M.2 RAID set-up help

TomR1945 · Nov 21, 2023

I’m trying to set up a RAID array using four M.2 Gen 4 NVMe SSDs. They are identical 4 Tb drives mounted on a PCIE X16 expansion card. The motherboard is a Z790 Aorus Elite AX, the processor is an Intel i7-13700K, 64 Gb DDR5 5600 RAM.

Currently, I am using two HDDs, one 8 TB and the other 14 TB.

I have well over 850 GB of mixed data spread over the two HDDs, an M.2 Gen 4 NVMe 4 Tb boot drive and an M.2 Gen 4 NVMe 4 Tb Data drive. Everything is uploaded to OneDrive and available on my PC.

After many years of collecting all this and needing to add another TB to my OneDrive account, I wanted to see how much duplication I had. Long story short… over 60% of my data were duplicates!

Using an app to find and remove duplication is what made me want to try this approach to speed everything up. Searching through all the different drives and multiple partitions took forever. Several searches took over 40 hours to complete. Then another 25 hours or so to delete the dups.

So, if you have read this far, you have come to the reason for this post.

Does anyone with RAID experience care to assist me in setting this up?

Things I am aware of.

There are many ways to do this.
There are better ways to do this.
There are cheaper ways to do this.

Notes.

I’m bored and this is what I want to do.
I have already purchased the M.2 drives.
I have already purchased the PCIE expansion card.
I have an open PCIE X16 slot as I do not need the graphics card.

Thank you for getting through this!

Tom R.

dacrone · Nov 21, 2023

~~does your system have a raid controller?~~ clearly didn't read close enough. what raid are you wanting to create?

TomR1945 · Nov 21, 2023

dacrone said:
does your system have a raid controller?

The motherboard supports it as far as I know.
I am waiting for a responce from Aorus.

dacrone · Nov 21, 2023

i edited my post assuming that your Expansion card was a raid controller. all good. just let us know when you hear back and we can go from there. there are many ways, like you stated. Disk Management, Intel Optane, etc.

TomR1945 · Nov 21, 2023

dacrone said:
~~does your system have a raid controller?~~ clearly didn't read close enough. what raid are you wanting to create?

Here is where I need help. I have read pro and con of the different types, but am unsure which is best for my needs.

dacrone · Nov 21, 2023

Do you want them to mirror each other? Or do you want all of the storage space to show as one large drive?

In other words, are you wanting redundancy or space?

Rollback_Jockey · Nov 21, 2023

https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_intel700series-raid_e.pdf?v=3b19103d8b9c27e75cf95b89263efce1

TomR1945 · Nov 21, 2023

Rollback_Jockey said:
https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_intel700series-raid_e.pdf?v=3b19103d8b9c27e75cf95b89263efce1

Thank you for the link. It will help tremendously.

TomR1945 · Nov 21, 2023

dacrone said:
Do you want them to mirror each other? Or do you want all of the storage space to show as one large drive?

In other words, are you wanting redundancy or space?

I believe redundancy. I will have a total of 22 Tb storage.
However, the most important reason is speed!

TomR1945 · Nov 23, 2023

OK, time for an update!
After the imput I received here and further research, I don't belive the RAID array is what I need. What I knew about them was not exactly accurate.
I now realize what I am after is JBOD! I want space and performance not security. RAID 0 would fill that need, however, I do not want one large drive. I want 4 individual drives to replacre two HDDs with 5 individual partitions. By using 4 Gen 4 4Tb M.2 drives, I will have the space and performance I want and will be able to eliminate both of the snail paced HDDs.

So, now that I have the PCIE expansion card, I am wondering if it will do what I want.

Here is the card I have. Quad NVMe PCIe Adapter, RIITOP 4 Ports M.2 NVMe SSD to PCI-e 4.0/3.0 x16 Card with Fan Support 2280/2260/2242/2230 NVMe SSD (PCI-e Bifurcation Required)

Sorry, couldn't figure out how to make it a link. Just copy & paste.

Thoughts and comments are always welcome!

TomR

bobkn · Nov 25, 2023

I've never used JBOD. It seems to be a way to combine multiple drives into a single logical drive.

I suppose that you could partition that drive, but the point escapes me.

It sounds like you don't want any sort of RAID.

Years ago, I used 4 disks in RAID 10. Every time the PC crashed (more common then), the array was reverified. Took hours, even though the drives were only 500GB each. The machine was still usable during that time, but with degraded HD performance. Sort of ruined my taste for RAID. I haven't used it since. (If I ever go to an external array, Raid 5 seems like the way to go.)

TomR1945 · Nov 27, 2023

Another update!
I am still trying to get the 4 M.2 NVME drives setup on my desktop.
Further research convinced me I do NOT want a RAID array OR JBOD.
For the Raid setup, I do not want/need redundancy.
For JBOD, I do NOT want one large drive.
I do not know what to call this, but I want the 4 M.2 drives to be totally independent and operate as stand-alone drives.
I have the above-mentioned PCIE expansion card and the drives are mounted.
What I need now is to know what changes to the BIOS settings I need to make for the PC to see the 4 individual drives.
Everything I have found so far is aimed at setting up a RAID array.

I need help! This project has turned into a technical nightmare for me, WAY above my level of expertese!

Thank you.

TomR.

bobkn · Nov 27, 2023

That sort of thing is beyond me, but do you have PCI-E Bifurcation enabled in the BIOS settings? The BIOS manual implies that it's set to "auto" by default. If it is set that way, it may be possible to manual set it up for 4 X 4.

I believe it's required for the M.2 drives to show up as individual devices.

Good luck.

pparks1 · Nov 27, 2023

TomR1945 said:
I do not know what to call this, but I want the 4 M.2 drives to be totally independent and operate as stand-alone drives.
I have the above-mentioned PCIE expansion card and the drives are mounted.
What I need now is to know what changes to the BIOS settings I need to make for the PC to see the 4 individual drives.
Everything I have found so far is aimed at setting up a RAID array.

I need help! This project has turned into a technical nightmare for me, WAY above my level of expertese!

Thank you.

TomR.

you shouldn't have to do anything. The drives should show up in disk management within windows already. You will just initialize each, format each and have 4 stand alone drives.

TomR1945 · Dec 6, 2023

pparks1 said:
you shouldn't have to do anything. The drives should show up in disk management within windows already. You will just initialize each, format each and have 4 stand alone drives.

Sorry for not seeing you post sooner.

Yeah, thats what I thought. After many hours of experimenting, I gave up and called in an IT Guru.
After his 3 1/2 hours of tinkering, he came to the conclusion that the BIOS, or the Intel chipset, or the MB, or any combination of the three did not support the function.

So, I am now waiting on a new MB that does support the installation. MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI.

bobkn · Dec 6, 2023

Strange.

I don't own the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX, but the BIOS manual for it indicates that it supports PCI-E bifurcation on the X16 slot.

Which is not the slot I'd care to use, as I always use a discrete graphics card.

I haven't found any documentation that the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI does a better job of PCI-E bifurcation, but it may.

To use an I7-13700K, you'd need BIOS 7D30v17 or later. If by some chance your board comes with an older BIOS, the manual indicates that it can be updated without having a CPU installed. (That's a relatively high-end feature, IMHO.)

Best of luck.

TomR1945 · Dec 6, 2023

I believe I found the source of the problem. According to Intel, the Z790 chipset is not compatible with what I am trying to do.
I ended up ordering a different motherboard with a different chipset.

Dru2 · Dec 6, 2023

TomR1945 said:
After his 3 1/2 hours of tinkering, he came to the conclusion that the BIOS, or the Intel chipset, or the MB, or any combination of the three did not support the function.

What version of RAID were they trying to setup. Did they check to see if the board supported such a configuration?

Also there are lots of people claiming to be PC techs, but.... and especially if they're not familiar with modern tech. Th old ways of doing certain things no longer apply, and thus a little bit of manual reading is required.

Anyway, according to the RAID setup guide for your board (Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX) at Gigabyte's site as found > here (PDF file), says your board does support RAID 10 (if you wish to use the 4 SSD drives in that configuration).

Point here is the board does 4 drives for RAID configuration. You just have to prep the BIOS and follow the RAID setup instructions. That even if you get a different board, you'll still have to follow instructions as thing may not always be standard.

BTW, you can find manuals and drivers for your Gigabyte board > here. Just click the support link.

Good luck.

Dru2 · Dec 6, 2023

TomR1945 said:
I believe I found the source of the problem. According to Intel, the Z790 chipset is not compatible with what I am trying to do.
I ended up ordering a different motherboard with a different chipset.

Link?

And for clarity... what specifically are you trying to do??? Which goes back to my question - which RAID array are you seeking???

Which RAID Array is Better to Use for 4 Drives

Which RAID array is better to use for 4 drives? If you are wondering then you are in the right place. Here you will find out which RAID is better to use in case of having 4 drives only.

www.diskinternals.com

TomR1945 · Dec 6, 2023

Dru2 said:
What version of RAID were they trying to setup. Did they check to see if the board supported such a configuration?

Also there are lots of people claiming to be PC techs, but.... and especially if they're not familiar with modern tech. Th old ways of doing certain things no longer apply, and thus a little bit of manual reading is required.

Anyway, according to the RAID setup guide for your board (Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX) at Gigabyte's site as found > here (PDF file), says your board does support RAID 10 (if you wish to use the 4 SSD drives in that configuration).

Point here is the board does 4 drives for RAID configuration. You just have to prep the BIOS and follow the RAID setup instructions. That even if you get a different board, you'll still have to follow instructions as thing may not always be standard.

BTW, you can find manuals and drivers for your Gigabyte board > here. Just click the support link.

Good luck.

I didn’t want a RAID array or JBOD as neither would result in 4 individual drives.
Also, my IT guy is the real thing! He has a company that maintains severs for many local businesses and even has several hospitals as clients.

M.2 RAID set-up help

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