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Raid 0 help

Polecats03
Level 7
I have my OS on an EVO 970 M.2 NMVE installed on my Maximus XI Hero WI

I have two identical SSD which I would like to put into RAID 0. Bios was set to AHCI but a friend told me to change it RAID so should I do that?

BIOS shows both SSD drives in SATA Port 1 and 2, Device manager also shows both SSD drives but Disk Management only shows one.

I tried that EZ utility thing in BIOS to change to SATA and then it pretty much deleted my M.2 as a recognized device and then it would not detect my 2 SSDs. After this I did the whole CMOS clearing and disconnected all drives except M.2, reinstalled windows and that's where I am.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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13 REPLIES 13

SaLSouL
Level 10
Polecats03 wrote:
I have my OS on an EVO 970 M.2 NMVE installed on my Maximus XI Hero WI

I have two identical SSD which I would like to put into RAID 0. Bios was set to AHCI but a friend told me to change it RAID so should I do that?

BIOS shows both SSD drives in SATA Port 1 and 2, Device manager also shows both SSD drives but Disk Management only shows one.

I tried that EZ utility thing in BIOS to change to SATA and then it pretty much deleted my M.2 as a recognized device and then it would not detect my 2 SSDs. After this I did the whole CMOS clearing and disconnected all drives except M.2, reinstalled windows and that's where I am.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


are you using the NVME as your system drive? or the sata ssds in raid 0 as your system drive?
this makes a huge difference as windows will not see your raid 0 at windows installation until you load the raid driver at the point of windows installing. this has to be done before you install windows. you cannot go back after you have installed windows and turn it into raid 0 it has to be installed in RAID config.

Disk management will only see 1 single disk in raid 0. the combination of 2 disks should show double capacity of a single disk in disk management. for example 250gb SSD 860 evo x2 will give you 1 single disk working as a single disk with 500GB capacity.

this is from your MB support page
78843



make sure you dont have your SSDs plugined into 5 or 6 or 2 sata6G ports. check your MB manual for which ports are which

some MB (not all) have a bandwidth limitation on PCIe lanes if you are running crossfire or SLI you cannot populate both NVME slots and have raid 0 not sure about yours as it doesn't seem to say that in the specs. perhaps check your MB manual for this.

If your not SLI & crossfiring you should be good to go.

if you choose to have the NVME as your system drive ( which would yield better performance than 2 ssds in raid 0 ) and have your raid 0 as storage for games and such. you must install the raid driver at windows installation point and load the raid driver this should in theory show you your single nvme and a single SSD with double capacity.

download this if you havent already and unzip it to a folder on a USB pen and make a note of where the boot driver is within that folder and when windows installs load driver from that folder, it should find it.
78845

If you have the functionality to create an array (2 disks or more) within the BIOS create an array with your two ssds. Im afarid I have no knowledge of IRST and how the raid config work. on my AMD board we have a utility thats called raidxpert that allows you to create the array within the BIOS.


if you want more in depth knowledge about Redundant Array of independent(inexpensive in some circles) Disks then look here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_0

this may help you.

Regards

Sal

SaLSouL wrote:
are you using the NVME as your system drive? or the sata ssds in raid 0 as your system drive?
this makes a huge difference as windows will not see your raid 0 at windows installation until you load the raid driver at the point of windows installing. this has to be done before you install windows. you cannot go back after you have installed windows and turn it into raid 0 it has to be installed in RAID config.

Disk management will only see 1 single disk in raid 0. the combination of 2 disks should show double capacity of a single disk in disk management. for example 250gb SSD 860 evo x2 will give you 1 single disk working as a single disk with 500GB capacity.

this is from your MB support page
78843



make sure you dont have your SSDs plugined into 5 or 6 or 2 sata6G ports. check your MB manual for which ports are which

some MB (not all) have a bandwidth limitation on PCIe lanes if you are running crossfire or SLI you cannot populate both NVME slots and have raid 0 not sure about yours as it doesn't seem to say that in the specs. perhaps check your MB manual for this.

If your not SLI & crossfiring you should be good to go.

if you choose to have the NVME as your system drive ( which would yield better performance than 2 ssds in raid 0 ) and have your raid 0 as storage for games and such. you must install the raid driver at windows installation point and load the raid driver this should in theory show you your single nvme and a single SSD with double capacity.

download this if you havent already and unzip it to a folder on a USB pen and make a note of where the boot driver is within that folder and when windows installs load driver from that folder, it should find it.
78845

If you have the functionality to create an array (2 disks or more) within the BIOS create an array with your two ssds. Im afarid I have no knowledge of IRST and how the raid config work. on my AMD board we have a utility thats called raidxpert that allows you to create the array within the BIOS.


if you want more in depth knowledge about Redundant Array of independent(inexpensive in some circles) Disks then look here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_0

this may help you.

Regards

Sal


Sal,

This was really helpful!!

I currently have the M.2 as my system device and i was hoping to have 2 SSD (each 512GIG) in RAID 0.

Which should I try? #1 or #2?

#1: I looked and one is plugged into Port 1 and the other Port 2. Should I take port 2 and plug into port 3/4 then boot up into BIOS and change SATA mode from AHCI to RAID?


#2: Download that driver first, boot to bios and install the driver from a USB first and then clean re-install windows again to NVME? After windows installs, I then go back into bios and change from AHCI to RAID?

Thank you as I have searched all over. Samsung Smart Magician finds all drives execpt the one in port 2. The M.2_1 should it be auto, SATA or PCIE mode or dont even worry about this until I try #1 or #2?

Plug SSDs into ports 1 & 3 go into bios change ahci to RAID

Do you have anything in the bios that will allow you to create the raid array something like this>
78854

you should see both your 512 gb ssd listed, you will have to pair them in the BIOS

78855

like this , to watch the full video go here> its a maximums IX board but it should be still relevant to you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHfu0WcWUpI


#Option two is NO if you install windows in AHCI mode and then go to BIOS and enable raid it will trash the windows installation (will have trouble finding boot sector )


Samsung smart magician will no longer be able to work once you are in RAID 0 so I would uninstall it. it only works on one single disk as it does some funky software caching to give you faster speeds.


Hope that helps

Sal

SaLSouL wrote:
Plug SSDs into ports 1 & 3 go into bios change ahci to RAID

Do you have anything in the bios that will allow you to create the raid array something like this>
78854

you should see both your 512 gb ssd listed, you will have to pair them in the BIOS

78855

like this , to watch the full video go here> its a maximums IX board but it should be still relevant to you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHfu0WcWUpI


#Option two is NO if you install windows in AHCI mode and then go to BIOS and enable raid it will trash the windows installation (will have trouble finding boot sector )


Samsung smart magician will no longer be able to work once you are in RAID 0 so I would uninstall it. it only works on one single disk as it does some funky software caching to give you faster speeds.


Hope that helps

Sal


Hi Sal,

I hope I wasn't confusing because I was not trying to RAID ) M.2's and I was trying to RAID 0 two SanDisk 512GIG SSD's.



So, good news, I changed the SATA cable from port 2 to 4, booted into BIOS from AHCI to RAID and rebooted. I was then able to create the RAID 0!!!!!!!! woot woot... success!!!!!! but i jumped for joy too soon because now my M.2 with the OS installed is no longer read as NVME. I have it as M.2_1 config as auto, then changed to PCIE to see and nothing. I tried to update drive and said no NVME device found. Do I have to download that RAID driver that you suggested before, install it and then do a clean install of windows on the M.2?

Polecats03 wrote:
Hi Sal,

I hope I wasn't confusing because I was not trying to RAID ) M.2's and I was trying to RAID 0 two SanDisk 512GIG SSD's.



So, good news, I changed the SATA cable from port 2 to 4, booted into BIOS from AHCI to RAID and rebooted. I was then able to create the RAID 0!!!!!!!! woot woot... success!!!!!! but i jumped for joy too soon because now my M.2 with the OS installed is no longer read as NVME. I have it as M.2_1 config as auto, then changed to PCIE to see and nothing. I tried to update drive and said no NVME device found. Do I have to download that RAID driver that you suggested before, install it and then do a clean install of windows on the M.2?



Yes any RAID set has to have the drivers installed at windows installation, you will have to do a fresh install loading the IRST driver when prompted where to install windows it will look like this
78868

for example in raid without drivers loaded your installation screen will be blank no drives showing. once you load the drivers from that download file and add usb click load drivers, navigatye to where you have saved the driver file. it should find a driver and then you should see 2 disks. 1 RAID 0 1TB disk and your NVME disk. choose install NVME and off you go.

Also as a side note but very important go into BIOS and disable CSM compatibility, this will allow you to have full UEFI support and will also support SECURE BOOT functionality.

When you disable CSM compatibility it will pop up with a warning like this

78869

You need to ensure that the driver you are loading has been signed by ASUS to be UEFI compatible check with your MB support page for more info.

providing you have created the array in the BIOS this should work. Im very limited as to what I can help with as I don't have an intel MB so I cannot do like for like comparison im afraid.

SaLSouL wrote:
Yes any RAID set has to have the drivers installed at windows installation, you will have to do a fresh install loading the IRST driver when prompted where to install windows it will look like this
78868

for example in raid without drivers loaded your installation screen will be blank no drives showing. once you load the drivers from that download file and add usb click load drivers, navigatye to where you have saved the driver file. it should find a driver and then you should see 2 disks. 1 RAID 0 1TB disk and your NVME disk. choose install NVME and off you go.

Also as a side note but very important go into BIOS and disable CSM compatibility, this will allow you to have full UEFI support and will also support SECURE BOOT functionality.

When you disable CSM compatibility it will pop up with a warning like this

78869

You need to ensure that the driver you are loading has been signed by ASUS to be UEFI compatible check with your MB support page for more info.

providing you have created the array in the BIOS this should work. Im very limited as to what I can help with as I don't have an intel MB so I cannot do like for like comparison im afraid.


Thanks!!!

I am new to building a computer and messing with this stuff so I do appreciate the help.

Just so I am 100% on board with your directions I should do the following:
1. Go to ASUS website and download that SATA driver to one USB drive
2. Boot BIOS and make sure CSM is disabled
3. Boot BIOS and make sure UEFI is enabled
4. Boot from USB with Windows Media Creation tool on USB #2
5. When asked where to install I open USB #1 with that SATA driver and hit install (per your thread above)
6. Go back and then install windows from USB #2 to NVME (hopefully that shows plus the RAID 0)
7. Install windows and go from there?

Oh, if there are drives or patricians I can delete them and just have the M.2 and hopefully my RAID 0 SSD's plus my HDD? Or should I remove all other drives and just keep the M.2 and RAID connected and once all set, reconnect all drives?
I wont have to re-due the RAID 0 correct?

Polecats03 wrote:
Thanks!!!

I am new to building a computer and messing with this stuff so I do appreciate the help.

Just so I am 100% on board with your directions I should do the following:
1. Go to ASUS website and download that SATA driver to one USB drive
RAID Intel rapid storage driver and NVME driver not sata
2. Boot BIOS and make sure CSM is disabled
3. Boot BIOS and make sure UEFI is enabled
disabling CSM enables UEFI
4. Boot from USB with Windows Media Creation tool on USB #2
yes
5. When asked where to install I open USB #1 with that SATA driver and hit install (per your thread above)
with IRST RAID DRIVER
6. Go back and then install windows from USB #2 to NVME (hopefully that shows plus the RAID 0)
Yes
7. Install windows and go from there?


Oh, if there are drives or patricians I can delete them and just have the M.2 and hopefully my RAID 0 SSD's plus my HDD? Or should I remove all other drives and just keep the M.2 and RAID connected and once all set, reconnect all drives?
I wont have to re-due the RAID 0 correct?


you should not have to redo the raid 0 array

so just to recap you have
1 NVME drive
2 SSD drives
1 HDD drive

SaLSouL wrote:
you should not have to redo the raid 0 array

so just to recap you have
1 NVME drive
2 SSD drives
1 HDD drive


cool sounds like i have a good grasp on it - im sure i will come across some issues lol

yes you are correct. One NVME drive where Windows 10 will be installed, 2 SSD in RAID 0 (hopefully) and then 1 HDD for mass storage.

During the windows re-install, i shouldnt have to disconnect any drives correct? Ive read while installing windows you disconnect all except NVME. install it all. reboot and plug all drives back in.

SaLSouL
Level 10
Im not too sure about that but it wont hurt to remove the single HDD and then add it back once windows is installed.

Again this is slight differences with AMD & intel, if someone else who has an intel board with IRST raid working perhaps they can enlighten you further