RAID 1 hard drive access extremely slow, pausing the application for minutes

[GPhil]

Hi,

I just built up a new computer. System storage in RAID 1 (2*SSD 4 Terabyte) working fine.

Data storage in RAID 1 (2*14 Terabyte hard drive (NAS)) working badly.

The problem: Access to the data storage volume is periodically pausing the application for about 65 seconds. Loading or writing large files starts with some action on the drives, then pauses, continues after 65 seconds, pauses, again and again and again until the last data block has been read/written. That takes some minutes for a block of about 800MBytes.

The application does not really freeze, its simply waiting for the last block of data (Native Instruments Kontakt 7). The window can be moved around, the application reacts on mouse and keyboard. The amount of data read or written every 65 seconds varies largely. Sometimes small blocks of data, sometimes large blocks of data in one turn.

I checked the INTEL drivers. They are up to date according to INTELs  Update-tool.

Does anybody know the reason for that ? It seems to be some kind of timeout-issue (?)

CPU-load is close to 0% while waiting 65 seconds.

Hard drives were pre-formatted. File system is NTFS. They are initialized and healthy.

Here some more details:

Windows 11 Pro , 22H2 (10.0.22621)

2 Hard drives: ST14000NE0008-2RX103 (NAS) working badly in RAID 1 volume, Firmware EN02

2 SSD: Kingston SFYRD4000G (working well in RAID 1 volume) Firmware EIFK 31.6

128 GByte RAM

INTEL RST VMD Controller A77F driver version 19.5.0.1037

UEFA Bios 2.01 (dated 22-09-22)

Mainboard ASRock Taichy (Z790 chipset)

Any idea how to solve this problem is highly appreciated.

My own ideas:

* Hard drive capacity too large ( for NTFS ) ?

* NAS hard drives not compatible in general ?

* Known issue of Win 22H2 with large files ?

* Problem on this specific mainboard ?

Any other ideas or solutions ?

I´m running out of ideas and will be very thankful for a good hint.

Thank you in advance

GPhil

[Jose_Intel]

Hello @GPhil

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities.   

I noticed that the BIOS is not up to date, please download the update from here: 8.03

Also, you can try installing Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver and utility ver:19.5.5.1052 from the OEM.

Finally, in order to have more information about your system, please download, install and run Intel® System Support Utility for Windows. Make sure you check “Everything” before you scan, then save the report and attach it to your response.

Best regards,

Jose B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[GPhil]

Hi Jose_Intel, thanks for your advice. My Win11 was already running on a SSD-RAID 1 Volume.
By running the UEFI BIOS update 8.03 of ASRock I lost the RST driver. So, the system cannot boot anymore.

Searching a solution how to re-install the RST-driver under ASRock Taichi UEFI-Bios was not successful. I cannot switch SATA Mode selection to INTEL RST as described in a PDF of ASRock.
AHCI is the only option. I cannot find a way to reinstall the RST driver software from the USB stick after having Win11 already installed on a RAID1 volume. For shure, I was searching on ASRocks site but it did not help.

So I need to ask you: Is there a way to get the system running again ?

It should be possible. Otherwise any BIOS -Update woul never be an option.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards

GPhil

[Jose_Intel]

Hello GPhil

Thank you for your reply.

I am sorry to hear that the system is not booting anymore, have you directly contacted the system manufacturer?

Also, is it possible to revert the BIOS update? That way we can try other options with the system running.

Best regards,

Jose B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jose_Intel]

Hello GPhil

We hope you are doing fine. 

Were you able to revert the changes?  

Let us know if you still need assistance. 

Best regards,  

Jose B.   

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Jose_Intel]

Hello GPhil

We hope you are having a nice day. 

We have not heard back from you. So, we will close this thread. If you need any additional information, submit a new question, as this thread will no longer be monitored. 

Best regards. 

Jose B.  

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[GPhil · Accepted solution]

Hello Jose_Intel,

it was as worse as expected. I lost the whole installation of data and operating system.  RAID system was degraded. Win11 Pro did not boot anymore.  Complete re-installation neccessary. 1 Terabyte of synth-data lost. 

I´m sorry to say - I do no longer use Intel Rapid Storage Technology.

It´s a real danger for my system, hardly to maintain. And in case of trouble - one has three parties to address: Microsoft, Intel and Asrock. I came to the conclusion: That´s not the right way to build a stable and reliable system. 

Since I´ve updated the BIOS and reinstalled the OS and some applications without RST, all is operating well. Even the hard-disks once making the trouble. I do not know who is to blame. Might be, it´s me ! It´s too complicated to maintain and I will never try to install an operating system on a RAID drive. 

In future I´m going to prefer cloning the system drive regularly and I will be using an external NAS for the data.  I´m sorry for writing that to you.

I´m very thankful for your help. I am not so thankful to those guys who marked my question as "spam" within minutes.

That might have been one reason for giving up RST.

Kind regards

GPhil