Windows 10: Add new SSD drive to RAID-1 machine?

My PC runs Windows 10 Home 20H2 off a RAID-1 HD (configuration: BIOS-> SATA->RAID). I would like to add a new, separate SSD drive to this system. Can this be done without interfering with the existing RAID-1?

:)

 

Add new SSD drive to RAID-1 machine?

My PC runs Windows 10 Home 20H2 off a RAID-1 HD (configuration: BIOS-> SATA->RAID). I would like to add a new, separate SSD drive to this system. Can this be done without interfering with the existing RAID-1?

 

Windows 10, RAID 1, Optimize Shows HDD, not SSD

In my new Windows 10 desktop computer, (RAID 1, Two SSD's), I see Optimize shows "Hard Disk Drive", NOT "SSD", and I want to be sure defragmentation is not applied to these drives, instead of the proper TRIM utility. What need I do? I found a reply for
this regarding Windows 8, but not sure how to proceed in Windows 10:

"

Created on October 30, 2013

SSDs Showing up as HDD in system - Windows 8.1 GA/RTM

I had this issue during the preview and it appears to happen again in the final version of 8.1 as well.



Somehow the system is incorrectly registering my 2x RAID SDDs as HDDs, which thus during the weekly "Optimization" runs a defragmentation on them instead correctly running TRIM instead. Which is quite frustrating to see it's still in the final product.



In my preview thread the suggestion to fix this was to run WinSAT (Windows System Assessment Tool) from Powershell. It worked during the preview to correctly identify my SSDs and it appears to work in the final version as well.



The description on how to run it from my previous thread:



"Usually the detection of SSDs can be forced by running the Windows Experience Index (= WEI, file name: WINSAT.EXE).



You may have to run Windows Experience Index to force windows to detect RAID SSD in Windows 8.1.2013



Follow these steps:

a. Press “Windows key + W” from the keyboard.

b. Type “Administrative tools” without quotes in the search box.

c. Select “Administrative tools” option from the list.

d. Then right click on “Windows PowerShell ISE” and select “Run as Administrator” option.

e. Type “WinSAT diskformal” without quotes in the PowerShell and hit Enter.

You will see:



“Win8.1 Preview - Manual execution of the Windows Experience Index.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)”.

f. Close “Windows PowerShell” and run Windows Optimization.

g. This should detect “RAID configured SSD on Windows 8.1."



I highly suggest if you have SSDs, especially in RAID, that you check the Optimize Drives interface to see if it's correctly identifying your drives and if it isn't to run WinSAT diskformal from PowerShell.

 

Windows 10 / Raid 1: "Optimize" shows HDD, NOT installed SSD's

I HAVE NOT RECEIVED A COMPLETE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION: PLEASE, HELP!

In my new Windows 10 desktop computer, (RAID 1, Two SSD's), I see Optimize shows "Hard Disk Drive", NOT "SSD", and I want to be sure defragmentation is not applied to these drives, instead of the proper TRIM utility. What need I do? I found a reply for
this regarding Windows 8, but not sure how to proceed in Windows 10:



"Created on October 30, 2013

SSDs Showing up as HDD in system - Windows 8.1 GA/RTM

I had this issue during the preview and it appears to happen again in the final version of 8.1 as well.



Somehow the system is incorrectly registering my 2x RAID SDDs as HDDs, which thus during the weekly "Optimization" runs a defragmentation on them instead correctly running TRIM instead. Which is quite frustrating to see it's still in the final product.



In my preview thread the suggestion to fix this was to run WinSAT (Windows System Assessment Tool) from Powershell. It worked during the preview to correctly identify my SSDs and it appears to work in the final version as well.



The description on how to run it from my previous thread:



"Usually the detection of SSDs can be forced by running the Windows Experience Index (= WEI, file name: WINSAT.EXE).



You may have to run Windows Experience Index to force windows to detect RAID SSD in Windows 8.1.2013



Follow these steps:

a. Press “Windows key + W” from the keyboard.

b. Type “Administrative tools” without quotes in the search box.

c. Select “Administrative tools” option from the list.

d. Then right click on “Windows PowerShell ISE” and select “Run as Administrator” option.

e. Type “WinSAT diskformal” without quotes in the PowerShell and hit Enter.

“Win8.1 Preview - Manual execution of the Windows Experience Index.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)”.

f. Close “Windows PowerShell” and run Windows Optimization.

g. This should detect “RAID configured SSD on Windows 8.1."



I highly suggest if you have SSDs, especially in RAID, that you check the Optimize Drives interface to see if it's correctly identifying your drives and if it isn't to run WinSAT diskformal from PowerShell."

In reply to Sumit (Independent Advisor)'s post on January 5, 2020

How can I verify/be certain? In the Windows 8 advice, copied from the Microsoft Community, you see there can be an issue especially in RAID (1) configuration, where the hard drive(s) are not recognized as SSD, and a corrective procedure is given (for Windows
8, but I have Windows 10). Is there some equivalent method to confirm my SSD's are receiving TRIM, not Defragment? I ran "optimize" manually, and to my eyes, the process looked exactly like the "defragment" I've run for years on my old, Windows 7 with HDD.
As you see, I want to exercise extreme caution in protecting these 2, extremely expensive 2TB SSD's.

• Independent Advisor

I agree to a certain extent about RAID that the things are unclear(I have to ask that to TPTB) but for normal configs please see this article from a Microsoft Employee.

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheRealAndComple...

In reply to Sumit (Independent Advisor)'s post on January 6, 2020

I did read the article you referenced. While I am not a very technical person, I can see my issue is different than the issue addressed in that article. The article revolves around how Windows treats, maintains a SSD, and in the example "optimize window"
the drive is clearly called "SSD" by Windows. IN MY OPTIMIZER, the drive is called "Hard Drive", and this is the first basis of my concern that the drive is not being maintained as a SSD.

I very much appreciate your offer to further investigate. Again, please note my system is RAID 1, with (2) mirrored, 2TB SSD's, "hardware based RAID" with the controller on the motherboard. I will await further information. Again, my issue/concern is
not so much how Windows maintains an SSD, rather whether Windows sees my array AS SSD.