Raid card prevents FreeNas boot?

[Chris230291]

Hello. First of all, specs...

i7 780s
GA-H55M-UD2H
16GB RAM
RocketRaid 2720 SGL
8 x 2TB WD greens in RAID Z

This system works fine, apart from shutdown/restart. For some reason my system will not see the OS drive, whether it be on a USB or a SATA device. One work around i came up with very quickly was to just switch USB ports upon an unsuccessful boot. This will usually let it boot up FreeNas the next time around. Today i've had a play and noticed that if i remove the RAID card, i get no boot niggles at all.

Do i have any options other than switching the USB port on each boot/restart? Obviously thats not practical if I'm away from home. Another issue i have is that I'm ditching USB for a SATA to SD card device (my preference). The SATA device boots up fine when the RAID card is removed, but unlike USB, i haven't found a quick solution to get it to boot with the RAID card installed. I've searched the internet for a solution (seems this card causes a lot of systems to not boot), but they are all at an OS level (usually windows) so not applicable to me and FreeNas.

Can someone please help? I've lived with this ball ache for long enough :(

Thanks,
Chris.

 

[Chris230291]

Just had a brain wave!
I unplugged the RAID card, set to IDE mode in bios and set SATA device to boot.
Restarted and let FreeNas boot, then shutdown.
Reconnected RAID card and now it boots!

I guess it was the SATA mode being ACHI causeing the issues?
My USB drive still doesn't boot first time, but i think thats a USB issue on the board as i am not able to flash the BIOS either :/

 

[jgreco]

Wow, that's disheartening. Totally awesome when a standard like AHCI can't be implemented properly by manufacturers.

 

[cyberjock]

Yet another example of why I stick with Intel. They properly implement AHCI :P

 

[Chris230291]

Intel?

 

[jgreco]

Intel. Chip manufacturer, generally well known for making well designed products.