Aorus Gaming Wifi maximum storage options

Hi!

I just upgraded my motherboard and processor to the 8th gen lineup. With that upgrade, I decided to purchase an Optane drive and a m.2 ssd drive.

This is my plan for my drives

C - OS drive (850 evo)
D - Crypto wallet (850 pro)
E - Premier Pro scratch and exporting drive (WD green 120gb)
F - Crypto wallet (1TB WD blue)
G - Dropbox drive (1TB Toshiba)
H - Steam drive (3TB Seagate) - this drive will be cached by optane

Before I upgraded, all the drives (except drive E which is new) can be seen my disk management (please refer to system specs as I have not updated them yet)

Only drives C, F, G, H and the Optane drive can be seen via disk management. Is it possible that I maxed out my sata lanes? I tried reading reviews but could not find any information. The manual is also a little bit confusing.

I checked the bios settings and the sata cables but still I cannot find a solution.

Your inputs are very welcome!

jaypels said:

Hi!

I just upgraded my motherboard and processor to the 8th gen lineup. With that upgrade, I decided to purchase an Optane drive and a m.2 ssd drive.

This is my plan for my drives

C - OS drive (850 evo)
D - Crypto wallet (850 pro)
E - Premier Pro scratch and exporting drive (WD green 120gb)
F - Crypto wallet (1TB WD blue)
G - Dropbox drive (1TB Toshiba)
H - Steam drive (3TB Seagate) - this drive will be cached by optane

Before I upgraded, all the drives (except drive E which is new) can be seen my disk management (please refer to system specs as I have not updated them yet)

Only drives C, F, G, H and the Optane drive can be seen via disk management. Is it possible that I maxed out my sata lanes? I tried reading reviews but could not find any information. The manual is also a little bit confusing.

I checked the bios settings and the sata cables but still I cannot find a solution.

Your inputs are very welcome!

Depending on your MotherBoard that M.2 Slot may be taking up 2 of your SATA ports It is SATA M.2 if it NVME M.2 it shouldn't take two of your ports

spunk said:

Make sure the SATA port that the D: drive is plugged into is Enabled in the Bios. Swap the SATA cable with one of the other working ones. Plug that drive into one of the working SATA ports

I tried swapping the SATA cables (not replacing since I have no extra) but still the same problem persists. What setting in the BIOS should I look for?

Clintlgm said:

Depending on your MotherBoard that M.2 Slot may be taking up 2 of your SATA ports It is SATA M.2 if it NVME M.2 it shouldn't take two of your ports

One is NVME (Optane drive) and the other one is an ordinary SATA M.2 (for scratch disk). If what you say is true, it could be possible that the ordinary M.2 is taking up two spots. I read the manual but I cannot find the maximum number of SATA connections allowed.

According to the manual (p. 19 of the downloadable English 1001 version), SATA port 0 is unavailable if a SATA M.2 drive is installed.

jaypels said:

I read that part but it also does not detect my M.2 drive. So now, both the M.2 and one SATA SSD are not detected. That's what got me confused.

edit: if I were to merge drives F and G (replacing them with a bigger drive then partition it), will it solve my problem or am I still short on SATA lanes?

Sorry, I failed to notice that you weren't seeing two SATA drives, rather than one, plus the M.2 drive.

I doubt that reducing the number of SATA drives by one will solve your problem.

The only PCI-E device that I see mentioned is the M.2 device (in addition to the SATA one). Are any of your PCI-E slots in use? I recall something in the manual about resource limits in that category, but nothing about an interaction with the SATA controllers.

Update:

I reflashed the BIOS just for kicks and voila! It now detects my SATA SSD (Drive D). It has yet to see my M.2 drive. I tried removing all drives except for the OS drive and the M.2 drive but I placed it on the upper slot (where I placed my Optane) and it detects the M.2. I placed my Optane on the lower slot but it does not detect the Optane. A part of me thinks the lower slot might be defective. However, shipping it to Newegg might be problematic since I'm from the Philippines. I got the motherboard and other components during Newegg's sale (I got most components at atleast 50% off)

Although I doubt the lower M.2 slot is defective since I think I might have maxed out the SATA slots (Clingtlgm mentioned that the SATA M.2 requires 2 slots).

bobkn said:

Sorry, I failed to notice that you weren't seeing two SATA drives, rather than one, plus the M.2 drive.

I doubt that reducing the number of SATA drives by one will solve your problem.

The only PCI-E device that I see mentioned is the M.2 device (in addition to the SATA one). Are any of your PCI-E slots in use? I recall something in the manual about resource limits in that category, but nothing about an interaction with the SATA controllers.

For now, I'm satisfied that one more drive is now seen by the system. I will upgrade my HDDs someday and replace my 2x1TB for a bigger capacity (4TB probably once I notice a sale) and will tackle my SATA M.2 problem then. Hopefully it will be seen by the system since I have freed one SATA lane.