RAID problems with x58-ud3r (non sli version r1.0)

I have acquired 2 WD 150g Raptors from the classies and am having some trouble getting them to not hang when in RAID0 once windows is installed.

I have them set to the default 128k stripe and am using the gsata ports because if I use the ports where my other hdds and dvd burner are, windows wont recognize them.

They will let me get all the way finished with the Win 7 RC install and, but when I go to put the chipset drivers for the mobo on, they hang at the "welcome" screen at startup. Then I have to go and delete the array and re-install it. If I dont install the mobo stuff, win 7 still gets me on the web and gives me sound, but when I run hd tune, at about 70%, they freeze, or hang up for a REALLY long time and I just end up resetting the comp. It wont even complete the Windows Experience Index once it gets to the hdd testing part.

I have the raid driver installed during win 7 install (it is off the mobo disk), but all the other problems have me scratching my head. Any x58-ud3r owners out there with a RAID setup? I call out to you for HELP lol.

EDIT: I have the latest bios for my board installed (F6) as well if that helps out.

Update after testing each drive individually in windows. I get this with raptor 1 and 2.

and

My other two drives are reading at this speed and they are crap compared to the 10k raptors.

and

Shouldnt the Raptors be destroying the other drives, not getting beat by them and failing tests....?

Um not sure, I'm still experimenting with things myself but I've never had much good luck with my raptors below a 16K stripe here to be honest. At least a 32.

I've went weird and put ADFD150 X 5 in a RAID0 75G 4K stripe for system and it's actually doing very well atm, I'm still playing about but it looks pretty good.

I's say to maybe turn your stripe size down to 16K and give it a go for a system setup, if it's not too much trouble I keep most my serious stuff on my Areca RE3 for a fast system rebuild so I can mess around I guess.



I'd say ditch the 128K stripe on em, I'd about positively say you'll see a big difference. I've my storage RE3's at 128K stripe, I think the raptors need smaller to work really well.

The win7 I used awhile, probably go back to it in the future, I used to have a 3 raptor setup in that, and things seemed to get weird now and then so went back to Vista X64 for the time being. Being a beta tester for Microsoft can be a PITA sometimes

Seems like more than a stripe size issues though, if the drives are acting funky when tested individually.

What could be causing them to produce such bad results when tested individually then?

Yeah I guess that first drive looks kinda toasted, sorry guess I should have looked at the charts more when I first came in.



Something odd going on there at any rate, I've had 150 Raptors do weird things to me before but that looks ugly.

Check to make sure AHCI is disabled on the GSATA controller. Why not connect all of your HDD's to the ICH10R, and use the Intel Matrix utility to create a RAID 0 array using the two Raptors (remaining HDDs in SATA / Native IDE mode)? Also try connecting the optical via the Gigabyte GSATA controller instead of the ICH10R.

I actually sold these drives to henzo through the classifieds. Both drives were working fine and tested with the Western Digital Diagnostic utility prior to shipping.

It seems really odd that both drives would exhibit the same kind of behavior when connected to a new mobo/setup, unless it was due to that particular setup. I can't imagine both drives are faulty.

After a few more hours of battling these things, they decided to install windows (am doing this at a friends house to eliminate my system being the problem) and this is what I get from the raid volume during hdtune.

Started off good, then, well you see...



It is the same as the single drive failing the read test. I figured it would fail in raid since it failed by itself. And you can tell when it reads from the dog slow one as well because the speed drops to a crawl just like when it is in single mode.

This raid is 16 stripe, not 128.

Am I right to think that both these are bad, or got jacked in shipping somehow or what? The box was clean and no marks were visible on it.

Seems that WD has them still eligible for RMA, so that's what I am going to do and see if they send me good ones. Wish me luck.