ROG Zenith Extreme problem with RAID and DVD

[g051051]

I have a ROG Zenith Extreme with firmware 0902 that I want to set up as follows:

1. 2 M.2 SATA in RAID 1 configuration for my C:\ drive.
2. 5 2 Tb drives as a Windows 10 storage space.
3. 1 SATA DVD drive.

When I turn on RAID on the MB, the DVD drive vanishes and the device reporting gets weird. As in, one of the M.2 drives starts getting reported as being attached to whatever SATA6G port the DVD is plugged in to. This also blocks booting from the DVD for an installation of Windows, or attaching a copy of my old system on a SSD and booting from it. If I turn off RAID, then the DVD boots fine, but I lose my M.2 RAID.

My old Gigabyte motherboard had options specifically to solve this kind of problem...8 total SATA ports, 2 of which were on a separate "G-SATA" controller, plus the ability to make 2 of the RAIDXpert ports non-RAID via the BIOS.

It seems incredible, but did they really make it so you can't use the SATA ports for anything except RAID when it's turned on? How are you supposed to install an OS without a DVD drive? Or if I want to rip my CDs, play media, install video games, etc.?

[Yewnidt]

FlyingBear wrote:
I should add a little more information: the single 2TB 970 Evo has to be a "legacy non-RAID" array under RaidExpert2 to show up in Windows, i.e. it can't be a standalone drive, and hence can't use the Samsung NVMe driver or Samsung Magician, despite not being part of a RAID array. If you delete the "array" (which it isn't), the drive vanishes from Windows. A bummer.

The BluRay drive shows up just fine as a SCSI device in Device Manager and Windows. RAIDExpert2 can't see it.

On the good news side, the 970 Pro array benchmarks in ATTO (current version) at ~5GB/s write and read. The sole 970 Evo sits at ~2.4GB/s, and the 860 Evo array at ~1GB/s. Not bad.

I've been trying all sorts of stuff, how do you set your 3rd drive to "legacy non-RAID" ??? I've found all sorts of other options, from in use, to legacy, to VOLUME.

I have the exact same setup...

Funny thing is everything was fine for a week, I even populated the drive with some of my Steam library. Now all of a sudden, this...

[g051051]

I'm the OP, and I "solved" my issue some time back:

1. Bought a cheap SATA card.
2. Configured my system with 2 M.2 SATA sticks in RAID configuration.
3. Booted my system with a copy of my old system drive on the SATA card.
4. Installed all ASUS software.
5. Shutdown, clone old partition to RAID.
6. Remove SATA card, boot from RAID. Success!
7. Build 5 drives into RAID array, not storage spaces.

There were a lot of other problems along the way, but this is how I solved the particular problem I posted about here.

[Yewnidt]

I'm having very similar issues, really weird because it all worked fine and was detected fine on the first go. Now I'm stuck with either setting all NVME devices under RAID, or disabling RAID, completely... Also the manual that came with my zenith extreme has nothing but useless junk regarding RAID:mad:. I had to come to the forums to get answers. Bravo to all the forum users! 😄

[G75rog]

When my DVD got strange on me I added a USB to Sata cable from the motherboard to the drive. Works fine now as a USB DVD.