RAID1 Rebuild after reattaching missing disk

[RDiFr]

I have an older Dell Studio 540 with two 500GB Western Digital drives using Intel Rapid Storage Technology to have a RAID1 array containing a C drive (OS) and D drive (data). I just performed a clean installation of Windows 10. Immediately prior to performing this, while it was still running Windows 8.1, I shut down the system and physically disconnected one of the drives, intentionally degrading the RAID array and preserving the state of the disconnected drive until the Windows 10 installation was complete. I booted the system with the degraded array and successfully installed Windows 10 a few days ago. Last night, I shut down the system, reattached the missing drive, and expected it would seamlessly rebuild the array and bring the missing drive up-to-date.

Unfortunately, Windows will not start. Some details:

Port 0 = good drive with Windows 10 installation

Port 1 = missing drive with old Windows 8.1 installation

I physically reconnect the missing drive and during boot time the RAID controller message shows the RAID1 array is in a "rebuilding" state and bootable = yes. It shows both drives as online and healthy members of that array. The boot continues and the blue Windows logo and dotted spinning circle appear, but, never gets past this. It eventually blue screens saying "inaccessible_boot_device" or attempts to reboot into a Windows Start Repair which does not help.

As a test, I disconnect port 1 again, the RAID controller says the array is "Degraded" and only shows the drive attached to port 0. Windows 10 loads successfully and the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software correctly shows a drive is missing. If I shutdown and reconnect port 1, I'm back to Windows not starting.

I've performed these actions (temporarily disconnected a drive) in past upgrades and don't recall running into this issue before. I've installed the most recent IRST software and drivers in Windows 10. And since Windows 10 can boot from the array when only port 0 is connected, I believe the RAID controller, software, driver, etc are working properly.

I've read several posts in this forum, notably [1] and [2] and believe I need to perform the following steps, but, am looking for confirmation or other suggestions before proceeding.

• With both drives connected, boot into the RAID BIOS using CTRL-I. Select the previously missing drive (port 1) and choose "reset disk to non-raid". It will throw a warning about data loss, but, this is a standard warning for all RAID types and because this is a RAID1 (mirrored) the data will remain in-tact on both drives after making that one drive non-raid.
• Ensure the BIOS SATA setting remains set to RAID (I have not touched this at all).
• Windows 10 should boot properly. The non-raid disk (port 1) should appear as online in Disk Management. The IRST software should now see this available drive and should allow me to modify the existing RAID1 array and re-add the non-raid disk to the array. It should then begin a rebuild and bring that disk up-to-date.

Hope I'm on the right track with this. Any confirmation or advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Ryan

[1] /message/237761 https://communities.intel.com/message/237761

[2] /message/229573 https://communities.intel.com/message/229573

[RDiFr]

Just found this thread [3] which suggests a problem with Intel RST version 14.6.0.1029 on Windows 10. Haven't been able to try the suggested fix yet as this is a clean install of Windows 10 and 14.6.0.1029 is the first and only version of RST software/driver installed, so I'm not sure what I can roll it back to? 14.6.0.1029 is the first version which supports Windows 10.

[3] http://www.janbambas.cz/inaccessible_boot_device-on-windows-10-boot-after-update-of-the-intel-rapid-storage-techonology-driver/ http://www.janbambas.cz/inaccessible_boot_device-on-windows-10-boot-after-update-of-the-intel-rapid-storage-techonology-driver/

[RDiFr]

And another [4] also suggesting an incompatibility with Windows 10 and the latest RST.

[4] http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/bsod-during-boot-every-other-time/0fa46d90-3829-48f3-9a8c-7212699f72f1?page=1 http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/bsod-during-boot-every-other-time/0fa46d90-3829-48f3-9a8c-7212699f72f1?page=1

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Based on your computer specifications, this might be ICH9R or ICH10R. The latest Intel® Rapid Storage you could install on your system would be version 11.7 and that particular version does not support Windows 10.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22194/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-RAID-Driver Download Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) RAID Driver

Allan.

[RDiFr]

Thanks Allan. None of the workarounds I've come across worked for me and after hacking at it enough, I came to this conclusion and gave up. Disconnected the port 1 drive, did another clean install of Windows 10, let it install the default drivers and did not attempt to install any RST drivers. The storage controller device now reports as "Intel Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller" with driver version 13.2.0.1022. Reconnected the second drive and Windows starts without issue and RAID 1 array has successfully rebuilt without issue. I no longer have the ability to view the RAID status from within Windows since I can no longer install the RST GUI, but, there's no other option at this point.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

At least, your drives are mirroring. You could always check the RAID volume status by accessing CRTL+I.

Allan.