Asrock x399 Taichi M.2 NVMe SSD RAID?

dataminion, great!  Thanks for reporting.  I am not absolutely sure I agree with parsec with the getting along of W7 and UEFI, but he is absolutely correct that AMD supports only W10 version 1703 and higher.  Thanks and enjoy, John.

EDIT: You are very welcome, dataminion.  I always learn a lot helping people.


Edited by MisterJ - 07 Oct 2017 at 4:43am

MisterJ wrote: dataminion, great!  Thanks for reporting.  I am not absolutely sure I agree with parsec with the getting along of W7 and UEFI, but he is absolutely correct that AMD supports only W10 version 1703 and higher.  Thanks and enjoy, John. EDIT: You are very welcome, dataminion.  I always learn a lot helping people.

If you mean that Windows 7 can be used with a board that has UEFI firmware, that is of course true. That is not what I meant, I should have explained it better.

What I meant is, the Windows 7 installation file layout has a problem that causes it to fail if you perform a UEFI booting Windows 7 installation.

UEFI booting requires the use of the EFI boot loader, instead of the "legacy" boot loader. The Windows 7 installation file layout has an EFI boot loader, but it is in the wrong folder, and won't be used in a Windows 7 installation without fixing this file's location. That causes a UEFI booting Windows 7 installation to fail to boot. That is a simplified explanation of the situation, but the main problem is the use or failure to use the EFI boot loader.

Choosing the entry of the Windows installation media in the boot order with the prefix "UEFI:" causes the EFI boot loader to be used in the installation. That is independent of the setting of the CSM option. The boot order entry with "UEFI:" is usually the default, first entry in the boot order when installing Windows 8.1 or 10, but it is always good to check that it is. The resulting boot order entry for the OS C: drive will be "Windows Boot Manager", usually followed by the drive name, when the EFI boot loader is being used.

Configuring the CSM option from the default enabled will also cause the EFI boot loader to be used. In Windows 7 and 8, that was the only way to get the "UEFI:" entry for the installation media in the boot order. The Windows 8.1 and 10 installation programs automatically provide the "UEFI:" entry. So you are likely already using the EFI boot loader if you use Windows 8.1 or 10, 64 bit only.

The majority of NVMe SSDs require the use of the EFI boot loader if they are used as the OS drive.

Hi

I have read through this Thread, but nvme raid still does not work for me.
Following the guide step by step I arrived at the stage where I have to use the uefi version of raidxpert to create the nvme raid, but that is not possible for me.
I identified the possible problem, but I have no Idea how to fix it. The raidxpert uefi utility shows the m.2 nvme drives as "offline". I simply cannot create an array.

Now comes the troubling part. At first I thought in struck a 1 in a million chance to have all my drives DOA. But when I boot up my old windows install or the bootable usb stick I can see them and configue them completely fine. They only dont show up in uefi.

Hoping someone could help me, figuring out what is the problem with my setup.

My specs are in my signature, uefi version is 1.70, Drives are 32GB optane nvme modules.

Franz01234 wrote: Hi I have read through this Thread, but nvme raid still does not work for me. Following the guide step by step I arrived at the stage where I have to use the uefi version of raidxpert to create the nvme raid, but that is not possible for me. I identified the possible problem, but I have no Idea how to fix it. The raidxpert uefi utility shows the m.2 nvme drives as "offline". I simply cannot create an array. Now comes the troubling part. At first I thought in struck a 1 in a million chance to have all my drives DOA. But when I boot up my old windows install or the bootable usb stick I can see them and configue them completely fine. They only dont show up in uefi. Hoping someone could help me, figuring out what is the problem with my setup. My specs are in my signature, uefi version is 1.70, Drives are 32GB optane nvme modules.

I cannot tell you from experience whether or not you can use Intel Optane SSDs with AMD's X399 NVMe RAID. There might be something proprietary about Optane SSDs that does not cooperate with AMD's NVMe RAID implementation. They are not standard NVMe SSDs using NAND flash storage, but that should be transparent to the RAID implementation, since only the SSD controller in the SSD is the interface to the AMD RAID, etc. This does not in itself mean they cannot be used in AMD's NVMe RAID, but I'm not aware of any specific information about this either way.

Intel has very specific versions of their IRST RAID software to work with Optane SSDs, which are meant to be used as accelerator device caches for standard SATA HDDs and SSDs. I can tell you that I use three 32GB Optane SSDs in RAID 0, using Intel's IRST RAID software, on an ASRock Z270 mother board. Intel's and AMD's RAID implementations are different and not compatible or interchangeable.  Intel will tell us that these first Optane SSDs are only for use a caching device with SATA drives (which is a not any standard RAID type, but is created and used with Intel's IRST RAID software), but I have a functioning three Optane SSD RAID 0 array as my Windows 10 drive.



Describing how to create the RAID 0 array with Intel's RAID software would be worthless to you, since it is completely different than AMD's.

AMD's SATA RAID array creation is more complex than Intel's, and just jumping into creating an AMD NVMe RAID array with no experience or background will be a frustrating experience. It is far from a plug and play, few clicks and you're done process. I'm sorry but simply reading through this thread, while certainly useful, will not be near enough information to create an AMD NVMe RAID array. The AMD RAID Installation guide on your board's Manual page is the best documentation we have at this time, as well as the AMD RAIDXpert2 software download and manual page I linked to elsewhere in this thread. Yes these manuals are not an easy read, talk to AMD about that, it's their baby.

As I've lectured earlier, creating an NVMe RAID 0 array for the first time and then immediately attempting to install Windows 10 on it is asking for trouble, if you've never even installed Windows on a single, non-RAID NVMe SSD. If you are not comfortable with the RAID array creation process (meaning have done it multiple times), and have not had an NVMe RAID 0 array survive through multiple cold boots of the PC, and UEFI/BIOS clears and updates, then you really should not be using them, IMO.

Have you at least used Intel's RAID software in the past, to get a feel for what is involved in maintaining the settings in the UEFI/BIOS?

free-eagle, please post your system specifications as I have in my signature.  Hard to help you with so little information.  If you will look earlier in this thread, I think you will find a couple of users with success.  The RAID instructions are poor to non-existent at best.  I am trying to find an Installation Guide, so far with no luck.  If you did not disable CSM before installing W10, please do and reinstall W10 and please let us hear if it helps your problems.  CSM is Configuration Service Module and will mean your BIOS is set to UEFI only.  This is set in the BIOS and may tell you that booting USB sticks is not supported but I set it and booted my WinPE USB stick, no problem.  Hope to hear soon.  Thanks and enjoy, John.