Configuring a RAID Set(Intel® Z790/B760 Series)
Preparing the Hard Drives and BIOS Settings................................................................... 2
A. Installing hard drives................................................................................................................2
B. Configuring the BIOS settings.................................................................................................3
C. Configuring a RAID Array........................................................................................................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.................................................................................................................9-1-RAID Levels
RAID 0RAID 1

RAID 5

RAID 10Minimum
Number of HardDrives

≥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

NoYes

Yes

Yes

To create a RAID set, follow the steps below:

A. Install SATA hard drive(s) or SSDs in your computer.
B. Configure the system BIOS.
C. Create RAID configurations. (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.
•• An Internet connected computer.
•• A USB thumb drive.

Preparing the Hard Drives and BIOS Settings
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.

The Intel® B760 Chipset doesn't include RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 support for NVMe
SSD storage devices.

(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 the "Internal Connectors" section of the user's manuals for the installation notices for the M.2
and SATA connectors.
-2-B. Configuring the BIOS settings

Step 1:
Turn on your computer and press <Delete> to enter BIOS Setup during the POST (Power-On Self-Test).
Go to Settings\IO Ports\SATA Configuration, make sure SATA Controller(s) is enabled. To create RAID
configurations, go to Settings\IO Ports\VMD setup menu, set Enable VMD controller to Enabled and set
Enable VMD Global Mapping to Disabled. Then depending on the SATA/M.2 connector you use, set thecorresponding Map this Root Port under VMD item to Enabled.

Figure 1C. Configuring a RAID ArrayStep 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.
-3-

Step 2: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 for
information on RAID level, stripe block size, array name, and array capacity, etc. (Figure 6)

Figure 6-5-

Delete RAID VolumeTo 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.
If you want to install an operating system on an M.2 PCIe SSD or a RAID volume, you need to install the Intel®
RST VMD Controller driver first during the OS installation process. Refer to the steps below:
Step 1:
Go to GIGABYTE's website, browse to the motherboard model's web page, download the Intel SATA Preinstalldriver file on the Support\Download\SATA RAID/AHCI page, unzip the file and copy the files to your 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 below
appears, select Intel RST VMD Controller 467F and click Next to load the driver and continue the OS installation.

-7-

Installing Intel® Optane™ Memory and Storage Management
After entering the operating system, make sure yourInternet connection works properly.
Launch the GIGABYTE Control Center (GCC).
On the "Not Installed\New Drivers" screen, selectIntel® Rapid Storage Technology driver to install.
Follow the on-screen instructions to continue.
When completed, restart the system.

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

1. Intel® Optane™ memory H10/H20.
2. System acceleration with Intel® Optane™ Memory can only be enabled on the M.2 connectors supportedby the Chipset.
3. Only the system drive partition on the Intel® Optane memory being used can be enabled for system acceleration.
The system drive partition must be GPT formatted and have Windows 10 64-bit (or later version) installed.
4. An Internet connected computer.

A-2. Installation Guidelines

Step 2:After re-entering the operating system, launch theIntel® Optane™ Memory and Storage Management
application from the Start menu. Click Enable Intel®
Optane™ Memory. When completed, restart the system.

Step 1:In BIOS Setup, go to Settings\IO Ports\VMD setup
menu, set Enable VMD controller to Enabled andset Enable VMD Global Mapping to Disabled. Thendepending on the SATA/M.2 connector you use, set thecorresponding Map this Root Port under VMD itemto Enabled.

Step 3:
Launch the Intel® Optane™ Memory and Storage
Management application from the Start menu and makesure the Intel® Optane™ Memory has been enabled.

•• 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.
-8-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 click
Rebuild.

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

-9-