BSOD on RAID Array


Ben-Anderson's avatar
I've decided to add a second to disk to my custom build and set it to RAID 0. In the background I am currently doing my 4th system image restore today because Windows 7 keeps on having kernel panics when booting.

I've already tried setting my disks back to IDE mode in the BIOS and changed DWORD Value 'Start' from 3 to 0 in the registry for key iaStorV as people have recommended, but this is still a no go. I really do not want to reinstall Windows - anyone got any ideas?
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pyrohmstr's avatar
My understanding is that one can't simply add a second HDD to a raid 0 array that's already going. I've been under the impression that you need to set the whole array up at the same time and hope nothing fucks itself. RAID 0 specifically. It at the very least requires reinitializing the array and reloading the RAID and ACHI drivers.
Ben-Anderson's avatar
There was no raid array to begin with, just a single HDD. I was adding a second drive in order to create an array. All the system image restorations were also to the array, not individual drives.

Ether way, I got it working by loading drivers during the recovery process on DVD (using the load drivers button that is supposed to be used if the recovery console can't see the drives). As it turns out, windows 7 since day one thought it was installed on bog standard IDE hard disks, so the presence of RAID/ACHI made it freak out and quit. If it had installed the correct drivers when the OS was originally installed, non of this would've happened. But hey, that's windows for you!
pyrohmstr's avatar
Yeah, that sounds par for the course with windows :p
PR-Imagery's avatar
What's the code?
Ben-Anderson's avatar
I tell a lie. I searched the Event Logs and found one error from the Volume Manager (despite it happening at least 5 times).

Event Description: Crash dump initialization failed!
Event Data: Device\HarddiskVolume2
0000000001000000000000002E0004C004100000080000C000000000000000000000000000000000
Keywords: 0x80000000000000


The only other errors I can find are to do with the time service and kernel power.

There are two other entries with no information other than Unexpected failure. Error code: 490@01010004.
PR-Imagery's avatar
And both disk work correctly on they're own?

BIOS up to date?

You may just have to do a full install.
Ben-Anderson's avatar
Both disks boot on their own.
BIOS is at the most recent 13xx release.

I'm going to try and side load some ACHI drivers and see what happens.
Aapis's avatar
Shot in the dark, something about the RAID is messing with permissions? I don't know anything about setting up RAID but if I saw a message that said something like "crash dump initialization failed" my first guess would be to find out why it didn't have permission to proceed. :shrug:
Ben-Anderson's avatar
No permission errors. I did another restore from the system image to the RAID array but this time loaded some ACHI and RAID drivers using the "Load Drivers" button in the Win7 system recovery on the DVD. Its meant to be used when the recovery console can't see the disks you want to restore too.

The system took forever and a day to boot once the restore was complete - but after the first boot it installed the ACHI and RAID drivers I loaded and has been running like a champ since then.
Ben-Anderson's avatar
No idea. The BSOD flashes so fast I can't see anything and, from what I can see, there is no code.
HeavenhairSixes's avatar
I'm not certain from what you have said if this is the same issue you are a having - but I'm going to suggest it because it just might be worth considering.

A while back I added an extra hard drive to my desktop and started having various kinds of weird crashes and failures and issues. After being completely baffled for a while I realised it was because the extra hard drive had increased the power drain of my system to the point where the PSU couldn't supply everything all the time. I stuck a PSU with a bigger wattage in there and everyhing was fine.
Ben-Anderson's avatar
It boots fine when I set the drives back to IDE mode - so there's something about the RAID that making windows freak out.
HeavenhairSixes's avatar
Under IDE it would boot fine and it would run until I tried to access multiple drives simultaneously - like copying something from one drive to another. Under RAID it attempted to engage all drives simultaneously during the boot process and fell over at that stage.

I still can't say if that is your problem or not - but what you have said so far doesn't seem to rule it out to me.