I have assembled a computer from new parts, including an Asus Z97-WS motherboard (Intel Z97 chipset) and two Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB (WD1000CHTZ) hard disk drives. I have set the BIOS to RAID, and with IRST created a RAID 1 volume using the two hard disk drives. The drives are plugged into the SATA ports on the motherboard controlled by the Intel chipset.
When I try to load Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit, at what used to be the F6 stage, where one loads RAID drivers, I cannot find an IRST RAID driver that Windows will recognize as a proper driver. I often get the error code 0x80300001. Without the proper driver, Windows does not recognize the RAID volume as a bootable device, and therefore refuses to install Windows on it.
I have tried every driver on the disc that Asus supplies with the MB, the latest drivers from the Asus website, and every latest/current Intel IRST RAID driver I could find on Intel.com. None permits me to load Windows on the RAID array. POST sees both drives, and I could load Windows to either drive as a lone drive (after breaking the RAID array). IRST says the array is normal and bootable, though BIOS does not recognize the array as a bootable device--which is natural, since I haven't found a driver for it yet.
I would GREATLY appreciate a solution to this problem.
Thank you,
Eric