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ASRock Z97 Extreme6/ac Ultra Fast Boot incompatible with RST Raid?

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  • ASRock Z97 Extreme6/ac Ultra Fast Boot incompatible with RST Raid?

    Hi,

    I have a Z97 Extreme6/ac motherboard with Intel i7-4790K and Cruicial RAM, XP941 M.2 boot drive, Radeon R9280X.

    I also have a 2x1T RAID0 array and a 2x3TB WD Red RAID1 array using the latest Intel RST drivers version 13.5.2.1000. Running Windows 8.1

    Everything is at the lastest patch levels, etc.

    When I use the normal boot option, everything is perfect, but when I use the Ultra Fast or Fast boot options, I get a warning from the RST drivers "Your system is reporting one or more events, and data may be at risk."

    The warning is:
    [Array Name]: Incompatible
    Details: Your volume is not compatible with the current system configuration. You may delete the volume, and then create a new one, or return the volume to the original system or configuration. If these options are not available, refer to the Troubleshooting section under Help for more options. In all cases, back up any accessible data before taking action.

    When I first saw this, I freaked out and rebuilt the array, but it didn't help. Once I changed the boot options back to normal, then the warnings went away and RST acts happy.

    Is this a BIOS incompatibility with ASRock or is there something I can do to fix this problem myself? I like the fast boot fastness, but not willing to risk my data for it.

    TIA

  • #2
    Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6/ac Ultra Fast Boot incompatible with RST Raid?

    Never heard of this problem before with IRST and the Fast Boot options.

    The latest official version of IRST is 13.6.0.1002: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/dow...ST-RAID-Driver

    Since you use an XP941 as your OS drive, do you have a UEFI booting Win 8.1 installation (CSM disabled) or just using the Intel UEFI RAID Option ROM?

    I have a Z97 Extreme6 board, non-AC, which is otherwise identical. The latest UEFI versions seem to be identical.

    I have two RAID 0 arrays, and I don't get any messages from IRST when using the Ultra Fast option. I'm using IRST 13.6, but I don't think that will fix your problem. Worth a try of course.

    IMO you are experiencing a side affect of the Fast or Ultra Fast "Boot" options, which in reality shorten the POST process. That gives the affect of an overall shorter "boot" time, which should really be called start up time.

    The difference between our RAID arrays is that mine are all using SSDs. HDDs take longer to start, a SSD is running in under five seconds. HDDs take longer than that, at least five seconds and usually more than that. Each drive model is different in that respect, so no single time interval can be used.

    Go back about five years, and the BIOS of many boards had an option which delayed the part of the POST process that checked the drives. My X58 mother board's BIOS had this option which could be set to as much as 30 seconds. HDDs were slower to start at that time, and older IDE drives were even slower to get going.

    The actual OS boot process does not start until POST is complete. If you have a POST beep speaker installed, when you hear the single beep indicating POST completed successfully, the time between pressing the power button on the PC and that beep is all the time available for the drives to get started. Apparently the POST function that checks all the drives does not wait for the drives to get started. How long is the time between pressing the power button and the single POST complete beep when using Fast or Ultra Fast? Do you get the error messages from IRST on a restart as well as a cold start?

    Frankly, I doubt there is any fix for your issue. We can't cause a HDD to start up faster. Since you don't get the error messages when Fast Boot is disabled, I'm 95% sure the problem is simply the HDDs take to long to get started in the reduced time frame caused by the Fast and Ultra Fast options. Your OS SSD, which starts up quickly, aggravates the situation.

    You see these error messages in Windows, correct? Those RAID arrays, and most likely the RAID 1 array more so than the RAID 0 array, need more time to be initialized by the RAID software. They actually may be fine, but the IRST software expects them to be up and running when the OS boots. Are the RAID arrays non-functional after Windows boots when using the Fast Boot options?

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    • #3
      Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6/ac Ultra Fast Boot incompatible with RST Raid?

      I'm using CSM disabled Windows UEFI boot... I don't know how to boot the XP941 using Intel Option ROM.

      Oddly my first attempt at upgrading RST failed (the log files aren't very helpful IMO) but I doubt that really has anything to do with the problem. The arrays also show "incompatible" in the BIOS if I have fast boot turned on and I go into the BIOS from the ASRock restart-into-bios app.

      In any case, I suspect you're correct. I do have a buzzer installed and it does beep very early in the overall process. Even with fast boot disabled it boots pretty fast, so I'm not actually all that concerned. I also suffer from the longstanding Intel RAID bug where the drives shutdown and then spin back up only to shut down again during the shutdown sequence, so I'm already dealing with another annoyance with Intel RAID, what's one more problem

      I'll figure out how to upgrade the RST and then post back again, thanks for your super quick response.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6/ac Ultra Fast Boot incompatible with RST Raid?

        Originally posted by inthewoods View Post
        I'm using CSM disabled Windows UEFI boot... I don't know how to boot the XP941 using Intel Option ROM.
        Just wondering how you have your XP941 configured as the OS drive. Welcome to UEFI booting, I can't go back to legacy booting after UEFI booting, I'm spoiled.

        When CSM is enabled, there are sub-options for using the UEFI compatible Option ROMs, one being the Intel SATA UEFI Option ROM. The XP941 needs that to work as an OS drive. It is apparently possible to just select the use of that Option ROM to get the XP941 working, and I'm just trying to confirm if that works.

        Also, add the Radeon R9 280X video card to the UEFI GOP compatible list, it can be used with UEFI booting.

        Originally posted by inthewoods View Post
        Oddly my first attempt at upgrading RST failed (the log files aren't very helpful IMO) but I doubt that really has anything to do with the problem. The arrays also show "incompatible" in the BIOS if I have fast boot turned on and I go into the BIOS from the ASRock restart-into-bios app.
        Seeing the problem in the UEFI/BIOS makes sense, once POST is complete we can then use the UEFI/BIOS UI, so all the hardware is (normally) considered to be working correctly. Otherwise the PC boots the OS after POST. RAID volumes can have problems in Windows for other reasons, POST does not check RAID volume status. It's interesting that it seems if the HDDs are not fully started when POST ends, communication with them is not established, and no further attempt is made to connect. I see A2 on the Dr Debug display right before the POST beep or when in the UEFI/BIOS on some boards, which is the part that checks the SATA drives. It seems that is the last or nearly last thing done during POST.

        Originally posted by inthewoods View Post
        In any case, I suspect you're correct. I do have a buzzer installed and it does beep very early in the overall process. Even with fast boot disabled it boots pretty fast, so I'm not actually all that concerned. I also suffer from the longstanding Intel RAID bug where the drives shutdown and then spin back up only to shut down again during the shutdown sequence, so I'm already dealing with another annoyance with Intel RAID, what's one more problem

        I'll figure out how to upgrade the RST and then post back again, thanks for your super quick response.
        Installing a new driver version is simple, just download the installation program, SetupRST.exe, and run it as Administrator. You don't need to uninstall the previous version, which you cannot do anyway since you have RAID arrays. The IRST uninstaller will stop if it detects that situation.

        Or were you trying to do a manual driver installation with Device Manager? You need the "f6flpy-x64.zip" driver file to do that, but that will not update the Windows IRST program, which may cause problems.

        I have not used Fast Boot at all since shortly after I started to use UEFI booting installations, I had other side affects from the Ultra Fast option. Such as fan speed readings from fans connected to the board just disappear. They can reappear after a restart. But that was on a different ASRock board, I just tried Ultra Fast again and this Z97 board seems a bit better in that aspect... but not in others as you know. What am I saying...

        You are the first person that posted anything about a problem with Ultra Fast and Intel RAID arrays, in this forum. What exact models are the HDDs, you said at least some are WD "Red" drives?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6/ac Ultra Fast Boot incompatible with RST Raid?

          XP941 is booting fine but I don't recall setting anything special in the BIOS other than making sure that the x4 M.2 slot was enabled.

          I still have some due diligence to cleanup the UEFI boot settings (maybe this is why my 280X card only runs in standard def not HD?) and I have to get the RST correctly upgraded. The errors are when running the SetupRST.exe program, I initially installed with the standard Windows 8.1 DVD from MSDN and have not used the F6 drivers at all.

          Drives are:
          RAID-0: 2 drives: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 ST1000DM005/HD103SJ 1TB (Steam Drive)
          RAID-1: 2 drivers: WD Red 3TB WD30EFRX (Personal data, media, etc.)

          Once I get the UEFI boot and RST driver thing figured out, I'll post back with any additional status / conclusions. But overall I'm not too concerned.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6/ac Ultra Fast Boot incompatible with RST Raid?

            I'm glad you're still following your thread, I enabled Ultra Fast boot to try it for a while, since I haven't used it for a long time. It does cause the PC to cold start very quickly, including the Windows 8/10 fast startup feature, and the added speed of UEFI booting.

            I have two Windows installation on my Z97 Extreme6 PC, one Windows 8.1 on a single SanDisk SSD, and Windows 10 TP on a RAID 0 array of Samsung 840 Pros. Both have booted fine for months (Win 8.1) and weeks (Win 10 TP.)

            But after enabling Ultra Fast, after a couple days I began seeing Windows running chkdsk on one of the OS volumes every time I started that PC. Frankly, I'm not sure which one was being checked, the single SSD or the RAID 0 volume. It should have been the OS being booted, which was Win 10 TP.

            That continued for a few days, and then I set Fast Boot back to Disabled. The run of chkdsk stopped immediately. I did not get any error messages or warnings from IRST at any time.

            This PC is not over clocked, I use a Xeon E3-1276 v3 with the Z97 Extreme6 board now, which cannot be over clocked. I don't know what else to blame the chkdsks being run, and I'm not 100% sure Ultra Fast is the cause, but quite a coincidence if it isn't.

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            • #7
              Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6/ac Ultra Fast Boot incompatible with RST Raid?

              I have UEFI working correctly as far as I can tell (CSM disabled) and I was able to get RST upgraded, but it didn't make any difference. I still get the "Incompatible" warning/error from the RST control panel if I boot with Fast or Ultra Fast enabled.

              It still boots pretty fast anyway, so I'm fine, but maybe this will help someone not beat their head against the wall if they have the same issue.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6/ac Ultra Fast Boot incompatible with RST Raid?

                Just wanted to report that I had the same issue on my asrock x99 extreme4. I had to change the oprom policy from legacy only to uefi only. It was in the sata configuration.

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