Drives disappear in raid mode

[wthomasmccrar157602d5]

I chose raid mode on a new z690 tomahawk MB and rebooted to install windows. Windows install did not detect any drives, so i rebooted and checked the bios.
No drives showed there.
I need raid for the optaine memory to work with the HDD.
Current configuration is 2 T Intel 660 nvme, 32 gb optaine, 4t Hdd. These showed when I first entered the bios.

How can i fix this?

 

[This_Guy515134]

Hey there,

I know it's 8 days later but in case you're still suffering from that situation then I know of two approaches but have only done one of them, which is likely the long way to do it. And that way is as follows:
Option #1:
1) Disable the RAID capability.
Enter BIOS > Settings > Advanced > Integrated Peripherals > RAID Configuration (Intel VMD) > Enable RAID/Optane Function > Disabled
Save changes.
Reboot.
You should see your 2 harddrives in the BIOS screen now.
2) Install Windows on one of the drives.
3) After Windows is setup and you have installed all of the most recent drivers per the MSI website, then install the Intel software to create your RAID 0 array.
For Windows 11, go to the microsoft store and install "Intel® Optane™ Memory and Storage Management".
For Windows 10 and before, get the IRST program (that is superior but recently discontinued) at this location here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...ver.html?wapkw=intel rapid storage technology
4) Install either of the programs above.
5) Restart and enter BIOS (one can do this by holding the Delete key while the computer boots up).
Enter BIOS > Settings > Advanced > Integrated Peripherals > RAID Configuration (Intel VMD) > Enable RAID/Optane Function > Enabled
Restart.
6) Windows should load b/c either program from step 3 will have installed the Rapid Storage Technology drivers.
7) Open the program you installed in step 3 and somewhere in there will be an option to create a RAID 0 array using the two disks in your system. You will have the ability to choice which disk's information will remain and which will be wiped in the process. Be sure to select the right disk when the time comes. Although theoretically perhaps if you choose the wrong disk, then idk if your drive running Windows would then be wiped in the RAID 0 creation process. Only one way to find out i suppose...

Option #2: I have read that while installing Windows one can press F6 and simultaneously install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers at that same time. Sounds like black magic to me and so I have never attempted that approach before. It's probably faster if you go that route though.

 

[teletubby_po]

you will need to load the driver in Windows installer to make the drives appear, maybe a video instruction will be clearer.

 

[wthomasmccrar157602d5]

Hey there,


Option #1:


Option #2: I have read that while installing Windows one can press F6 and simultaneously install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers at that same time. Sounds like black magic to me and so I have never attempted that approach before. It's probably faster if you go that route though.

Finally got the chance and impetus to sit down and address this problem. Option one didn't work even with the latest version. Unless i hear from you immediately i am going to have to try to usen a modified option 2. ie. use advanced install options to reinstall using the driver during install. This per MSI. I really hate to do this because windows is working except for raid but I have to do something now or yesterday as the case may be. Thanks for the help so far.

For more detail i am installing nvme and an optane and now 14t sata setup. The nvme will have the os. I really hope i dont trash a good windows setup for no reason and it turns out to be a hardware issue.

 

[Alan J T]

I chose raid mode on a new z690 tomahawk MB and rebooted to install windows. Windows install did not detect any drives, so i rebooted and checked the bios.
No drives showed there.
I need raid for the optaine memory to work with the HDD.
Current configuration is 2 T Intel 660 nvme, 32 gb optaine, 4t Hdd. These showed when I first entered the bios.

How can i fix this?

You do not need Intel® Optane with a NVME drive or even a SATA SSD drive
It is old outdated teck designed to work with slower Mechanical Hard drives.
Do your self a favor and remove it and put it in storage or sell it on eBay.
Odds are your NVME drive is way faster than the Intel® Optane drive
And it not likely to make all that much differences on your Main Storage drive,
You will get way less hassles if you do not use it.

 

[This_Guy515134]

Damn, sorry to hear Option 1 didn't work out for you.

Perhaps black magic will do the trick.

 

[wthomasmccrar157602d5]

You do not need Intel® Optane with a NVME drive or even a SATA SSD drive
It is old outdated teck designed to work with slower Mechanical Hard drives.
You will get way less hassles if you do not use it.

Obviously i want to use it on the 14 T (See update) drive. This will not only speed the drive but cause less wear because of fewer hits.
You may be right about less hassles as no drives are detected with raid mode on this new motherboard. However I can see no reason for the hardware not to be detected.

 

[wthomasmccrar157602d5]

Damn, sorry to hear Option 1 didn't work out for you.

Perhaps black magic will do the trick.

Too bad this is not monitored by MSI. I am very concerned about the hardware not being detected. I can understand logical drives not being detected but not hardware.
I followed their advice and tried to load windows using the drivers from a usb drive (after setting to raid). But low and behold I got the following message "No new hardware is detected" and it would not let me continue installation.

I suppose I may have to spread this information everywhere across the internet. Until I get an answer. Unfortunately, it will not do MSIs reputation any good.
I cannot in good conscience recommend any MSI motherboards to anyone until this is resolved.

 

[Alan J T]

Obviously i want to use it on the 14 T (See update) drive. This will not only speed the drive but cause less wear because of fewer hits.
You may be right about less hassles as no drives are detected with raid mode on this new motherboard. However I can see no reason for the hardware not to be detected.

I use Raid Zero for my Six Sata SSD drives mainly to make it easier in Windows so just have a single Drive instead of six separate

Have you got Raid in the Bios fully configured
And selected the correct Drives to make the Raid you want.
Can you share some screen shots of you BIOS raid setting
Drives in RAID mode will not show up in normal bios section under drives
Not sure about Boot options may show up there
they will show up in the Raid configuration setting
Update to latest Bios if you have not all ready done so

 

[Alan J T]

Have you been in touch with Intel about this problem.
They have several guides on setting it up.

How to Enable Intel® Optane™ Memory If BIOS Is Set to...

Steps to change the partition table format of the booting drive from MBR to GPT

www.intel.com.au

 

[Alan J T]

OK so what I said about Drives not showing when in Raid
First Screen is in ACHI second is in RAID as you can see in RAID the drives become hidden

The six SATA SSD when placed in a Raid array no longer show up just the two M.2 not in a Raid Array.

 

[wthomasmccrar157602d5]

I use Raid Zero for my Six Sata SSD drives mainly to make it easier in Windows so just have a single Drive instead of six separate

Have you got Raid in the Bios fully configured
And selected the correct Drives to make the Raid you want.
Can you share some screen shots of you BIOS raid setting
Drives in RAID mode will not show up in normal bios section under drives
Not sure about Boot options may show up there
they will show up in the Raid configuration setting
Update to latest Bios if you have not all ready done so

I probably would not be that brave as that would allow your set to fail if one disk dies, however it may still be more reliable than a standard hard drive.

updated the bios again yesterday. Not sure how to make a screenshot in the bios as I am not sure that would be copiable into windows. The issue windows had was it could detect no hardware drives. the first time i tried it i used the button in easy mode. I followed the suggestions of the MSI tech to enable raid on friday and overnight tried to install windows using the driver from MSI with raid mode enabled but as you see above after loading the raid driver windows install did not detect a drive. At all.
I will review the article but i am not sure if that will help. I don't recall having this much trouble when i set up an h series drive using optane before.

 

[Alan J T]

I probably would not be that brave as that would allow your set to fail if one disk dies, however it may still be more reliable than a standard hard drive.

All drives had at least 200 hours of up time before I did the Raid odds of them failing now is very very slim.
Most SSD will fail out of the box, not often one will die if it has gotten past the first several Reboots and 50 plus hours of use.

 

[coredoxu15ba02e3]

I've a
MPG X570 GAMING PRO CARBON WIFI with the latest bios 7B93v1H.
There're installed 2 Raid sata hdd (raid1) drives and one M.2 SSD! Under CSM & RAID
Unfortunately the M.2 SSD (nonRAID) won't be recognized, you can't boot from.
If I install another nonRAID SATA SSD over sata cable the drive will be recognized and you can boot from!
Is this a Bios issue ?

kindly regards
sven

 

[wthomasmccrar157602d5]

Again, I wish MSI would monitor this as I am still having issues with this. I will have to set up another pc as I surplused (moronic spell check) the MSI laptop and replaced it but not set the new one up.
So IF i fix the MSI MB unit which i am typing on now I could have nothing for a bit. This issue should have been fixed in august. However even following the msi instructions it failed to work. So Sven you may be right.
Alan I wonder however if formatting the optane and the 14t ahead of time may help.
I would hate to spec all our future pc projects as ASUS only as they are more expensive for gaming motherboards. I should note our tech tried to set it up as raid to begin with in early august and I have been troubleshooting the issue ever since. Albeit off and on. However, we cannot afford 40+ hours to set up a pc.

 

[Alan J T]

Optan is PCIE 3.0x4 unless they got PCIE 4.0 now.

I would use the Optane M.2 in this order of preference for the Optane drive.

Could not really say why it not working
But once you selected the Raid Array you want in the bios it should be pretty well sorted
Turn on RAID mode in bios save and reboot to bios
Select the M,2 Raid controller you need or the Optane one not sure what options the Bios is showing you
Create Array select the Optane and the SSD drive and save exit boot back to bios to check is all I have had to do with the SATA drive Array I use.
was some setting about disable drives so you could add it to the Array or take offline perhaps.

And I have not screen shot the Raid setting I used in BIOS

 

[atriptothemoo15e702ed]

I had similar problems, the answer is to turn off global VMD in bios and only use VMD for the drives you wish to raid. I guess that if you want to raid your boot drive(s) then you'll have to turn vmd on in bios first and then load win11 using the load driver option of the win11 install dialogue - assuming that is that the win11 install files dont contain vmd drivers.
In my case I had loaded win11 on an nvme (MSI z690 tomahawk) then I attached my sata raid arrays, switched vmd on in bios before booting, thinking that I would then load the intel vmd drivers and all would work ... wrong! - my nvme drives became invisible (in bios) and boot into win11 therefore not possible.
Finally figured out that VMD needs some configuring in bios - in bios advanced mode. Turned global vmd off and turned vmd on only for SATA (nvme raid also allowable) - bios then sees non-raid nvme drives - booted into win11 and loaded intel vmd drivers from the msi site - all good - my intel rst raid 1 arrays from previous intel lga1200 build rebuilt and worked fine. NB If you want the intel rst gui (which I do) , leave the "optane" option ticked when loading the drivers.

 

[james.vanbuskir159202df]

I had similar problems, the answer is to turn off global VMD in bios and only use VMD for the drives you wish to raid. I guess that if you want to raid your boot drive(s) then you'll have to turn vmd on in bios first and then load win11 using the load driver option of the win11 install dialogue - assuming that is that the win11 install files dont contain vmd drivers.
In my case I had loaded win11 on an nvme (MSI z690 tomahawk) then I attached my sata raid arrays, switched vmd on in bios before booting, thinking that I would then load the intel vmd drivers and all would work ... wrong! - my nvme drives became invisible (in bios) and boot into win11 therefore not possible.
Finally figured out that VMD needs some configuring in bios - in bios advanced mode. Turned global vmd off and turned vmd on only for SATA (nvme raid also allowable) - bios then sees non-raid nvme drives - booted into win11 and loaded intel vmd drivers from the msi site - all good - my intel rst raid 1 arrays from previous intel lga1200 build rebuilt and worked fine. NB If you want the intel rst gui (which I do) , leave the "optane" option ticked when loading the drivers.

Can you tell me what you did exactly? Just like you I installed windows on my m.2 first then connected my sata drives. I enabled vmd and all drives vanish. i turn off vmd and they all appear again. So I enabled it again but turn off the global mapping option but that only makes all drives except the raided drives appear...i also fiddled with the root mapping options beneath the global map option. but i can't get it to work. With global off I always have my m.2 drives, but while fiddling with the root map options I'll lose my sata drives or just be missing the raided sata drives. (2 sata drives not raided and i have 2 more that are raided). I installed the intel raid drivers in windows using the USB that came with my motherboard. Bios can see my raid but windows cannot. When I open create/manage partitions i can see my raid but I also see one of the drives by itself and that did not happen on my previous computer so i don't believe just creating a new partition is the correct thing to do.