Can't boot to Windows 10 from RAID 0

HeavyStorm

New Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
I got myself a Silicon Image 3114 SATA Controller which is capable of RAIDing two discs. I have two SSD sporting approx. 230 GB each. I wanted to enable RAID 0 (striping) to have one "virtual" drive of 450 GB.

I followed the steps below:
  • Installed the 3114 PCI card on my board.
  • Connected the two SSD to it.
  • On boot, I hit CTRL-S to enter the RAID controller screen and automatically create a RAID 0 array with both SSD's. Cluster size is 64 Kb.
  • I then inserted a USB stick with an updated Windows 10 image. The computer then booted from it, and began Windows installation.
  • At first no drive was being shown, so I added drivers (%3114-CDROM%\SIL3114RAID\Win_64bit). Then I was able to see a single drive.
  • I deleted all the partitions listed and created a new one.
  • I selected the newly created partition and file copy began.
At the end of the files copy Windows had to reboot the system. Upon reboot, I entered the Windows Installation screen once more. I then removed the USB stick and manually reboot. After that, the system informs me that there's no bootable drive.

I already double checked BIOS settings for UEFI configuration and found nothing. I've attempted the steps above many times, even changing cable position and reconfiguring from UEFI to Legacy and vice-versa, tried changing boot order, cluster size to 128K, but nothing works.

What can I do?
 
Instead of creating the partition yourself, try deleting all the partitions and just hit next and let Windows 10 create them for you. It'll create a smaller system boot partition along with a larger partition for your C: drive. I'm not saying this will solve the issue but I have seen it work better this way with certain controller cards. Your card may not be compatible with UEFI boot mode, you may try installing to it in Legacy mode, not changing it to legacy after installation has finished the first reboot.

You may also need to set your BIOS to boot from "add-in card(s)" or "other device", if not first then secondary to your USB device your installing Windows 10 from.

Let us know if you were able to get this to work.
 
Back
Top Bottom