Windows 8 and Intel Rapid Storage RAID

Question

Hi, I've got an m17x R3 alienware and it uses intel rapid storage technology. I know that when I install windows 7 on it I need to load the intel rapid storage RAID controller before selecting a partition to install.

It works fine while doing this on Windows 7, however Windows 8 fails to apply them successfully. Has anyone ran into the same problem and found a workaround?

Thanks.

Regards,

Fábio

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"To alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life's problems." - Homer Simpson

Answer 1

Additionally, I've tried to install several versions of the driver, from dell and from intel. None of them work, it just stays there trying to load for a few minutes and then an error message shows up informing the failure. The AHCI Controller on the other hand is loaded successfully, but it's not my case so no drive is shown after loading it.

 

Tips?

Thanks again.

Fábio

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"To alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life's problems." - Homer Simpson

Answer 2

I have the same problem.   Reading a install instruction on http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsdeveloperpreviewgeneral/thread/379cd2e5-556c-45aa-b459-7cd22110b4bd it appears that if the drives show up that the driver may already be installed.

I may try it and see what happens.

Thanks

Tom

 

Answer 3

I went ahead a tried it withou the driver.   It worked, not a lot of time working on it but I was able to boot into Win 8.  It setup dual boot and I was able to go back to my Windows 7 after I shutdown Window8 dev preview.    You can customize the windows boot to boot up windows 7 by default.

 

I have 3 disk on my system.  2 setup RAID 1 with 3 partitions.    Sys, Drive C and Drive E.   I also have another disk setup with D and F.   I installed windows 8 on drive D.  When you boot in to windows 8 my drive d was mapped as C.    I could read the C and E (RAID 1) drives OK.   Did not write any data to them.   I plan on just using the Win 8 partition mainly for Win 8.

 

Good luck

Tom

Answer 4

I have only one disk on RAID 0, that's how the system was built. I have three partitions C for W7, D for data and E for W8. When I tried to install W8 on E without loading the drivers, the installation fails, the same way it does with W7 without the drivers.

 

So when I try to boot on W8, it fails and asks to retry the installation. I wonder how you managed to successfully install W8 without the drivers =/

 

Thanks for your help.

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"To alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life's problems." - Homer Simpson

Answer 5

Hey Fábio Franco,

 

It looks like in Tom's case above the third disk isn't part of the RAID, so the additional driver isn't needed. If the driver that you have been using so far isn't the driver downloaded from the link below, you may want to try using it to see if it will work:
Intel - Download Center

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Steven

Answer 6

Hi Steven,

 

Thank you for your response, actually this is exactly where I got the drivers when the ones provided directly by dell didn't work.

I'm not sure what else to try.

 

Regards,

Fábio

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"To alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life's problems." - Homer Simpson

Answer 7

Seems Intel Win 7 drivers don't work well in Win 8 DP.

I'm having issues with the Intel HD Graphics driver where Win 8 complains that the firmware/BIOS doesn't provide enough information to install the drivers?!?

I'm hoping Intel will not wait too long to issue updates. My laptop at 1024 x 768 aint pretty!

 

Answer 8

Hey Fábio,

 

Have you checked to see if there is a more recent version of BIOS for your computer's motherboard? Try following the link below to download the latest BIOS for your computer's motherboard:
Dell Support

 

Modifying BIOS/ complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the configuring of BIOS/CMOS/UEFI settings can be solved. Modifications of the settings are at your own risk.

 

@Pvdg42: Another user was able to resolve the same error message you are receiving by updating their computer's BIOS to the latest version available.

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Steven

Answer 9

My BIOS is the most up to date version (A04), so that's not the problem.

 

Another indications that it's Windows 8 problem is that I can successfully setup Windows 7 with the same drivers.

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"To alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life's problems." - Homer Simpson

Answer 10

Sorry, I didn't realize that a new BIOS version had been released recently. Will try that and will report here if it works.

 

Thanks!

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"To alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life's problems." - Homer Simpson

Answer 11

Updated to the latest BIOS (A08) and still no go, unable to load the driver.

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"To alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life's problems." - Homer Simpson

Answer 12

Hey Fábio Franco,

 

I know you are using drivers from the Intel website, but have you tried using these drivers specifically?
Intel® Rapid Storage Technology F6 Driver Diskettes

 

The files inside of the .zip folder will need to be extracted onto an external media that can be attached while you are in the installation. When you go to load drivers then you should find the driver for Intel® Rapid Storage Technology in that location.

 

Another user was successful after they changed their default boot order in their BIOS setting so that their hard drive was listed first in the boot order. The user then had to enter the Boot menu during the startup and select the DVD drive that the installation media was in.

 

Modifying BIOS/ complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the configuring of BIOS/CMOS/UEFI settings can be solved. Modifications of the settings are at your own risk.

 

If that doesn't help, please visit the link below to submit this problem as feedback using the Microsoft Connect site. If you are asked for an invitation code, please enter the following key: ADD1-RY34-K4T4
https://connect.microsoft.com/site1147/feedback/CreateFeedbackForm.aspx?FeedbackFormConfigurationID=5023&FeedbackType=1

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Steven