PC Drivers & Software

[kim4]

Guys seriously what is this garbage? Running on a MSI MAG B650 TOMAHAWK WIFI with latest BIOS, and do you seriously expect normal end-users to be able to install Windows on this? Seriously you need to dig through a outdated 50+ pages pdf to find out that for some strange reason it is a 3 stage driver load during Windows install that have to be done in the right order!? It seems so bad that even hardware manufacturers don't bother to mention this feature in their manuals other than as a "feature" and not seeming to expect anyone to use it and not a single word on how to use it.

Come on! you have had over 15 years (since the SB750 days!) to come up with a more user friendly solution or even get the driver onto Windows install image by default. At least bundle a basic RAID driver with Windows for installation. Even consolidating the three separate driver installations into one would be better.

I have worked with PC's and servers pretty much continuously since the end of the 90's and had to spend an unacceptably long time to get this thing first configured in that g*d awful bios MSI had and then try to get Windows on the array, just to have it magically disappear after a few boots and computer unable to find any trace of it. And trying to use it with Linux... I'm not even going to entertain the thought of a dual boot.
And I thought Intel RST was buggy and terrible... You proved me wrong.

Someone on your dev team seems to cushy on their chair...

 

[kim4]

I might as well give the solution to "How to install Windows on a AMD RAIDExpress2 array" here also.

1 - Setup your array in bios.
2 - Boot from Windows installer USB or Ventoy selecting WIM mode.

3 - Load driver from a USB stick.

- When windows installer cant find your array. Plugin your second USB stick that you have copied the extracted Raid driver you downloaded to and click "Load Driver"

- Browse to the usb stick driver folder and select folders in order:

     1: rcbottom - it might show you several lines of drivers, just select last one and click Load...

     2: rcraid - Click Load...

     3: rccfg - Click Load...

Now you should see your array. But one IMPORTANT step before you proceed!

4 - Unplug your USB STICK you loaded the driver from!

- For some reason or another it seems if you just select your array and click next on the installer it will not be able to boot when rebooting... it will cause Windows to panic and break when it reboots and you need to do it all over again. Or it will install nicely, work great with fresh Windows and then in a few days when you remember to unplug your usb stick from behind your computer it will not boot anymore...

5 - Select your raid array and click Next.

- Let windows copy its files and just to be safe as soon as it reboots yank out the installer usb stick also.