System Re-install

Important Drivers General: Storage Drivers (AHCI/RAID, NVMe and USB)
1

Hi,

I’m not sure which section I should post this thread in so I hope someone can move it if I’ve posted in the wrong place.

My current configuration is an Asus P8P67 PRO with a Samsung 850 Pro SSD for Windows, a Samsung 830 SSD for programmes and 2 pairs of mirrored 2TB disks for data using the built-in Intel Raid.
2 of the mirrored 2TB disks have failed and Hard Disk Sentinel is reporting the health of the 850 Pro as being 79% even though it is much newer than the 830 (see information below)
It seems time to do a complete re-install of the system but I’m not sure whether I should continue to use the built-in Intel Raid or change to some other configuration. Hard Disk Sentinel shows one of the disks in the failed raid pair as being 100% healthy but the disk does not appear as a drive in Windows. I had assumed that if one of a pair failed that the other one would appear as being still available in some sort of de-valued(?) state. Intel’s raid utility doesn’t seem to give me any option to recover this disk.
I’ve never really been sure how to configure Windows to best use the SSD Windows system drive which is one of the reasons why I think it is time to do a complete re-install.

Could anyone give me any advice/suggestions on the best way of configuring the machine? The Samsung Magician software does not seem to like me using raid and I have been thinking about buying a Startech Raid card but I’m not sure if this is a good idea.
Does the Samsung 850 Pro also need replacing?

Many thanks,
DLD

Hard Disk Sentinel Smart Data for the Samsung 850 Pro:

5,Reallocated Sectors Count,10,99,99,OK,000000000002,0,Enabled
9,Power On Time Count,0,98,98,OK (Always passing),0000000015D3,0,Enabled
12,Drive Power Cycle Count,0,99,99,OK (Always passing),000000000379,0,Enabled
177,Wear Leveling Count,0,98,98,OK (Always passing),000000000076,0,Enabled
179,Used Reserved Block Count (Total),10,99,99,OK,000000000002,0,Enabled
181,Program Fail Count (Total),10,100,100,OK,000000000000,0,Enabled
182,Erase Fail Count (Total),10,100,100,OK,000000000000,0,Enabled
183,Runtime Bad Block (Total),10,99,99,OK,000000000002,0,Enabled
187,Uncorrectable Error Count,0,99,99,OK (Always passing),0000000007B7,0,Enabled
190,Temperature,0,64,58,OK (Always passing),000000000024,0,Enabled
195,ECC Rate,0,199,199,OK (Always passing),0000000007B7,0,Enabled
199,Ultra ATA CRC Error Count,0,99,99,OK (Always passing),000000000002,0,Enabled
235,POR Recovery Count,0,99,99,OK (Always passing),000000000026,0,Enabled
241,Total LBA Written,0,99,99,OK (Always passing),0006996927BC,0,Enabled

EDIT by Fernando: Unneeded blank lines emoved and put the Sentinel S.M.A.R.T data into a spoiler (to save space and to improve the readability)

2

@DLD :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
It is not easy to give you any advice, because I haven’t been present, when you configured your current system.

This is what I recommend to do:
1. Save your important data outside your currently used disks.
2. Unplug the 2 pairs of the mirrored 2 TB disks.
3. Prepare a bootable USB Flash drive containing your desired OS (which one is it?) by using the tool Rufus.
4. Enter the BIOS and set the Intel SATA Controller to "AHCI" mode.
5. Do a fresh install of the OS onto the Samsung 850 Pro after having deleted all currently existing partitions.
6. Install Samsung’s Magician and let it check the health of both Samsung SSDs.
7. If both SSDs are healthy and running fine in AHCI mode, do a complete backup of all partitions of your Samsung 850 Pro and store it on your Samsung 830 SSD.
8. Now you can decide, whether you want to run the Intel SATA Controller in AHCI or RAID mode.

Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)

3

Thanks.

Magician tells me both SSD’s are healthy but Sentinal does not seem to agree on the 850.

The advice I’m seeing is in regards to whether, or not, to use the Intel Raid and how best to configure the SSD for Windows. I’m experienced in dealing with technical issues but I have no experience of using other raid cards (such as the Startech) or in using software raid, storgage spaces etc.

I also don’t know whether the health of the 850 is due to me not have configured it properly for Windows i.e. I moved the pagefile from the 850 to the raid disks but I didn’t really do anything else.

I have used motherboard raid for many years but have never come across a situation where the second disk was not available after one disk failure. Previously I merely got a message telling me the raid was degraded. This time the second disk is not seen by Windows or any recovery software.

The advice I’m seeking is all about how to configure it when I do the re-build rather than the current configuration.