Today was an exciting day, well that is until I ran into a little problem. I finished building (my first time) a new PC, updated the BIOS, set up the HD and SSD to a SATA RAID configuration and installed Win 7 Ultimate. Prior to the OS installation I installed the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver and everything went off without a hitch. At this time the BIOS was still configured to boot from the DRW DVD drive so I decided to change the boot order but once I changed it I received the following message: "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key." I changed boot sequence back to the DRW and the WD hard drive as secondary and I still get the message above. This is how the computer looks when it is booting up: Physical Devices:Port 0 Intel SSDPort 1 WDC WD2002 Raid Volumes:ID Name Level0 Volume_0000 RAID0 Physical Devices:0 Intel SSD2 WDC WD2002 Detected ATA/ATAPI Devices:SATA 1 SSD311SATA 2 DRW DVD RW (Could it be that this is being detected first)?SATA 3 WDC2002 I also noted after a thorough read of the ASUS MB manual that I have the Intel SSD311 plugged into a SATA6 Port #1, the DRW DVD Drive plugged into SATA6 Port #2 and finally the WD Black Caviar HD plugged into a SATA3 Port #3 which is what is showing above in the "Detected ATA/ATAPI Devices", so; Perhaps it is the way the 3 drives are plugged in or it could be that I forgot to select RAID configuration in the BIOS when I changed the boot priority. I am afraid that if I change the way the drives are plugged in that I will lose my setup (remember this is my first time). Any ideas anyone? Thanks,Robert

I have no idea about the SSD's , set the sata to IDE

Plug both the drives into the Sata III ports. There's no need for a DVD drive to plug into that

It looks like it's RAIDed your SSD and Caviar BlackCheck your motherboard's instructions to setup SRT, but I don't think that involves setting the controller to RAID

Plug both the drives into the Sata III ports. There's no need for a DVD drive to plug into that

I'll do that but nothing will change will it? As for the DVR it is connected with a SATA type connector and does not have a ribbon that the other CD/DVD drives have.

It looks like it's RAIDed your SSD and Caviar BlackCheck your motherboard's instructions to setup SRT, but I don't think that involves setting the controller to RAID

Yes that was the intention, the SSD is used as a cache only.

I'd just keep it plugged into a SATAII port. It doesn't need the full speed of the SATAIII whereas your HD's will. Also, try uninstalling the SRT drivers, removing the SSD and just boot with 1 harddisk. Do that, check everythings okay then plug in the SSD. Boot again, make sure everythings okay, then install the SRT drivers.

You installed Windows 7 in a RAID 0 of a 20GB SSD and a 2TB HDD?. That's wrong. The resulting volume would be a 40GB one.Check the motherboard manual for SRT instructions. I'm pretty sure you don't install the SRT drivers before installing Windows (where do the drivers install to if you do that?)

I'd just keep it plugged into a SATAII port. It doesn't need the full speed of the SATAIII whereas your HD's will. Also, try uninstalling the SRT drivers, removing the SSD and just boot with 1 harddisk. Do that, check everythings okay then plug in the SSD. Boot again, make sure everythings okay, then install the SRT drivers.

None of those drives need a SATA III port really

Oh. Are they both SATAII HD's? I see. I thought they were SATAIII

Oh. Are they both SATAII HD's? I see. I thought they were SATAIII

Some Caviar Blacks and maybe other mechanical HDD's are advertised as SATA III, but that's actually quite pointless because no mechanical HDD can reach SATA II speeds (300Mb/s). Not even close, so there's no use in pluggin them to SATA III ports

So really, until we get a HD that can access at 3GB/s it's pointless?

Yep.

And by the time we get a 3Gb/s HD we'll be on SATAMMCXVII

I guess there will only be SSD's that hit SATA III speeds

You installed Windows 7 in a RAID 0 of a 20GB SSD and a 2TB HDD?. That's wrong. The resulting volume would be a 40GB one.Check the motherboard manual for SRT instructions. I'm pretty sure you don't install the SRT drivers before installing Windows (where do the drivers install to if you do that?)

No they each show as being close the their original size and not a 40Gb volume. The driver is installed as Windows 7 is being installed, which is what I should have written originally, there is an option to do that where you click on a check-box in the installation UI. In the end I might just take it to NCIX which is where I purchased the parts and have a tech look at it. Thanks to all of you for your feedback.

Oh. Are they both SATAII HD's? I see. I thought they were SATAIII

No one is a Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s and the other is an Intel 311 Series Larsen Creek 20GB 2.5" SATA II SLC Enterprise SSD. So one is a SATAVI and the other is SATAII