BIOS now can't see HDD can't Boot

photodgm

This is going to be a little long. I have a new computer with a SSD and normal HDD. It came with windows 7 installed on the SSD. Motherboard is a gigabyte Z68AP-D3, BIOS version F7b. I decided (and yes, I now regret it) to reinstall windows on the HDD and use the SSD as a cache using Intel's smart response technology. All seemed ok (As part of this I had to change the "PCH SATA Control mode to RAID(XHD)" from its original IDE setting). Windows 7 installed, I installed the motherboard drivers, and then the graphics card drivers. When I tried to restart following the graphics card drivers I got "Disk boot failure Insert system disk and press enter".
In BIOS the standard CMOS menu just has "None" instead of the disk descriptions. If I go to the Intel rapid storage technology configuration page (Ctrl-I) when trying to boot, it gives the following information:
There is 1 RAID volume ID 0, name Volume_0000, level RAID0(Cache), Strip128KB, Size55.9GB, Status Normal, Bootable No.
It also identifies the 2 physical devices on ports 0 and 5 with names and serial numbers, one as Cache Disk(0) and the other as an accelerated Non-RAID Disk.
Even though it does not appear to be seen by the BIOS I can get the windows 7 installation disk to run - but because it cant see the HDD (or the SSD) it can't repair or install.
Anyone any ideas please.......
David

OneADay

Just a suggestion, never tried RAID for purely not wanting to fook up the system (I have many other ways to do that) - maybe try unplugging one drive - probably the SSD and see if you can get windows onto the IDE.

photodgm

OneADay wrote: »

Just a suggestion, never tried RAID for purely not wanting to fook up the system (I have many other ways to do that) - maybe try unplugging one drive - probably the SSD and see if you can get windows onto the IDE.

Possible - was thinking of getting into the BIOS and changing the setting back to IDE. Wonder if it may be some form of low level driver issue? I think this could take some time.

banger9365

have changed boot settings in the standard bios to look for Volume_0000
i would start again and name them test or some thing and point the normal bios to them in the boot section.they will not show in the main info section off the bios as you have found out

photodgm

OneADay - You were right!! I had to unplug the SSD as well as change the BIOS settings. However there seemed to be a partition problem on the HDD and I had to reinstall windows again. (couldn't repair it). At least I appear to have a working system. Now I just have to put the SSD back in and get acceleration to work. Maybe I'll hunt for some updated drivers first.