We need a little more info, what do you mean by dropping sata1, are there any error messages.

How are you setting up the raid pack? using the Intel bios utility?

 

8400's have been known to have capacitors that fail on the motherboard, causing all kinds of wierd problems, also you may have a failing cmos battery also, replace it with a new one.

I've been setting up acording to th 8400 manual. Set Raid on, configure ROM utility to Raid0, then install using Dell windows recovery disk. By dropping sata1 I meant sata1 channel. When the system posts the progress bar advances very slowly and then produces an error message stating that the volume has failed in the rom utility. The hard drive connected to the sata1 channel is always at fault and will not be identified in bios. When it happened last night, I disconnected the drives, swapped their sata channels over, reset cmos changing sata operation back to default AHCI/raid if signed drives. After doing this, the rom utility allowed me to rebuild the volume as such. I have also now installed the latest Intel drivers via the Application Accelerator package.

I'll give it a try.

 

cheers

Replace the cmos battery with a new one.

Thanks for that mate. I have followed those procedures, but it doesn't have any impact on my problem. My installs go fine, but the system seems to lose the drive on sata1 after a while. It will not even show in the bios when this happens. Last time round I had to open the case and reset the cmos for it to find the second drive again. It then allowed me to rebuild the volume again. I currently use the latest Intel iastor driver, and wonder if I might have a hard drive compatibility issue. I ordered my system with one WD2500JD drive and purchased a second about 6 months ago. Althought they are both JD's, the new drive was manufactured 5 days later and has a different firmware revision.

The operation proceeded today without incident and the patients vital signs are presently stable. I think he'll pull through; thanks doctor.