Raid 5 issues / setting up for 1st time

[Gigawatt]

Hello all,

 

I'm trying to setup raid 5 for the first time on my Windows 10 Pro version machine. When I go into diskmgmt RAID 5 is grayed out. I also tried using "Storage Spaces" via control panel but receive an error when trying to make an array. 

 

Any thoughts?

 

Screenshot of Storage Spaces error. 

 

[LIGISTX]

2 minutes ago, Gigawatt said:

Hello all,

 

I'm trying to setup raid 5 for the first time on my Windows 10 Pro version machine. When I go into diskmgmt RAID 5 is grayed out. I also tried using "Storage Spaces" via control panel but receive an error when trying to make an array. 

 

Any thoughts?

 

Screenshot of Storage Spaces error. 

 

Does your motherboard support RAID? Can always do it in hardware...

 

That said, software is likely more resilient as it won't rely on a certain mobo implementation.

 

I have only done hardware RAID in windows, so I really don't know much. The only advice I had was doing it in your mobo as it almost certainly has RAID 5 support. 

[Gigawatt]

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

Does your motherboard support RAID? Can always do it in hardware...

 

That said, software is likely more resilient as it won't rely on a certain mobo implementation.

 

I have only done hardware RAID in windows, so I really don't know much. The only advice I had was doing it in your mobo as it almost certainly has RAID 5 support. 

I guess I could try that. I'd have to start over though if I setup Raid via hareware then I'll have to re-install windows though. 

[LIGISTX]

Just now, Gigawatt said:

I guess I could try that. I'd have to start over though if I setup Raid via hareware then I'll have to re-install windows though. 

O, well, wait. Do you have windows installed on one of those 4 TB drives? If so, thats your issue. You can't set up RAID after the fact.

 

If you don't have windows on one of those drives your trying to build into the RAID pool, then it will work fine.

 

Also though, why are you trying to set up a RAID 5 array? If you intend to run windows on that array, I wouldn't really recommend that... There is math involved in reading and writing to a RAID 5 array, and the performance hit, to already slow mechanical drives, wouldn't be the most fun system to use. RAID 5 can read faster than a single drive, but writes, depending on the situation, can be slower. 

[Gigawatt]

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

O, well, wait. Do you have windows installed on one of those 4 TB drives? If so, thats your issue. You can't set up RAID after the fact.

 

If you don't have windows on one of those drives your trying to build into the RAID pool, then it will work fine.

 

Also though, why are you trying to set up a RAID 5 array? If you intend to run windows on that array, I wouldn't really recommend that... There is math involved in reading and writing to a RAID 5 array, and the performance hit, to already slow mechanical drives, wouldn't be the most fun system to use. RAID 5 can read faster than a single drive, but writes, depending on the situation, can be slower. 

Windows is installed on my SSD which is Disk0. Disk1 is my Plex movies, 2-4 are empty. 

 

[Arrogath]

1 minute ago, Gigawatt said:

Windows is installed on my SSD which is Disk0. Disk1 is my Plex movies, 2-4 are empty. 

 

maybe if you delete the existing partitions so that the disks are unassigned disk space, I kind of doubt it but worth a try

edit: you will have to reformat once you make the raid array anyway

[Gigawatt]

1 minute ago, Arrogath said:

maybe if you delete the existing partitions so that the disks are unassigned disk space, I kind of doubt it but worth a try

Yeah same thing....

 

 

[LIGISTX]

2 minutes ago, Gigawatt said:

Windows is installed on my SSD which is Disk0. Disk1 is my Plex movies, 2-4 are empty. 

Then you wouldn't need to reformat. You would need to put your SATA devices into RAID mode, and if your using a SSD that is SATA, that would cause windows to not boot correctly. You can easily fix this though, just google windows boot AHCI RAID and things will pop up.... I have done it many times myself, just off hand I don't remember.

 

But again, why is RAID 5 desired? I assume you want a little data redundancy, but just remember, RAID IS NOT A BACKUP. And RAID 5 IS REALLY NOT A BACKUP. If its just for movies and such that you can "easily" replace, its fine. If it was for "important" information, RAID 5 isn't enough redundancy.

[Arrogath]

1 minute ago, Gigawatt said:

Yeah same thing....

 

 

are all the sata connections through the same section of lanes, or are some of them being routed through the chipset lanes or something. I know that can give you difficulty

[Arrogath]

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

Then you wouldn't need to reformat. You would need to put your SATA devices into RAID mode, and if your using a SSD that is SATA, that would cause windows to not boot correctly. You can easily fix this though, just google windows boot AHCI RAID and things will pop up.... I have done it many times myself, just off hand I don't remember.

 

But again, why is RAID 5 desired? I assume you want a little data redundancy, but just remember, RAID IS NOT A BACKUP. And RAID 5 IS REALLY NOT A BACKUP. If its just for movies and such that you can "easily" replace, its fine. If it was for "important" information, RAID 5 isn't enough redundancy.

I totally forgot about setting up each sata device to raid mode in the bios >.>

[LIGISTX]

Just now, Arrogath said:

I totally forgot about setting up each sata device to raid mode in the bios >.>

That is only required for mobo hardware RAID. For windows software RAID it shouldn't be needed at all.

 

And its not every individual device, its usually the entire controller. So all SATA ports on the mobo (Assuming a single controller mobo) would respect the setting you set. At least, this is how it worked years ago when I used to use hardware RAID 0 for my short stroked 10k rpm Velociraptors in RAID 0.... lol. Its been a while for sure.

[Gigawatt]

4 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Then you wouldn't need to reformat. You would need to put your SATA devices into RAID mode, and if your using a SSD that is SATA, that would cause windows to not boot correctly. You can easily fix this though, just google windows boot AHCI RAID and things will pop up.... I have done it many times myself, just off hand I don't remember.

 

But again, why is RAID 5 desired? I assume you want a little data redundancy, but just remember, RAID IS NOT A BACKUP. And RAID 5 IS REALLY NOT A BACKUP. If its just for movies and such that you can "easily" replace, its fine. If it was for "important" information, RAID 5 isn't enough redundancy.

 

 

Is this what your referring to here?

 

I bought it for redundancy for my movies so I won't loose them on my Plex server. 

[LIGISTX]

4 minutes ago, Gigawatt said:

 

 

Is this what your referring to here?

 

I bought it for redundancy for my movies so I won't loose them on my Plex server. 

You would want to go the other way, AHCI to RAID.

https://blog.workinghardinit.work/2018/11/28/moving-from-ahci-to-raid/

That said, you would only have to do this if you plan on using your motherboards hardware RAID. And remember, it is possible, if your motherboard dies and you replace it with another one (not the same model), you won't be able to get into the drives any longer as the RAID controller would be different. That is a potential risk to consider.

 

I wish I could help you more with the windows RAID options, I just personally don't have any experience. 

[Gigawatt]

3 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

You would want to go the other way, AHCI to RAID.

https://blog.workinghardinit.work/2018/11/28/moving-from-ahci-to-raid/

That said, you would only have to do this if you plan on using your motherboards hardware RAID. And remember, it is possible, if your motherboard dies and you replace it with another one (not the same model), you won't be able to get into the drives any longer as the RAID controller would be different. That is a potential risk to consider.

 

I wish I could help you more with the windows RAID options, I just personally don't have any experience. 

 

 

Thanks for all your help LIGISTX and your quick responses, I'll look into this sir. Have a good evening.