Rapid Storage Technology
Intel® RST, RAID

DZ68BC and BIOS 39 Problem

idata
Employee
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Hello,

This is my first posting, so please help me if I break any rules or normal protocols.

I have a DZ68BC with an I7-2700K, lots of RAM. Great system. Love it. Very happy.

I have my C drive accelerated with an Intel SSD and the Rapid Storage Technology. I was running BIOS 28 largely without issue. I tried to add a RAID5 array but the RST in the BIOS refused to do it telling me that it didn't have room for it. The RST software under Win7/64 reported an error. Also, I use an eSATA backup drive, which attaches to the port on the rear panel and which is run by the Marvel SATA controller chip.

To get around the issue with "not enough space" for the new RAID5 array, I upgraded the BIOS to v39. Now the problem occured.

When I boot with the Marvel SATA controller enabled the Intel RST firmware doesn't post in the BIOS. No "Press Control-I..." screen is shown. The Marvel "Press Control-M..." text posts and operates. But, the system won't boot the accelerated drive. Which means that it won't boot.

To boot the system I have to use the "back to BIOS button" and disable the Marvel SATA controller. That eliminates the eSATA support, and in that Intel SATA only connection configuration, I don't have enough room for the 5 SATA drives (1 SSD, 4 spinning drives) and my two optical drives. That's 7 devices for the 6 SATA ports on the Intel controller. With the v39 BIOS, I was able to create the RAID5 array using the Intel controller. (But I found that its performance was awful and unless I learn what I was doing wrong I probably won't try that again. I think I'm going to go back to an internal D drive (single drive) and add a RAID0 pair hanging off the Marvel controller if I can get it and the Intel RST firmware running at the same time. Which is all a shame since I was trying to get both great speed and reliable storage in a large configuration. But I digress....)

How do I enable the RST accelerated boot drive (which has to be on the Intel SATA controller) and use the Marvel SATA controller at the same time?

Thanks, Arch Hughes

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TDalb
New Contributor I
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Intel, please fix this board

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VDerk
New Contributor III
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The 3x revisions of the BIOS of the DZ68BC are problematic. BIOS 0028 was actually the last 'good' version. It is not possible however to downgrade from a 3x BIOS to 28. You check if downgrading to version 37 or 36 helps.

A lot of people on this forum are begging for a 'good' BIOS for the DZ68BC, but so far that doesn't seems to be a top priority.

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