Question Possible raid 0 ssd failure

[anvoice]

Hello, I've been until recently using a Windows 10 PC with a raid 0 using 2 Samsung 512GB PM981 NVME drives. Recently I decided to upgrade the RAM from a single 16GB stick to two 32GB ones (G. Skill Ripjaws 32GB. Upon starting up the computer with the new RAM, it started freezing a few minutes into the session. I had to hard reset to get it to work. I tried running the built-in Windows memcheck but it didn't appear to find any errors. After four or five resets, it stopped booting into Windows 10, and instead booted into a supplementary SSD drive which contains Windows 8.

In BIOS, both NVME SSDs appear to register: one as "M1: SAMSUNG MZVLB512HAJQ-000H1" and the other with the same designation but at "M2". When I try going into boot override, clicking on either the M1 or M2 drive, it just loads up Windows 8 from the supplementary drive. I tried going into Advanced\SATA configuration, where I noticed NVME raid mode was disabled. I turned it on and also changed SATA Mode from AHCI to RAID, and tried booting up again. This time it brought me to a Windows install screen. I tried clicking on "Repair", and after about a half hour of attempting to repair the computer restarted and brought me to a blue screen, claiming no OS information was found. So I am wondering about several things: is this an ssd failure? If so, I'm stuck reinstalling Windows. If not, and the BIOS settings for my original raid configuration were somehow thrown off, is there a way I can reset them and log into my installation? Is there a chance this is a motherboard raid controller failure rather than an ssd failure? Is there a way to test for that?

I'm scared to start testing the drives individually if there is any chance the current installation is salvageable. Yes, I realize I probably shouldn't have used raid 0, and will not again. But I'd really appreciate any help in getting this issue solved. Thanks in advance.

My specs:
MOBO: Asus ROG Crosshair Hero VII wifi (x470)
CPU: Ryzen 2700X
RAM: 32GB G. Skill Ripjaws 3200MHz
HDD: 2x 512GB Samsung PM981 NVME ssd

 

[rgd1101]

with raid 0. you should have a good backup. do a fresh os install and restore data from backup

 

[USAFRet]

Possibly:
R-Studio

R-STUDIO Data Recovery Software

Professional data recovery software for Windows, Mac and Linux OS. Free demo and recovered files preview. Damaged RAID reconstruction and recovery over Network and Internet.

www.r-studio.com

ReclaiMe

ReclaiMe File Recovery Software

Need a smart multipurpose data recovery software? Click here to try ReclaiMe File Recovery software for free and preview your data immediately.

www.reclaime.com

BUT.....
Data recovery from an already compromised RAID 0 is unlikely to happen. This is specifically what proactive backups are for.
And....RAID 0 is rarely warranted in the consumer space, even less so with solid state drives.

 

[anvoice]

Ok, thank you for the suggestions. Is there a way to test if each individual ssd is healthy or not? I can't reinstall Windows unless I know which drive has failed, or I'll just lose the installation again.

 

[USAFRet]

Ok, thank you for the suggestions. Is there a way to test if each individual ssd is healthy or not? I can't reinstall Windows unless I know which drive has failed, or I'll just lose the installation again.

In the context of potentially saving the data, it is either both drives or nothing.
You can't pull off part of the data from a surviving member of a RAID 0.

 

[anvoice]

In the context of potentially saving the data, it is either both drives or nothing.
You can't pull off part of the data from a surviving member of a RAID 0.

That much I understand. I wasn't keeping much important data on that computer, so assuming I can't salvage it by changing RAID settings in BIOS I'll have to reinstall Windows on the healthy disk. I just don't know how to check which one is still good.

 

[USAFRet]

That much I understand. I wasn't keeping much important data on that computer, so assuming I can't salvage it by changing RAID settings in BIOS I'll have to reinstall Windows on the healthy disk. I just don't know how to check which one is still good.

Try the install on both, one at a time.

 

[anvoice]

Try the install on both, one at a time.

Ok, thanks.

One more think I can think of trying: I wanted to go through the process of setting up the RAID array one more time, perhaps if the settings were just thrown off in BIOS I could recover my installation. I notice that the RaidXpert2 utility is missing from my BIOS. I can't remember 100% whether I had it in the first place, but I'm guessing I did since I created the RAID 0 array somehow.Does anyone know where to download this utility? I tried a link in a video I watched on setting up RAID 0 about a year ago, but it no longer works. For reference, the video is here, and the previously functional link was: support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/NVMe-RAID-Support-for-the-AMD-Ryzen-Threadripper-platform.aspx

 

[fzabkar]

I would turn off RAID in BIOS, and then use a data recovery tool to assemble a virtual RAID 0. You could use the free version of DMDE for this.

You can test each individual SSD using CrystalDiskInfo or GSmartControl. Can you show us the SMART reports?

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
https://gsmartcontrol.sourceforge.io/home/index.php/Downloads

Can you show us the Partitions window for each SSD in DMDE?

https://dmde.com/

 

[anvoice]

I would turn off RAID in BIOS, and then use a data recovery tool to assemble a virtual RAID 0. You could use the free version of DMDE for this.

You can test each individual SSD using CrystalDiskInfo or GSmartControl. Can you show us the SMART reports?

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
https://gsmartcontrol.sourceforge.io/home/index.php/Downloads

Can you show us the Partitions window for each SSD in DMDE?

https://dmde.com/

Hi, thanks so much for your reply! That seems like exactly what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, as I was trying to load either a Ubuntu live stick or the alternate Windows 8 installation, the system stopped posting... It's stuck at postcode 8, which means "System Agent initialization after microcode loading", and won't even hard-reset, I have to turn off the PSU to get it to shut down. Sorry that i can't give you the info you asked for right now because of that, I'll have to solve the no POST issue first.

 

[DSzymborski]

Ok, thanks.

One more think I can think of trying: I wanted to go through the process of setting up the RAID array one more time, perhaps if the settings were just thrown off in BIOS I could recover my installation. I notice that the RaidXpert2 utility is missing from my BIOS. I can't remember 100% whether I had it in the first place, but I'm guessing I did since I created the RAID 0 array somehow.Does anyone know where to download this utility? I tried a link in a video I watched on setting up RAID 0 about a year ago, but it no longer works. For reference, the video is here, and the previously functional link was: support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/NVMe-RAID-Support-for-the-AMD-Ryzen-Threadripper-platform.aspx

This all begs a pretty important question: why? The situations where RAID makes sense in 2020 to a typical consumer are quite rare and the situations where you want to do it on SSDs even rarer and in most, it's a worse idea than not having a RAID. The most obvious question would be if you have particular server usage of a type that it's worth going to all this bother.

 

[fzabkar]

Some Apple branded SSDs are actually RAIDs on a single board.

 

[anvoice]

This all begs a pretty important question: why? The situations where RAID makes sense in 2020 to a typical consumer are quite rare and the situations where you want to do it on SSDs even rarer and in most, it's a worse idea than not having a RAID. The most obvious question would be if you have particular server usage of a type that it's worth going to all this bother.

I don't see a problem with RAID 1, even on SSDs. As for why I chose (back in 2019) RAID 0, I was going for the boosted read/write performance for hard disk-intensive tasks, but it came back to bite me. I think I will go for RAID 1 next time, unless somebody gives me a significant reason not to.

Some Apple branded SSDs are actually RAIDs on a single board.

True, plus the imac pro I believe has 2 ssds and RAID 0 in fact.

 

[USAFRet]

I don't see a problem with RAID 1, even on SSDs. As for why I chose (back in 2019) RAID 0, I was going for the boosted read/write performance for hard disk-intensive tasks, but it came back to bite me. I think I will go for RAID 1 next time, unless somebody gives me a significant reason not to.

The question is....why?
What does a RAID 1 bring to the table, that a good backup solution does not?

 

[anvoice]

The question is....why?
What does a RAID 1 bring to the table, that a good backup solution does not?

I have 2 M.2 NVME slots on my motherboard. Since I also have (or had) 2 good NVME drives, I could either do a dual boot with 2 separate SSDs, use the second NVME as a data device, or do RAID. I agree I shouldn't have chosen RAID 0, but strictly statistically speaking, it's better to have redundancy on both the device you use and the backup device. Plus RAID 1 offers faster reads.

I just recently set up a NAS with RAID 6 for backups, but as luck would have it I didn't do a backup of my main system on it before it started failing.

 

[DSzymborski]

I don't see a problem with RAID 1, even on SSDs. As for why I chose (back in 2019) RAID 0, I was going for the boosted read/write performance for hard disk-intensive tasks, but it came back to bite me. I think I will go for RAID 1 next time, unless somebody gives me a significant reason not to.

You'll pretty much only see a difference in benchmarks.

RAID is not a backup solution.

 

[anvoice]

You'll pretty much only see a difference in benchmarks.

RAID is not a backup solution.

You're probably right, the cool factor got me mostly to go for RAID 0.

Granted for OS or soft-ware related issues, but as far as hard drive failure is concerned it can be considered a backup. As I mentioned, my other choice was dual boot (but I already have a Linux machine) and using the other NVME for data, but I didn't need that much capacity since I don't typically store large files.

 

[DSzymborski]

You're probably right, the cool factor got me mostly to go for RAID 0.

Granted for OS or soft-ware related issues, but as far as hard drive failure is concerned it can be considered a backup. As I mentioned, my other choice was dual boot (but I already have a Linux machine) and using the other NVME for data, but I didn't need that much capacity since I don't typically store large files.

No, a backup provides a backstop against corruption, against accidental deletion or change of files, protection against virus, intention destruction of files, etc.

RAID protects against a hard drive failure. At least, the hard drive failures that wouldn't cause the other hard drive to also fail.

RAID is not a backup solution. It's not a backup solution if it doesn't do most of the things a backup solution does.

 

[anvoice]

No, a backup provides a backstop against corruption, against accidental deletion or change of files, protection against virus, intention destruction of files, etc.

RAID protects against a hard drive failure. At least, the hard drive failures that wouldn't cause the other hard drive to also fail.

RAID is not a backup solution. It's not a backup solution if it doesn't do most of the things a backup solution does.

Ok, agreed. I still want the protection against hard disk failure though, since I'm essentially getting it for free.

 

[DSzymborski]

Ok, agreed. I still want the protection against hard disk failure though, since I'm essentially getting it for free.

Proper backup solutions do that, too. They just do all the other stuff as well. And downtime issues from failure are far less likely when we're talking drives without moving parts.

Seriously, simply set up the second drive as a backup with a daily check of your important files or mirroring the drive (something like Bvckup or Macrium depending on whether you want to clone or just the important files or whatever). Set up a cloud backup for your important data files. Then just set it and forget it. Skip all the stress from dealing with RAID foibles and the risk of instantly losing a file due to corruption and make your life easier.

 

[anvoice]

You make a good point, I'll definitely consider it. I haven't explored backup options nearly well enough it seems. First comes finding out whether my motherboard is gone or not though...

 

[USAFRet]

You make a good point, I'll definitely consider it. I haven't explored backup options nearly well enough it seems. First comes finding out whether my motherboard is gone or not though...

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

That literally saved the contents of one of my SSDs that died suddenly.

 

[anvoice]

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

That literally saved the contents of one of my SSDs that died suddenly.

My only issue with backups only (no disk redundancy) is that it saves only up to your most recent backup. If you're talking photos/movies, it's almost a non-issue because you probably have your recents on an sd card or can download them again in the case of movies. I do some programming though, as well as CAD design, and losing a day's worth of work could be... well, bad.

 

[USAFRet]

My only issue with backups only (no disk redundancy) is that it saves only up to your most recent backup. If you're talking photos/movies, it's almost a non-issue because you probably have your recents on an sd card or can download them again in the case of movies. I do some programming though, as well as CAD design, and losing a day's worth of work could be... well, bad.

You could set that schedule for every couple of hours, instead of daily.
A specific folder, Incremental or Differential image every couple of hours.

Or, in conjunction with a RAID 1.
The primary thought is...a RAID 1 (or any type of RAID) should not be the only data protection mechanism you employ.

 

[anvoice]

You could set that schedule for every couple of hours, instead of daily.
A specific folder, Incremental or Differential image every couple of hours.

Or, in conjunction with a RAID 1.
The primary thought is...a RAID 1 (or any type of RAID) should not be the only data protection mechanism you employ.

Agreed.

As it looks like my mobo might be busted, if I do get a replacement I might get one with 3 M.2 slots. In that case RAID 5 is not out of the question, with 3 NVMEs.