAID drives, post install.
 

Visseroth

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Jan 23, 2016
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I tried the driver that I could find that it would recognize per one of my images above, problem is I can't find the driver and I have tried the drivers in the RSTe folder that I found on the SuperMicro iso that I burnt to a disc.
Any ideas on how I can get this server to see the drives?
 

Visseroth

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Jan 23, 2016
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I just downloaded the other ISO and tried a whole list of the RSTe drivers and still no luck.
I'm starting to think that maybe I should just switch to AHCI and use the Windows software mirror
 

Visseroth

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Jan 23, 2016
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Interesting, just tried to install with AHCI and still couldn't find the disks, I'm really at a loss here as to why the installer can't see the the drives.
RAID was disabled, AHCI enabled
 

Visseroth

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Jan 23, 2016
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I'm wondering now if the RAID key is required to see the arrays. I looked, I don't see it installed
 

RTM

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Jan 26, 2014
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I'm wondering now if the RAID key is required to see the arrays. I looked, I don't see it installed
Assuming you are using SATA disks, I doubt that is the case.

Have you tried the drivers from this page (specifically the f6flpy file)?
 

Visseroth

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Jan 23, 2016
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Tried it without the SSD's in a RAID configuration running AHCI and no luck.
Trying to boot it now after resetting the CMOS and making all the adjustments but it's seemingly stuck at DXE--ACPI Initialization
 

Visseroth

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Jan 23, 2016
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Finally got it to boot, just had to walk away, I guess watching it was like watching and waiting for water to boil, just wasn't going to happen while I was watching.
Anyhow, that driver didn't work either, it didn't even recognize any compatible hardware.
 

Visseroth

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Jan 23, 2016
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Will I've definitely confirmed that it's a driver issue though I'm not quite sure what to do about it.
I loaded up Linux on a flash drive, booted to it and there the drive were, sitting, waiting, ready to go.
I did also find this...
but the link provided is dead.
 

Visseroth

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Jan 23, 2016
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I figured out how do get it to work and it took many attempts of using the typical F6 driver and many hours of figuratively banging my head on the wall to get something to work.


You have to build your own installer image and slipstream drivers into the installer.
I ended up slip streaming every driver I could find relating to this chipset.
You can do a search on the web for instructions on slip streaming drivers into a Windows installer image.


Once that was completed and I booted to the image and it made it a bit further but couldn't find any drives again, so I pointed it to one of the F6 drivers and at that point it saw the drives and I could move on with the install.