[SOLVED] RAID 0 setup on a recently installed Windows 10

[jonesmalaco]

OK, so I had to switch from Windows 7 to Windows 10... long story.

Back in Windows 7 I had a RAID 0 array made of 2 500GB SSD's. It was set up from the motherboard BIOS (I have an "old" Maximus Hero VI) It was great. Loading times were amazing, and Windows booted super fast. Some heavy games loaded in like... 5 seconds.

Now in Windows 10, well... not nearly as good. At first I set up the RAID 0 from the BIOS and loading times were awful. I fiddled with some fast boot options., it got a little better, but nowhere near Windows 7. Then I changed the BIOS setting to AHCI, and it improved, but not much (not even near the boot times and game loading times I had with the RAID 0 setup in Windows 7). I've read somewhere that a similar RAID 0 setup can be set from within' Windows 10 (creating a "no resiliency" storage pool), but it seems kind of a long shot. And I'd probably have to format the drive again...

I'm not sure on how to proceed. I just wanted to have the same loading times I had back in Windows 7. Any suggestions?

 

[USAFRet]

RAID 0 via any means is zero resiliency. One drive dies or gets corrupted, all data is lost across the whole array.

'same loading times'?
That is done via individual drives.
RAID 0 brings little benefit to the table with SSD's.

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

 

[jonesmalaco]

Although I believe in you experts and all these tests, the only thing I can say from experience is from loading some games. In Windows 7 with the RAID 0 setup I could load it in 5 seconds. In this freakin' Windows 10 without the RAID, it takes from 20 to 25 seconds. That's a whole lot if you ask me.

 

[USAFRet]

Although I believe in you experts and all these tests, the only thing I can say from experience is from loading some games. In Windows 7 with the RAID 0 setup I could load it in 5 seconds. In this freakin' Windows 10 without the RAID, it takes from 20 to 25 seconds. That's a whole lot if you ask me.

Then there is something else going on.

Even at the RAID 0 theoretical best of 2x (with 2 drives), that is not a 4x or 5x difference. 5 sec vs 20-25 sec.

 

[jonesmalaco]

Now you're talking... I wonder if it has to do with Windows 10.

 

[USAFRet]

Now you're talking... I wonder if it has to do with Windows 10.

And I wouldn't consider the Win 7 vs Win 10 to be a factor either.
That would have very little to do with game loading time.

Something else completely.

 

[jonesmalaco]

Something else completely.

Any ideas mate?

 

[popatim]

i would guess drivers since you just installed 10. many people forget to go to their motherboard support website and install their drivers. Win10 will just load the Microsoft default drivers.

I install in this order: Chipset, GPU (from AMD or NVIDIA's site), Raid (if needed), Network, USB3, Sound, and then any that are left.

 

[jonesmalaco]

Unfortunately, the latest drivers from the motherboard are from 2014 (it's an ASUS Maximus Hero VI) :\

Maybe the drivers of the SSD itself might do it?

TRIM is enabled... Can't think of anything else.

 

[smithchrism]

If the board is old enough, the drivers and such maybe out enough for Windows they maybe causing some kind of an issue. I wouldn't dismiss the drivers easily. In fact, lots of times, Windows comes with its own drivers and you can also install OEM drivers. I would experiment with both to be honest.

Having said, doesn't Windows 10 have some features Windows 7 didn't which maybe slowing things down a bit? I'm thinking Windows Indexer service as an example. I think there is another HD feature, it does something about calculating free space or something (I'm drawing a blank here...) that can be turned off/disabled as well.

So you set your BIOS to AHCI and the system still runs?! I'm a bit surprised by that. Typically, from my experience, you have to set the system from AHCI to RAID in BIOS for the system to install as a RAID. Crazy question but are you sure you installed the system in a RAID configuration? Maybe you installed the system in RAID 1 instead of 0 like you thought?

Chris Smith

 

[jonesmalaco]

I didn't do it myself, it was some tech. The RAID config from the BIOS wasn't saving properly, cause that "dime" battery was almost dead (which makes sense), so he replaced it.... Anyways, I thought is was weird also that switching to AHCI worked first time, and even faster than the RAID setup, and when I tried to return to the RAID in the BIOS, it won't boot (which also makes sense).

Damn, I don't wanna format and re-install Windows 10 all over again, I have so much stuff on the HD's already ... But I don't think there's any other way outta this. Any reliable backup program you can recommend? And also, the best setup for the SSD on this (somewhat older) setup and configuration?

 

[USAFRet]

Any reliable backup program you can recommend? And also, the best setup for the SSD on this (somewhat older) setup and configuration?

Best and most reliable setup is simply individal drives. No RAID. Just introduces complications, for no real gain.
Windows and applications have gotten really good at working with multiple drives.

Backups? I use Macrium Reflect.

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

While that may seem a bit convoluted, that can easily be pared down to a single external drive or two.

 

[USAFRet]

With that above procedure (modified a little bit since originally written), I can recover any individual drive, or the whole system, in the condition it was on any day in the last month.
Or last night at midnight.

 

[jonesmalaco]

Thanks Fret... well, backup went fine, I can fit into an external for formatting again, I just need to know how to proceed on the setup, so here goes the "recap" before re-formatting, and re-installing the system:

• The motherboard is a Maximus Hero VI, last drivers are from 2014, so no Windows 10 drivers for it, although I believe there are compatible ones, no big deal
• 3 SSD hard drives: 1 is a Crucial, 250 GB, and 2 PNY's 500GB each.

The setup on Windows 7 was: I had the system installed on the crucial (250 GB), + any programs I purchased, downloaded were all installed in that drive. I came to accept that Windows 10 takes a little bit longer to boot, I think I can live with that.
And the 2 500 GB's were in RAID 0 (done from the BIOS), that I mostly (99.9%) used for games. Surely, their registries were on the other drive, but the bulk was installed in the RAID setup. Loading times were simply great.

Now with Windows 10, what is the suggestion for the setup? I really don't want to maintain 2 separate 500 GB's drives, it's impractical for me. I don't care about that "in RAID, if one drive goes defective, you lose everything on all drives" There is (and there will not be) system files on it. The games I have them backed up (steam), and I can download them again. So assuming these two 500 GB's drive will become 1 TB drive, my question is: What is the best setup to get the most short possible loading times for the games?

• Do I do the setup (RAID or AHCI, whichever will give the best load times for the games) in the (outdated) BIOS of the motherboard?
• Or do I skip the BIOS setup and do it in Windows 10 / create a storage pool / Simple ("no resiliency") Option

What I need here, is to have optimal loading times (for the games mostly) equal (or better) than Windows 7. Can be RAID or AHCI or Windows 10 storage pool. If by any and whatever reason (that you guys must be aware of, and I'm not) it's impossible to achieve those loading times, then I guess I'm better off re-installing Windows 7 rather than 10.

Thanks in advance for all the help guys.

 

[USAFRet]

Load times will be no different between Win 7 or Win 10, RAID or no RAID.
Seriously.

RAID 0 does not scale with SSD's as it did with spinning HDD.

 

[jonesmalaco]

Load times will be no different between Win 7 or Win 10, RAID or no RAID.
Seriously.

RAID 0 does not scale with SSD's as it did with spinning HDD.

But before I had the 2 500 GB's, I had worse loading times (talking about the games only) in the lone 250 GB's. After I did the RAID setup, loading times improved significantly. How's that possible?

 

[USAFRet]

But before I had the 2 500 GB's, I had worse loading times (talking about the games only) in the lone 250 GB's. After I did the RAID setup, loading times improved significantly. How's that possible?

It was something else, not the RAID.

Possibly the previous setup was too slow, and doing the RAID and a clean install (?) got rid of whatever was 'slow'.

I've seen NO reports or tests whereby RAID 0 + SSD brings any significant benefit in that use case.
If you can find something, we'd all be glad to see it.

Now...it may have a benefit in copying large sequential data between 2 RAID 0 arrays. But not in the use case of game loads.

 

[jonesmalaco]

So the more practical is to do the Windows 10 storage pool no resiliency option then? I won't have 2 separate 500 GB' drives, as I said... What do you recommend?

 

[USAFRet]

So the more practical is to do the Windows 10 storage pool no resiliency option then? I won't have 2 separate 500 GB' drives, as I said... What do you recommend?

Not even Storage Spaces. That is a fake RAID 0.
But if a single space is what you desire...either a RAID 0 or that Storage Space thing.

I wouldn't.

 

[DSzymborski]

There is literally next-to-no additional maintenance for two drives as there is for one. Just setting up one pointless storage pool will take more time and effort than you'd spend "maintaining" two drives rather than one. It's like getting a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger because you're worried about carrying a second plate for the cheese.

 

[jonesmalaco]

There is literally next-to-no additional maintenance for two drives as there is for one. Just setting up one pointless storage pool will take more time and effort than you'd spend "maintaining" two drives rather than one. It's like getting a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger because you're worried about carrying a second plate for the cheese.

Well, I prefer seein' as two 0.5 liter cup against one 1 liter cup... Anybody can come up with silly analogies. But whatever you mod gurus say.

 

[DSzymborski]

Well, I prefer seein' as two 0.5 liter cup against one 1 liter cup... Anybody can come up with silly analogies. But whatever you mod gurus say.

Except there's no additional carrying. You've spent far more time diagnosing a pointless RAID than you'd spend in the lifetime of your PC of additional effort of knowing there are two hard drives instead of one.

 

[Makaveli]

OP

have you tried backing up the data on the Raid 0, then breaking the raid formatting the SSD's each then recreating the Raid and copying the data back in windows 10?

In my setup I have SSD's in Raid 0 just for my games drive while my PCIe 4.0 drive is my OS+app drive.

 

[jonesmalaco]

OP

have you tried backing up the data on the Raid 0, then breaking the raid formatting the SSD's each then recreating the Raid and copying the data back in windows 10?

In my setup I have SSD's in Raid 0 just for my games drive while my PCIe 4.0 drive is my OS+app drive.

I backed up on an external hard drive, re-installed Windows 10, and left the RAID 0 just for the games, and it's going fine. Booting is quick on the system drive, and the RAID is saying read/write speeds is 900MB/s (as compared 450 MB/s on the system drive, go figure). Having a few issues with the video card now, gotta wonder if Windows 10 is the most unstable system I've ever saw in my lifetime.

 

[Makaveli]

Having a few issues with the video card now, gotta wonder if Windows 10 is the most unstable system I've ever saw in my lifetime.

This will depend on the system.

i've been using windows since all the way back to windows 3.1 and for me Windows 10 is the most stable version. On my current build which is just 6 months old i've not had a single BSOD or any issues related to windows 10.

But I also think it helps that this is the first build in many many years that I haven't overclocked just PBO on and thats it.