Can't install Intel RST on ASRock Z77 Extreme4

[IAmMoen]

So frustrated right now. I have been having issues with running my raid 5 on this board in windows 8. Windows 8.1 came out. Installed it. Didn't fix the issue. Now Intel has released a new version of Intel RST (12.8.0.1016). My friend just went to 8.1 on another board and his raid 5 was suffering too until he installed this Intel RST update and was able to make a couple setting changes. Then it was doing great. So I thought it would be good to update to the latest Intel RST program as well. Thus begins my saga of today.

I won't bore you with all the ways windows 8 is a PITA but I will tell you how this Intel RST install went down. Or more accurately, didn't.

I tried to install the latest Intel RST program on my box and it failed out. This was the exe that I downloaded right from asrock.com for windows 8.1. I tried to install it by doing a right click, run as admin sort of thing. It tooks 30 minutes but it finally errored out. Checked the log and it returned a code of 1603. Boo. Tried to download the one directly from the Intel site but that was a no go as well.

Alright well the install from the ASRock site might have screwed something up. I decide it is time to just do a fresh install of everything (I had been considering this anyways considering my slow raid 5 problem). Installed windows 8.0. Installed all the updates required and then upgraded to windows 8.1 via the store. Same issue. DAH! Ok well the error code seems to suggest a a permissions thing. So I try to restore to the system image I had just made before I tried this Intel RST install so that I have a fresh canvas. Well I was using the windows 8.0 disk. That isn't the right operating system version to be able to restore the 8.1 system image. Ok that is my fault that I didn't make restore media explicitly for windows 8.1. But I had selected to redo the partitions of the C:\ drive. Guess what? It deletes those partitions BEFORE it tells you that it isn't the right operating system version. Back to installing windows 8.0 from the disk. Then Windows updates. Then downloading and installing 8.1 again.

Now I am back to a fresh 8.1 install again. I decided that maybe I could make a LOCAL admin account (had been using my outlook.com address one) to see if that helps. Still no go. Son. Of. A. B.

Thoughts? Attached are the two log files put out by the install if anyone has experience with this. Nevermind. Attached is the non-verbose log file. Apparently the other one is too large to be attached. If someone wants it let me know and I can get it to you.

hmmm. Not sure if this is anything or not. But I am running windows 8.1 x64. It is trying to install itself to Program Files. Even though in the readme it says it should be installing to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology. I will try to change it and see if that helps at all.

So interestingly enough I went to the location it supposedly gets installed and the ui program was there. So I ran it an lo and behold it came up. The tray says that the service isn't running but the UI says that it is and that everything is fine. So now I have no idea what to think.

 

[IAmMoen]

So there are two scenarios now for this Intel RST program.

Scenario 1: I try to install it with the .exe. It errors out after 30 minutes or so leaving me with nothing in the programs folder.

Scenario 2: I try to install it and after 15 minutes I kill the install process. This leaves me with usable programs in the program files folder but if I reboot it BSOD's after waiting 15 minutes for a reboot. Upon login there is nothing in the program files folder.

There does not appear to be any way for me to get this installed appropriately on my system.

On an interesting side note while I had the program up (before I rebooted) I made the settings changes my friend did. Attached are the results from the ATTO benchmark.

now creating a windows pro 8.1 install disk. Tutorial here: http://www.neowin.net/news/here-is-how-to-get-the-windows-81-iso-and-create-a-usb-install-stick.

Does anyone know if the refresh computer and files (the factory default one) resets drivers even? Is it a true blue complete reset? Or is it a reset built around an end user that wouldn't want to install their vid/storage/misc drivers again?

Going to try to start over again. Going to turn off the raid 5 totally. Boot as ahci. Try to install. Then reboot, turn on raid, and see if that works. Wondering if something is being locked by using the raid 5 so that the installer fails.


U P D A T E : So I turned off the raid setting in the bios and then Intel RST installed perfectly. Awesome. Until I rebooted and tried to turn it back to RAID mode. Then I got the infamous inaccessible boot device BSOD. I had been under the impression that harddrives that were single disk (not in a raid volume) when connected to a controller that was in RAID mode would be in AHCI mode. Apparently not. I had noticed that the Samsung Magician software did say this. It always said my ssd was not in ahci mode. So it kind of makes sense now. Whatever. So I rebooted a few times and the repair utility for windows 8.1 launched. I thought that might help fix it. It ended up finally booting to the screen you get when you log into a fresh windows install and the Intel RST program was gone again. I am not quite sure the option I ended up selecting from the repair screen but it was something about a windows boot error. So it must have done a fairly large reset to fix it I guess.

Went back to a fresh install again. Keep in mind every time I do an install the system is set to RAID mode in the bios. Boots to windows just fine. Do a reboot. Set bios to AHCI mode. Boot to windows install Intel RST program. Go into the registry. All the keys that people online say to look for are either not there or already set to what they need to be. I looked a bit further and found this one:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storvsc\StartOverride\ . The Name is "0" but the DWORD was set to 3. I set it to 0. Then it booted (after 15 minutes or so). But here is the weird thing. When I check that DWORD now it is set to 3. So it is like that wasn't actually a part of that at all. No idea.

As it stands right now: The changing the controller mode from AHCI to RAID and back made one of the disks drop from the array. Intel RST is reporting it at 6% of rebuilding. Another slight hiccup is that Intel RST is apparently expecting to see one more drive. It is reporting the raid 5 as containing 4 drives total (I have only ever had 3) and that one of them is missing. We will see what happens after it is done with the rebuild and a reboot is done.


U P D A T E # 2 : The Intel RAID 5 rebuild finished and it no longer thinks I should have 4 drives in the array. So that is good. Rebooting is still taking around 15 minutes or so. I think it is doing something with the drives on boot up and shutdown. Not quite sure yet.