AMD RAID Guide (SSD, HDD)

[nightmarevoid]

I had a lot of difficulty setting up my AMD raid array and couldn't find proper instructions on how to get it working properly. I finally found the information I needed, and now I want to at least detail what worked for me in the hopes that it can help someone else. For reference, I'm using an ASUS ROG B450-I GAMING motherboard and Ryzen 7 3700x. I was trying to set up a RAID0 array using two SSDs.

 

BIOS Settings

1. First change SATA mode to RAID. The motherboard will usually have SATA set to AHCI mode. Just know that a hard drive set to AHCI can't be booted from in RAID and visa versa.
2. Disable compatibility mode in the boot menu. Most of the time, boot compatibility mode can stop windows from installing on your array and can stop the raid menu from appearing at all.
3. Save and restart. The RAID menu doesn't always show up until a restart.
4. set up your array in the raid utility. On ASUS boards this is called raidXpert2 and will be in the same menu as the SATA settings. in the raid utility find the menu to initialize your physical disks (disks must be initialized to be used in raid). Now the description on both drives  should read "READY". If it reads "NEW" it means array data is present on the drive and you'll need to erase this 'array' in the array management section.
5. Set up the array. In your raid utility look for the menu to create and manage your array. Select your drives and the type of array you want. If you know what you're doing you can mess with settings like cache and stripe size, but you can just leave this as default. If you don't know what the different raid types are, here's a qucik rundown of the usual ones.
   RAID 0 or STRIPPED: The selected discs work in tandem as a single drive. This combines the storage size of all drives and also increases write and read speed. It doesn't scale evenly though, so don't expect double or triple speed.
   RAID 1 or MIRRORED: One drive will perfectly copy the other drive in the array. This will leave you with two discs that have the same information on them. 
   RAID 10: a combination of raid 0 and 1. It requires at least three discs, with the third disc equal in size to the combination of the first two. You can mirror on raid 0 array to another raid 0 array, or mirror a raid 0 array to a larger disk.
   JBOD: Just a bunch of disks, literally. This lets you combine a bunch of disks into one disk, but information is saved sequentially and you won't see any gains in performance.
6. Make a note of your array size and name (if available). Save and restart. Time ti install windows!

Installing Windows

1. First you'll need drivers so windows can recognize your array. Since the raid controller is made by AMD, all drivers are the same. Use these drivers from Gigabyte: https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Driver/mb_driver_bootdrv_hw10_raid_9.2.0.105.zip
   Copy these to a USB drive (you can use the one you're using to install windows)
2. Boot from your windows USB and go through the steps normally. There's nothing special until you get to the drive select screen.
3. The drive select screen will normally be empty, or you at least wont see your raid array. In this case you need to use that load drivers button in the bottom of the screen. At this point you can try using the included CD with your motherboard to install your drivers, but it definitely didn't work for me. Click on "Load Drivers," Select "Browse" on the next dialogue box, and go to where you saved the raid drivers. There will be two options: NVME and SATA. This guide is for sata drives, so we'll use those. Click on that folder and Windows will populate the driver select screen with the compatible driver. THERE ARE 3 (THREE) DRIVERS STEPS AND DRIVERS HERE, BUT THEY DON'T SHOW UP ALL AT ONCE.
   1. the first driver that will appear is "bottom.inf" and you'll want to install this first. There's usually two options but they should both be the same. Just go with the first one. The loading bar will fill and reflil for a while, but this is normal. When it completes you'll be taken back to the drive select screen but it will still be empty.
   2. Reselect "Load Drivers" and browse to that same folder again. Now a new driver will appear call "rcraid.inf". This will be the second driver to be installed. When it completes you'll be back on the drive select screen but now you will see your array. Don't install yet though, or you'll get an error.
   3. Select "Load Drivers" for the last time and browse to your raid driver folder again. Now a new driver called "cfg.info" will appear. This stands for config, and you'll need to install it as well. 
4. Back on the drive select screen you can finally select your raid array (match by name or drive size) and install windows!

NOTE: if during this last step windows says it can't be installed on your drive due to controller compatibility, then you'll need to check your bios settings. This usually means safe boot or boot compatibility mode (CSM on Asus boards) is still enabled.

I hope this helps someone!