Comnet wrote:
> I had the same issue with Windows XP and an M2N-SLI Deluxe. I did clear the
> CMOS as part of the BIOS upgrade (big mistake) and the OS would not boot.
> Changing the RAID settings in the BIOS did not correct the problem. I was
> able to enable the RAID controller and then XP picked it back up, but if I
> enable the RAID on the 2 drives, the system won't boot.
Which means you should immediately flash back to the old BIOS, and
contact Asus Tech support and ask them what the hell they're doing,
shipping a RAID BIOS that doesn't handle the metadata the same
way as before. The metadata format should not change, once a
product starts shipping.
There is no good reason for storing any "custom data" in the CMOS,
for a RAID array. The reserved sector concept, on a per disk basis,
is a well accepted way of keeping track of drive membership in
RAID arrays. So if they have started using the CMOS to store
RAID information, that would be a big mistake. For one thing, it
would prevent a RAID array being moved between identical model
motherboards (like after a motherboard failure).
And if Asus admits they screwed up, it might take a backup and
restore, to get it to work with the newer BIOS. At least, if you
don't want to lose any data. If the BIOS was at all well tested,
this kinda crap wouldn't happen.
As for determining what you are getting in a BIOS release, you
can use BIOS tools like MMtool, to extract the modules and look
at release numbers. In that way, it was possible to see whether
a SIL3112 RAID BIOS was being updated or not. The RAID BIOS is
usually a separate code module within the BIOS image, and the
release number may be part of the file name for the module.
(I have noticed just recently, that my copy of MMtool would not
work on a new BIOS, so I hope I don't have to go looking for a
newer version again...) Award and AMI BIOS use different tools.
With Award BIOS, I can use a hex editor, and look for "-lh5-"
instances in the BIOS file. The AWDsplit tool doesn't work reliably,
so sometimes with the Award, I have to chop the BIOS file up by
hand and decompress the indivudual modules to plaintext. With
AMI, the MMTool can extract and decompress the individual modules
within the BIOS file. At least until the BIOS release number
changes enough, that MMTool no longer works...
Paul
>
>
> "Paul" <> wrote in message news:eqogvb$8hc$...
>> Greybeard wrote:
>>> Had Vista Ultimate on dual SATA Raptor 150 RAID striped array. Still
>>> have XP Pro on extra ATA drive as "older Windows". Updated bios from
>>> 0119 to latest, 0502, pr manual instruction. Have to update from 32 bit
>>> system, so used XP O/S. Updated fine. Rebooted to XP and noted could
>>> not view SATA drive on My Computer. Boot attempt into Vista failed.
>>> Stated files were corrupted, reboot into install disc and request repair
>>> function. Booted into new bios, which sees all drives individually.
>>> It had been seeing the RAID array as a single drive.
>>>
>>> Nothing in ASUS support website about loss of RAID array with bios
>>> update. It there a fix which will repair array without losing Vista
>>> install? Any and all ideas welcome. If not, can I save anything while
>>> recovering array? If not, what next?
>> After the BIOS upgrade, did you clear the CMOS ?
>> I fail to see how that would affect a RAID definition, because
>> the RAID metadata is stored on a reserved sector on each disk.
>>
>> After the BIOS update and clearing the CMOS, you should
>> re-enter the BIOS and check the settings. You should check
>> that the SATA ports are set to RAID, so that the array will
>> be picked up again.
>>
>> And DaveW is just being absurd. This is just a settings problem
>> somewhere.
>>
>> Paul
>
>
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