How to configure raid in windows 10

We already have the tutorials to configure RAID on board Intel and AMD, and now it is turbo to see the last available way without the need for third-party software: configure RAID in Windows 10 with its Space Manager.

We will analyze whether it is better or worse than doing it from the BIOS of our motherboard, in addition to the possibilities that we have with the operating system that we all have at home. In this case we will not stop to see what a RAID is, nor its advantages, because they are already explained in the linked articles.

Index of contents

Configure RAID in Windows 10: prerequisites

Before starting the configuration process, it is necessary to know some basic aspects that we must take into account to avoid errors when creating it.

The first and most important thing will be to have the motherboard chipset driver installed on the system, either on the Intel or AMD platform. This will be found in the plate manufacturer's support section in the form of an installation package. This is necessary to establish communication with the microcode of the chipset, which is ultimately the one that includes the support with the different RAID configurations and the one that controls the communication interface between the hard drives and the CPU.

A typical error that we will find if we do not install the driver is that it will not be possible to add several hard drives in a RAID , notifying the system to check the connections of the drives.

The second aspect to keep in mind is that the ideal will be that the two units are exactly the same, model, interface and storage. We will not be able to mix SATA drives with PCIe and if we mount for example a RAID 1, we will be limited to the smallest drive.

If we wanted to install Windows on the built RAID, then the process to be carried out would be the configuration from the BIOS itself, and subsequent installation of the system.

Configure RAID in Windows 10 step by step

For this example we are going to use two M.2 SATA Western Digital WD NAS SA500 drives of 1 TB each. Along with them, an Asus Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard with AMD X570 chipset with the operating system installed on another 2.5 ”SATA SSD independent of these.

The first step will be to install the units in the corresponding slots or ports. At this point we should know the limitations of the board we have, that is, if the M.2 slots share a bus with the SATA ports. All of this will come in the motherboard manual.

Now we are going to go to the start menu by right-clicking on it. We will choose the option " Disk Management ". If they have never been initialized, the program will launch a window indicating that there are new units and they need to be initialized. We just click accept and we will see something like the image above.

The drives that we are going to use will be both with black bars, and we will keep them like this, without any format until the RAID gives it to itself.

After this, it is time to access the program to configure RAID in Windows. To do this we simply must write to start managing storage spaces. We will click on the icon with three stacked disks.

Then we will click on " Create a new group and storage spaces " in the window that will appear.

In the next step, the two initialized but unformatted units appear, ready to start creating the group. Keep in mind that if these units were previously formatted or were dynamic disks, they will not appear, since the system will understand that they are already occupied.

What we would do in this case is go back to Disk Administrator and with the right button on the blue bar, choose “Delete volume”. The process would lose all the data on the drive. We would repeat this in all the partitions that we had in this unit.

So in this window we select the units that we want to configure and click on " Create group ". In principle it does not matter that they are managed by the chipset or the CPU, we can do the RAID without major complications.

Now all the configuration relative to the storage space that we want to do will appear. The most important parameters will be these:

• Drive Letter: We need to assign a letter that is not busy for Windows to detect as storage. File system: Windows 10 will give us the option of NTFS, its own file system as normal Type of resistance: ungraceful translation, but in the list we have several options available:
  • Simple: Equivalent to a configuration in JBOD, that is, two or more units are simply joined in one, without read / write performance improvements. Note that it is not a RAID 0 as such because it cannot take advantage of the combined speed of both drives. Double mirror: it is the equivalent of a RAID 1 Triple mirror: it would be a RAID 1 with three disks Parity: equivalent to a RAID 5, with three fault tolerant units of a unit Dual parity: we would need 4 units, and it is equivalent to a RAID 6
  Maximum size: we simply leave the maximum available. We are going to make a union of units, that is to say a JBOD so the maximum will be 2 TB.

Finally we click on " Create storage space " to build the RAID.

Once done, it will look like a single unit in our file explorer. At any time we can access this program again to create a new space or delete the one we have made. We can also add drives depending on the type of RAID we do.

Performance and conclusions on configuring RAID in Windows 10

In the previous image we see that the performance is indeed that of a JBOD, the simple union of two units. If this were a real RAID 0, then both drives would work at the same time, and the performance would be double. We must bear this in mind, since RAID 0 and its speed benefits can only be achieved with a RAID configuration in the BIOS.

And in the previous image we see the performance of what would be a RAID 1 made in Windows 10. In this case we will have mounted a system of two hard drives in which the files will be replicated as a backup. In this case the numbers reflect higher performance but not on par with RAID 0, having half the usable storage capacity.

So we conclude this method as a very simple one to perform for users who want to take advantage of the more generic RAID configurations with the notable absence of RAID 0. However, it is a good way to keep our files safe with replication and fault tolerance.

We leave you with some articles related to the topic

If you've had a problem with this setup please leave us a comment below so we can help out. Do you think it is better to create a RAID from Windows or from the BIOS / UEFI? What type of RAID have you created?