09-23-2023 04:30 AM
Hi, my new Zephyrus Duo 16 comes with 2x 2TB NVMe in RAID 0 configuration right out of the box. I want to switch to 2 separate drives (non-RAID) with all the recovery options/partitions intact, eg. MyASUS in WinRE. What is the best way to go about doing this? Thanks in advance.
09-23-2023 11:01 AM
I'll be honest, I did not find a good way. AMD RAID 0 is a fake RAID that can be supported by drivers, provided by the laptop manufacturer (or motherboard manufacturer as is sometimes the case). However, ASUS only provides these drivers for Windows. So any attempt of using non-Windows tools to clone the partitions inside the fake RAID array is, well, let's put it lightly and say difficult. Most tools will just see two drives and no understanding of the partition table shared over both of them. Using Windows to clone the partitions does work, but you then need to restore the same partitions when you have no Windows available. Most such tools aren't good at not copying empty space, so you need to clone to a drive that is at least 4TB in size. You can use Windows itself in this case. Creating a system image with all the partitions via Windows and restoring it can be done by following guides online.
I'll be honest, in a fresh laptop, most of the space is empty and I did not have a 4TB drive just lying around. So I personally ended up doing a clean install without the recovery tools. ASUS does not provide them for such cases, which is a shame. The main thing you want to keep in mind with a fresh install is that not only do you lose the recovery partition, also drivers. Keep a copy of the drivers (you can download from ROG's website) handy since one of the devices that requires manually installed drivers is the MediaTek Wifi card. Which is a blessing and a curse (it is easier to set up Windows without a MS account if it fails to initialize the WiFi). Also you will lose the wallpapers, Screenpad animation that you may want to grab a copy of before cleaning the drives out.
Once I had done everything, all the drivers and updates done, system set up for everyday use, I made the suggestion that ASUS would stop enabling AMD RAID 0 (or the Intel equivalent) by default on laptops that ship with more than one SSD because it causes needless headaches for users. Remember, RAID 0 means that if either SSD fails, you lose all data on both drives.
10-05-2023 10:09 PM
I tried Macrium Reflect Free, Easeus Todo Backup, Rescuzilla, etc and all failed using clone or image whole drive (all partitions) method. Finally I took out the 2 RAID0 Nvmes, put in a new Nvme and did a "Cloud Recovery within MyASUS in WinRE" and it worked. However clone/image whole drive (all partitions) on this single Nvme also failed. Only way is to image the C partition as a backup. Hope this info helps.