NVME raid Windows installation problems..

[Plato79]

Actually the problem is not about installing Windows but booting that installed Windows...

So, I built my system last weekend.

MB: Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming
CPU: Ryzen 5900X
GPU: Asus RTX 3080
RAM: 4x32 GB Patriot Viper 3600 MHz.
NVME: 2xSamsung PM9A1 2 TB Gen4 drives.
SATA: Ranging from 2 TB to 12 TB, several drives.

There were some hiccups when building like stuck in Q-code "02", not seeing M.2 drives at BIOS. I solved "02" problem with updating BIOS via BIOS Flashback, and ignored the other one because it seems it's ok if they're not there ( is it? ). Maybe I should clarify this. I don't see the NVME drives in AHCI mode, but I can see them in RaidXpert2 clearly.

Anyway.. I configured BIOS like this:

Enabled SATA RAID, and NVME RAID, Entered RaidXpert2 Configuration and Created a new RAID0 array with my two NVME drives. BTW, I'm still not sure enabling SATA RAID is really required, although AMD documentation says Enable, not sure why.

Disabled Launch CSM ( Weird thing, AMD's documentation says enable CSM, but I read disable on other places )

Set Secure Boot to Windows UEFI etc.

I didn't see RAID drivers on ASUS support site. There is one but it's for installing on Windows not for putting in USB. Clearly I should have checked DVD came with the drive.. You know, everybody should have some kind of DVD drive to read those DVDs... Some suppliers give USB driver disks now, ASUS should learn from them.

Anyway I downloaded those RAID drivers directly from AMD, deciding it would be more up to date anyway. Created my Windows 10 Enterprise install media via Rufus, put drivers in it and booted. I don't know why it shows two UEFI devices when I insert only one drive, but only one of them boots so no problem there..

After booting I loaded rcbottom, rcraid and rcconfig drivers with this order. After rcraid I saw my NVME RAID drive and other SATA drives. I selected my NVME drive and installed Windows.. There was no problem at all...

The problem was after reboot.. There is nothing.. I mean nothing on BIOS, nothing on boot.. There is no indication that a Windows installation exists anywhere.. I also looked up videos of Windows 10 installation on NVME raid and there is no indication that I need to switch a BIOS setting or something on them. There is installed Windows on RAID array but it doesn't show up at boot. I can see there are partitions created and some of the space filled on RAID array if I run setup again, but I cannot boot from it. 

So what's my problem.. What am I doing wrong? How can I boot the Windows I installed?

[Vins69]

33 minutes ago, Plato79 said:

BTW, I'm still not sure enabling SATA RAID is really required, although AMD documentation says Enable

Really?

[Vins69]

I would check this part of the manual, especially the M2 slots we're considering for RAID

 

[Vins69]

And I think you should disable RAID for SATA if you don't plan to build a SATA RAID

[Plato79]

5 hours ago, Vins69 said:

I would check this part of the manual, especially the M2 slots we're considering for RAID

 

Those setting is for PCIe NVME adapter cards. You know those that has 2/4 M.2 slots on it. So, it's not actually required for onboard M.2 ports.

 

The weird thing is RAID is playing nicely when installing Windows, but after installation finished ( files finished copying ) at the first reboot, there is no sign of it anywhere except until the drivers are loaded into a Windows installation again. So if I choose to boot from another device I think my problems will be solved but I don't really understand why it doesn't work.

 

Also, yes, I'm not planning to use SATA RAID at all. I'm in the fence about enabling/disabling SATA RAID. The documentation says so, but I couldn't see why it is required. Although when enabled, there are some changes on RaidXpert2 configuration. Instead of 2 NVME controllers there are 4 controllers visible. Two of them is named AMD-RAID etc etc.. I think RAID mode is putting NVME disks under RAID so, I'm not really sure that's what I need. Even though it shows like that in controller, there is no change on Array Creation. It still shows my array created from 2 NVME drives.

 

Another thing I'm considering is, while I'm installing Windows by selecting Raid array disk and clicking next, does it really create EFI partition on it? If I reboot and enter install again, I see two partitions on the RAID array. One is labeled "MSR" the other one is probably NTFS partition which Windows 10 installation resides ( it's around 3800 GB )..  Shouldn't I have to see a "System" partition or something like that?

 

I'm still not sure what the problem is, it seems BIOS don't recognize NVME RAID array as whole, and that's why I can't see the boot option. That's my idea of course but I don't know the situation. It's stupid when the Windows Installation media recognizes RAID array but BIOS doesn't. Bummer...

 

I'll open a ticket to ASUS and ask them to clarify the steps to install Windows 10 to a NVME RAID array if I can't find a solution.

[Plato79]

1 hour ago, Plato79 said:

Another thing I'm considering is, while I'm installing Windows by selecting Raid array disk and clicking next, does it really create EFI partition on it? If I reboot and enter install again, I see two partitions on the RAID array. One is labeled "MSR" the other one is probably NTFS partition which Windows 10 installation resides ( it's around 3800 GB )..  Shouldn't I have to see a "System" partition or something like that?

Ok, this was the problem.. When I selected the drive and selected "New" instead of clicking next it created "System" and "Recovery" partitions on the disk and it is now bootable. 

 

Usually only clicking "Next" works but I think I know why it didn't create the "System" partition:

 

There was already a "System" partition on the 12 TB Seagate Exos Drive which I restored my Windows partition to. So it skipped creating another "System" partition on the RAID disk.

 

Now I know installing Windows and booting on this partition works.. I should try to solve my other problem.