Configuring a RAID Set (Z590 Series)
Configuring SATA Controllers............................................................................................ 2
A. Installing hard drives................................................................................................................2B. Configuring SATA controller mode in BIOS Setup...................................................................3
C. UEFI RAID Configuration........................................................................................................3Installing the RAID Driver and Operating System.............................................................. 7Installing Intel® Optane™ Memory and Storage Management............................................ 8
A. Enabling an Intel® Optane™ Memory........................................................................................8
B. Rebuilding an Array...............................................................................................................10-1-RAID Levels
RAID 0RAID 1

RAID 5

RAID 10Minimum
Number of Hard
Drives≥22≥34

Array Capacity

Number of harddrives * Size of thesmallest drive

Size of the smallestdrive(Number of harddrives -1) * Size ofthe smallest drive(Number of harddrives/2) * Size of thesmallest drive

Fault Tolerance

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

To create a RAID set, follow the steps below:

A. Install SATA hard drive(s) or SSDs in your computer.
B. Configure SATA controller mode in BIOS Setup.
C. Configure a RAID array in RAID BIOS. (Note 1)
D. Install the RAID driver and operating system.

Before you begin, please prepare the following items:•• At least two SATA hard drives or SSDs (Note 2) (to ensure optimal performance, it is recommended that you
use two hard drives with identical model and capacity). (Note 3)•• A Windows setup disc.
•• Motherboard driver disc or an Internet connected computer.
•• A USB thumb drive.

Configuring SATA Controllers
A. Installing hard drives

Install the hard drives/SSDs in the Intel® Chipset controlled connectors on the motherboard. Then connect
the power connectors from your power supply to the hard drives.

(Note 1) Skip this step if you do not want to create RAID array on the SATA controller.
(Note 2) An M.2 PCIe SSD cannot be used to set up a RAID set either with an M.2 SATA SSD or a SATA harddrive.
(Note 3) Refer to "Internal Connectors" for the installation notices for the M.2 and SATA connectors.
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B. Configuring SATA controller mode in BIOS Setup

Make sure to configure the SATA controller mode correctly in system BIOS Setup.
Step 1:
Turn on your computer and press <Delete> to enter BIOS Setup during the POST (Power-On Self-Test). Goto Settings\IO Ports\SATA And RST Configuration, make sure SATA Controller(s) is enabled. To create
RAID, set SATA Mode Selection to Intel RST Premium With Intel Optane System Acceleration. Then savethe settings and restart your computer (Figure 1). Note: When using a PCIe SSD, make sure to set the RSTControl PCIe Storage Devices item under Settings\IO Ports\SATA And RST Configuration to Manual.
Then depending the M.2 connector you use, set the corresponding PCIe Storage Dev on Port XX item to RSTControlled. Finally, save the settings and exit BIOS Setup.

Figure 1

C. UEFI RAID Configuration

Step 1:After the system reboot, enter BIOS Setup again. Then enter the Settings\IO Ports\Intel(R) Rapid Storage
Technology sub-menu (Figure 2).

Figure 2
The BIOS Setup menus described in this section may differ from the exact settings for your motherboard.
The actual BIOS Setup menu options you will see shall depend on the motherboard you have andthe BIOS version.
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On the Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology menu, press <Enter> on Create RAID Volume to enter the Create
RAID Volume screen. Enter a volume name with 1~16 letters (letters cannot be special characters) under theName item and press <Enter>. Then, select a RAID level (Figure 3). RAID levels supported include RAID 0,RAID 1, RAID 10, and RAID 5 (the selections available depend on the number of the hard drives being installed).
Next, use the down arrow key to move to Select Disks.

Figure 3

Step 3:
Under Select Disks item, select the hard drives to be included in the RAID array. Press the <Space> key on
the hard drives to be selected (selected hard drives are marked with "X"). Then set the stripe block size (Figure4). The stripe block size can be set from 4 KB to 128 KB. Once you have selected the stripe block size, setthe volume capacity.

Figure 4-4-

Step 4:After setting the capacity, move to Create Volume and press <Enter> to begin. (Figure 5)

Figure 5

After completing, you'll be brought back to the Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology screen. Under RAID Volumes
you can see the new RAID volume. To see more detailed information, press <Enter> on the volume to check forinformation on RAID level, stripe block size, array name, and array capacity, etc. (Figure 6)

Figure 6-5-

Delete RAID Volume
To delete a RAID array, press <Enter> on the volume to be deleted on the Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technologyscreen. After entering the RAID VOLUME INFO screen, press <Enter> on Delete to enter the Delete screen.
Press <Enter> on Yes (Figure 7).

Figure 7-6-

Installing the RAID Driver and Operating System
With the correct BIOS settings, you are ready to install the operating system.
As some operating systems already include RAID driver, you do not need to install separate RAID driver during
the Windows installation process. After the operating system is installed, we recommend that you install all
required drivers from the motherboard driver disc using "Xpress Install" or from the GIGABYTE APP Center toensure system performance and compatibility. If the operating system to be installed requires that you provide
additional RAID driver during the OS installation process, please refer to the steps below:
Step 1:
Method 1: Copy the IRST folder under Boot in the driver disc to your USB thumb drive.
Method 2: Go to GIGABYTE's website, browse to the motherboard model's web page, download the Intel SATA
Preinstall driver file on the Support\Download\SATA RAID/AHCI page, unzip the file and copy the files toyour USB thumb drive.
Step 2:
Boot from the Windows setup disc and perform standard OS installation steps. When the screen requesting you
to load the driver appears, select Browse.
Step 3:Insert the USB thumb drive and then browse to the location of the driver. When a screen as shown in Figure 1
appears, select Intel(R) Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller and click Next to load the driver andcontinue the OS installation.

Figure 1-7-Installing Intel® Optane™ Memory and Storage Management
After entering the operating system, make sure your Internet
connection works properly.
Method 1:
Insert the motherboard driver disc into your optical drive. On theXpress Install screen, select Intel® Rapid Storage Technology
to install and follow the on-screen instructions to complete theinstallation. When completed, restart the system.
Method 2:
Launch the GIGABYTE APP Center. On the "Not Installed\New
Drivers" screen, select Intel® Rapid Storage Technology driverto install. Follow the on-screen instructions to continue. Whencompleted, restart the system.

A. Enabling an Intel® Optane™ Memory
A-1. System Requirements

1. Intel® Optane™ memory
2. The Optane™ memory must have at least 16 GB capacity, and it must have equal or smaller capacity thanthe hard drive/SSD to be accelerated.
3. The Optane™ memory cannot be used to accelerate an existing RAID array; the accelerated hard drive/SSD
cannot be included in a RAID array.
4. The hard drive/SSD to be accelerated must be a SATA hard drive or M.2 SATA SSD.
5. The hard drive/SSD to be accelerated can be a system drive or data drive. The system drive must be GPT formatted
and have Windows 10 64-bit (or later version) installed on it. The data drive must also be GPT formatted.
6. The motherboard driver disc.
7. The SATA controller must set in Intel RST Premium With Intel Optane System Acceleration mode.

A-2. Installation Guidelines

Step 1:
Go to Settings\IO Ports\SATA And RST Configurationand make sure RST Control PCIe Storage Devices
is set to Manual. Then depending on which M.2
connector you install the Optane™ memory in, set thecorresponding PCIe Storage Dev on Port XX item to
RST Controlled.

Step 2:After re-entering the operating system, launch theIntel® Optane™ Memory and Storage Management
application from the Start menu. If you install morethan one Optane™ memory, please select which one
you are going to use. Then select which drive to beaccelerated. Click Enable Intel® Optane™ Memory.
All data on the Optane™ memory will be erased. Make
sure you back up the data before continuing. Follow theon-screen instructions to proceed. When completed,restart the system.
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Step 3:
Launch the Intel® Optane™ Memory and Storage
Management application from the Start menu andmake sure the Intel® Optane™ Memory has beenenabled.

Step 4:
If you want to accelerate the system drive, you
can select specific folders, files, or applications toaccelerate using the Intel® Optane™ Memory Pinningfunction. (The Optane™ memory used must have atleast 32 GB capacity.)•• An Optane™ memory cannot be used to accelerate an M.2 PCIe SSD.
•• If more than one Optane™ memory is installed, you can select only one of them to accelerate yourSATA-based boot drive. The other(s) can only be used as data drive(s).
•• Do not abruptly remove the Optane™ memory. Doing so will cause the operating system to stopfunctioning correctly.
•• If you want to change/remove the Optane™ memory, you must disable it using the Intel® Optane™
Memory and Storage Management application first.
•• After enabling the Optane™ memory, the related BIOS settings will remain even after a BIOS update.

-9-B. Rebuilding an Array

Rebuilding is the process of restoring data to a hard drive from other drives in the array. Rebuilding applies only
to fault-tolerant arrays such as RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 10 arrays. The procedures below assume a new drive
is added to replace a failed drive to rebuild a RAID 1 array. (Note: The new drive must have equal or greater
capacity than the old one.)
Turn off your computer and replace the failed hard drive with a new one. Restart your computer.
While in the operating system, launch the Intel® Optane™ Memory and Storage Management utility from theStart menu.

Step 1:
Go to the Manage menu and click Rebuild to anotherdisk in Manage Volume.

Step 2:
Select a new drive to rebuild the RAID and clickRebuild.

The Status item on the right of the screen displays therebuild progress. After the RAID 1 volume rebuilding,the Status will display as Normal.

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