Loss of SATA SSD's with 2 M.2 Drives Installed in RAID 0

[Paul Hogan]

I recently build a new PC with an ASUS Prime Z370 A Motherboard/Core i7 8700k with 2 Samsung Pro 960 NVMe 512GB SSD's installed in the two M.2 ports configured as RAID 0. I also installed 2 Samsung 850 EVO 2TB SSD's at SATA 3 & 4 and a Blu Ray Drive at SATA 2 (I avoided SATA's 1, 5 & 6 since ASUS documentation says these ports are 'shared' when the M.2 ports are used in various configurations [i.e. PCIE X4]). No matter what I do, I can't get both 850 SSD's to be recognized either in Windows 10 Admin Tools>Disk Management or Windows Explorer. Each comes up individually, but 1 disappears when both are installed. I've tried putting them at 2 & 3 and 2 & 4 and 3 & 4. One always goes away (BD drive is okay with 1 SSD or 2 SSD's). Any input greatly appreciated.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It may just be a limitation of your motherboard. On my ASRock Pro4S ATX boards, I believe using the (single) Ultra M.2 socket with a PCI-E x4 M.2 SSD, causes two of the PCH SATA ports to be inoperable. Expand that in your case, and potentially 4x SATA ports might be disabled. with 2x PCI-E x4 M.2 drives, leaving only 2x working SATA ports. Which, in your case, it sounds like you have three, 2x EVO SSDs, plus a third Blu-Ray burner.

I could just as easily be wrong, as I believe that the PCH has a x24 PCI-E fan-out on Z370, as compared to the x20 fan-out on my Z170 board. But it really all comes down to how your mobo is wired. Does the mfg provide a chart or guide to installing of storage devices?

One thing is for certain, with modern Intel platforms, you can't have your cake and eat it too; you can't populate all expansion slots and I/O ports simultaneously. This can cause ordinary systems integraters no end of consternation, until they look at the PCH I/O fan-out chart for the board in question.

 

[UsandThem]

I looked at the manual for your board, and it looks like it should work. However, they are not near as specific on their M.2 slot configurations like my Gigabyte and Asrock manuals. On page 3-10 of your manual, it tells you how to create a RAID volume.

However, I would send a message to Asus' tech support, and maybe they know of a bug/issue?

Also, have you updated your BIOS to the latest version?

 

[Paul Hogan]

I will check on the latest BIOS update. It hits me strange though that it sees the Blu Ray Drive at SATA 2 but when I disconnect it and substitute the second Samsung SSD at SATA 2 it still doesn't show up. I can see from the user guide that SATA Ports 1, 5 & 6 may be affected by the M.2 port utilization, but I would think SATA ports 2, 3 & 4 should still be available. I'll ask ASUS as well. Thanks for the input.

 

[DaveSimmons]

My ASRock z370 manual says using the M.2 slots knocks out 2 x SATA3 ports each: M.2 1 = SATA3_0 and _1, M2. 2 = SATA3_4 and _5.

 

[Elixer]

Yeah, that is a mobo (well, CPU & chipset) limitation.
Just not enough PCIe lanes available to handle everything, so, it ends up being a either / or situation.

If you want more PCIe lanes, you need to get a higher end CPU / chipset.
Some mobo makes use PLX chips to "fake" more PCIe lanes as well.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Guess OP should have looked at X299 platform?

 

[DaveSimmons]

My ASRock includes 2 more SATA3 ports using a separate controller, so that setup would work for it. If OP doesn't have that then they can remove one of the drives or use a PCIE slot to add more ports.

 

[Paul Hogan]

Problem solved! Egg on my face. Turns out it was an SSD problem. Both Samsung 850 EVO 2TB's had been installed in a Thunderbolt3 Duo housing configured as RAID 0 before I put them in my new ASUS Z370 build. Even though both showed up individually in the build, when installed together, some remnant of the RAID code was present and caused a problem (I had formatted both using an external SATA>USB housing before installing in the Z370 build). After much troubleshooting, a few days ago, I got an error from the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) app. It showed two (2) RAID arrays. The first was Array 0 consisting of my two (2) Samsung 960 pro NVMe M.2 SSD's. The second (Array 01) showed the two (2) Samsung 850 EVO SSD's with one (1) at 2TB and the other at 0 TB. I finally got them to appear in Windows Disk Management and set them up as a simple striped volume. After formatting and assigning a drive letter, they appeared as on one (1) volume of 4 TB with no problem. My heartfelt thanks to the support group at ASUS. Their support was prompt and extensive with many submittals back and forth of screen shots. It's this type of support that keeps me using only ASUS motherboards and accessories.