• Adaptec Configuration Utility (ACU)
• Repairing a RAID logical drive in case of failure

1.4.3. Update Device Firmware (flash the firmware of a physical disk)

To flash (update) the firmware of a physical disk, use the "Update Device Firmware" option.

Warning : this operation can render your physical disk permanently unusable in the event of an error.
Only do this if you really know what you are doing. Generally, you will never need to flash (update) the firmware of your physical disk.

In this "Update Device Firmware" section, click on "Select Firmware File to flash" to select the new firmware for your physical disk previously stored on an USB key.

1.5. Set Bootable Device(s) for Legacy Boot Mode (set disks as bootable)

In the "Set Bootable Device(s) for Legacy Boot Mode" section, you will be able to set logical drives (RAID) or physical drives (HBA mode) as bootable via your Adaptec SmartRAID controller.

Warning : booting from one of these disks is only possible when your computer boots in BIOS Legacy mode.
Which is not currently the case, since configuring your Adaptec SmartRAID controller via your motherboard BIOS is only accessible when your computer boots in UEFI mode.

To set a logical drive (RAID) as a bootable drive through your Adaptec SmartRAID controller, go to: Select Bootable Logical Drive.

Note: as you can see, by default you can set 2 logical drives as bootable if you want.

Plain Text

Primary Bootable Device : Not Set.
Secondary Bootable Device : Not Set.

The list of configured logical drives appears.
In our case, there is only one: Logical Drive 1 Array A.

In other words, logical drive 1 of our "Array A" array.

Choose if you want to set it as:

• Set as Primary Bootable Device: primary bootable disk.
• Set as Secondary Bootable Device: secondary bootable disk.

Important : obviously, only one disk can be defined as the primary startup disk, the same for the secondary and the same disk cannot be defined simultaneously as the primary AND secondary startup disk.

To set a physical disk (via HBA mode) as a bootable disk via your Adaptec SmartRAID controller, go to: Select Bootable Physical Drive.

The list of physical disks connected to a port on your Adaptec SmartRAID controller configured in HBA mode appears.
In our case, 3 "HGST HUS726T4TAL5204" SAS hard drives are connected to a port configured in HBA mode.
Which means that the OS can directly see its physical disks as if they were connected directly to our motherboard.

Again, you can set this physical disk as a Primary or Secondary bootable device.

By default, you can set 2 disks as bootable on your Adaptec SmartRAID controller.
However, you can also change this number of bootable drives via your Adaptec SmartRAID controller by going to: Number of OS bootable drives.

To be able to set more disks as bootable, simply change the value of the "Number of OS bootable drives" setting, which defaults to 2.
Then click "[Submit Changes]" to save this change.

To clear these bootable devices definitions configured on your Adaptec SmartRAID controller, click: Clear Bootable Device(s).

Note: if no disk is defined as bootable on your Adaptec SmartRAID controller, the "Not Applicable" message will appear.