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No RAID support for SATA drives, only NVMe (3)

manniongeo
Beginner
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Continuing two, prior, unresolved threads as new question, per moderator request:

The open question remains:

  • QUESTION: Does the Intel Z690 chipset with a 12th generation CPU support creating a RAID array from two identical SATA HDDs that are 8 TB in size and present a 4kn sector size?

Please, Intel, even if you are unwilling to provide support for your products, would you please at least provide a specification for which capabilities they are supposed to have?

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Steven_Intel
Moderator
922 Views

Hello manniongeo,


Please check the following and let me know if you have any concern: 


Q: Does the Z690 / 12th gen hardware require a 512 byte sector size in order to create a RAID array, and/or are there other requirements for getting this to work in addition to using the proper sector size?


A: No, we don’t support 4K sector at this time, so it does require a 512 byte sector size in order to create a RAID array.


Best regards,


Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


View solution in original post

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manniongeo
Beginner
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A generous friend let me borrow a pair of 12 TB, 512e SATA drives for a test. Like my earlier test with the 1 TB, 512e drives, these ones showed as available for creating a RAID array - which is good:

 

success_with_sata_512e_drives.jpg

 

These results demonstrate that:

  • Z690 / 12th gen does support RAID with drives as big or larger than the 8 TB ones I'm trying to use

The result also suggest that:

  • Z690 / 12th gen requires drives to present a 512 byte sector size - specifically 4kn drives are unsupported

 

Note that I say "suggest" in this second bullet, because I don't know for sure; that's just where the evidence is leading.

I am willing to purchase new drives that will work with this chipset, but I do not want to waste several additional hundred dollars, like I apparently did with my 8 TB 4kn drives, without confirmation from Intel about what its hardware actually supports. I am not planning to buy the exact 12 TB drive used in the test above, so when shopping for an alternative, I need to know:

  • QUESTION FOR INTEL: Does the Z690 / 12th gen hardware require a 512 byte sector size in order to create a RAID array, and/or are there other requirements for getting this to work in addition to using the proper sector size?

Someone at Intel knows the answer to this question. I would appreciate it if a moderator could find that person and post an authoritative answer here for the community. Please refrain from speculation, and from circular answers like "if the drive shows up then it's supported". Those of us building systems on this platform need to know the specifications for compatible drives so we can purchase the right ones. Thank you.

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Steven_Intel
Moderator
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Hello manniongeo,


Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.


We are going to review the information and let you know once we have an update.


Best regards,


Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Steven_Intel
Moderator
923 Views

Hello manniongeo,


Please check the following and let me know if you have any concern: 


Q: Does the Z690 / 12th gen hardware require a 512 byte sector size in order to create a RAID array, and/or are there other requirements for getting this to work in addition to using the proper sector size?


A: No, we don’t support 4K sector at this time, so it does require a 512 byte sector size in order to create a RAID array.


Best regards,


Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Steven_Intel
Moderator
899 Views

Were you able to check the previous post?


Let us know if you still need assistance.


Best regards,


Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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manniongeo
Beginner
894 Views

I'm sorry; I missed the notification for your prior post.

This answers my original question. Thank you for taking the time to research this for me. Please consider this issue resolved.

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Steven_Intel
Moderator
871 Views

Hello manniongeo,


Thank you for letting us know the information helped. Hopefully, it will help other community members.


Since the thread is now solved, we will close it. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question, as this thread will no longer be monitored.  


Best regards,


Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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