Just upgraded to RAID 0. Few Questions?

[AndreH121]

I just added a second Intel 730 480GB SSD to my system and used the ASUS motherboard EZ config to convert it to RAID 0. My new Windows 8.1 system seems to be running fine but I have a few questions. I notice boot-up time takes longer (it seems to show a Intel RAID screen as well as 2 separate ASUS BIOS screens). Is there a way to shorten this boot-up time or is it normal for RAID 0? Also is there a way to use TRIM or other speed maintainance since the Intel SSD toolbox doesn't support Optimize TRIM in RAID 0? Thanks.

 

[Cerb]

Everything you see before the Windows logo/animation screen is the motherboard. In RAID, you probably have to wait for it all, though if you can set things up for fast startup, that could help some. 8.1 system seems to be running fine but I have a few questions. I notice boot-up time takes longer (it seems to show a Intel RAID screen as well as 2 separate ASUS BIOS screens). Is there a way to shorten this boot-up time or is it normal for RAID 0? Also is there a way to use TRIM or other speed maintainance since the Intel SSD toolbox doesn't support Optimize TRIM in RAID 0?

Why do you need a toolbox for TRIM? Just use it. It will do it incrementally, and then do a full pass (optimize) scheduled w/ HDD defrags.

 

[radeson]

you could always use windows disk manager to create a "striped volume" you would have to re-enable ACHI in your bios. Then boot up, type in disk manager in search, or right click on this pc and click manage, then click on disk manager on the left. Right click on the discs you want to use and erase volume. Then right click on one of them again and click "create new striped volume". I tried this and I'm getting the same benchmark scores. Although its a little riskier from what I hear, because windows is managing the raid not your mobo, and i guess its a little harder to retrieve the data if windows crashes. But not impossible.

 

[radeson]

But then you wouldnt have to go through your raid drivers booting and a double post at startup.....

 

[smitbret]

I just added a second Intel 730 480GB SSD to my system and used the ASUS motherboard EZ config to convert it to RAID 0. My new Windows 8.1 system seems to be running fine but I have a few questions. I notice boot-up time takes longer (it seems to show a Intel RAID screen as well as 2 separate ASUS BIOS screens). Is there a way to shorten this boot-up time or is it normal for RAID 0? Also is there a way to use TRIM or other speed maintainance since the Intel SSD toolbox doesn't support Optimize TRIM in RAID 0? Thanks.

You do know that you probably aren't getting any real-world benefit from doing this and that your odds of data loss are doubled since you will lose anything stored on any device if either of the HDDs dies?

 

[rgallant]

"Is there a way to shorten this boot-up time or is it normal for RAID 0?"
I have a option on my board to :
keep the existing set up [keep current] and not show it during boot or show the control I option to manage the raid set up. = slower boot to enter raid rom window
my words as bios wording might be drifferent on your bios if it has that option.

btw
also I went raid 0 to double the OS storage of my sam 840 pro 256gb ,second one was on sale .

 

[radeson]

I found a fix to your problem with boot time AndreH121: If you have an AMD motherboard with a later version of BIOS then there should be an option in the BOOT section called "INT19 Trap Response" you need to change this to immediate, not delayed. This will stop the delay in post. But be careful.... If you ever want to get back into your raid utility, then you need to set it back to delayed because this option causes the bios to skip right past the little 1 or 2 second window for the raid utility.

Also, I'm still having problems enabling trim support on my raid 0 setup. But I am using AMD's "Option ROM", and everybody else seems to be using the INTEL drivers. But if i find a fix to my problem that doesn't involve the driver of either I will post back here...

 

[AndreH121]

Is the defrag/optimize drive command under the Windows 8.1 control panel the same thing as TRIM or am I mistaken?

 

[radeson]

That is manual trim. It is NOT the same as having trim enabled in windows. If you want to make sure trim is emabled in windows open the cmd prompt as administrator and type: "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify" if the results are "0" (zero) then trim is enabled. If it comes back as "1" (one) then it is disabled. If it says "1" then type this command: "fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0" (type both of these commands without quotation marks btw). This will enable automatic trim support for ssd drives.

Also Andre were you able to fix the extra boot screens on startup??

 

[Cerb]

That is manual trim. It is NOT the same as having trim enabled in windows.

It fundamentally is. You can't do a full TRIM pass if it can't TRIM when deleting. You either get both or neither, using MS' integrated tools.

 

[radeson]

Fundamentally, yes.... But when you select optimize drive in disk optimizer it does a quick pass to make sure that your drive is properly trimmed. When windows trim support is actually enabled then anything that gets deleted then gets trimmed right away or shortly thereafter i believe. So technically TRIM could be disabled and you could still have the option in disk optimizer to "optimize"/ TRIM your drive.

 

[Cerb]

Fundamentally, yes.... But when you select optimize drive in disk optimizer it does a quick pass to make sure that your drive is properly trimmed. When windows trim support is actually enabled then anything that gets deleted then gets trimmed right away or shortly thereafter i believe. So technically TRIM could be disabled and you could still have the option in disk optimizer to "optimize"/ TRIM your drive.

No. Either they both work, or neither does. If TRIM is turned on (normal), and Windows can pass the command to the drive, TRIM gets used. If off, or if it cannot, then it won't be. Whether it's an incremental set of freed blocks, or a full free space bitmap pass doesn't make a difference.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

You do know that you probably aren't getting any real-world benefit from doing this and that your odds of data loss are doubled since you will lose anything stored on any device if either of the HDDs dies?

Depends on what type of work you do.

 

[radeson]

Huh... interesting.

 

[GAO]

you could always use windows disk manager to create a "striped volume" you would have to re-enable ACHI in your bios. Then boot up, type in disk manager in search, or right click on this pc and click manage, then click on disk manager on the left. Right click on the discs you want to use and erase volume. Then right click on one of them again and click "create new striped volume". I tried this and I'm getting the same benchmark scores. Although its a little riskier from what I hear, because windows is managing the raid not your mobo, and i guess its a little harder to retrieve the data if windows crashes. But not impossible.

If these SSD are being used as the windows boot disk, then a non-starter. You can't boot from windows raided disk for obvious reasons.

 

[GAO]

In the BIOS, in the boot menu, if you have an Option ROM item, change it to "Keep Current". This will get rid of the OROM messages and help speed up the boot.