[SOLVED] Asus M5A97 does not recognize Samsung 860EVO ssd RAID

[borrellimd]

I am trying to upgrade (rebuild) a system. I wanted front of case drive access and want RAID1 for both storage and OS. Got a CS380 case and put my Asus m5a97 r2.0 with AMD FX-9370 Black Edition AM3+ 8core CPU and 16GB ram.

MOBO has 6 SATA connections. I set drives 1-4 to RAID and put 2 Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD in bays 1-2 for the OS (RAID1)and bays 3-4 are WD 1TB HDD (RAID1)for storage. I also used the remaining 2 on board SATA ports for CD/DVD drives and have added a SATA card with 4 more SATA connections available. Using 2 of those for additional storage. So, 6 SATA drives on MB and 2 on added card. The added card is a Dell product that was not RAID as far as I know.

I then set the RAID1 at CTR-F menu. The problem is trying to install Windows 10. It does not recognize the SSD RAID. It does recognize an individual SSD drive and it recognizes the 2 WD1TB HDD drives as RAID that are in bays 3-4.

I've updated the Bios to the latest available (v2603.) Many blogs say add the AHCI/RAID driver but Asus does not list any RAID or AHCI driver for this and others show the Microsoft Driver loaded with the OS is all that’s needed. Unfortunately I can’t get that far with the SSD RAID. I have installed on a single SSD drive and I’ve loaded to the 2-WDs and confirm that driver is in the system after the fact.

Maybe there is a 3rd party driver that will load during the OS install, or something else I'm missing. Anybody do this or have recommendations?

 

[RealBeast]

Did you actually set up the RAID volume in the bios, as described starting at page 5-4 of your MANUAL. You cannot just select drives and use RAID, you must actually configure the RAID array.

 

[USAFRet]

OK...I'm gonna be that guy.

Why the RAID 1 and what is your actual backup routine?

 

[borrellimd]

Did you actually set up the RAID volume in the bios, as described starting at page 5-4 of your MANUAL. You cannot just select drives and use RAID, you must actually configure the RAID array.

Hi, thanks for the reply. The manual is written for pre Win10. Although I bought the board back in 2014, I can’t find the ‘driver disk.’ If I go to the website to find it, when I select Win10 as the OS, there are no AMD AHCI/RAID 32/63 drivers. If I select Win8 it does show a driver. So the manual describes installing the driver but that's pre Win10.

I did try to load the driver listed under Win8. If I left ‘show only compatible drivers’ checked during the OS installation, nothing would show. I unchecked that and loaded it for a test but it did nothing.

If I install 2 standard HDDs, the RAID is visible and I could load Win10 on RAID1.

If I install 2 SSDs, the RAID is not seen, only 1 drive is listed.

Since I can see the standard HDDs RAID, I suspect the BIOS and CTRL-F settings are correct but obviously something needs to be changed for the system to see the SSDs.

 

[borrellimd]

OK...I'm gonna be that guy.

Why the RAID 1 and what is your actual backup routine?

Hi, thanks for the reply. I was waiting for the question, I see it asked many times here, and so I had this explanation in my original version of the post but then trimmed it down to 'I want it'.

I want it because I am lazy and I have found RAID1 to be the easiest way to prevent the need to perform a recovery from failed hard drive, most of the time. For me, that is by far the most common failure. I understand that power surges, viruses, house fires will render that useless. But to limit the need for a rebuild, I like RAID1.

RAID1 to catch most simple hard drive failure issues.

I set restore points on a regular basis. I copy the important files to offsite storage, I use Acronus and make an image and store on separate hard drive and once a year or as needed I put an image offsite, either cloud or external hard drive or both.

If I can’t figure out how to get the OS on RAID1, I will just fall back to the recovery plan but this whole rebuild was about RAD1 on the OS drive. I will have general file storage on another RAID1 as well as the other backups described.

I’ve used RAID1 before at home and work. We have NAS storage with RAID5 but I didn’t like needing a 4rd drive then limiting the available size. I am somewhat open minded and would like to hear better options…

 

[USAFRet]

We get this RAID question multiple times per week. Usually from people who think RAID is a backup, which is why I asked.
A proper backup routine will take 0 sec of your time daily, and allow full recovery from a dead C drive. No "rebuild" needed.

For your install....2x Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SATA drives should be seen exactly as 2x SATA HDD.

 

[borrellimd]

We get this RAID question multiple times per week. Usually from people who think RAID is a backup, which is why I asked.
A proper backup routine will take 0 sec of your time daily, and allow full recovery from a dead C drive. No "rebuild" needed.

For your install....2x Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SATA drives should be seen exactly as 2x SATA HDD.

I may need to revisit backup/restore options. I will research that before asking questions…

As far as how the drives appear, the HDDs show up on the OS install as 1 RAID array, not 2 individual drives. The SSDs only show 1 drive, not the array. Both HDD and SSD show up properly in the built-in RAID configurator.

The first time through, when the 1 SSD showed up, I just installed the OS thinking it was normal. After it was all up and running I found that it was not operating as RAID. And so my quest to figure out how to get the SSDs to run with the built in configurator.

 

[USAFRet]

I may need to revisit backup/restore options. I will research that before asking questions…

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

(been modified a little since this was written, but the first post there is the basic premise)

 

[RealBeast]

Like USAFRet, I have many computers and the are all automatically backed up to a network storage device, although you can automatically back up to one of your HDDs and then have a secondary backup somewhere. I began using Macrium Reflect on his recommendation over a year ago and never looked back.

If you wish to pursue RAID 1, perhaps you can find a compatible driver on the Intel download pages under the IRST as your manufacturer may just have never posted new drivers. This is not the newest but may work better as it spans W7 through W10.