Merging two SSD into one partition?

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Cloud_7

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#1 Cloud_7
Member since 2004 • 1248 Posts

I already have one Crucial m4 256gb ssd. I feel like if i can double that amount of space i would be set for a long time.

Wanted to buy a 512gb one in the first place but at the time they weren't on sale.

My question is if i buy another 256gb ssd can i merge the two ssd drives into one partition? For example the C Drive specifically.

Aomei Partition Assistant Home Edition 4.0 <-----------would this program work for that?

Otherwise I can sell it to my friend for a little bit of a lose and buy the 512gb one.

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Marfoo

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#2 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

I already have one Crucial m4 256gb ssd. I feel like if i can double that amount of space i would be set for a long time.

Wanted to buy a 512gb one in the first place but at the time they weren't on sale.

My question is if i buy another 256gb ssd can i merge the two ssd drives into one partition? For example the C Drive specifically.

Aomei Partition Assistant Home Edition 4.0 <-----------would this program work for that?

Otherwise I can sell it to my friend for a little bit of a lose and buy the 512gb one.

Cloud_7
You could put them in RAID 0 and they'll look like one drive and you'll get twice the speed out of them.
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Cloud_7

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#3 Cloud_7
Member since 2004 • 1248 Posts

Is there any way to keep the ssd without having to format it?

Just don't want to go through all the trouble of backing the data up on my first drive and having to go through the process.

Not to concerned about making it into a a raid that splits the data on each ssd. I heard it can be much faster, but also risky if one drive fails.

What i want to do is just add the second ssd to the end, so once one fills up it'll start writing on the next.

Not sure if what i'm saying is possible or if it makes any sense.

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Marfoo

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#4 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

Is there any way to keep the ssd without having to format it?

Just don't want to go through all the trouble of backing the data up on my first drive and having to go through the process.

Not to concerned about making it into a a raid that splits the data on each ssd. I heard it can be much faster, but also risky if one drive fails.

What i want to do is just add the second ssd to the end, so once one fills up it'll start writing on the next.

Not sure if what i'm saying is possible or if it makes any sense.

Cloud_7

RAID 0 carries very little risk with SSDs, they have nowhere near the the failure rate of mechanical drives. I would say the benefits greatly outweigh the risk, in fact the risk in insignificant.

If you just add another SSD and just want more space and make it appear like one drive you can create a "dynamic disk." You can do this with built in tools in Windows, you won't need extra software.

If I were you I would use that software to backup existing partition onto an external HDD or something. Then I would put your 2 SSDs in RAID 0 and then restore that partition onto your new RAID volume and then extend it to fill the entire drive. That software would be able to help you with that, as long as you have another place to backup your partition to.

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C_Rule

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#5 C_Rule
Member since 2008 • 9816 Posts

[QUOTE="Cloud_7"]

Is there any way to keep the ssd without having to format it?

Just don't want to go through all the trouble of backing the data up on my first drive and having to go through the process.

Not to concerned about making it into a a raid that splits the data on each ssd. I heard it can be much faster, but also risky if one drive fails.

What i want to do is just add the second ssd to the end, so once one fills up it'll start writing on the next.

Not sure if what i'm saying is possible or if it makes any sense.

Marfoo

RAID 0 carries very little risk with SSDs, they have nowhere near the the failure rate of mechanical drives. I would say the benefits greatly outweigh the risk, in fact the risk in insignificant.

If you just add another SSD and just want more space and make it appear like one drive you can create a "dynamic disk." You can do this with built in tools in Windows, you won't need extra software.

If I were you I would use that software to backup existing partition onto an external HDD or something. Then I would put your 2 SSDs in RAID 0 and then restore that partition onto your new RAID volume and then extend it to fill the entire drive. That software would be able to help you with that, as long as you have another place to backup your partition to.

What if the array falls part? Is there the same risk of that with SSD vs HDD?
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Marfoo

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#6 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts
[QUOTE="Marfoo"]

[QUOTE="Cloud_7"]

Is there any way to keep the ssd without having to format it?

Just don't want to go through all the trouble of backing the data up on my first drive and having to go through the process.

Not to concerned about making it into a a raid that splits the data on each ssd. I heard it can be much faster, but also risky if one drive fails.

What i want to do is just add the second ssd to the end, so once one fills up it'll start writing on the next.

Not sure if what i'm saying is possible or if it makes any sense.

C_Rule

RAID 0 carries very little risk with SSDs, they have nowhere near the the failure rate of mechanical drives. I would say the benefits greatly outweigh the risk, in fact the risk in insignificant.

If you just add another SSD and just want more space and make it appear like one drive you can create a "dynamic disk." You can do this with built in tools in Windows, you won't need extra software.

If I were you I would use that software to backup existing partition onto an external HDD or something. Then I would put your 2 SSDs in RAID 0 and then restore that partition onto your new RAID volume and then extend it to fill the entire drive. That software would be able to help you with that, as long as you have another place to backup your partition to.

What if the array falls part? Is there the same risk of that with SSD vs HDD?

Yes, data corruption on one will still affect the other, but again, the risk of this is still substantially lower on SSDs compared to a regular HDD.
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Cloud_7

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#7 Cloud_7
Member since 2004 • 1248 Posts

Just read up on some of it and said what i want to do is called "spanning" two ssd, which seems to still carry the same risk. If i lose one of the ssd they say i will lose all the data on the other since they share the same filetable.

I might try to raid the two hard drives and split the data. I do have an old 7200rpm hdd that is 250gb that would hold the backup temporaily.

When you say backing up the data would cloning the drive to the hdd do the same thing?

Confused on what to do after though

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Marfoo

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#8 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

Just read up on some of it and said what i want to do is called "spanning" two ssd, which seems to still carry the same risk. If i lose one of the ssd they say i will lose all the data on the other since they share the same filetable.

I might try to raid the two hard drives and split the data. I do have an old 7200rpm hdd that is 250gb that would hold the backup temporaily.

When you say backing up the data would cloning the drive to the hdd do the same thing?

Confused on what to do after though

Cloud_7
Clone the SSD to the HDD. Use your motherboard's chipset to create a RAID 0 volume. (What motherboard do you have?) Your two SSDs will now appear as one drive. Now clone back from the HDD to your new RAID 0 volume. In Windows, extend the partition to fill up the rest of the remaining space.
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Bebi_vegeta

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#9 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

Does raid support SSD trim?

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Marfoo

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#10 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

Does raid support SSD trim?

Bebi_vegeta

Depends on your manufacturer. I know Intel does with the latest chipset drivers and firmware updates. I am unsure of sandforce based drives.

TC: When SSDs write to location, if there was something there already first it has to "erase" it and then "write" the new data. TRIM is a feature that goes and makes sure that all unused locations are "erased" in advance so you'll have the fastest write speeds. Sometimes in RAID this is not possible.

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Cloud_7

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#11 Cloud_7
Member since 2004 • 1248 Posts

Not sure if Crucial M4 will support TRIM in RAID, but would garbage collection work efficiently enough?

My motherboard is ASrock 970 EXTREMEME4.

Seems pretty simply to set this up, might do it.

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Marfoo

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#12 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

Not sure if Crucial M4 will support TRIM in RAID, but would garbage collection work efficiently enough?

My motherboard is ASrock 970 EXTREMEME4.

Seems pretty simply to set this up, might do it.

Cloud_7
TRIM is the command (from Windows) that tells your SSD what is unused so that it can carry out "garbage collection." It is possible however that your SSDs may have their own garbage collection information routine. You'd have to investigate the SSD controller a bit more. So the answer is... maybe? All in all though, you will be getting much faster write speeds from being in RAID 0, perhaps that alone outweighs the absence of TRIM vs a single SSD setup.
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Cloud_7

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#13 Cloud_7
Member since 2004 • 1248 Posts

Just ordered my second one off of Newegg.

Will let you know how it goes and post back with any problems.

Thanks for the help Marfoo

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GummiRaccoon

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#14 GummiRaccoon
Member since 2003 • 13799 Posts

[QUOTE="Marfoo"]

[QUOTE="Cloud_7"]

Is there any way to keep the ssd without having to format it?

Just don't want to go through all the trouble of backing the data up on my first drive and having to go through the process.

Not to concerned about making it into a a raid that splits the data on each ssd. I heard it can be much faster, but also risky if one drive fails.

What i want to do is just add the second ssd to the end, so once one fills up it'll start writing on the next.

Not sure if what i'm saying is possible or if it makes any sense.

C_Rule

RAID 0 carries very little risk with SSDs, they have nowhere near the the failure rate of mechanical drives. I would say the benefits greatly outweigh the risk, in fact the risk in insignificant.

If you just add another SSD and just want more space and make it appear like one drive you can create a "dynamic disk." You can do this with built in tools in Windows, you won't need extra software.

If I were you I would use that software to backup existing partition onto an external HDD or something. Then I would put your 2 SSDs in RAID 0 and then restore that partition onto your new RAID volume and then extend it to fill the entire drive. That software would be able to help you with that, as long as you have another place to backup your partition to.

What if the array falls part? Is there the same risk of that with SSD vs HDD?

that's why you buy 2 identical controller cards, none of this onboard garbage.

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Bebi_vegeta

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#16 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

[QUOTE="C_Rule"][QUOTE="Marfoo"] RAID 0 carries very little risk with SSDs, they have nowhere near the the failure rate of mechanical drives. I would say the benefits greatly outweigh the risk, in fact the risk in insignificant.

If you just add another SSD and just want more space and make it appear like one drive you can create a "dynamic disk." You can do this with built in tools in Windows, you won't need extra software.

If I were you I would use that software to backup existing partition onto an external HDD or something. Then I would put your 2 SSDs in RAID 0 and then restore that partition onto your new RAID volume and then extend it to fill the entire drive. That software would be able to help you with that, as long as you have another place to backup your partition to.

GummiRaccoon

What if the array falls part? Is there the same risk of that with SSD vs HDD?

that's why you buy 2 identical controller cards, none of this onboard garbage.

2 controller cards?

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GummiRaccoon

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#17 GummiRaccoon
Member since 2003 • 13799 Posts

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

[QUOTE="C_Rule"] What if the array falls part? Is there the same risk of that with SSD vs HDD?Bebi_vegeta

that's why you buy 2 identical controller cards, none of this onboard garbage.

2 controller cards?

keep one in the box in case the first fails

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Bebi_vegeta

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#18 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

that's why you buy 2 identical controller cards, none of this onboard garbage.

GummiRaccoon

2 controller cards?

keep one in the box in case the first fails

lollll ok, but good ones are freaking expensive... I mean for SSD raiding.

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GummiRaccoon

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#19 GummiRaccoon
Member since 2003 • 13799 Posts

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

2 controller cards?

Bebi_vegeta

keep one in the box in case the first fails

lollll ok, but good ones are freaking expensive... I mean for SSD raiding.

you dont need an expensive one for SSDs

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Bebi_vegeta

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#20 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

keep one in the box in case the first fails

GummiRaccoon

lollll ok, but good ones are freaking expensive... I mean for SSD raiding.

you dont need an expensive one for SSDs

Oh really point me out for some non expensive one please .

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Marfoo

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#21 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

Just ordered my second one off of Newegg.

Will let you know how it goes and post back with any problems.

Thanks for the help Marfoo

Cloud_7
Happy to help.
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GummiRaccoon

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#22 GummiRaccoon
Member since 2003 • 13799 Posts

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

lollll ok, but good ones are freaking expensive... I mean for SSD raiding.

Bebi_vegeta

you dont need an expensive one for SSDs

Oh really point me out for some non expensive one please .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007607+600022730+600022673&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=410&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=

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Bebi_vegeta

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#23 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

you dont need an expensive one for SSDs

GummiRaccoon

Oh really point me out for some non expensive one please .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007607+600022730+600022673&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=410&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=

Only the first would would be able to get full speed of raid 0 SSD. But that is the lowest price I've ever seen for a good raid card.

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GummiRaccoon

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#24 GummiRaccoon
Member since 2003 • 13799 Posts

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

Oh really point me out for some non expensive one please .

Bebi_vegeta

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007607+600022730+600022673&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=410&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=

Only the first would would be able to get full speed of raid 0 SSD. But that is the lowest price I've ever seen for a good raid card.

good raid only really matters for mechanical harddrives. You don't have to be fancy with SSDs, the only problem is sometimes the controller fails and there goes all your data. So get a 2nd controller to swap just in case.

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Bebi_vegeta

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#25 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007607+600022730+600022673&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=410&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=

GummiRaccoon

Only the first would would be able to get full speed of raid 0 SSD. But that is the lowest price I've ever seen for a good raid card.

good raid only really matters for mechanical harddrives. You don't have to be fancy with SSDs, the only problem is sometimes the controller fails and there goes all your data. So get a 2nd controller to swap just in case.

Well, I haven't found that card on newegg.ca ... So for me, a good Raid card that could give me full raid 0 SSD is atleast in $200+.

All they have is crap PCI-e 2.0 with 1 lane, which is only 500Mbps...

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GummiRaccoon

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#26 GummiRaccoon
Member since 2003 • 13799 Posts

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

Only the first would would be able to get full speed of raid 0 SSD. But that is the lowest price I've ever seen for a good raid card.

Bebi_vegeta

good raid only really matters for mechanical harddrives. You don't have to be fancy with SSDs, the only problem is sometimes the controller fails and there goes all your data. So get a 2nd controller to swap just in case.

Well, I haven't found that card on newegg.ca ... So for me, a good Raid card that could give me full raid 0 SSD is atleast in $200+.

All they have is crap PCI-e 2.0 with 1 lane, which is only 500Mbps...

That sounds like a canadian problem

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Bebi_vegeta

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#27 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

good raid only really matters for mechanical harddrives. You don't have to be fancy with SSDs, the only problem is sometimes the controller fails and there goes all your data. So get a 2nd controller to swap just in case.

GummiRaccoon

Well, I haven't found that card on newegg.ca ... So for me, a good Raid card that could give me full raid 0 SSD is atleast in $200+.

All they have is crap PCI-e 2.0 with 1 lane, which is only 500Mbps...

That sounds like a canadian problem

Well geting a cheap raid is... for the PCI-E, no.

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Silicel1

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#28 Silicel1
Member since 2005 • 2342 Posts
No need to raid
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Bebi_vegeta

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#29 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

No need to raidSilicel1

Are you saying he can merge SSD without raiding?

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Marfoo

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#30 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

[QUOTE="Silicel1"]No need to raidBebi_vegeta

Are you saying he can merge SSD without raiding?

He can make a dynamic disk, but I figured he might as well get the speed benefit and RAID them.
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Bebi_vegeta

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#31 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

[QUOTE="Bebi_vegeta"]

[QUOTE="Silicel1"]No need to raidMarfoo

Are you saying he can merge SSD without raiding?

He can make a dynamic disk, but I figured he might as well get the speed benefit and RAID them.

I see... I didn't know that was possible.

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Cloud_7

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#32 Cloud_7
Member since 2004 • 1248 Posts

I finally successfully installed my first RAID0. Took me a while and also did a clean installation of windows in the process. Deleted wrong system preserve I had to do a clean installation

My concern is that when i benchmark these two ssd in RAID I would only get 506mb/s for read and 445.74mb/s for write.

THe write speed seems to be right on for what i should be getting, but the read seems a little low. I've seen peop;e have these in raid and get around 800mb/s for read speeds.

Looked it up and there seems to be updates to firmware for ssd. Not sure if mine was had fully updated firmware, but since i have them in RAID there seems to be no way to update them if i didn't.

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Marfoo

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#33 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

I finally successfully installed my first RAID0. Took me a while and also did a clean installation of windows in the process. Deleted wrong system preserve I had to do a clean installation

My concern is that when i benchmark these two ssd in RAID I would only get 506mb/s for read and 445.74mb/s for write.

THe write speed seems to be right on for what i should be getting, but the read seems a little low. I've seen peop;e have these in raid and get around 800mb/s for read speeds.

Looked it up and there seems to be updates to firmware for ssd. Not sure if mine was had fully updated firmware, but since i have them in RAID there seems to be no way to update them if i didn't.

Cloud_7
Aw damn. That's unfortunate!
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GummiRaccoon

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#34 GummiRaccoon
Member since 2003 • 13799 Posts

I finally successfully installed my first RAID0. Took me a while and also did a clean installation of windows in the process. Deleted wrong system preserve I had to do a clean installation

My concern is that when i benchmark these two ssd in RAID I would only get 506mb/s for read and 445.74mb/s for write.

THe write speed seems to be right on for what i should be getting, but the read seems a little low. I've seen peop;e have these in raid and get around 800mb/s for read speeds.

Looked it up and there seems to be updates to firmware for ssd. Not sure if mine was had fully updated firmware, but since i have them in RAID there seems to be no way to update them if i didn't.

Cloud_7

time to reinstall windows again

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Marfoo

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#35 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

[QUOTE="Cloud_7"]

I finally successfully installed my first RAID0. Took me a while and also did a clean installation of windows in the process. Deleted wrong system preserve I had to do a clean installation

My concern is that when i benchmark these two ssd in RAID I would only get 506mb/s for read and 445.74mb/s for write.

THe write speed seems to be right on for what i should be getting, but the read seems a little low. I've seen peop;e have these in raid and get around 800mb/s for read speeds.

Looked it up and there seems to be updates to firmware for ssd. Not sure if mine was had fully updated firmware, but since i have them in RAID there seems to be no way to update them if i didn't.

GummiRaccoon

time to reinstall windows again

Haha, yeah. I would do it now while it's still fresh!
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stenchlord

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#36 stenchlord
Member since 2012 • 55 Posts

Are you using IRST? You should be able to check firmware of your SSDs through that.

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#37 JigglyWiggly_
Member since 2009 • 24625 Posts

what motherboard?

TRIM will not be enabled if you do RAID 0, and are not using intel 11.5 beta or 11.1, which are not the official downloads check here i just did RAID 0 with SSDs, so fast.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/solid-state-drives-ssds-flash-storage/631570-where-rst-11-5-a-5.html

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Bebi_vegeta

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#38 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

I finally successfully installed my first RAID0. Took me a while and also did a clean installation of windows in the process. Deleted wrong system preserve I had to do a clean installation

My concern is that when i benchmark these two ssd in RAID I would only get 506mb/s for read and 445.74mb/s for write.

THe write speed seems to be right on for what i should be getting, but the read seems a little low. I've seen peop;e have these in raid and get around 800mb/s for read speeds.

Looked it up and there seems to be updates to firmware for ssd. Not sure if mine was had fully updated firmware, but since i have them in RAID there seems to be no way to update them if i didn't.

Cloud_7

Yeah what motherboard ?

Also, are you sure you've taken 2 sata 6Gbps ports ?

And what's also important is how did you benchmark this.

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Cloud_7

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#39 Cloud_7
Member since 2004 • 1248 Posts

Was just able to update firmware wiithout reinstalling by making a bootable usb with firmware updates on them.

One was 0309 and the other already had the latest 000f, so now they both have 000f and still get the same read speeds.

My motherboard is the Asrock 970 Extreme 4 and both my drives are plugged into a SATA 3 6Gbit/s. I believe all the SATA ports on the motherboard are SATA 3 and then it also has a eSATA.

Used AS SSD benchmark

There is an update for the SATA RAID drivers that i used for the Windows 7 installation. I might go back and load up Windows 7 and put the updated drivers on there to see if that makes a different

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Jacobistheman

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#40 Jacobistheman
Member since 2007 • 3975 Posts

You could do it with raid, but it would decrease your reliability. My suggestion is to keep (at least) two paritions, one with OS and programs, and the other with your data. If windows gets corrupted, it is a big headache in the best case, and impossible in the worse case to get your data back. With 2 partions you solve this problem.

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#41 GummiRaccoon
Member since 2003 • 13799 Posts

You could do it with raid, but it would decrease your reliability. My suggestion is to keep (at least) two paritions, one with OS and programs, and the other with your data. If windows gets corrupted, it is a big headache in the best case, and impossible in the worse case to get your data back. With 2 partions you solve this problem.

Jacobistheman

(//_-)

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#42 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

Was just able to update firmware wiithout reinstalling by making a bootable usb with firmware updates on them.

One was 0309 and the other already had the latest 000f, so now they both have 000f and still get the same read speeds.

My motherboard is the Asrock 970 Extreme 4 and both my drives are plugged into a SATA 3 6Gbit/s. I believe all the SATA ports on the motherboard are SATA 3 and then it also has a eSATA.

Used AS SSD benchmark

There is an update for the SATA RAID drivers that i used for the Windows 7 installation. I might go back and load up Windows 7 and put the updated drivers on there to see if that makes a different

Cloud_7
I would think you would be able to update your RAID drivers without having to go through the install process, you'll just need a reboot. I know with Intel chipsets you just update the chipset driver and install their RAID management utility thing and you're up to date. I think it would be similar on an AMD board.
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#43 JigglyWiggly_
Member since 2009 • 24625 Posts

[QUOTE="Cloud_7"]

Was just able to update firmware wiithout reinstalling by making a bootable usb with firmware updates on them.

One was 0309 and the other already had the latest 000f, so now they both have 000f and still get the same read speeds.

My motherboard is the Asrock 970 Extreme 4 and both my drives are plugged into a SATA 3 6Gbit/s. I believe all the SATA ports on the motherboard are SATA 3 and then it also has a eSATA.

Used AS SSD benchmark

There is an update for the SATA RAID drivers that i used for the Windows 7 installation. I might go back and load up Windows 7 and put the updated drivers on there to see if that makes a different

Marfoo

I would think you would be able to update your RAID drivers without having to go through the install process, you'll just need a reboot. I know with Intel chipsets you just update the chipset driver and install their RAID management utility thing and you're up to date. I think it would be similar on an AMD board.

I don't think AMD boards support trim and RAID.

And intel's onboard raid controller is much better than AMD'z.

So

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Marfoo

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#44 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

[QUOTE="Marfoo"][QUOTE="Cloud_7"]

Was just able to update firmware wiithout reinstalling by making a bootable usb with firmware updates on them.

One was 0309 and the other already had the latest 000f, so now they both have 000f and still get the same read speeds.

My motherboard is the Asrock 970 Extreme 4 and both my drives are plugged into a SATA 3 6Gbit/s. I believe all the SATA ports on the motherboard are SATA 3 and then it also has a eSATA.

Used AS SSD benchmark

There is an update for the SATA RAID drivers that i used for the Windows 7 installation. I might go back and load up Windows 7 and put the updated drivers on there to see if that makes a different

JigglyWiggly_

I would think you would be able to update your RAID drivers without having to go through the install process, you'll just need a reboot. I know with Intel chipsets you just update the chipset driver and install their RAID management utility thing and you're up to date. I think it would be similar on an AMD board.

I don't think AMD boards support trim and RAID.

And intel's onboard raid controller is much better than AMD'z.

So

True true, just seems odd he wouldn't be able to just install the latest RAID drivers right over the old ones though. Doesn't seem like something that would require a whole reinstall.
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Cloud_7

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#45 Cloud_7
Member since 2004 • 1248 Posts

Found out i didn't need to do a re-install of Window and just updated the raid drivers from the AMD site. I believe the drivers were called AMD 12.4 Raid. Still get the same speeds though.

Also when i check to see if TRIM is on in cmd with the command for it, it comes up as 0 or enabled.

Otherwise i'm stumped as to why i'm getting lower read speeds than most.

I could seperate the drives to be on the safe side, but i'm willing to take the risk for RAID 0.

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Marfoo

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#46 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

Found out i didn't need to do a re-install of Window and just updated the raid drivers from the AMD site. I believe the drivers were called AMD 12.4 Raid. Still get the same speeds though.

Also when i check to see if TRIM is on in cmd with the command for it, it comes up as 0 or enabled.

Otherwise i'm stumped as to why i'm getting lower read speeds than most.

I could seperate the drives to be on the safe side, but i'm willing to take the risk for RAID 0.

Cloud_7
Hmm, that is odd. I wonder if it comes down to differences in RAID controllers.
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Marfoo

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#47 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

Is it possible that your chipset is doing RAID via IDE instead of AHCI? Dig around your BIOS settings and see if you can't change the SATA mode to AHCI from IDE (sometimes called compatibility or legacy mode) if such an option exists. I know my chipset defaults AHCI if I choose RAID to be active.

Be careful when doing this though, you'll need to enable AHCI in Windows via the registry. If you don't you'll get a bluescreen when booting.

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Cloud_7

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#48 Cloud_7
Member since 2004 • 1248 Posts

Enabled AHCI via registry.

Options I have in BIOS in storage configuration is:

SATA Controller----Enable/Disable

SATA MODE----IDE/AHCI/RAID

SATA IDE Comined Mode----Enable/Disable

Otherwise can't find anything else.

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#49 Bebi_vegeta
Member since 2003 • 13558 Posts

This guy had a similar problem.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1129060/solved-amd-sb950-raid-0-poor-performance-solved

First thing I did was install the newest unofficial BIOS by Kingpin - 0909 I believe it is. Than I remembered, that RaidXpert and Raid BIOS itself told me, that my SSDs are connected to SATA Port 1 & 3, and the other 2 Caviars in another Raid0 array to ports 2 & 4. I doble checked the fine print on the board as well as in MoBo documentation to make sure wchich port is waht number. Sure enough according to that I had my SSDs on port 1 & 2 and the other array on ports 3 & 4. I thought I'll gie it a shoot and try switching the cables.

Now that's what the manual tells You:

1---3---5
|==|==|==|
|==|==|==| *|==| - Sata port
2---4---6

Clearly that's not what the raid config says.
I switched the cables. Checked if now in Raid BIOS my SSDs are number 1 & 2 and other array 3 & 4 - in fact they were - and resumed to windows for benchmark.

Voila! Now I get 890MB/sec writes and pass 930MB/sec in reads!
It's still not as good as Intel controller that beats 1GB/sec reads, but good enough for me to sleep better

I might try to unhook the 2 HDDs from the RAID, since they might be stealing some bandwich from the SSD array and see if that improves the results any. But if not, I hope some futere driver upgrades will make the performance close up on the Intel controller and beat the 1GB/s mark.

So here we have it. When You decide to Raid your SSDs or HDDs using AMD MoBo, pay attention to the right cable routing. Obviously, the Crosshair V manual is missleading in this case. The correct SATA port arrangement is:

1---2---5
|==|==|==|
|==|==|==| *|==| - Sata port
3---4---6


Connect the Raid array's disks to ports 1&2 (or 1,2,3 and than 4 - depending on number of disks). Obviously when I had my 2 SSDs on ports 1 & 3 it limited the performance drasticaly.

Hope that helps!

Cheeers !

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Cloud_7

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#50 Cloud_7
Member since 2004 • 1248 Posts

found that same message a couple times and switched ports to one and two, and one a three with same results.

going to try and clone my raid drive back to hdd and rebuild the raid array to see if i missed a setting for ssd.

don't want to incure the wrath of my girlfriend and delete her saved games in batman. already had to deal with that once :-(