Question ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero Raid 0 Trouble

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SampsonNation

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Hey all,

I recently built a new PC and right now I'm trying to set up Raid 0 between two M.2 drives.

Specs:
CPU 3900x
Motherboard ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero

I understand that the drives could be raided using software, but I'd like raid them using the bios instead.

I've gotten to the point where I enabled CSM and used the RAIDXpert2 Configuration Utility to create an Array.

I already have a Windows 10 on a bootable USB drive. I can't seem to figure out how to finish the install of Windows 10. Both my partitions on the Windows setup screen are not showing they are in raid. What I read online was that I'm supposed to load a driver in order for Windows to see that the drives have been raided by the bios. I'm stuck at this point. I can't find the correct driver from AMD. The one I tried made all my drives disappear from the partition screen.

I've been working on this all day and can't figure it out.
 
Why are you trying to do this when there is no gain from doing so? You won't even use the maximum theoretical speed of the drive on it's own most likely.

Are these NVME PCIe drives or SATA drives, both of which can be "M.2" drives, since "M.2" is only the form factor not the architecture or bus type.

Even for a standard SSD, RAID is pretty much pointless. Even more so for NVME drives.

In fact, in general, RAID is a poor idea and shouldn't even be used by 99% of consumer or enthusiast users.


https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html

 

SampsonNation

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Hey, thank you for providing that information. I didn't realize there wasn't much to gain from a Raid 0 with NVMe's.

I was able to figure out what I did wrong. I got the system working so far (Windows is installing now).

I decided to go with Raid 0 because of the storage limitations I currently have. In addition, I think it's a little bit of the convenience factor of having a "single" drive. I already had 2 M.2 drives that are both 512 gb. I would rather use M.2 drives overall over SSD's. I suppose I could have sold one of the M.2 drives and bought a 2 TB M.2, but for now this is what I'll use until I'm able to upgrade. My PC case can only hold 2 SSD's and I'm currently using one SSD to offload the media/large documents that I can't keep on my current drives.

I keep my primary games that I play and the OS on one drive and the rest of my large files (games, media, documents, etc) and other libraries on another. I do have a large mechanical HDD just for files I rarely access.

Ideally I'd like to have as few drives possible to house all of my data, but I have such a large requirement (approximately 6 or so TB) that I'm not really sure I can make this any easier on me without spending a ton of money on high capacity M.2 or SSD's.
 
Keep in mind, RAID is NOT a backup either. If there is ANYTHING important on these RAIDed drives, at all, be sure to back that data up elsewhere. It doesn't have to be a complete failure of the drive either. Anything that happens, such as one drive in the array having a failure or a problem and you are going to be MANY, MANY hours rebuilding the array. And it doesn't always work. So, regardless, be sure that whether it's inconvenient to have to backup or have more drives, it is essential if you don't want to be back here doing THIS later.

2457004-crying2.jpg
 

SampsonNation

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Jan 22, 2017
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@Darkbreeze

I'm considering changing up how I store my information after reading your posts.

This is what I currently have as far as available storage options in my computer go:
  • x2 M.2 Slots
  • x2 SSD Slots
  • x3 (or 4) 3.5" Bays
This is what I currently own:
  • x2 M.2 NVME Drives 512GB
  • x1 2.5" SSD 1TB
  • x1 3.5" HDD 4TB
What would your suggestion be for organizing my data?

I was thinking of doing something like this:
  • M.2 #1 -OS Drive and Windows 10 Applications
  • M.2 #2 - Gaming library. IE: Steam, Uplay, etc.
  • SSD - Media, Documents, Videos, Etc large files.
  • HDD - Any other media that can't fit on the SSD or use it as a backup to the SSD.
I wanted to leave as many applications, games and game launchers on the NVME drives as possible because I'd prefer if those benefited the most from the speed bump.
 
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That's all fine and good, I have no issues with any of that, BUT, the problem that you have is that with either of those configurations you have only ONE copy of all that data, media, the OS and it's installed applications, your game library (Not AS big of a deal, because games can always be downloaded again, but that DOES take a fair amount of time) etc.

And that's all ok, but you should NEVER be in a situation where you do not have AT LEAST two copies, on entirely different media or devices, of anything you can't stand to lose if something happens to one of those drives, because it WILL, it's just a question of which drive and when. Even better, would be having three copies of any important files or data, movies, music, pictures, etc., with one of them being off-site at some other location because we've seen more than one instance of somebody losing all their years and years of saved pictures etc because although they had it all backed up, they had a fire, and the "fire proof" safe, wasn't. Poof. Gone. Every memory from the last 20 years, at least, and you can bet your, er, well, you know, that with all the fires that wiped out homes in various out of control events over the last couple of years there were a LOT of scenarios like that.

Nobody lives in an area or in a home that can't burn. It happens in the country. It happens in the city. It happens in the suburbs and in the rural districts. Not to mention, the occasional lightning strike that simply takes out every electronic device you own, all at once.

So, while those are extreme situations, they DO happen and they happen more than you might think. But even if something to that level never occurs, I've actually seen a pretty good number of situations where because of something more mundane like a bad power supply, more than one drive failed at the same time and took out both copies. So multiple copies, preferably in more than one location, like an external drive and an internal drive, and then maybe even optical disk copies of that data periodically or another external drive kept at a family members house or safe deposit box elsewhere in case of a complete "oh crap" situation.

That's my advice.
 

SampsonNation

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Jan 22, 2017
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That's all fine and good, I have no issues with any of that, BUT, the problem that you have is that with either of those configurations you have only ONE copy of all that data, media, the OS and it's installed applications, your game library (Not AS big of a deal, because games can always be downloaded again, but that DOES take a fair amount of time) etc.

And that's all ok, but you should NEVER be in a situation where you do not have AT LEAST two copies, on entirely different media or devices, of anything you can't stand to lose if something happens to one of those drives, because it WILL, it's just a question of which drive and when. Even better, would be having three copies of any important files or data, movies, music, pictures, etc., with one of them being off-site at some other location because we've seen more than one instance of somebody losing all their years and years of saved pictures etc because although they had it all backed up, they had a fire, and the "fire proof" safe, wasn't. Poof. Gone. Every memory from the last 20 years, at least, and you can bet your, er, well, you know, that with all the fires that wiped out homes in various out of control events over the last couple of years there were a LOT of scenarios like that.

Nobody lives in an area or in a home that can't burn. It happens in the country. It happens in the city. It happens in the suburbs and in the rural districts. Not to mention, the occasional lightning strike that simply takes out every electronic device you own, all at once.

So, while those are extreme situations, they DO happen and they happen more than you might think. But even if something to that level never occurs, I've actually seen a pretty good number of situations where because of something more mundane like a bad power supply, more than one drive failed at the same time and took out both copies. So multiple copies, preferably in more than one location, like an external drive and an internal drive, and then maybe even optical disk copies of that data periodically or another external drive kept at a family members house or safe deposit box elsewhere in case of a complete "oh crap" situation.

That's my advice.

I completely agree with your advice.

Here is what I have for a backup solution:

  1. I use a service called BackBlaze. I can upload unlimited amounts of data from any of my drives and it's stored encrypted on their servers. So far, I can't find a better solution. Their services are of a great value and are fairly inexpensive.
  2. I have a USB 4TB external that's probably about 3-4 years old.
The Windows applications can always be re-installed, but the media/documents/videos, etc. can't be replaced. I could always buy a 2nd 2.5" SSD and raid that to my non-replaceable data (IE: the #2 M.2 drive).

With this suggested configuration I would sell/replace one M.2 NVME and purchase a 1TB version because I already know 512GB just won't cut it with the sizes of games nowadays. Then I would buy a 2nd 1-4 TB 2.5" SSD to fill the extra slot I have available for the purpose of raid. Lastly, any remaining games that don't fit on the M.2 NVME drive can either go on the 1TB SSD or the 4TB 3.5" HDD.

Do you think I should improve my means of backing up my data?
 
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No, I think that's fine if you have a backblaze copy of anything important, AND if you DO keep it frequently updated with any changes or new files, and if you also have a secondary copy of any kind locally. The 4TB external drive is getting to the age where you might want to start looking sideways at it, but as long as you also have primary copies of anything on that drive AND backblaze copies of anything important on that drive that you'd care about if you lost it, then you should be good. Better by far than most of the knuckleheads I run across on here. LOL.
 
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Oct 1, 2020
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Hey all,

I recently built a new PC and right now I'm trying to set up Raid 0 between two M.2 drives.

Specs:
CPU 3900x
Motherboard ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero

I understand that the drives could be raided using software, but I'd like raid them using the bios instead.

I've gotten to the point where I enabled CSM and used the RAIDXpert2 Configuration Utility to create an Array.

I already have a Windows 10 on a bootable USB drive. I can't seem to figure out how to finish the install of Windows 10. Both my partitions on the Windows setup screen are not showing they are in raid. What I read online was that I'm supposed to load a driver in order for Windows to see that the drives have been raided by the bios. I'm stuck at this point. I can't find the correct driver from AMD. The one I tried made all my drives disappear from the partition screen.

I've been working on this all day and can't figure it out.

Hey man, I am facing exactly the same issue. I just built a new setup with the Crosshair Hero VIII and I am trying to make my two NVMes work as a single volume at the BIOS level. I did everything you did as explained in your message above, but then when I boot up from the flash drive, Windows 10 installation does not recognize the single volume.

I noticed you said you were able to make it work. Could you tell me what you did?

Thank you very much,
 
Hey man, I am facing exactly the same issue. I just built a new setup with the Crosshair Hero VIII and I am trying to make my two NVMes work as a single volume
That's not what he ended up doing, and it is definitely not what I'd recommend that you do. Further, you need to start your own thread if you have questions or require assistance. Closing this thread unless the OP contacts me and says he needs it open for his own purposes.
 
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