Fan cover removal to replace fan for HX2, HX4, HX4R [#33427]
Common Questions about UGT-ST644R RAID Controller [#05062019]
Question: What Windows OS will this card support?
Answer: This card supports Windows XP, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and Windows 10.
Question: Is this RAID controller compatible with my motherboard?
Answer: This RAID controller is compatible with ALL motherboard that has a PCIe x4 or better (like x8 or x16) slot. If you are using an x4 slot, make sure the x4 slot you are using has x4 functionality, not x4 slot with only x1 functionality. If you are not sure use the x8 or x16 slot on your motherboard.
Question: Where can I get the latest drivers?
Answer: You can get the latest drivers from our website here. https://www.vantecusa.com/CKEdit/images/files/ugt-st644r_v1201041.zip
Question: After installing the card and attached my boot drive to the controller, will it let me boot to Windows 7 or Windows 10?
Answer: It will not. When you move your whole boot OS that was already installed and tightly linked to the motherboard chipset and now move the same drive to a different RAID chipset on our controller, it will not boot correctly. It will not boot due to the different drivers and entry in the registry of your Windows OS. If this is a fresh install it will not be a problem. You are going to run into the same problem for any brand of controller, not just ours.
Question: The RAID will not hold the RAID configuration why?
Answer: RAID configuration is located on all the RAIDed drive and will always hold the configuration unless the customer replaces all the drives. This is actually a good feature, if the configuration is on the controller and the controller is bad, it will break the RAID. If the RAID configuration is on the drive, it will retain the RAID configuration on any one of the RAIDed drives.
Question: I install this UGT-ST644R and it boots to a blank black screen. I have tried to boot without any drive connected and different PCIe slot and getting the same result. If I remove the card, the system would boot into Windows 10. Is the card defective or it not compatible with MB or a setting that I missed?
Answer: This card is compatible with ALL motherboard that has a PCIe x4 or better slot. Please follow the steps below to make sure the card is working correctly first.
1) Ground yourself to clear any static electricity.
2) Turn the system power totally off and system power to the wall outlet is unplug for a whole minute.
2) Select a PCIe x4 or x8 or x16 slot that is not used. If it is an x4 slot, make sure it is a TRUE x4, not an x4 slot with the only x1 signal, check with your motherboard manufacturer.
3) Install the UGT-ST644R, check the slot connector is fully inserted into the slot and secure the card.
4) Plug back the power cord to the system and power the system back on.
5) Boot up and install the necessary drivers, ALWAYS download the latest drivers from vantecusa.com website product page.
6) Once the system sees the controller correctly, you may shut down and attach your drive(s).
7) If after attached your drive and the system did not boot correctly, please check with your motherboard BIOS setting to set which drive you are booting from or boot sequence.
Question: After I attach the card and reboot, will it allow me to enter BIOS before card takes over from BIOS?
Answer: Yes, this is the function of the motherboard BIOS to give you time to go into the BIOS to pick the Right Boot device.
Question: What speeds will I get considering my PCI-e x16 slot is Version 1.0?
Answer: Assuming you are using UGT-ST644R. Since your motherboard is using PCIe v1, the maximum is 250MB/s per lane theoretical speed (not actual speed)
Question: Do you have 4 or 8 lane card which will work better? If not then do you have 2 lane card.
Answer: Not 4 or 8 lanes card, the UGT-ST644R is a 2 lanes card and MUST use a TRUE PCIe x4 slot or x8 or x16. It will not work with a PCIe x4 slot with only PCIe x1 (1 lane) pins set.
Question: Will I be able to just use your controller card without using any RAID etc.?
Answer: Yes, you can use this as an individual drive SATA controller or as a RAID controller.
Question: Is the controller see the drives as SATA III drives?
Answer: Yes, it can if your SATA drive and cable is rated SATA III speed.
Question: Can I connect 6 devices, 4 internal and 2 external?
Answer: No, this is a 6 port, 4 channel card. It gives you the flexibility to use any of the 6 port but only 4 devices active at a time.
You can have 4 internal or 3 internal/1 external or 2 internal/2 external combinations. The 6 ports give you the flexibility to switch, there is only 4 channel.
Question: I recently bought your product with (2) identical Western Digital SATA 3 2TB drives. I set up the drives in a RAID-1 configuration on SATA 1 and SATA 2. The RAID works fine but the BIOS screen shows one drive using 6 Gb/s and the other using 1.5 Gb/s. Why is one drive slower than the other? Shouldn’t both show 6 Gb/s?
Answer: Check the SATA data cable connection on both sides for the one that shows running at SATA I speed. Or replace the cable to see if correct the problem.
How about switching the drive from SATA 1 and SATA 2. If it goes with the drive, you have a bad drive that is not running at the right speed.
Question: Is Windows Server 2012 R2 supported? Are the available drivers compatible with the particular OS?
Answer: Yes, it is supported on server 2012 R2 and there are compatible drivers. Here is the link. http://www.vantecusa.com/system/application/media/data_file/ugt-st644r_v1201041.zip unzip and there is only one setup, it will detect the OS and install.
Question: Would you recommend this card for RAID 10 configuration or is there a better solution for your company?
Answer: Yes, it is fine running RAID 10.
Question: The RAID method used by this card is software or hardware?
Answer: It is a hardware RAID.
Question: My motherboard is PCI-Express 2.0 specification compliant, will I still get SATA Gen III 6Gb/s speeds connection on all 4 channels of the UGT-ST644R even when it is connected to the motherboard through the PCI-Express X4 slot?
Answer: Yes, you will still be getting 6Gb/s speed on the drive.
Question: What is the actual chipset used by the UGT-ST644R card? it says Marvell BIOS, but is there a specific Marvel chip model number?
Answer: It is using Marvell 88SE9230 chipset
Question: Is the UGT-ST644R card Hackintosh compatible?
Answer: Sorry, we have not tested and do not know.
Question: Can I skip the "hardware" RAID via the UGT-ST644R card's BIOS, and set up a Windows 7 software RAID from within the Windows OS?
Answer: Yes, you can use this card as an individual SATA controller and use it as an OS software RAID, but make sure you understand that software RAID is very much slower than hardware RAID and software RAID uses more of your CPU resources and will slow down your system.
Question: Is it possible, in a single UGT-ST644R card, to create 2 separate RAID 0 or RAID 1 virtual drive? For example, can I plug 2 Hard Drives to SATA channel 1 and 2 to create a RAID 0 virtual drive, and plus 2 additional drives to SATA channel 3 & 4 to create another RAID 1 or RAID 0 virtual drive?
Answer: Yes, you can have multiple RAID on the same card. Like what you mention. Or individual drives.
Question: I set the jumpers to allow the eSATA external connections, but the card can only see 4 of the five drives.
Answer: It will only see 4 drives at a time due to the Port Multiplier (PM) function limit. The eSATA port on the UGT-ST644R only supports 1 eSATA port with PM function. That is the limitation of the Marvell chipset on this card. If you need to have 2 eSATA port with PM, you can use two cards. This has nothing to do with firmware. It is the chipset design, sorry.
Question: I purchased the Vantec UGT-ST644R to work with 2 6TB HGST drives but when the drives (or a single drive) is hooked up the card won’t POST/Boot — if I use a 4TB drive it works fine. The drives are also fine as I can use them on the motherboard directly. Is there a problem using 6TB drives?
Answer: Check the boot sequence and boot priority in the BIOS. There is not a problem using any capacity drive, it can be 4TB, 5TB, 6TB, 8TB, 10TB or 12TB as of this writing. No firmware is required.
Question: Can you use 3 identical Hard Drives for Raid 1 with the Vantec 4-Channel 6-Port SATA 6Gb/s PCIe RAID Host Card with HyperDuo Technology (UGT-ST644R)
Answer: No, RAID 1 is mirror mode and only 2 drive is allowed. There is 4 port, using 2 for the mirror, you still have the other two and you can get a software to back up what is on the mirror to it and that will make the 3rd mirror.
Question: Do you know of any reason why my Gigabyte 880GAUD3H motherboard would not detect the UGT-ST644R?
Answer: Try a different slot, some time is resources allocation issue caused by your motherboard, look into your motherboard BIOS setting to correct the problem.
Question: Does it have native drivers for Windows 10 OS?
Answer: Yes, Windows 10 native drivers support ONLY AHCI mode, it do not support RAID. To use Windows 10 with RAID function, you need to use the provided RAID drivers mention in question 3 above.
Question: Can you use two NexStar HX4 (NST-640SU3-BK) With one 4 Channel 6-Port SATA 6Gbps PCIe RAID Host Card (UGT-ST644R) for a total of 8 external Port Multiplier SATA hard drives? I do not need RAID.
Answer: Sorry, no, the UGT-ST644R card will support only one PM set of 4 drives. You need 2 cards. If you are using 2 cards, make sure you have 2 PCIe x4 or better slot.
What is the rebuild speed for the HX4R, NST-640S3R-BK [#06252019]
If a drive fails and rebuilding is required, it will take 200GB/hour to rebuild. If you have a drive 1TB drive, it will take 5 hours to complete the rebuild, generally it is a good idea to run these at night where disk activity is the lowest.
