Question Windows or Marvell for Raid 0 ?

[Joe Wee]

Hello,

I just upgraded to Windows 11 Pro. Windows 11 was supposed to bring over all data, setting, and apps (well it didn't.) Fortunately, I backed up my Raid drives I had on two Marvell PEXSAT34RH controller cards. When Windows 11 loaded, the Raid drives were gone; nothing from Marvell survived.

I reinstalled Marvell MSU (Marvel storage utility) and drivers. The drives were gone from explorer. Next, I load up MSU, which asked me for a domain name a password; I did know them I can't get into MSU to see what happen to the drives and CTRL + M does work. I think Windows has me installed like I'm on a server? I went to set up and windows has me as a business when I try to change it to home, it pops back to business.



Ran Windows repair with and without Marvell drivers; with the drivers the Raid drives don't show, without the drivers (don't know which drivers windows is using) Windows shows the drives and is controlling the raid 0 through "Drive Management"

So here are the questions:

Do I continue to use Windows 11 for my Raid 0 or keep trying to get Marvell to work; Is there a difference ?

Does Windows need to put the drives into a VD or VDX state?

Does Windows need the Marvell controllers, did Windows install its own drivers?

How do I get out of business setting?

I'm really lost and would appreciate any help.

Thank you for your time.

 

[evermorex76]

But this is where my multiple physical drives come in.
The OS and applications live on one drive...all my data lives on others.

It's Windows. ALL your data will never be on a separate partition/drive. Nearly all of your app configurations and files will be on the C drive for example, like browser settings and extensions, or mail client configurations and things like the autocomplete file in Outlook (depending on version and type of account). Not everything can be synced with a cloud account to be quickly transferred to a fresh install, or you may not want to use such syncing services. Windows and apps will often place files into the standard folders (Pictures, Documents, etc.) by default until you manually change the settings or you browse for the save locations, and sometimes even when you have done that an app will just randomly decide to go back to the default.

It certainly does save time to have as many of those files separated as possible if you're going to need to wipe the OS drive/partition like that, so you don't have to transfer them to an external drive or restore them from a backup, but you still have to go through the OS drive and do that with some stuff usually. I think there's a narrow band of people for whom having separate partitions or even physical disks is a good idea with solid benefits, and on either side of that band there are people for whom it's an outright bad idea because they don't really understand it but think they do and make bad decisions because of it (like thinking they don't need to backup their OS/app partition) and people for whom it just doesn't make any difference except adding complexity (like those who will never transfer a hard drive to a new machine).

 

[USAFRet]

It's Windows. ALL your data will never be on a separate partition/drive. Nearly all of your app configurations and files will be on the C drive for example, like browser settings and extensions, or mail client configurations and things like the autocomplete file in Outlook (depending on version and type of account). Not everything can be synced with a cloud account to be quickly transferred to a fresh install, or you may not want to use such syncing services. Windows and apps will often place files into the standard folders (Pictures, Documents, etc.) by default until you manually change the settings or you browse for the save locations, and sometimes even when you have done that an app will just randomly decide to go back to the default.

Well, of course.

OS and applications and all of the app settings live on the C.

My photos, videos, CAD files...all live elsewhere.