Cannot load Win 10 on RAID 0 SSD config

I hope someone out there might have some insight to this very perplexing problem. I have had a Win 7 Pro machine (which was in a RAID 0 config using two Mushkin Reactor SSDs, 512GB each) which I updated to Win 10 sometime in Dec 2015. Not a single problem with the upgrade! Yea. Right after the Anniversary Update (which was early August), I noticed several wonky things happening like Blue screens saying things like CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED and others which were very frustrating. I rolled back the AU and from that point every so often, I would get BSODs with a variety of code errors. I used Windows Tweaking AIO tool to try to fix things, but it just didn't seem quite right. I use this machine mostly for testing and gaming, so the loss of data wasn't super critical to me, other than a few games (which I back-up often). I decided it was time to do a clean bare-metal install, but I ran into a brick wall. After using MCT to get Windows 10 Pro 64bit on a USB flash drive, and resetting the RAID array on my ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2 MB (updated the BIOS and Intel's RST drivers), I can't get past the "Copying Windows Files" in the install mode. No little dots following the words, it just gets stuck. I made sure the MCT was using EFI Windows install. I just can't get Win 10 to load on the Mushkin SSD's in RAID 0. I deleted the array and tried again, but to no avail. I then went back to my Win 7 Pro flash drive and the OS loaded up without a hitch. So, the question remains is this, is there something about loading Win 10 on a RAID 0 array that I'm not aware of? I know some will say why a SSD RAID 0 array to begin with? I'm addicted to speed and it was working very well in its previous state, but ever since the AU, it just plain didn't behave properly. Now I can't figure out how to get Win 10 back on my SSDs (RAID 0).

Any insights would be helpful.
AKHandyman

AKHandyman said:

I hope someone out there might have some insight to this very perplexing problem. I have had a Win 7 Pro machine (which was in a RAID 0 config using two Mushkin Reactor SSDs, 512GB each) which I updated to Win 10 sometime in Dec 2015. Not a single problem with the upgrade! Yea. Right after the Anniversary Update (which was early August), I noticed several wonky things happening like Blue screens saying things like CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED and others which were very frustrating. I rolled back the AU and from that point every so often, I would get BSODs with a variety of code errors. I used Windows Tweaking AIO tool to try to fix things, but it just didn't seem quite right. I use this machine mostly for testing and gaming, so the loss of data wasn't super critical to me, other than a few games (which I back-up often). I decided it was time to do a clean bare-metal install, but I ran into a brick wall. After using MCT to get Windows 10 Pro 64bit on a USB flash drive, and resetting the RAID array on my ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2 MB (updated the BIOS and Intel's RST drivers), I can't get past the "Copying Windows Files" in the install mode. No little dots following the words, it just gets stuck. I made sure the MCT was using EFI Windows install. I just can't get Win 10 to load on the Mushkin SSD's in RAID 0. I deleted the array and tried again, but to no avail. I then went back to my Win 7 Pro flash drive and the OS loaded up without a hitch. So, the question remains is this, is there something about loading Win 10 on a RAID 0 array that I'm not aware of? I know some will say why a SSD RAID 0 array to begin with? I'm addicted to speed and it was working very well in its previous state, but ever since the AU, it just plain didn't behave properly. Now I can't figure out how to get Win 10 back on my SSDs (RAID 0).

Any insights would be helpful.
AKHandyman

Hi there

In your RAID Setup menu is there an option to set something up as a BOOT device especially when defining ARRAYS and Logical Volumes on the RAID menu.

Sometimes you need to do this.

BTW you can often use a SINGLE HDD / SSD in RAID 0 with RAID controller to set as boot device (usually via Hardware RAID / BIOS RAID options).

My system gives you a RAID setup menu before Windows boots -- I create my "Arrays" - and when creating Logical drives I select my SSD as a SINGLE logical drive -- RAID 0 and the RAID controller has a checkbox - use as a BOOT device.

After that the standard BIOS just boots that drive as the Windows "C" drive.

There'll be loads of people on these boards who can't understand why you would ever create a SINGLE drive as a RAID 0 device

My answer to this is it depends on your hardware --I'm using a PROLIANT GEN 8 HP microserver -- I've connected an SSD to the "DVD" slot -- who needs DVD's any more on a server (use an external USB !!) - but the only way I could get this to work as the boot device was to set it up as RAID 0 as a single logical RAID drive. Otherwise I'd have to use AHCI and then I could only boot from one of the 4 HDD Bays -- since I use these Bays as a data storage repository for a NAS server using the SSD for the OS made far better sense.

Cheers

Jimbo

Thanks for replying ... it wasn't but a few hours ago that I finally found out that one of my Mushkin Reactors was failing ... at least it gave me enough time to back up what I really needed. I've since went to a single 512GB SSD as my system drive and will look into upgrading to a MB that has an M.2 slot and give a NVMe SSD a go . But thanks for the info.

While fast, a RAID 0 is a bad idea for a system drive since you're increasing the failure rate. If you want speed and your RAID card can handle 4 drives I'd go with a RAID 10.

I'm actually going to go for a super fast gaming set-up. Although I'm still on the Haswell platform, I believe I can still make a super fast gaming system utilizing a NVMe on a Z97 chipset

Some MB's only support PCIe NVMe M2 drives ...like my X99A-II , not SATA M2 drives so do your research, just saw this issue on another Forum.


You may have needed CSM enabled (or Disabled) for Legacy Storage Devices to get the Raid seen at boot by Win10 in a UEFI install ? I don't think Win7 would as it is not UEFI aware.... either that or you were losing the Boot Order on restart as win10 loads the Windows Boot Manager into the Bios as the 1st Boot Option , so you may need to enter the bios setup on restart and check it is set properly, then let Win10 install continue....


KB

Neemobeer said:

While fast, a RAID 0 is a bad idea for a system drive since you're increasing the failure rate. If you want speed and your RAID card can handle 4 drives I'd go with a RAID 10.

Hi there

especially @Neemobeer

Actually I disagree here

If you have regular backups you can restore the OS easily and quick enough == a typical Windows OS on an SSD can be restored sometimes in as few as 5 - 10 mins -- well worth the usually unlikely penalty of an SSD failing - these days they are more reliable than classical "Spinners". The extra speed of RAID 0 pays here.

Cheers
jimbo

That's a big IF you have backups. I mean if all you care about is speed then I say go for it, but I'd rather have a resilient system. SSDs are fast enough for most use cases and as you stated have a much lower failure rate. I run mostly Samsung 850 and 950 pro SSD drives.