Error with Windows RAID setup on drive failure
Error with Windows RAID setup on drive failure
Hey everyone, I had two dual 2TB SATA SSDs set up in a Windows RAID 0 setup. Last night my PC alerted me that one of the drives failed and asked me to open Disk Management. I figured it was just a minor scratch and thought about reformatting each one separately. But Windows said no—can’t format, change the drive letter, or create a new volume when the drive is offline. I took both drives out thinking I could handle them individually. Windows indicated they were healthy, so maybe the issue is with Windows itself. Any advice would be really helpful!
Have you set up the BIOS settings? With two 2TB drives in Windows, it should display both, yet only a single large volume appears. Likely you need to disable RAID on the motherboard.
The RAID array was configured in a specific way. Did you have a hardware RAID controller? When the computer started, was there a key combination to open the RAID setup menu? Or did you use software like Disk Management for a software RAID? You could also try third-party tools such as Minitool partition wizard, or if you prefer rebuilding, refer to Intel’s support guide at the provided link.
In the RAID control menu of my MB BIOS, I successfully deleted the array, allowing each drive to be formatted with its own letter. Disk 2 is currently taking a moment to format (I hope it finds its place). I plan to copy some files over and observe the results. Good luck!
In these situations, I suggest starting with a Linux USB drive and formatting it accordingly. Windows failed RAID attempts often become complicated to resolve.
Both storage units managed an 850GB transfer each. Each ran at full capacity for about three hours continuously. All files passed inspection without any issues. I plan to restart the Windows RAID software. The drive is intended solely as a Steam/emulation setup, and I’ve backed up everything essential to my NAS. It seems the initial array failed after roughly a year and a half, so this one might encounter similar problems again by Christmas 2025. I’m prepared for that and might switch to higher-capacity NVMe drives later. Thanks to everyone for your support!
Download Crystal Disk Info and/or DiskGenius in your signature. Choose each disk individually to see its SMART data. Here you can assess the condition of each disk. If it drops below Good, you should swap it out. You can create your RAID configuration using the NAS RAID setup control panel. After RAID is configured, you can monitor its status and, if a drive fails, you can split the RAID to replace the faulty drives.