Mac Pro software RAID causing Vista crash

[Spacedust]

When I got my three RAID drives enabled in Vista 64-bit Ultimate is failing to start.

I have to remove Bootcamp or disable all drives that are in my RAID, then it works fine.

I got now 40 GB SSD for Vista and 3x500 GB Software RAID 0 on Snow Leopard.

 

[nanofrog]

When I got my three RAID drives enabled in Vista 64-bit Ultimate is failing to start.

I have to remove Bootcamp or disable all drives that are in my RAID, then it works fine.

I got now 40 GB SSD for Vista and 3x500 GB Software RAID 0 on Snow Leopard.

It's not going to work.

The OS X software RAID is causing the problem, and there's no way around it without additional hardware. The reason it seems, is OS X makes a change to the firmware, which carries over to any other OS installation in the system. To undo it, you have to delete the set under Disk Util, which will restore the firmware to the factory default (Legacy mode).

PCIe eSATA cards have been tried to get around this, and so far, none tested have worked properly. They tend not to boot.

There's a few that haven't yet been tried however, such as the Highpoint 622 (no Mac drivers yet, though promised) or the MAXPower eSATA 6G PCIe from newer tech (might be the better one to try - No drivers required, as it uses the default SATA drivers in OS X). I'm not sure these would work either (I don't expect the Highpoint will, but the newer tech might), so be mindful if you try, you're a guinea pig.

The one solution that will solve your problem, is on the expensive side, as it's a RAID card (ARC-1210), but costs $300USD from newegg. You could attach the OS X drives to it, and create the RAID set on it (you'd need to flash the firmware with the EFI component in order for OS X to boot), then the logic board can be used to run the Windows SSD as you want (make sure to use Disk Util to un-create/delete the current set first though), or the problem will persist.

Sorry there's no easy solution to this.

 

[ildondeigiocchi]

When I got my three RAID drives enabled in Vista 64-bit Ultimate is failing to start.

I have to remove Bootcamp or disable all drives that are in my RAID, then it works fine.

I got now 40 GB SSD for Vista and 3x500 GB Software RAID 0 on Snow Leopard.

That is strange. Mind you Vista's long list of problems may be part of the issue. Vista sucks in every way possible. Most Mac Pro owners who have upgraded to 7 report better stability than with Vista. Win7 is just a far better and more stable OS than Vista. Nonetheless, when you installed bootcamp did you have the raid setup already as it is impossible to do so with raid already working. Usually a person has to install Bootcamp then setup raid.

 

[nanofrog]

That is strange. Mind you Vista's long list of problems may be part of the issue. Vista sucks in every way possible. Most Mac Pro owners who have upgraded to 7 report better stability than with Vista. Win7 is just a far better and more stable OS than Vista. Nonetheless, when you installed bootcamp did you have the raid setup already as it is impossible to do so with raid already working. Usually a person has to install Bootcamp then setup raid.

I've been seeing problems with it recently. OS X seems to be making changes in the firmware, as that's the only way it will carry over.

You don't need to run BC's partition tool at all with a separate drive for Windows. Only if it's shared, and in that instance, you CANNOT used BC on an array.

The only remote idea I can think of Spacedust could try (it's an experiement to see if the OS X changes the firmware to AHCI or RAID mode for the ICH), is to:
1. Pull the OS X RAID set via Disk Utility.
2. See if the Windows disk will boot (should)
3. Make sure AHCI mode is enabled on the Windows installation
4. Re-install the software RAID set under OS X (this will require backups of the data, as the initialization process will wipe them - I don't trust that it will recognize the previous setup before writing the Partition Tables).
5. See if the Windows disk will boot

 

[Transporteur]

Just to get this straight.

My BC drive (Sled 3, so directly attached to the board) worked just fine with a software RAID!

When I got my Pro, I first created a two disc software RAID 0 and weeks after that I created a BC partition on a dedicated drive.
No issues with firmware whatsoever.

 

[nanofrog]

Just to get this straight.

My BC drive (Sled 3, so directly attached to the board) worked just fine with a software RAID!

When I got my Pro, I first created a two disc software RAID 0 and weeks after that I created a BC partition on a dedicated drive.
No issues with firmware whatsoever.

I was remembering you didn't get it working, and went with the eSATA card to resolve it, to discover there's limitations there as well.

Was the Windows disk enabled with AHCI?

Assuming it was, that could make the difference. So details on this aspect would be helpful, given OS X software RAID under SL seem problematic (hardware controllers have had issues with 10.6.2, as has software RAID, eSATA controllers, and SSD's (though IIRC, most are using Intel's, as they seem to be a better balanced drive).

 

[Transporteur]

I was remembering you didn't get it working, and went with the eSATA card to resolve it, to discover there's limitations there as well.

Was the Windows disk enabled with AHCI?

That was long before the eSATA attempt, hence no AHCI mode as I never heard about that at that time.

I just popped in a new drive for Windows, started the BC assistant and everything went fine.
OS was and still is 10.6.1, RAID only software based.

 

[Spacedust]

I just normally uninstalled Bootcamp software under Vista, so system is not looking for Mac OS X drives (RAID array), so I got no blue screens and everything is working fine.