How do I get my boot entries back in BIOS?

[mikewse]

My Gigabyte Q77M-D2H board has come back from service and when reconnecting everything and starting it up I can't boot from any of the entries listed under Boot Option Priority. Also, the boot entries are different. Instead of one or two entries representing Windows 8 and my RAID array I now have one entry for each of my six disks (none prefixed with UEFI).

So it seems I have two problems:
1) The motherboard has forgotten where to find my valid boot configs
2) It has yet not picked up the fact that four of my disks are joined in a RAID

I have tried to type ctrl-I at boot but haven't been able to enter the RAID console, so can't see what the status of the RAID volume is.

How can I attack this and make my system bootable again?
(both installs and data are valuable)

Thanks
Mike

The system is installed like this:
Disk 0: SSD (GPT)
- part 1: empty
- part 2: Windows 8
Disk 1+2+3+4: 4xHD in RAID5 (GPT)
- part 1-3: EFI/RECOVERY/RESERVED
- part 4: Windows 8 (other install)
Disk 5: HD (GPT)
- part 1: data

[wazza300]

Re: How do I get my boot entries back in BIOS?

its ctrl and m I think for amd boards?

[mikewse]

Re: How do I get my boot entries back in BIOS?

But this is an Intel board (CPU is Intel 3475S and chipset is Q77).

[wazza300]

Re: How do I get my boot entries back in BIOS?

ahh ok,ctrl and I then,but it will say for sure what keys to press for the raid console in the motherboard manual

seemslike you need to rebuild the array? but not sure with raid setups

[mikewse]

Re: How do I get my boot entries back in BIOS?

It is ctrl-I. The problem is that the BIOS is neither showing the RAID console POST message or responding to the key combination.

Rebuilding the array is not an option as I have all my data there.

[wazza300]

Re: How do I get my boot entries back in BIOS?

have you tried a cmos clear? and re enter bios settings?

using latest bios version?

[mikewse]

Re: How do I get my boot entries back in BIOS?

I solved it, though this was quite tricky and unexpected.

I had already updated the board to latest version F2 BIOS before sending in for service. When it came back I checked the BIOS version and it was still F2, so I assumed all was fine. But it seems Gigabyte service had updated the board with a BIOS missing the RAID ROM, or an incompatible version. After flashing F2 again ctrl-I and other RAID-related stuff started working. And the reason why my system wasn't finding anything UEFI boot entries was because the EFI partition was located on the RAID array.

What put me on the right track was when firing up Windows 8 Setup just to inspect the disks. In the disk setup you can load extra drivers for RAID but this failed for the same driver I've been using previously. Then I dug up an old disk, made a quick Windows 8 install and tried installing Intel RST. It wouldn't even install but exited with a "The platform is not supported" message. And yes, SATA Mode has been set to RAID all along.
After reflashing F2 the RAID ROM prints its status during POST just like it should, and Intel RST installa fine, and the array is back.

So it seems Gigabyte Service messed up the BIOS somehow.

[wazza300]

Re: How do I get my boot entries back in BIOS?

yeah they usually test with different bios's or maybe sent out a new board idk