Problem w/ SSD and HDD working together...

[zandre88]

Hey everyone...

Okay I just want to let everyone know ahead of time I am extremely tired I haven't slept in over 36 hours at least so this may not come out as well as I'd like it to but I hope someone will be able to get the just of it and be able to help me with it.

So I built a new computer Wednesday. It was my first build and it basically took me all day to figure it all out. I had to do a ton of trial and error, troubleshooting, etc, etc before I could even get it to turn on and show up on my monitor. Once I finally got that to happen I started to have problems with where I am at now.

Obviously I wanted to install the operating system and eventually all my programs to my SSD. I am using a 240gb RevoDrive PCIe SSD. It was suggested to me for my build as opposed to getting two SSD's. That sounded like a better idea to me anyways. I also went ahead and got a WD Black Cavier 1TB HDD. I will link all these at the bottom of this thread.

So I followed the very thin instructions within the RevoDrive's Case and went to their website and downloaded the drivers onto a USB Flash Drive. Everything seemed to go fine Windows was able to recognize the SSD after the drivers and installed Win7 onto it or at least mostly installed. Then it reset and it wouldn't restart back up to the SSD. I had taken out the disc and the SSD was the second priority boot. I then made the SSD the first priority boot. Still nothing. It sat at a blank black screen with a blinking _ in the top right corner. This was all done in AHCI as was suggested by Abstract Hero (she was trying to help me for hours which again thank you AH) but no matter what we tried to figure out it would not load that way. The only way I could get the drive to load is as RAID and without the HDD plugged into a SATA drive. When I it that way it finished the rest of the install of Win7 and worked just fine by itself. However for the life of me I could not figure out how to get it to load outside of RAID so that I could get the HDD to be there also. I do not know what I am doing wrong. I have re-installed Win7 about 4 times now. Tried multiple different ideas and ways. PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!!?!?!?!

Does anyone have experience with these SSD's? How in the heck do you get them to work outside of RAID? How can I make them work the way I think it is supposed to work with an HDD. As in OS and Programs/Games on SSD all other files on my HDD with them seperate.

Like I said the only way I can get this drive to finish loading Win7 and installing is by not having my HDD plugged into the SATA and putting the Storage Configuration into RAID. For some reason then it works and will let me finish installing. However it will not recognize the HDD when I try to plug it in and if it does well it does what RAIDED HDD's are supposed to do and work together and well it doesn't work.

So basically I want to be able to use my SSD in AHCI or whatever works so that I can use that for my OS, Programs, and Games and have my HDD be seperate for multimedia and whatever other large files I may have for it. I hope someone understands what I am trying to ask. Just PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!?!?!?! I am so close to having my first build done and I just can't finish it until I get this part of it figured out. Anyone with experience with these drives PLZZZZ help me....

Here are the links....

OCZ RevoDrive PCIe SSD 240gb Newegg.com - OCZ RevoDrive OCZSSDPX-1RVD0240 PCI-E x4 240GB PCI Express MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Western Digital Black Cavier 1TB HDD Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

and I don't know if it helps at all but here is my mother board...

ASUS Sabertooth X58 Newegg.com - ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

NOTE: Abstract Hero was a huge help to me last night spent a couple hours trying to help me get this correct but we couldn't figure it out together. Hopefully whatever I am not saying correctly or if there is something I missed that we tried she can add.

Thank you all in advance. ALMOST THERE!!!

 

[Abstract Hero]

Bump he needs help and I can't help him.

http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/really-need-help-middle-build-238914/index5.html#post1860751 check the last posts zandre they may help you.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I would try the OCZ forums.

Sandforce - Vertex2/LE/Pro, Agility2, Vertex2/Agility2 EX Drives, REVO and HSDL drives

Since the revodrive is a pcie SSD it's a very different animal compared to SATA SSDs so most of us won't be much help on it. The oCZ forums are supposed to be very good though and they should have more info about your specific drive.

 

[Sniper_13]

from some quick reading on their forums i have found the following information for you

Resolved Revo Drive 240gb issue's...

from what i read RAID is the only way of using this SSD, also make sure you update your BIOS to the newest version that seems to solve problems for most people.

heres what i garbed off their forums

you need to follow a dedicated install procedure, the boards get confused on boot order and do what you are seeing in some cases.


1 make sure you remove any other HDD from the system

2 Go to bios disable 3rd and 2nd boot device, disable boot to other devices and set 1st boot device to HDD

3 set hdd boot order to add in device or revo if it is listed

4 set onboard sata controller to ide ( this is a proven method but you can hack reg to ahci later)

5 disable all other sata/raid controllers on the system

6 consider installing win7 off USB, DVDrom does work though

now save and exit.

7 On the reboot hit f10 or F8 or esc or whatever brings up the boot order menu...pick the USB or DVDrom and boot to it.

8 Install the driver for revo as per normal and let it get to the 10sec count down timer

9 when it reboots wait for the 1st bios splash screen, power the system off, remove the power to the PSU and let the system drain off for 2 minutes, remove the install DVD or remove the USB drive and any other drive you used to load the revo driver.

10 power back up, again hit the key to bring up the boot menu for your board and choose to boot to Revo

11 on the next reboot just hit the boot menu key, no need to power off.

12 this should get you to windows, make sure revo is still listed as the only boot device in bios.

13a if you now want to swap to ahci do the reg hack listed here in the guide sections of the ssd forums

Anyone reading this...this is NOT the only way to install revo, its the way we found during beta test that worked the best. We have installed in ahci mode, we have installed with other drives in the system...this is just a proven safe way that should get you to windows desktop.

Be warned though, many boards have limited PCIE storage support, some may have more issues than others. Some also get VERY confused by all the boot roms for raid controllers etc so this is why you need to disable near everything you can.


if it still doesnt work for you post a thread over there and im sure someone will help you

 

[zandre88]

Okay well I've ran into a problem following that list. I do not see an option or don't know too make the HDD have an add-in thing to boot from the HDD. If anyone can help there can continue to try and do this method above.

 

[zandre88]

I also have one more question. I need to try and update my Bios on my mobo I think. I'm not sure if I have the latest version installed or not but I figure that is one way I could try to get this to work. I am going to check what version I am running but I need to know what the latest BIOS firmware for my mobo is. The link to that motherboard is linked in the first post of this thread. Please help...

Ugh this has turned into a heck of a hard build to figure out..

EDIT: Well I did update my BIOS from .0602 to .0603 but I am still not sure if that is the latest BIOS or not. It is extremely easy to update the BIOS with Asus EZ Flash but I am still unsure if that is the latest BIOS out there for my mobo or not.

 

[zandre88]

Alright well I have made some progress but I am still having problems. Here is what the problem is at the moment.

Okay so I went over to the OCZ forums and followed the install guide shown above (thanks sniper_13) and was able to get Windows to load in IDE mode and finished the install. I figured I was home free but still no. Here is the problem I've run into. In Windows it is still not recognizing my HDD. It recognizes both the ODD and BluRay drives but it does not recognize my HDD for some reason. However the HDD is being recognized in BIOS so I do not know what the heck is going on. I tried to open up Disk Manager thinking maybe I could find it in there but I cannot find the HDD. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hopefully I can get this all figured out and be able to help people in the future.

 

[zandre88]

Another update...

I've been over at the OCZ forums and one of the staff members told me this...

Sounds like something is messed up with Windows. The drive has to be seen in Disk Manager before being shown anywhere else.

A real help eh? Anyways here is a little more information maybe someone else can help me out since now I've at least been able to load this drive with IDE instead of having to have it in RAID to get it to work. When I pull up Disk Manager I do not see my HDD however when I right-click on C: I am able to see the HDD in the Hardware Tab. Also when I go into the device manager it is listed along with the RevoDrive SSD as a "Disk Drive." However I still cannot get it to show up properly. Anyone have any ideas what might be wrong with Windows that is causing my HDD to not show up?

 

[zandre88]

Alright everyone I got it fixed. It took me forever but I've got it working and its even working in AHCI without me doing any reg hacking. So I'm pretty pumped. I can finally go about getting everything downloaded and installed for my computer. Thanks a lot everyone for all the help. This has been one crazy and long couple of days but I got it working.

 

[zandre88]

Well again I have bad news. I am so freaking discouraged. This build has just become an absolute nightmare. I never thought I could possibly get this upset over a computer but I can't help it.

So I finally THOUGHT I got it to work. I was able to install Windows on the SSD with it in IDE. That was a big-step. Then I thought I was having problems getting it to recognize my HDD but really it was the whole time and just had to format it in Disk Management. I did that and it was recognized. I named the drive F: and I figured all was well. Anyways I took my USB Flash Drive and copied some TV shows onto it to transfer to my HDD on my new computer. So I went to do so and every time it would say that the path no longer exists and it would then disappear. So one time I was getting annoyed with it and in the middle of Windows Explorer freezing up (it was basically about to tell me that my the path didn't exist) I shut down the computer. It was sitting in "Shutting Down..." screen and it sat and sat and sat. So finally I just hit the reset button. Now ever since I keep getting the message "Hard Disk Error" on my BIOS splash screen.

I don't know if I basically bricked the HDD when I hit the reset button and it was in the middle of shutting down/not responding. Before after trying to transfer the file it would tell me no such path existed but I would restart the computer and the drive would be there. It is only since I hit the reset button when it was stuck on the "Shutting Down.." screen.

So the only assumption I can make is the HDD is now bricked or something. Does anyone have any suggestions? I just can't take many more set-backs...