Rapid Storage Technology
Intel® RST, RAID
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Issues with trying to configure 8 drive array

JOdom
Beginner
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Ok folks, what am I missing here? The Intel Rapid Storage Technology platform seems to only be able to use 6 of my 8 available SATA ports at one time. UEFI BIOS/IRST won't let me configure 8 drives in an array. When I select 8 drives RAID 5....the option to create array is unavailable (greyed out)....same with 7 drives....when I select only 6 drives....then the button to create array is available (white). All 8 drives are showing up as available. If I configure two 4 drive arrays...or any other array configuration that uses all 8 drives....it is successful, and they show "Normal" and healthy in BIOS, but whichever array that was created last will fail a cyclic redundancy check in Win10. Grrr.....If I create multiple arrays using only 6 drives...then everything works as advertised.

Bypassing IRST, using AHCI..... I can install Win10 on my NVMe drive with no issues. And with all 8 SATA drives plus my NVMe drive all showing up in Disk Manager as alive and healthy. BUT if I enable IRST in UEFI BIOS....AND have all 8 drives plugged into the PCH controller....Win10 will NOT install and I get a BSOD for iaStorAV.sys while trying to boot into Installation routines....never really starts as it BSOD's before the first configuration screens are launched.

So is this a configuration issue that I have missed setting it up correctly or possibly a bug with UEFI BIOS/IRST or a limitation of IRST?

At first, I thought maybe it was one of those issues with sharing between M.2_1 and SATA, but I believe I have the BIOS configured correctly where M.2_1 is on PCIe and not using PCH SATA at all (evidenced by using AHCI mode and having 9 drives show up in Disk Manager....my 8 SATA drives and my NVMe drive).

Here is my configuration:

  • Asus ROG Strix x299 Motherboard
    • 8 SATA Ports on PCH controller (8 Seagate 6TB 7200RPM drives)
    • M.2_1 on PCIe (Samsung 960 Pro 2TB NVMe)

NOTE: Dual posting on both Asus and IRST forums for assistance!

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idata
Employee
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Hello AviatorDuck

 

Thank you for your contacting us regarding the Intel ® RST issues that you are experiencing.

 

In order to assist you better please provide us with full system report generated through our Intel® Rapid Storage Technology.

 

This report includes information on the storage subsystem, physical and logical device configuration, etc. This information is useful when troubleshooting issues.

 

To view a system report, follow these steps:

 

Open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology user interface (Start > Programs > Intel > Intel® Rapid Storage Technology).

 

Click the Help icon.

 

Click the System Report icon.

 

To save a system report, follow these steps:

 

Open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology user interface (Start > Programs > Intel > Intel® Rapid Storage Technology).

 

Click the Help icon.

 

Click the System Report icon.

 

Click Save.

 

As well, please contact MSI in order to make sure that your BIOS is set properly, so you can be 100% sure that your devices are not sharing any bus.

 

Sharing between M.2 and SATA device can be one of the reasons that could cause this issue, so the best thing to do is to make sure that this is not one of these cases as you mentioned.

 

I really hope to hear from you soon.

 

 

Best Regards,

 

Diego S.

 

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JOdom
Beginner
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Attached is my System Report as you requested. Working with Asus as well on this with no resolution as of yet.

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JOdom
Beginner
771 Views

I just came across a piece of information that leads me to believe that the maximum volume size (number of disks) that can be created for a single volume is 6.

In the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Help application in Contents>Creating a volume>Volume Requirements there is a table that lists all the volume types...Numbers of disks....and supported controllers (see attached Snip)

Now the interesting thing here is that none of the volume types list a possible configuration that contains more than 6 disks. Which is exactly what I am up against.

Can you confirm that the maximum number of disks that can be configured in IRST is 6? x299 chipset says it is dependent on number of SATA ports on PCH controller. So seems to be some conflicting information. @

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idata
Employee
771 Views

Hello AviatorDuck

 

 

Thank you for your response.

 

 

I see that we are assisting you in the thread /thread/124926 https://communities.intel.com/thread/124926, please continue the assistance on that thread.

 

 

Thank you.

 

 

Regards,

 

Leonardo C.

 

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