Inaccessible boot device after changing RAID controller

perdrix · 03 Jan 2020

My W10 1909 x64 system that used a built in RAID controller (LSI 1038) didn't support large drives, so I bought an IBM 5016.

I backed up the RAID 1 boot device using Macrium Reflect

Installed the new RAID controller and deleted the old RAID 1 array, and then created a new one using the same drives.

I then used Macrium Reflect Recovery CD to restore the partitions to the new RAID 1

Problem is that I get "Inaccessible Boot Device" and Macrium's Boot Recovery Option doesn't seem to solve it.

I suspect (but don't know for sure) that I need somehow to install the AVAGO (LSI) Megaraid SAS (megasas.sys) into the restored W10 partition, but don't know how to achieve that!

If it's something else that needs to be done I'm all ears!

Keeping my fingers crossed!
David

Berton · 03 Jan 2020

I don't have the solution but do know that many times breaking a RAID setup does require a fresh install of the OS. The last time I ran into the problem Win10 Insider Preview automatically picked up the BIOS entry of RAID/AHCI and setup the RAID part because there were 2 HDDs connected to the motherboard. When I decided to remove what was the D: drive it broke the boot process, required a reinstall with only 1 drive connected.

perdrix · 05 Jan 2020

I split the RAID, removed the new M5106 card and attached single drive to the LSI1038 controller.

Restored from backup and that worked fine, system boots fine.

I then installed the Megasas2 driver using the .inf file. However this didn't actually install the driver in \Windows\System32\Drivers. It put it in a subdir \Windows\System32\DriverStore:

Code:

C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\megasas2.inf_amd64_234639b91d3619c1>dir
 Volume in drive C is Mercury
 Volume Serial Number is 5251-2EF4

 Directory of C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\megasas2.inf_amd64_234639b91d3619c1

05/01/2020  13:59    <DIR>          .
05/01/2020  13:59    <DIR>          ..
13/12/2018  02:51            62,515 megasas2.cat
13/12/2018  00:43           340,490 MegaSAS2.inf
13/12/2018  02:51            86,016 megasas2.sys
               3 File(s)        489,021 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  432,506,593,280 bytes free

So the 64k question is - will the system locate and install this driver when it tries to boot or will I still get the inaccessible device problem?

If not, how to force W10 to ACTUALLY install the driver fully rather than just put in the DriverStore?

Thanks

Berton · 05 Jan 2020

When doing the driver update process there's usually 2 choices, Search the Internet for updated drivers or Search the computer for updated drivers. Windows should be able to see into the folder, may be 2 or 3 in System32, Drivers, DriverState, DriverStore, etc.

perdrix · 06 Jan 2020

I think I managed to work round the problem.

There wasn't enough BIOS option ROM memory space available with all the cards I was using. So I removed the US320 SCSI card, and that enable me to boot the disk with BOTH RAID controllers installed.

Windows then actually installed the driver.

HOWEVER I'd still like to know how to FULLY install a driver when the hardware isn't present.

Now all I should need to do is to backup the system with the new RAID driver installed, recreate the RAID on the new card, then restore the backup (I hope). Will report back.

David

- - - Updated - - -

Yes that worked fine (though I needed to re-flash the RAID card to get it to support JBOD as well as RAID so I could see the other drives as well as the boot drive).

David