Threadripper 2950x nvme raid stupid issues….

[MaverickMP]

Hey guys… at about my wits end with this. I’ve looked and fooled a few different websites on how to get my 4x nvme pcie adapter working in raid on my x399 system. 
 

as you can see in the pictures, I have a 4tb array in raid0 set up in the bios 

 

I downloaded the latest raid x399 nvme did drivers and tried installing them in the windows installer multiple times. But no matter what I do, windows never sees more than one of the 4 drives in the array in the windows installation screen. I should be seeing all 4tb. I’m making sure to install the did drivers in the correct order, and the drive size never changes. 
 

anyone else experience this?

 

im running a 2950x on a zenith extreme. I’ve got 2 1tb drives on the dimm.2 and one other next to the PCH (that I one is my boot drive)

 

really want to get this system up and running with 7tb of storage but i just can’t figure this raid thing out.

 

any help would be appreciated!

[Bombastinator]

Raid is famous for not working all that well with nvme. 

[Soundbored]

I found a few resources that might help you with your issue. According to ¹, you can download the latest AMD RAIDXpert2 package to obtain the NVMe RAID driver and management software. You should also update the BIOS for your AMD X399-based motherboard to add BIOS support for NVMe RAID. Finally, install two or more NVMe SSDs to your system.

You can also check out this video which explains how to setup AMD nvme raid array and install Windows on raid.

I hope this helps!

[MaverickMP]

51 minutes ago, Soundbored said:

I found a few resources that might help you with your issue. According to ¹, you can download the latest AMD RAIDXpert2 package to obtain the NVMe RAID driver and management software. You should also update the BIOS for your AMD X399-based motherboard to add BIOS support for NVMe RAID. Finally, install two or more NVMe SSDs to your system.

You can also check out this video which explains how to setup AMD nvme raid array and install Windows on raid.

I hope this helps!

I’m one revision older than the latest bios for that board, and nvme raid is already supported.  I think I’ll try initializing the raid once I have windows fully installed and updated. Then Use the raid xpert software in windows to try to initialize and set up raid0. Because I’m getting no love in doing it through bios. If that doesn’t work, then oh well. Back to 3tb for me….

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, MaverickMP said:

I’m one revision older than the latest bios for that board, and nvme raid is already supported.  I think I’ll try initializing the raid once I have windows fully installed and updated. Then Use the raid xpert software in windows to try to initialize and set up raid0. Because I’m getting no love in doing it through bios. If that doesn’t work, then oh well. Back to 3tb for me….

You need to load the amd drivers when your in the installer. That driver is what combines the 4 drives into 1 raid array.

[MaverickMP]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You need to load the amd drivers when your in the installer. That driver is what combines the 4 drives into 1 raid array.

Yea and that’s the weird thing. I’ve gone that multiple times, in the right order and it still only shows 1tb of storage instead of the 4tb in raid0

[MaverickMP]

Making progress…. 
 

Got the raid drivers from the zenith product page and now when I load the rcbottom driver it clears all the drives in the windows install screen. However, now when I try to install the RC raid controller driver I’m stuck on the install screen. The green progress bar just keeps flashing….

[Robchil]

make sure the raid volume is set to GPT.. not MBR..  it's a 2 TB limit. 

at the windows install disk selection screen select load driver. and find the unpacked raid drivers you left in a directory on the install usb. 

 

[MaverickMP]

1 hour ago, Robchil said:

make sure the raid volume is set to GPT.. not MBR..  it's a 2 TB limit. 

at the windows install disk selection screen select load driver. and find the unpacked raid drivers you left in a directory on the install usb. 

 

I don’t see anywhere in bios to set the volume type…

[Robchil]

20 minutes ago, MaverickMP said:

I don’t see anywhere in bios to set the volume type…

it's a microsoft setting. so only in windows.. so forget about it for now..  if you only see 2TB after install that's what you have to change. 

 

so when you see all those drives.. that you shouldn't see.. you should probably turn the physical disk off that you show in the last picture.. but ok.. select load driver and load the raid driver previously mentioned. after loading them, you should see the 4TB volume too. 

 

EDIT: if you ever need to update firmware on them you can enable to show physical disks on.. or you won't be able unless you break the raid up. (i think) 

I have that problem on my raid.. 

[MaverickMP]

This is the screen it hangs on when trying to install the raid driver. I let it sit overnight and the machine must have rebooted because when I woke up this am the screen was back to the main windows installation screen.

[MaverickMP]

10 minutes ago, Robchil said:

it's a microsoft setting. so only in windows.. so forget about it for now..  if you only see 2TB after install that's what you have to change. 

 

so when you see all those drives.. that you shouldn't see.. you should probably turn the physical disk off that you show in the last picture.. but ok.. select load driver and load the raid driver previously mentioned. after loading them, you should see the 4TB volume too. 

 

And I’ve tried the official raid driver from AMD, and both versions that are available for this board on the asus website. 
 

this is the 4x nvme card I’m using 

https://www.inateck.com/products/pcie-x16-to-m-2-card-with-4-nvme-ssds-supported-built-in-cooling-fan-kn4338?_pos=21&_sid=89ae1cd11&_ss=r

[Robchil]

7 minutes ago, MaverickMP said:

This is the screen it hangs on when trying to install the raid driver. I let it sit overnight and the machine must have rebooted because when I woke up this am the screen was back to the main windows installation screen.

did you extract them so you have the files in a directory?.. on intel it takes usually 2-3 minutes or it's something wrong. last i checked it was 4 files... 

altho these are stored in your bios file.. it could be possible that your bios is out of space. 

 

[MaverickMP]

Just now, MaverickMP said:

And I’ve tried the official raid driver from AMD, and both versions that are available for this board on the asus website. 
 

this is the 4x nvme card I’m using 

https://www.inateck.com/products/pcie-x16-to-m-2-card-with-4-nvme-ssds-supported-built-in-cooling-fan-kn4338?_pos=21&_sid=89ae1cd11&_ss=r

I’m worried that this isn’t a compatible raid card. I’d be okay with just bifurcating the pcie slot and just having 41tb drives, but I don’t think you can do that. I mean, I’ve tried and that’s not working either

[MaverickMP]

1 minute ago, Robchil said:

did you extract them so you have the files in a directory?.. on intel it takes usually 2-3 minutes or it's something wrong. last i checked it was 4 files... 

altho these are stored in your bios file.. it could be possible that your bios is out of space. 

 

Hmmm yea okay that’s weird. Not it’s just rebooting the windows installer when I try to install the raid driver….

[Robchil]

24 minutes ago, MaverickMP said:

I’m worried that this isn’t a compatible raid card. I’d be okay with just bifurcating the pcie slot and just having 41tb drives, but I don’t think you can do that. I mean, I’ve tried and that’s not working either

those raid drivers you'r trying to install are for the onboard RAID controller. yeah not sure if that is supported with that card. 

honestly.. i would add one nvme to your mainboard directly. and install your OS on that and THEN install the raid drivers for it. so you get your 4TB drive. 

 

still .. turn off show physical drives.. you don't want to see that when you have your raid up. 

 

EDIT: i see you set your PCIE port to RAID mode.. can you select HYPER M.2 X16 at all? .. if so set it to that. 

 

your SATA mode should only be for SATA disks.. not nvme's.. you should set it to AHCI unless you plan on setting sata's to RAID too. 

 

i would set up system drives as internal nvme's.. and those on the DIMM2.. and when doing that.. take out the RAID addon controller and set it up when windows is installed 

 

EDIT again.. just see you installed windows on your onboard nvme drive.  you should be able to create a RAID0 with that one and those on the DIMM2..  but to reduce risk of failure i would take out the DIMM2.. and create a separate RAID0 volume after windows is installed. for 2TB.. then when that is visible and works.. add the addoncard. set up volume, don't show the physical drives. it should be visible in disk manager after loading.... drivers should be installed in windows. for the DIMM raid. 

 

[MaverickMP]

32 minutes ago, Robchil said:

those raid drivers you'r trying to install are for the onboard RAID controller. yeah not sure if that is supported with that card. 

honestly.. i would add one nvme to your mainboard directly. and install your OS on that and THEN install the raid drivers for it. so you get your 4TB drive. 

 

still .. turn off show physical drives.. you don't want to see that when you have your raid up. 

 

EDIT: i see you set your PCIE port to RAID mode.. can you select HYPER M.2 X16 at all? .. if so set it to that. 

 

your SATA mode should only be for SATA disks.. not nvme's.. you should set it to AHCI unless you plan on setting sata's to RAID too. 

 

i would set up system drives as internal nvme's.. and those on the DIMM2.. and when doing that.. take out the RAID addon controller and set it up when windows is installed 

 

 

So right now I have 3 1tb nvme’s installed on the board directly. One next to the PCH , and 2 installed in the dimm.2.

 

there isn’t a “hyper m.2” option for pcie. Just pcie16x and raid mode.

 

I don’t see anywhere on that product page that it’s a RAID compatible card but I’m not sure if that matters. I’m just suprised that you can just set the pcie hyper m.2 and not have to worry about setting up raid mode

[MaverickMP]

1 hour ago, Robchil said:

those raid drivers you'r trying to install are for the onboard RAID controller. yeah not sure if that is supported with that card. 

honestly.. i would add one nvme to your mainboard directly. and install your OS on that and THEN install the raid drivers for it. so you get your 4TB drive. 

 

still .. turn off show physical drives.. you don't want to see that when you have your raid up. 

 

EDIT: i see you set your PCIE port to RAID mode.. can you select HYPER M.2 X16 at all? .. if so set it to that. 

 

your SATA mode should only be for SATA disks.. not nvme's.. you should set it to AHCI unless you plan on setting sata's to RAID too. 

 

i would set up system drives as internal nvme's.. and those on the DIMM2.. and when doing that.. take out the RAID addon controller and set it up when windows is installed 

 

EDIT again.. just see you installed windows on your onboard nvme drive.  you should be able to create a RAID0 with that one and those on the DIMM2..  but to reduce risk of failure i would take out the DIMM2.. and create a separate RAID0 volume after windows is installed. for 2TB.. then when that is visible and works.. add the addoncard. set up volume, don't show the physical drives. it should be visible in disk manager after loading.... drivers should be installed in windows. for the DIMM raid. 

 

Not sure what you mean by “turn off show physical drives”. I don’t think I have that set anywhere.

[Robchil]

13 minutes ago, MaverickMP said:

Not sure what you mean by “turn off show physical drives”. I don’t think I have that set anywhere.

your last picture in the first post .. is it on or off.. under  associated physical disk:   ?

[MaverickMP]

1 hour ago, Robchil said:

your last picture in the first post .. is it on or off.. under  associated physical disk:   ?

Off.

 

so from what I understand, this should be the order of doing things:

 

1.pull dimm.2 and hyper card out. 

2. fresh install of win 10 on the main NVME (install raid drivers at this time)

3. Fully update windows and install raidxpert software

4. install dimm.2 and boot to windows

5. set up dimm.2 as a 2tb raid array in bios, boot to win 10 and initialize array in raid xpert software. Then power down.

6. Install hyper cars and set up raid array in bios

7. boot to windows and initialize hyper raid array in raid xpert software

 

something like that??

[MaverickMP]

Even after taking all the add in cards out, deleting the arrays and trying a windows install with a single m.2 installed on the board, windows installation keeps resetting when I try to install the raid driver….

 

[Robchil]

59 minutes ago, MaverickMP said:

Off.

 

so from what I understand, this should be the order of doing things:

 

1.pull dimm.2 and hyper card out. 

2. fresh install of win 10 on the main NVME (install raid drivers at this time)

3. Fully update windows and install raidxpert software

4. install dimm.2 and boot to windows

5. set up dimm.2 as a 2tb raid array in bios, boot to win 10 and initialize array in raid xpert software. Then power down.

6. Install hyper cars and set up raid array in bios

7. boot to windows and initialize hyper raid array in raid xpert software

 

something like that??

2. don't need to install RAID drivers if you'r not installing windows on a RAID. 

 

the rest seems correct. 

26 minutes ago, MaverickMP said:

Even after taking all the add in cards out, deleting the arrays and trying a windows install with a single m.2 installed on the board, windows installation keeps resetting when I try to install the raid driver….

 

don't install raid drivers there. first inside windows when setup is complete. 

it will change your install as far as i remember so you might have the DIMM inserted and installed before booting up again, and enter bios and set up raid on them if you want it. 

 

[MaverickMP]

1 hour ago, Robchil said:

2. don't need to install RAID drivers if you'r not installing windows on a RAID. 

 

the rest seems correct. 

don't install raid drivers there. first inside windows when setup is complete. 

it will change your install as far as i remember so you might have the DIMM inserted and installed before booting up again, and enter bios and set up raid on them if you want it. 

 

Got windows installed, but when I load the raidexpert software to install the drivers I get this error…

[Robchil]

50 minutes ago, MaverickMP said:

Got windows installed, but when I load the raidexpert software to install the drivers I get this error…

create a raid first? 

with the nvme's on the DIMM?

[MaverickMP]

1 hour ago, Robchil said:

create a raid first? 

with the nvme's on the DIMM?

I made a raid on the dimm.2 in storage spaces. But I can still only see one of the 4 team group nvme drives in the hyper m.2 card in device manager….