Use LSI 9217-4i4e RAID card with motherboard SATA ports on Z440

[peteDDD]

Just building up a new-to-me Z440 with a LSI 9217-4i4e RAID card.   Since installing that card, my SATA drives connected to the sSATA ports are no longer found by the BIOS.   Any clues on the BIOS setting I might be missing here?  Or are these ports no longer available when using the LSI 9217-4i4e card?  THANKS!

[DGroves]

The HP Z440 Workstation includes a 2 port, 6 Gb/s Intel® SATA RAID controller (SATA)

and a secondary 4 port, 6 Gb/s Intel® SATA RAID controller (sSATA).

the LSI 9217-4i4e is a lowend 8 port external SAS/SATA card that should only be used as a Host Bus adapter to add more sata ports or as a raid 0/1 card

both the LSI card and the z440 use almost the same bios code to manage/configure drives connected to the card and the secondary onboard raid capable 4 port sata ports

because you have two HD controllers you need to pay attention to the startup sequence

the z440 should init the onboard sata controller first, (ctrl-C)

and then the HP PCI-E SAS/SATA controller card  (unless you have mucked with the boot order)

go into the z440 bios and change POST Messages To DETAILED (Enables or disables the splash screen during POST)

this will allow you to see the HD controller prompts

if the z440 AND the LSI HP sas card are set to defaults, then you will see the LSI card bios prompt, can you see this and enter the LSI card bios?

if so do a factory z440 cmos reset by removing the power cord, pressing the pwr button for 8 sec

now open case, remove cmos battery and then press cmos reset button for 5 sec

reinstall cmos batt, power cord and power on, enter bios and set time/date save and reboot back into bios

do the drives attached to the motherboard SATA ports show? if not that's your problem, raid options will not show unless a drive(s) are found

please post model info of your 2 drives, remember the onboard drive ports on the z440 are SATA only not SAS

you will also need the HP (or intel) RSTe driver installed, get it from the HP z440 website's driver page

[peteDDD]

Thanks.  I had read that post earlier but am still unsure how to change the SATA/LSI boot order.

I was however successful using the SATA ports instead of the sSATA ports on the motherboard.

From the Service Manual for the Z440, it appears that sSATA0 and sSATA1 are not valid (usable) ports when using the LSI card.

Of course, ten years ago, when this hardware came out, the LSI card was state-of-the-art.

[DGroves]

if you require more sas/sata ports consider the Adaptec ASR-71605 card it will do raid/JBOD at the same time and is capable of every feature the LSI card can do and quite a bit more it will also add 16 internal ports or there is also a 71xxx model that also has internal/external connectors

these cards can be found on ebay with the optional batt/cache module and sometimes the bundled with the necessary forward mini sas cables for under 100.00

[peteDDD]

Thanks @DGroves   

I I think I am good for now, but I will file that away for the future.