LSI 9240-8i + ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 boot error and JBOD

[apatch]

Hello forum members.

I got problem with my LSI 9240-8i card, it's branded as Fujitsu Siemens but basicaly it's LSI 9240-8i without Raid5 just like IBM M1015.



Some specs http://allegro.pl/lsi-megaraid-0-1-s...978142645.html

I bought it few months ago, it won't work with my GA-MA790FXT-UD5P so after changing my rig to ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 i'm almost finished, but few problems appeared, normal version (without gen3 plx chip which could be a problem here) of this board was tested with LSI cards so I choose to buy a newer model.

Marvell rom boot option is disabled, but LSI makes win7 is booting very slowly and then after few seconds I got this massage "Controller encountered a fatal error and was reset" [IMG][/IMG]

I could live with it as long as MegaRAID Storage Manager works ok, I can't open webios probably because I'm using Intel Raid - 4x500GB HDD (in future with some SSD SRT) on this board.

I don't have any free sata ports on intel/marvell controllers so I want to use LSI to connect a few HDDs with data on it. My main problem is that I don't know how to use jbod function. When I connect some disks to LSI, then I can make it to assign as a "Hot Spare Disks" which if I understand correctly are backup drives for a raid configuration, or I can make a single drive to be a member of virtual drive. Last option give me only Raid0 choice, kind of misleading but it's single drive in raid0 configuration. All would be ok with that, but making a such virtual drive destroys all data after initialisation process, what I try to avoid.

LSI card flashed with latest firmware from LSI site, newest drivers and MSM, tested with latest asrock bios
I would be very thankful for any help

[mobilenvidia]

The 9240 does JBOD but yours may have it disabled, it is fairly easily enabled with an app called MegaCLi (either DOS or Windows version)
Google it, or LSI, seeing as you already flashed the card you probably already have it.
At command prompt type:

MegaCli -AdpSetProp -EnableJBOD 1 -a0

reboot
You should now have JBOD as an option

Also set the other controllers (intel and Marvell) to 'IDE' NOT AHCI, AHCI gives me issues at boot time with the IBM1015

WebBIOS, boot with CTRL+F11, then at LSI splash screen press CTRL+H then at Device boot list choose LSI controller and WebBIOS should open.

[apatch]

Specification of this FSC model clearly says that it supports "levels 0, 1, 10 and JBOD mode", yes i used MegaCLi previously so will try it. Worse thing is that that I already loose some data on 1,5TB WD HDD just connecting it to LSI and trying to get it work in single drive raid0 mode. Now TestDisk didn't helped me much to recover a lost partition, is there any recommended software to recover whole partition without saving individual data files to another drive ?

[mobilenvidia]

Funnily enough in all my testing of the M1015 and also the M5015 I too lost files to the RAID/JBOD/Unconfigured good process.
But EASEUS Data Recovery should work a treat, it finds everything even long lost
Took 4hrs on my 750GB drive so do it over night on a 1.5 TB

[apatch]

Thank you mobilenvidia

I knew how another roms affects LSI card but found few other interesting things.
I use RAID mode on Intel rom (Raid0 4xHDD + SRT SSD in future) and SATA/IDE mode on Marvell (IDE for CD/DVD booting) and this modes didn't affect my LSI card working in any way. But disabling Marvell boot option or just a whole controller are the only ways to access WebBIOS, next move is like you said a little tricky. F11 right after start (but without CTRL) which after some lag gives an access to boot device selection, choosing RAID: PCI ROM Setup, B02 D00 F0 (in fact my LSI 9240-8I card) and right after F11 when I see some LSI bios rom identification, press CTRL+H just like info on screen is recommending to do.

Second interesting thing to me is that webBIOS access is not equivalent to LSI bios booting option, webBIOS is accessible almost all of the time (except when Marvell boot is active) but even if I disable in webBIOS "Controller BIOS" option I have access to webBIOS after restart/shutdown. So I conclud that "Controller BIOS" is just boot from LSI option ?

Tried EASEUS Partition software already (which has also some recovery options) but now EASEUS Data Recovery is scanning my drive, so there's few hours of waiting for me.

Sad things is that my system previously booted from OCZ V3 SDD in 30-40 seconds, after installing LSI card - two or even three times longer and even disabling other controllers, other bios options and LSI controller bios didn't helped much.

My another question is if I previously connected some HDD to LSI controller and made a virtual drive, and now to the same port connected different HDD, should I make another virtual drive and delete previous one ?

[mobilenvidia]

Thank you mobilenvidia
No probs, I've just gone through the steep learning curve my self.

I knew how another roms affects LSI card but found few other interesting things.
I use RAID mode on Intel rom (Raid0 4xHDD + SRT SSD in future) and SATA/IDE mode on Marvell (IDE for CD/DVD booting) and this modes didn't affect my LSI card working in any way. But disabling Marvell boot option or just a whole controller are the only ways to access WebBIOS, next move is like you said a little tricky. F11 right after start (but without CTRL) which after some lag gives an access to boot device selection, choosing RAID: PCI ROM Setup, B02 D00 F0 (in fact my LSI 9240-8I card) and right after F11 when I see some LSI bios rom identification, press CTRL+H just like info on screen is recommending to do.
I was once able to get to the WebBIOS without the F11+CTRL+H way, found this out by trial and error.
Luckily most functions can be done in MSM

Second interesting thing to me is that webBIOS access is not equivalent to LSI bios booting option, webBIOS is accessible almost all of the time (except when Marvell boot is active) but even if I disable in webBIOS "Controller BIOS" option I have access to webBIOS after restart/shutdown. So I conclud that "Controller BIOS" is just boot from LSI option ?
I can only get to the WebBIOS via F11 then CTRL+H then select the LSI9240

Tried EASEUS Partition software already (which has also some recovery options) but now EASEUS Data Recovery is scanning my drive, so there's few hours of waiting for me.
Be prepared to trawl through files from the beginning of time once its done

Sad things is that my system previously booted from OCZ V3 SDD in 30-40 seconds, after installing LSI card - two or even three times longer and even disabling other controllers, other bios options and LSI controller bios didn't helped much.
I've got 4x OCZ Solid3 SSDs that I'm experimenting with, and want to eventually make my RAID0 boot drive
have a look over here, I've started a write up on the M1015, it will conclude with cross flashing to a LSI9211

My another question is if I previously connected some HDD to LSI controller and made a virtual drive, and now to the same port connected different HDD, should I make another virtual drive and delete previous one ?

You need to convert your LSI9240 FSC card to a LSI9211 and use it in IR mode, then you have drive pass through and also the ability to use RAID 0,1 and 10
Having the drives as Unconfigured good means they are visible to the OS, no need to make single RAID0 or JBOD
This is what I'll be using as soon as I stop playing with it.

The LSI9240 is a great card once converted to a 9211

[Computurd]

MegaCli -AdpSetProp -EnableJBOD 1 -a0

excellent info, thanks! i have been personally just configuring individual drives as raid 0 volumes

[mobilenvidia]

It doesn't always work did the other day.
But when I reflashed from a LSI9211 to LSI9240 MegaCLI refused to see the card.

There is an even sneakier way to do it that works with all cards.
You need MegaOEM (from SuperMicro) and boot to DOS.
Run this:

megaoem -adpsettings write -f settings.ini -a0
It will make a file called settings.ini
Edit the very last line to enable JBOD plus anything else you may want to (first 4 lines are READONLY which is a pity)
Now save it back to the Firmware:
megaoem -adpsettings read -f settings.ini -a0

Tried this the other day and works a treat.
BUT does NOT work on a LSI9260, which is another pity.

Happy tweaking

[apatch]

You said that you "can only get to the WebBIOS via F11 then CTRL+H then select the LSI9240"

Me too, it only works with F11 sequence but still I don't fully understand "Controller BIOS" in webBIOS function.

MegaCli -AdpSetProp -EnableJBOD 1 -a0

Didn't change a thing for me, I don't have JBOD function, drive must be first initialised to RAID0 single drive configuration which leads to data loss, then I must make a virtual drive, but if after that I can switch SATA port to Intel controller and data will stay on my disk.
I want to use LSI ports with hot swap disks, but now even if I make a drive offline before I remove plug from SATA port, remove it and then try again to use it, my disk became unconfigured bad, I can make it unconfigured good but still cannot make it online again without restarting a system.

Tried MegaOEM too, from some first links in google, it didn't work in Win7 x64 because it's a 16 bit program, under mini xp (from bartCD) it hangs just after executing dos4gw, under volkow commander it results with exception error, could you give a link to this app ?

About LSI9211 in IR mode (in IT mode Raid don't work ? ), yes I read it before and will eventually will do it if it's the only way to make it work like I want. Is it safe and I can revert back changes and flash to 9240 after that ? I read about some PAL initialisation errors.
If I understand correctly, first I must downgrade my LSI 9240-8i firmware, then make some procedure with sas2flash and then in the end I could flash to latest official 9211 firmware ? link

After that I will have working and easy pass through mode, but what are negative aspects of it ? Not working smart and something else ?
Latest MSM for 9240 on LSI site seems to bea lot newer than for 9211.

EASEUS recognised my all data , sad that I cannot bring it back without using another HDD, so I will do it later.