see the SiI BIOS during boot up? If not, the BIOS is not integrating with your mobo BIOS in which case the Raid mgmt sw probably won't work since it most likely calls on the card BIOS.
I'm trying to set up a RAID 5 array. Let me give you the details of the system.
HP m8457c PC, Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit, Silicon Image 3132 Sata Raid 5 card with 2 eSata ports, 8 bay hotswappable hard drive enclosure with 2 built in port multipliers (supports up to 10 drives over 2 eSata wires)
The software that came with the card and hard drive enclosure is called "SATARAID5 Management Software". I believe my problem is with the software. The bios on the card is up to date. The driver for the card is up to date. The SATARAID5 software is the newest version. I can see all the drives on the card in - Control Panel (Classic) -> Silicon Image SATA Controllers. I select SiI3132 revision 1 and there is a combobox titled "device location" and the 4 drives are in there, so I know the card is at least able to see the drives and communicate this info back to Windows. The RAID5 volume that I created in Windows Disk Management is still available and functioning properly as far as I can tell.
I can not get the SATARAID5 software to launch anymore. When I try, an error message comes up saying "Silicon Image RAID controllers are NOT detected in the system. Please make sure that all controllers are installed and configured correctly. Press "OK" to exit this application." I've reinstalled the management software, I've removed and reinstalled the device driver, and I've flashed the card bios to the most recent version. Nothing fixes the problem. The management software still won't find the controller.
Why can I see the card and the drives in the storage tower in Silicon Image SATA controllers (and in device manageer) but the SATARAID5 software says the RAID controller isn't detected?
I guess what I need is a way to get the software to work or a suggestion of some other software that will work for what I'm doing. It you can suggest alternative software, it would be nice if the software included the ability to expand to additional drives for additional storage space without taking the array offline, but at this point I just need something that will work. If it matters, the 4 drives are 1.5TB Seagate ST31500341AS drives.
A little history if it helps. This may not be necessary.
I plugged in the card and installed the hard drives in the tower and then I wired the hard drive tower to the eSata ports on the card. Windows Vista automatically installed the card driver. Then I installed the SATARAID5 management software. Everything (including the management software) was working fine. I created a RAID array. I used Windows Disk Management to set up a volume and format it. The array was being formatted and I forgot and restarted the computer. When the computer came back up, the software still worked, but the array was rebuilding or something, I assume because I stopped it before the format was done. It was taking forever and the volume I created was still available and working, so I ignored it, and I restarted the computer again. I don't think the software was ever able to load correctly after that, even though the RAID volume is still working. Why doesn't the software work anymore???

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