Can't Set up UEFI Raid 0 with R4Formula - Help?!

[t1m3lapse]

Hi.

I'm in the process of following this guide http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?72309-How-to-switch-to-RAID-0-without-reinsta...! to move my system image of 1 x Crucial m4 to a RAID 0 setup of two of these drives. The process was going relatively smoothly until I actually wanted to repair from the Image. I used the "option rom" by pressing CTRL+I to amake the RAID array, which apparently is a BIOS RAID and when I went to use the image i was given the Image Error stating that my Image was EFI not BIOS. I see in this guide http://rog.asus.com/233472013/maximus-v-motherboards/guide-building-raid-with-uefi/ that the Intel RST shows up in the UEFI Bios as oppose to the Option Rom. I never was able to get this to show up no matter what settings i changed in the BIOS.

My main query is what should my next step be. I don't want to try anything unless I'm pretty sure it will work. My first thought is to update the bios (I'm version 2.something and the ASUS site shows that there is a very new verison available). Should this make the UEFI RAID option show up. My other thoughts are to fresh install windows then restore the image, but will this lead to the same problem. My 3rd though was to just load the image on 1 drive like it was before, take the image again with something like ACRONIS and try again. Maybe none of these are right? Please help.

Also as a side question, I'm wondering for 2 x 256gb Crucial m4s in RAID 0 what capacity size I should use. I couldn't get a definite answer anywhere from google.

Thanks for you help 😄

[neyuru]

Hi.

I'm in the process of following this guide http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?72309-How-to-switch-to-RAID-0-without-reinsta...! to move my system image of 1 x Crucial m4 to a RAID 0 setup of two of these drives. The process was going relatively smoothly until I actually wanted to repair from the Image. I used the "option rom" by pressing CTRL+I to amake the RAID array, which apparently is a BIOS RAID and when I went to use the image i was given the Image Error stating that my Image was EFI not BIOS. I see in this guide http://rog.asus.com/233472013/maximus-v-motherboards/guide-building-raid-with-uefi/ that the Intel RST shows up in the UEFI Bios as oppose to the Option Rom. I never was able to get this to show up no matter what settings i changed in the BIOS.

My main query is what should my next step be.

I am not familiar with the guide but, have you made certain that your BIOS starts in UEFI mode? If not, enter the BIOS click on Boot and at the CSM option choose UEFI only for boot sequences and UEFI driver first for storage.

I don't want to try anything unless I'm pretty sure it will work. My first thought is to update the bios (I'm version 2.something and the ASUS site shows that there is a very new verison available). Should this make the UEFI RAID option show up. My other thoughts are to fresh install windows then restore the image, but will this lead to the same problem. My 3rd though was to just load the image on 1 drive like it was before, take the image again with something like ACRONIS and try again. Maybe none of these are right? Please help.

The only thing you could loose is time, if you uodate the BIOS and are not satisfied with it, you can always switch back to the previous one.

Also as a side question, I'm wondering for 2 x 256gb Crucial m4s in RAID 0 what capacity size I should use. I couldn't get a definite answer anywhere from google.

What do you mean by capacity? The size of the array? or the size of the sector when creating the array?
If 1: I would recommend 20% - 30% overprovisioning for longevity (just use (256+256)*0.8 to (256+256)*0.7 when creating the array) Leave the rest unformatted and unused. (just a note on this one: It would be wise to investigate if by leaving unused space in a raid array, the controller leaves equal amounts of it on both drives)
If 2: It's a question of personal choice. I would go for the smallest sector size, as it would optimize the disks capacity for storage (important in SSDs).

Thanks for you help 😄

Hope this helps

[t1m3lapse]

Yes neyuru, I have played around with all the CSM options to no avail. I might be wrong (please correct me it so), but my research leads me to believe that because my RAID array was set up using the option rom and not like this ---->>> http://rog.asus.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/intel-rst.png that no matter what I do that image will not load onto that raid array. Do you think a BIOS update will open up this option to me, so I might be able to undo and redo the RAID and take it from there? Or do i have to load those drivers into the bios some other way. The ROG guide I linked to doesn't seem to make this very clear.

[HiVizMan]

What did you need to repair?

[t1m3lapse]

HiVizMan, if you check out the ocz link in my first post you'll see what I was attempting. I thought I'd save the effort of typing it all out again...

Anyway, I might have sorted it out. By undoing the raid, running dban, changing the bios to uefi only and setting the raid again, I seem to have got rid of the original error message I was getting. But of course, it still didn't work. Now I was getting the message that there was no suitable drive to put the image on. By using diskpart in cmd I managed to figure out that the RAID array was allocated as drive 2, no matter what I changed/unplugged.

So being three days into this at this point I was beginning to pull my hair out. So I decided to try doing a fresh windows install, then going to control panel and trying to load the image though the "Backup and Restore". Hey presto! It seems that the image at least began to load. I've set it to do the restore before I left for work today, I'll see how it turned when I get home. Cheers

[neyuru]

Nothing like a fresh install :cool:

[HiVizMan]

Keep us posted how this process is working out for you.

I think I misunderstood your statement. And did not sync it up with you still being in the guide process.

[t1m3lapse]

Yep. All good. Just had to expand the drive in Disk Management. What a pain to do though. But to anyone attempting the same thing I'd say load windows clean first (no internet connected) then load the image. Worked a treat.
Maybe time to benchmark the array. Any auggested programs to do this?

[neyuru]

crystalmark

[t1m3lapse]

Sequential Read : 852.362 MB/s
Sequential Write : 515.102 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 608.502 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 173.645 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 20.926 MB/s [ 5108.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 55.620 MB/s [ 13579.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 315.221 MB/s [ 76958.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 183.503 MB/s [ 44800.5 IOPS]

not too shabby