Question for those with NF3 rigs w/ RAID and bios updates. MSI preferred.

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Barnaby

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So, I've never used the onboard raid feature on a motherboard before until I got my K8N Neo2. I've made the decision to stop using an entire computer for storage, and to devote 2x 80 Gb SATA drives (for now) in a RAID 1 arrary on my Neo2.

The RAID 1 array set up fine, and it working great.. But I'm curious on how it will work with bios changes, like clearing the CMOS, and performing a BIOS update.

If I perform either of these functions, is the RAID bios going to lose the RAID array info? Or is that part of the ROM protected? I did notice that when I flashed the board to the 1.4 bios, there was a section that did not get written to. Is that so the RAID info doesn't get wiped out? Would that mean the the RAID bios itself never gets updated?

I just want to see what everyone's experiences are with this, before one day when I go to flash my bios, I lose my array.. ;)

Thanks
 
there are two parts of the bios that control the raid feature. the one after post where u have to hit like F11 or something to setup the array and the raid setup in the bios, where you enable or disable raid on certain drives. if you clear the cmos it will not affect how the array is setup so u will not loose data but raid defaults to disabled in the main bios. so after clearing the cmos you will have to go into the bios/intergrated peripherals/onboard device/ then enable raid on each sata drive that makes up your array. if you fail to do this and try to boot you will get a message saying "falled to load operating system" or something like that. but again you wont loose any data in the array u just have to enable raid for that drive in the bios.

i hope this answers your question, if not just ask
 
Ok, that works for clearing the CMOS. How about when you flash the bios? Alot of bios updates, also update the raid bios. Will this destroy the RAID array info?
 
nope, when u flash the bios the raid part is untouched, most of the time flashing the bios doesnt even clear the CMOS so u keep all your settings. i just flashed my bios twice in the last 3 days and it kept all my settings including raid. i would suggest trying 1.41b mod 1.37mod and 1.36mob bioses, maybe the new 1.51b bios is good i dono. heres a whole bunch http://www.lejabeach.com/MSIK8N/k8nneo2.html
 
You can change motherboards and keep RAID integrity. I went from an EPOX to a DFI and had no problems. Granted they are both nforce3 boards, but I think the info is contained in the RAID stripe and gets recognized by the RAID controller. The main problem is setting everything back up in the BIOS, ie enabling the SATA ports and RAID etc.
 
ma1kmcn1 said:
You can change motherboards and keep RAID integrity. I went from an EPOX to a DFI and had no problems. Granted they are both nforce3 boards, but I think the info is contained in the RAID stripe and gets recognized by the RAID controller. The main problem is setting everything back up in the BIOS, ie enabling the SATA ports and RAID etc.
Click to expand...

This would make the most sense, since I know that later bios release's will update the nvidia raid bios too.. I guess the RAID controller will just read the array info off the drives, and call it a day..
 
yeah thats right when u boot after clearing the cmos it says "detecting array..." then boom it pops up just right....just had to clear the cmos so i noticed it.
 
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