Taichi x399 cannot install windows in RAID mode
Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: AMD Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock AMD motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6453
Printed Date: 28 Sep 2024 at 1:29am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Taichi x399 cannot install windows in RAID mode
Posted By: daddyo
Subject: Taichi x399 cannot install windows in RAID mode
Date Posted: 30 Oct 2017 at 12:04pm
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" rel="nofollow - Dear forum, I've been trying to install windows on a single SSD while my SATA mode is in RAID. The reason why I am in RAID, is because I later want to build a RAID with other disks, but keep my windows install on a separate physical drive. In RAIDXpert, I created an array and associated, and initialized the physical disc to it. The disc shows as "online" in "View Associated Physical Disks", but I noticed the menu option next to it always reverts to "Disabled". I can set it to ENABLED, but that setting never saves, apparently. I don't know if that is an issue. At any rate, I do not see any bootable drives in my boot options, which I assume is because I would need to inject the RAID drivers at install. I got the lastest drivers from Asrock's site and placed then on a USB stick. Then I booted with my bootable Windows 10 USB media to begin install. At the drive selection screen, still no drive showing. I find the drivers by browsing my other USB disc, and install them. I can now see the drive, but Windows has a message under the drive selection options saying it cannot install to that drive and that I should check my setting in BIOS. Am I doing something wrong? I was able to install windows on this drive in normal SATA mode, so I know the drive is working ok. If I switch to RAID mode, however, the boot partition is no longer visible, so I'm assuming I need to install Windows on this single drive while in RAID mode. I would appreciate any help! |
Replies:
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 30 Oct 2017 at 12:36pm
Which UEFI/BIOS version are you using? The latest, 1.70? The RAID drivers from your board's download page, SATA Floppy Image ver:9.0.0.88 and AMD RAID driver ver:9.00.00.088? You must have UEFI version 1.70 to use those RAID driver versions. Not clear to me is that is the case. Your description is confusing to me. You want to install Windows on a single, non-RAID SSD. But you also created an array in "RAIDXpert" (must be RAIDXpert2 with X399), which must be in Windows. Or is that in the UEFI/BIOS RAID utility? So you tried to install Window 10 on the single SSD, but with a RAID array also connected to the board? Is that right? The AMD RAID "drivers" you refer to, there are two separate driver downloads and two drivers are installed during the Windows installation, in two driver load steps. It's not clear to me if you installed two drivers in two steps. There are two places to enable RAID in your UEFI, have you done both? It does not make sense that a non-RAID drive would not be shown in a Windows install. But I'm not sure if you have the RAID array and the single SSD connected at the same time. Also not sure which UEFI version you have, so we need to get all the questions I've asked clear before we can continue, please. ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow"> 
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daddyo wrote:Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2017 at 1:47am
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" rel="nofollow - daddyo, I think you may be having a symptom of what I am seeing. Please see my post at the end of this thread and the reply from free-eagle: http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6152&PN=5&title=asrock-x399-taichi-m2-nvme-ssd-raid Here is something you can try but no guarantee: When you can see the drive you wish to install W10 on, hit Shift-F10. This should give you an Administrator command prompt. Type Diskpart to open the disk utility. Please be warned it is not for the faint of heart. Type List Disk and find the disk number to install on. Type Select Disk # where # is the disk number. Do another List Disk and make sure that the disk you want has an asterisk on the left (selected). Now be brave and type Clean. When you hit enter Diskpart will clean your disk - asking nothing, telling you nothing except disk cleaned successfully. Please ask questions if you have any. parsec, what two places ,"There are two places to enable RAID in your UEFI, have you done both?". Good luck and enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: daddyo
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2017 at 3:45am
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" rel="nofollow - Hey Parsec, Thanks for responding in such detail, it is VERY appreciated!! Your questions are on point. My UEFI vesion is 1.70. And am using the RAID driver version you mention. I did find the note about that, and anyways I habitually update the BIOS to the latest available version when I build a computer. As for the RAIDXpert2 comment, there is a section in the BIOS with the name... Regarding for the RAID driver install process, you are correct, I did have to perform a two step driver load (from my USB drive) in order for my SSD drive to become listed. You mention RAID needs to be enabled in two places, which are they? As far as I know, I have enabled RAID in the Storage settings page, created an array under the first controller, and set my single SSD drive in there as a "volume", which to my understanding is a JBOD type configuration. When I attempted this, I only had two SATA devices connected: a dvdROM (I rip my bluRay discs to build a movie library), and my intended system SSD. Ultimately, here is my desired system configuration, which perhaps you can tell me whether I can even manage with this chipset alone: - 1x BLURAY drive (hooked up at time of post and visible in BIOS)) - 1xSSD Boot OS (Hooked up at time of posting and visible in BIOS) - 1xpcie NVME SSD for cache drive - 2xSSD in RAID 1 for data - 2xHDD in RAID 1 for lots of data I figured I would connect the other drives and create the two RAID arrays once my OS was installed, because that's a crucial step. |
Posted By: daddyo
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2017 at 5:03am
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" rel="nofollow - Hey Mister J, Thanks for showing me this. I read the thread, and what I am concluding is that the RAID system in general may not be very robust. This person is trying to keep one drive out of the array, which isn't exactly unusual, and is having a hard time with the install. Ultimately, I'd like to have 2 separate RAID 1 arrays (2x2 disks), a single boot drive for Windows, a single PCIE NVME SSD for a cache, and my BLU RAY drive. This system is for video editing, hence the use for so many drives. Am I expecting too much? This is my first time with an AMD system, and coming from building Intel workstations, I know it is feasible on the latter. I will try to use diskpart under DOS, as per your suggestion. Maybe that might change something. |
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2017 at 5:49am
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daddyo, that person is me and I am in contact with AMD support. I suspect you are very correct on the RAID implementation. I think free-eagle is saying to enable RAID, as you did, then open Array Management and use Delete Array to delete all drives (arrays). You may have no arrays, but Delete Array will definitely delete all your data from a disk. Obviously be sure you have a copy of the data. Then use Create Array to make your array(s). After this, install W10 on a lone drive (try diskpart, as I suggested). For me he was saying after installing W10 on my 2 SSD RAID0, then go into W10 and copy my data back to my lone device. I suspect I would need to do a Clean to be able to use this last SSD outside a RAID. I do not know if any of this will work and have concluded that we, as users, need to do some of this testing. I have an open ticket with AMD and will wait for their reply. I have asked them to try what I did and see if they have the reboot problem. Will keep all informed via the other thread. Please let us hear any experiences. Thanks and enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: Kevin A
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2017 at 9:14pm
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Certainly not to be argumentative but...If you are configuring your system to be used as a production/professional/workstation/etc... - then it is possible to find one never uses the 'on-board' raid option the standard motherboards have offered over the decades. All of them come across as 'sub-par/gimmicky' to me. - again just to 'me'. I understand it is an additional expense but you may find you are better served if you were to purchase a professional/workstation grade RAID controller. The benefits are numerous but include better performance /rebuilds /reconstructions /polling /consistency checks as well as raid level options. I currently have an LSI Mega RAID 9000 series in my Ryzen 1800x build. But own others in different systems. |
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2017 at 11:11pm
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Well, Kevin A, to each his/her own. I had a LSI PCIe RAID controller some years ago and it was a disaster, not even warning me that the battery was dead. If one is interested in pure speed and does not care about losing data (no RAID5), then the onboard RAID should be considered. https://community.amd.com/community/gaming/blog/2017/10/02/now-available-free-nvme-raid-upgrade-for-amd-x399-chipset" rel="nofollow - https://community.amd.com/community/gaming/blog/2017/10/02/now-available-free-nvme-raid-upgrade-for-amd-x399-chipset The AMD implementation right now is bad and there is little documentation. I hope it is fixed soon. Thanks for your comments. Enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: daddyo
Date Posted: 01 Nov 2017 at 5:59am
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I'm actually looking at one of those LSI RAID cards as an alternative in case I can't get this build going from the motherboard chipset alone. Coming from Intel platforms, I have been able to get good enough performance for a light duty editing workstation for HD footage from the onboard RAID chipsets. With a handful of SSD, you can go a long way. Also, it would be nice not to have to spring another $400 bucks!
I'll be reporting in the next few days on my success or failure with this. I want to be a supporter of AMD's efforts to make a high end/ power user platform, but for a $1,000 CPU I would expect the high end features on the chipset to be reliable and available, as they are on Intel. Maturity is a factor, but again, I expect a lot of care being put in a high end platform. |
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 01 Nov 2017 at 12:00pm
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I see no reason for you to create any RAID array before you install Windows. You should only have the target OS drive in the PC when installing Windows. Otherwise the Windows installer will put the System/Boot partition on another available drive. Or try to in the case of your unformatted RAID array, which will most likely fail. You still must set the SATA mode to RAID before you install Windows, and since you are using the 1.70 UEFI version, you MUST install the two RAID drivers you have. You can create the RAID arrays using the latest Windows RAIDXpert2 software you will install after Windows is installed. Since the OS drive is not a RAID array, and should NOT be initialized for RAID in any way, it should be recognized by Windows as simply a SATA drive. That is unless the new AMD RAID has some strange requirement that all drives be initialized for use in a RAID array. I installed Windows 10 on an NVMe SSD with the SATA mode set to RAID on my Ryzen board, but then NVMe is not SATA. Are you also aware of the requirements for the version of Windows 10 you must use with the new AMD NVMe compatible RAID drivers? That is Windows 10 64bit Build 1703. More information on this page: http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/NVMe-RAID-Support-for-the-AMD-Ryzen-Threadripper-platform.aspx" rel="nofollow - http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/NVMe-RAID-Support-for-the-AMD-Ryzen-Threadripper-platform.aspx The other place to enable RAID should be in the screen below, in the UEFI. I can only use the manual as a reference but this is at worst the general location: Advanced\AMD CBS\FCH Common Options\SATA Configuration Options. ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: Kevin A
Date Posted: 01 Nov 2017 at 7:25pm
" rel="nofollow -
I found the RAID options on one of my Intel systems slightly better than AMD as well. However I still sprung for an add-in RAID controller for overall benefits, but as noted...it was at an additional cost/price.
daddyo, outstanding reflection! I also am stunned that any platform(Intel or AMD) that is to support 6 cores or more is 'generally' or dare-I-say 'absolutely' designed for gaming instead of high end/power user platform features. Such as a more competent implementation of RAID than the 0,1 and 1+0 offers since the 90's. - It really would have be great to have this innovation on the Ryzen AM4/TR4 platforms. It would have been a welcome achievement for some! Again, best success on your efforts. |
Posted By: daddyo
Date Posted: 01 Nov 2017 at 11:10pm
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" rel="nofollow - So far I have tried 2 different approaches, one suggested by MisterJ, which is to delete all volumes under the Raid management section, and create a new one as "Volume" (rather than "RAIDABLE") that includes my SSD. I initialized the disc. Now the windows install begins; I load the 3 different drivers during the drive selection phase, as per the RAID install guide. To make sure I remove older partition metadata, at this point I ran the Windows partition utility, and performed a clean on the drive. Again, I received the same message during the Windows drive selection process: Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu. While repeating the procedure to ensure I did it properly I noticed that my drive shows "disabled" Under RAIDXpert2 Configuration Utility->Array Management->View Associated Physical Disks There is no documentation on this menu item whatsoever, but I assume that "disabled" is not what I would want. So I set it to "enabled", saved and exit. Whenever I go back to this, the status still shows as "Disabled", so I can't figure out why it's not taking my configuration. Could this be the issue?? For good measure, I created another VOLUME in the RAIDXpert2 section, this time with an HDD just to remove my SSD as the problem source. It's a Samsung 950 PRO, and I was able to install Windows on this motherboard while in SATA mode without any problem, just to reiterate. My attempt with the HDD resulted in a similar failure. So I tried Parsec's approach which suggested not creating ANY RAID volume at all. This was done by deleting the listed array, and reverting the drive to "legacy"mode under RAIDXpert2 Configuration Utility->Physical Disk Management Once done, I attempted the Windows install procedure. Same message/failure as with method 1. The one thing I can think of, has to do with the "disabled" status of my physical drive in the array. I don't know why "enabling" does not stick, and tbh I don't know whether that is an issue at all. Perhaps I was incorrect in my array configuration approach, even though I followed the manual instructions? I feel those are aimed at cases where you want to have a RAID array preconfigured to install your bootable OS to. In my case, I just want a single VOLUME. There, I've been about as detailed as I can be. I'll try a bit more, but I'm suspecting buggy UEFI/RAID implementation. |
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 02 Nov 2017 at 12:10am
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" rel="nofollow - daddyo and parsec, as I have said from the very beginning, the documentation is really bad at best and testing seems to be the only way to go forward. I wish you were correct, parsec, but I am starting to suspect that once SATA mode is set to RAID, then, at lease all NVMe drives must pass through the RAID process and maybe all SATA drives. daddyo, you are correct, there is no information needed to help sort this. When you got the message that "Windows cannot be installed to this disk.", did you try the Diskpart procedure I outlined? When I created a RAID0 last week and then gave up when I could not Restart, I turned off RAID, I had to use Diskpart when I installed W10 because of the same message. I also think you are correct, daddyo, the UEFI is buggy but I also think we have not tried the right combination. I have received my first response from AMD Support since my detailing my experience with creating a RAID - just a number of questions. I am hoping they will try my sequence. parsec, did you say what the second place to enable RAID in the BIOS was? If so, I missed it - please repeat. Thanks to all here and enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: daddyo
Date Posted: 02 Nov 2017 at 1:24am
Well I hope AMD/ASROCK can shed light on this. I did say in my last post that I ran the diskpart tool. I am familiar with this, somewhat. It is sometimes necessary to clean up a drive's partition info as it can prevent windows from creating the bootstrap data. The error message I wrote down clearly alludes to the disk controller, rather than the disk itself, and my obtaining similar results with different disks leads me to conclude it's not my disk. AS for "trying the right combination", I'm pretty sure I've tried them all. The one thing I felt unsure about, if you go back to my previous post, is the status of my drive within the array always showing as "disabled". Could you be a doll and see whether yours does that as well in the UEFI (assuming you have a working RAID)? Again, I tried with two drives (of different make and model), created two different arrays as "volume", and I can never get the drive's status to show as "enabled". This is suspicious to me, but without detailed documentation on this, it's hard to ascertain. Otherwise, there are no indications in the array or controller status sections that the drive isn't ready to be used. If yours show as "enabled" this could be a clue? The two places that PARSEC refers to for enabling RAID are in the STORAGE section, and in the AMD PBS section, although it is mentioned that this second section is only necessary for NVME RAID builds. Would it be possible that this is also necessary for SATA RAID after all?? I'll give it a shot. I'll also check that I am using the correct RAID drives during the install process, but I'm pretty sure that's not it. |
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 02 Nov 2017 at 3:11am
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daddyo, I deleted my RAID when I could not Restart and have not rebuild it. Possibly I'll try again this weekend but I am not sure what to try after your report. I will send AMD support the link to this thread so they can take a look. I need to look at the second setting parsec mentioned. Thanks. If ADM support does not try my sequence this week, I may will do some more testing. Enjoy, John. EDIT: The PBS setting is very interesting! I did not set it. There is no mention of it in the AMD Gaming Blog. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: daddyo
Date Posted: 02 Nov 2017 at 5:00am
MisterJ, understood. Are you still in RAID mode, however, or did you go back to SATA? If you are in RAID mode, and have a running Windows install on a single logical/physical volume, I'd love to know what your drive status is in the UEFI section I mentioned earlier. If not, oh well.. 
Thanks for being there on this journey, and for forwarding this to AMD. Please emphasize that for a platform dedicated to 600/1000 dollar cpus, stuff like this needs to be really buttoned up otherwise there's no reason to buy such expensive hardware from them. Or perhaps it is an OEM implementation issue? I don't know for sure.
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Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 02 Nov 2017 at 7:38am
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daddyo, I guess I did a poor job of answering your question - sorry. I am not running in RAID mode mode due to not being able to Restart without a Reset. I was able to install W10 and boot into it, just could not Restart. The RAID0 I created on two EVO 960 drives is gone and I have installed W10 on one of the 960s. One contains the data I wish to keep and the third is not used. I will most likely try again this weekend since I did not enable the NVMe option in PBS. Maybe it will work perfectly. I have fixed my missing driver problem by injecting the F6 drivers into my WinPE USB stick. You are very welcome and thank you for hanging in there. I have told several that this testing we are doing is our best chance till AMD/ASRock get their game together. Will let all know what I learn from AMD and testing. Enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: daddyo
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2017 at 7:00am
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Sweet! I tried enabling NVME RAID out of curiosity, it obviously didn't make a difference. Can't install on a drive in a single Volume controlled by the RAID controller. I'm not sure that this functionality is very serviceable with the present documentation.
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Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2017 at 7:23am
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" rel="nofollow - daddyo, what error did you get? If it was "..can't be installed...', did you try the Diskpart Clean? After setting everything up, did you Delete the single volume and make it a JBOD? What kind of drive is it - hope not Optane? Thanks and enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: daddyo
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2017 at 8:27am
Mister J, I did do diskpart, and did assign the drive to a JBOD type "Volume" array in RAIDXpert. Same error as before, same suspicious behavior with disks showing as "disabled" in the RAID manager. I think the UI needs a bit of sprucing up, because of the way you "Enable" and "Disable" drives during array creation. The same terminology is used there, and I don't know whether it's a switch of its own, or used in the context of another specific operation. My drive was not an Optane. Samsung 950 PRO. My understanding of Optane is that it's almost like a cache between RAM and your DATA, rather than a traditional disk... Am I wrong on that?
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Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 04 Nov 2017 at 5:17am
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daddyo, I have spent most of the day trying to create a bootable RAID0 with no luck. I did learn a lot and have some BIOS screenshots to share. I must do it later because I am totally wasted! I have more thinking to do, but my latest is that I may need to re-flash BIOS 1.70 to get rid of some data that cannot be cleared with R9 or Clear CMOS. I do see your problem where I cannot Enable all the drives in my Array and they will not stay Enabled. I hope to finish this post soon. Enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 04 Nov 2017 at 10:49am
It's driving me crazy that I can't try this AMD NVMe RAID myself!  You know there has been at least one successful user, free-eagle is the ASRock user that had success in the other AMD NVMe thread (sorry for text only, the forum link tool fails with URLs with a '?'): http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6152&PN=1&title=asrock-x399-taichi-m2-nvme-ssd-raid I'll post this here again that I posted in the other thread. I noticed something odd in the table, not sure if it is a typo. Check the last line in the valid configurations table:  It shows SATA RAID not enabled, but the NMVe RAID setting enabled is enough for it to work. The table shows NVMe RAID supported, but not SATA RAID in that configuration. Maybe taking SATA RAID out of the picture will help make things easier? A few general hints that may help you, FWIW. When you attempt to create a RAID array and then have whatever error afterwards, particularly during a Windows installation, you should clean everything off the drives. As MisterJ suggested, using the Diskpart clean command will do that completely. That insures the RAID metadata is removed and if it was not right it won't affect future attempts. Removing any partitions during the Windows installation may not remove the metadata. MisterJ, removing the board's battery while doing a UEFI/BIOS clear with the jumper will clear the UEFI chip's memory, for an absolute fresh start. Reflashing the UEFI is worth trying, you never know. In the UEFI, setting the CSM sub-option, Launch Storage OpROM Policy option to UEFI Only insures that the AMD UEFI storage Option ROM is being used, which I believe is a requirement for AMD NVMe RAID. It is required for Intel's NVMe RAID. Setting the CSM option to disabled will also set Launch Storage OpROM Policy option to UEFI Only. You must Save and Exit the UEFI to apply these settings. The small 16GB and 32GB Optane caching SSDs were meant to be used with Intel's "storage acceleration" feature, which is created with their IRST RAID software. But they can be used as a standalone SSD just fine. Just small for an OS or storage drive. I use three in an Intel RAID 0 array as a Windows 10 drive, just to test Optane in general. I can tell you that for use as an OS drive, the UEFI must be configured for full UEFI booting, meaning the CSM option is set to disabled. ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 04 Nov 2017 at 11:37pm
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Thanks, parsec. Perhaps you are saying that I should NOT set SATA to RAID (leave AHCI) when I am trying to create a RAID0 on my NVMe drives while I continue to have my SATA WD HD installed. I tried with the HD disconnected (both power and SATA, just to make sure) and still failed. The BIOS RAIDXpert2 still displayed the HD. Neither clear CMOS nor F9 cleared this - required Delete Array. The RAID code has some special storage. I will try removing the battery on my next brave sojourn into RAIDville. It may be a while - it just exhaust me - a half day of fighting. I will try creating an NVMe RAID after clearing BIOS (Re-flash or battery removal). I think there were two users that were successful. This gave me the idea to try re-flash. I assume they flashed BIOS, then built a RAID. I am suspecting that once almost any kind of error, something is broken in the RAID (data or code). A straight flow through the process works but any deviation is a problem. I promised to post some BIOS screenshots. This first is the situation when I first entered BIOS RAIDXpert: https://postimages.org/" rel="nofollow">  I have Enabled one SSD for my RAID0, but the other two remain greyed out and Disabled. Second: https://postimages.org/" rel="nofollow">  I only have three NVMe drives. I promised AMD Support I would open an ASRock Support ticket. First I need to investigate a possible RAID driver signing problem. A week or so ago W10 reported a injected RAID driver signing error and blocked install. Yesterday I got a message about the same driver (rcbottom) when I tried to install it on my system by right clicking rcbottom.inf and selecting Install. The other two .inf files did not complain. Thanks and enjoy, John. EDIT: In order to use RAIDXper2 in Windows, the RAID drivers must be installed. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: free-eagle
Date Posted: 05 Nov 2017 at 12:00am
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i had the same issues with ghost arrays displayed all the time. you can clear them in the bios but after booting to win 10 they are back again in the bios. you really have to clear all arrays and all of the disks from bios. after this a clean install of win 10 with the f6 drivers was succesfull for me. if you want to keep data on any old drive you have to do a backup on an external disk or a nas. ------------- X399 Taichi (Bios 2.0), TR 1920X, 32 GB GSKILL F4-3600C16D-16GTZSW, 2x Samsung 960 Pro 512GB (RAID 0),Crucial 1 TB SSD, 2x 4TB Seagate HDD (RAID 1), Zotac 1080TI AMP Extreme, Windows 10 Pro (1709) |
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 05 Nov 2017 at 4:27am
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" rel="nofollow - Thanks, free-eagle. I think something is basically wrong with the implementation of RAID in X399. Do you have a running RAID at this time? Enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: free-eagle
Date Posted: 05 Nov 2017 at 5:50am
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Yes a strable system with nvme raid 0 and a sata raid 1 plus a sata ssd on slot m3 works fine for me ------------- X399 Taichi (Bios 2.0), TR 1920X, 32 GB GSKILL F4-3600C16D-16GTZSW, 2x Samsung 960 Pro 512GB (RAID 0),Crucial 1 TB SSD, 2x 4TB Seagate HDD (RAID 1), Zotac 1080TI AMP Extreme, Windows 10 Pro (1709) |
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2017 at 3:49am
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Thanks, free-eagle. I am curious if you used BIOS RAIDXpert2 (RX2), Windows RX2 or a little of both. To continue my saga, I re-flashed BIOS 1.70 and still could not see my NVMe SSDs in Windows RX2. I opened a ticket with ASRock Support. I also opened a ASRock ticket on the rcbotton RAID driver not being signed properly (think this is an AMD problem). I am starting to consider the possibility that I have defective HW. Enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2017 at 11:18am
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" rel="nofollow - MisterJ, I know my comments aren't helping you much at all, but I remain curious about your problems. free-eagle's comments about the ghost arrays are interesting, and possibly indicate a basic bug in the AMD NVMe RAIDXpert2 software in the UEFI and Windows. One thing I noticed in your screen shot is your Array 6 seems to be the only real RAID 0 array that exists. Array 1 is shown both as 1.0TB and 748.5GB, in the drop down list and the View Associated Physical Disk screen, respectively. Since you only have three, 250GB 960 EVOs, the majority of the drop down list entries seem to be anomalous, ghost entries. Also, how are there four 250GB drives in the drop down list? Software bug or multiple metadata partitions on one of the SSDs? But we have also seen single, non-RAID drives classified as RAID arrays in RAIDXpert2. When I say we, I mean my own SATA SSDs are listed that way. The ghost entries make me think the three drives have RAID metadata partitions (data describing the RAID array) from previous array creation attempts. As if it was not removed when (if) you deleted the RAID array using RAIDXpert2. That could be a bug in RAIDXpert2. Your theory about a successful first attempt at array creation working, but any initial failure causing continued failures, even after following the correct procedure of array deletion and (re) creation, would seem to fit my scenario about remnant RAID metadata. I just recalled from my experience with Intel IRST RAID 0 arrays, that using the Diskpart clean command did not remove the Intel RAID metadata from drives that were part of a RAID 0 array. I would run clean on a drive from a RAID array, but afterwards Disk Management would not let me partition and format it. I had to connect all the drives used in the RAID 0 array, run the Intel IRST utility, and delete the RAID 0 array before the drives were back to normal. Only then could I use the drives in Windows. I would not trust Diskpart's clean command to provide a drive free of the RAID metadata. I would expect an SSD Secure Erase operation to completely clean the RAID metadata from the SSDs. I think you would need to create a DOS bootable USB drive in the Samsung Magician software to secure erase your 960 EVOs. free-eagle's comments seem to contradict my ideas, if the ghost arrays continue to appear. But he did seem to also say clearing everything (at one time?) caused his eventual success. Unless he did something else he did not mention. I am uncertain if he still gets the ghost arrays in the UEFI with his successful Windows 10 installation. I'm curious what the Windows 10 installation program sees as a drive when you attempted an install. Do you only get a ~750GB drive as a choice, before or after installing the F6 drivers? Do any ghost drives appear along with the "correct" drive? ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: free-eagle
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2017 at 4:02pm
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@Parsec: There are no more ghost arrays or drives for me in raidxpert and also in bios. i initialy wanted to keep some data on a single drive and that was the error because of the metadata on it. in the bios you can delete arrays and initialize/delete disks. I wonder what happens when a new bios or drivers appear :-) ------------- X399 Taichi (Bios 2.0), TR 1920X, 32 GB GSKILL F4-3600C16D-16GTZSW, 2x Samsung 960 Pro 512GB (RAID 0),Crucial 1 TB SSD, 2x 4TB Seagate HDD (RAID 1), Zotac 1080TI AMP Extreme, Windows 10 Pro (1709) |
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2017 at 12:38am
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Thanks, parsec, all help is appreciated. You never know when the key will be triggered. As I said I am beginning to consider a broken board. I will see where my ASRock ticket goes. I don't see where you are seeing "Array 6 is shown both as 1.0TB and 748.5GB". The 748.5 GB is my three 250 GB RAID0. The 1.0 TB is my WD Black, normal SATA drive not RAID in any way and never was. I do believe diskpart/clean will clean up a disk IF the RAID array is broken first. I have done this many times and the drive is usable in W10. Here is the Disk Management image of one I have not run diskpart/clean on: https://postimg.org/image/2qf9rr7xuz/" rel="nofollow">  I agree that the "Ghost disks" are a bug, but probably a manifestation of the RAID hidden storage in BIOS that I cannot clear. Doing a Delete Array on each array/disk does get rid of all the Ghosts. Thanks and enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: daddyo
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2017 at 3:01am
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" rel="nofollow - Hey Guys, I'm chiming in after another weekend of troubleshooting. I'm afraid I don't have anything great to report, but some validation that could still be of help. I had no problems with ghost arrays in UEFI, creating and deleting arrays was pretty reliable, as long as I saved and rebooted to UEFI after each such operation. I still could NOT for the life of me push the windows installation to go through on a target drive, a single drive configured as a "Volume". This is the configuration that is expected to be set when you want to create a JBOD array. Perhaps that is the caveat, this array only has one drive, and thus might not be "Enabled". IF that is the case, there is no obvious way whatsoever to leave a single volume outside of a RAID array, while in RAID mode. It didn't work either when I tried installing windows on this drive with no arrays created yet. Looking at the RAID config table in the docs (the one you posted here), I also did not like the known issues listed. Given the trouble I had with RAID, what others reported, and the reliability issues listed, I decided it would be wise to give up and not trust my data to be safe on this garbage implementation. I switched back to SATA and windows is running smoothly. I'll think of another way to secure my data from drive failure, like investing in a small NAS. If I had worked for the time I took troubleshooting this, I would have earned that NAS already. As for i/o performance, I'll have to do without it, or buy a RAID card later. One thing I did notice when I installed my system in SATA mode is that the one HDD that was part of an array was being read by Windows as a partitioned disk, and nothing I did would restore it to a single drive. none of the windows utilities could do anything about that. I ended up installing Minitool partition Wizard and was able to convert my drive back to a GPT volume, enabling all 8 TB as a single drive. I think the array creation process might leave behind some metadata on the drives that cause windows' disk management tool to report undesired drive profiles. Is that fixed with the RAID drivers installed? I don't know, food for thought. I suspect the weirdness you are seeing in Windows has to do with bad drivers/UEFI RAID software, rather than a hardware issue on your motherboard. But why not RMA it if you still can... Good luck guys!
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Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2017 at 5:17am
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daddyo, I have always had diskpart/clean work for me on a previous RAID drive. The array must be broken (Delete Array). I then open diskpart in an Administrator command Prompt, select the drive, run clean then convert to GPT. diskpart is unforgiving! The correct disk must be selected and when clear is issued, diskpart says nothing and asks nothing except disk cleaned successfully. I have posted more detailed instructions in this forum. Enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |
Posted By: free-eagle
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2017 at 1:55am
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just updateted bios 1.7 to 1.8 without any problems. the raid is still stable, no ghost array or drives. ------------- X399 Taichi (Bios 2.0), TR 1920X, 32 GB GSKILL F4-3600C16D-16GTZSW, 2x Samsung 960 Pro 512GB (RAID 0),Crucial 1 TB SSD, 2x 4TB Seagate HDD (RAID 1), Zotac 1080TI AMP Extreme, Windows 10 Pro (1709) |
Posted By: MisterJ
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2017 at 5:19am
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Thanks, free-eagle. Perhaps I will give it a go in a few days and see if building a RAID is any better. Enjoy, John. ------------- Fat1 X399 Pro Gaming, TR 1950X, RAID0 3xSamsung SSD 960 EVO, G.SKILL FlareX F4-3200C14Q-32GFX, Win 10 x64 Pro, Enermx Platimax 850, Enermx Liqtech TR4 CPU Cooler, Radeon RX580, BIOS 2.00, 2xHDDs WD |