Setting up RAID1 on an Elitedesk 800 G8 SFF using the m2 SSD slots?

[LesNougat]

How do I setup RAID1 on an Elitedesk 800 G8 SFF using the m2 SSD slots? I have both slots populated with an SSD but only one shows up in the RAID utility that I access by booting to the third party ROM (which is how I've setup m2 RAID on previous generation Elitedesks). Both M2 SSDs are the exact same type that are shipped with these computers and are not Optane. I have also tried using WD Blue NVMe M2 SSDs but have the same problem (I've been able to use the same WD SSDs on previous generation Elitedesks with no problems).

[itsmyname]

@LesNougat -- are you sure that both M.2 sockets support M.2 SSD sticks?  It is common for only ONE of the sockets to support M.2 sticks.

Remove one M.2 stick from its socket, and restart, and enter BIOS SETUP. 

Does the motherboard still show the remaining M.2 stick, or no stick at all?

Return that M.2 stick to its socket, and remove the other M.2 stick from its socket.

Upon restart, enter BIOS SETUP.

Does the motherboard still show the remaining M.2 stick, or no stick at all?

[Prométhée]

hi

@itsmyname 

"

are you sure that both M.2 sockets support M.2 SSD sticks? It is common for only ONE of the sockets to support M.2 sticks.

"

so  

1 lan m2

2 ssd m2

[itsmyname]

@LesNougat -- what are the results from:

Remove one M.2 stick from its socket, and restart, and enter BIOS SETUP. 

Does the motherboard still show the remaining M.2 stick, or no stick at all?

Return that M.2 stick to its socket, and remove the other M.2 stick from its socket.

Upon restart, enter BIOS SETUP.

Does the motherboard still show the remaining M.2 stick, or no stick at all?

Perhaps, one of those sockets is defective. 

Try both sticks, one at a time, in "socket #1" and then in "socket #2", each time leaving the other socket empty, to try to diagnose the issue.

Showing a diagram of the motherboard, without giving any real assistance, does not help towards a diagnosis.

[frm1981]

Hello,

I have an HP EliteDesk 800 G8 Desktop Mini, which also seems to be having this issue. I want to set up a RAID 1, and have two identical M.2 Samsung drives (mzvl2512hcjq-00bh1) installed into both slots on the motherboard.  I have enabled the setting within BIOS to enable RAID on the controller. You can see both drives detected in the BIOS, System Information screen, but only one drive shows up in the third party option ROM settings, as well as Windows Setup. BUT - once in Windows after setup, the second drive is visible within Disk Management, you can format and add as a second drive, but even after installing the Optane Storage Management software to set up a RAID, only one drive shows up. Seems like it's either a M.2 port limitation, or a BIOS update is needed for this to be fixed. For reference - the slot on the motherboard for the second drive is [J40 SSD2].

I have done this with a EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini before, so it seems like something is not right on the G8.

[itsmyname]

@frm1981 --  after installing the Optane Storage Management software to set up a RAID, only one drive shows up

That is correct. Windows "sees" just one "RAID set", and does its input/output to the "set", and the Optane software manages the disk-drives within the set, to "mirror" the two disk-drives.

[frm1981]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure if I described it correctly or not. But I set the BIOS to use the RAID option. After installing, the two drives show up in Disk Management, but not in the Optane software. It shows an empty drive and I cannot configure any software RAID. See the below screenshots. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you! 

[itsmyname]

@frm1981 --  I set the BIOS to use the RAID option.

That is just the first step for creating a "RAID set".

You then need to enter BIOS SETUP to create the set, and identify each disk-drive that is to become a member of a set.  For RAID-1 ("mirrored") there are two disk-drives in the set.  For other RAID options, such as "striped", you should put many disk-drives into the set -- if one disk-drive fails, the remaining disk-drives can be used to recover, by RAID deducing what information is "lost", and how to recover, using the built-in redundancy of a "striped" set.

> After installing, the two drives show up in Disk Management, but not in the Optane software.

That indicates that you have "enabled", but not "activated" RAID.  Disk Management should show only the ID of the RAID-set, not the two individual disk-drives.

It shows an empty drive and I cannot configure any software RAID.

Correct. RAID is not active. So, the second disk-drive is completely "idle".

What you should do:

1. use software like MACRIUM REFLECT to make a complete image of the "active" disk-drive, onto external media.
2. use MACRIUM REFLECT to create a "bootable" version of itself, onto an empty USB memory-stick.
3. restart the computer, and create a RAID set.  This will WIPE both of the disk-drives.
4. boot your computer from the bootable memory-stick.
5. use MACRIUM REFLECT to restore from the external media, onto the RAID set. 
6. disconnect the USB memory-stick, and the external media.
7. restart your computer, and enter BIOS SETUP. Set the "bootable devices" to your RAID set.
8. Restart your computer.
9. then, when Windows is running, you may want to use the Optane software.
10.