IT mode and IR mode?

Scannerman · Aug 10, 2023

I tried this on a different thread but nobody responded. I'm thinking perhaps it was because I didn't use the correct terminology. Amazon sells raid cards advertised as "unRAID IT" but essentially they're raid cards that have been flashed to IT mode, meaning you can't use them for RAID anymore. They are popular among Linux users for unRAID (a software program) and for NAS users. I just want it for the extra SATA ports.

I was told that I could use an LSI RAID card flashed to IT mode alongside an LSI RAID card running regular IR (raid) on the same system. I've never done this before so I'm a little reluctant. Here's a picture of the card I want to use (although the featured card hasn't been flashed to IT mode yet.)

LSI MegaRAID 9272-8i 512MB PCI-E 3.0 8-Port 6Gbps SATA/SAS Raid Controller Card - Newegg.com

Buy LSI MegaRAID 9272-8i 512MB PCI-E 3.0 8-Port 6Gbps SATA/SAS Raid Controller Card with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

My question is, Can it be done? Anyone here experienced with such things?

Scannerman · Aug 18, 2023

:::crickets:::

pparks1 · Aug 18, 2023

i don't see any reason they wouldn't work together. One will have the ability to create a RAID array with the drives attached to it, and the other is just going to act as a pass through.

Scannerman · Aug 18, 2023

pparks1 said:
i don't see any reason they wouldn't work together. One will have the ability to create a RAID array with the drives attached to it, and the other is just going to act as a pass through.

My main concern is whether or not I'll be able to access the drives connected to the HBA via Windows Disk Management. The drives are going to be used strictly for storage. Hopefully LUNO will prevent any erroneous confusion on the part of Windows Recovery to write over the drives although I'm not sure I'll ever trust Windows Recovery software again anyway.

Scannerman · Oct 6, 2023

So. I don't really know how I fixed this issue and I sort of wished that I took a picture of the actual problem with my HBA card. When I accessed the BIOS on the card the listed drives were consistently presented with SATA 6 being first and foremost on the list causing the card to list my drives in an incorrect order. I tried swapping the drives, swapping the line order, pulling the card, resetting the configuration and still line #6 would always show as first in line, above #0. Eventually, I gave up and just eliminated the SATA line from the breakout cable, as depicted in the picture below:

Nothing seemed to help; but recently I thought I'd try to resolve the problem by trying a few more things such as moving the OS to a native SATA port to the system board and swapping drives again. After dozens of reboots, re-seating the card, swapping out drives the correct line order finally "self-repaired". I've tried to recreate the issue but it's locked in now and the correct order remains the same. Not complaining, but I really wish I knew what I did to solve the issue.