Configuring a RAID Set (B660 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 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 the system BIOS.
C. Create RAID configurations. (Note)
D. Install the RAID driver and operating system.

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

Preparing the Hard Drives and BIOS Settings
A. Installing hard drives

Install the SATA hard drives or SSDs in the Intel® Chipset controlled connectors on the motherboard. Thenconnect the power connectors from your power supply to the hard drives.

(Note)

Skip this step if you do not want to create RAID array on the SATA controller.
-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). Goto Settings\IO Ports\SATA And RST 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 andset 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 Array

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.
-3-

Step 2:On the Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology menu, press <Enter> on Create RAID Volume to enter the CreateRAID 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.
If you want to install an operating system on 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:
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 youto 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
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. The motherboard driver disc or an Internet connected computer.

A-2. Installation Guidelines

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. Then
depending on the SATA/M.2 connector you use, set thecorresponding Map this Root Port under VMD itemto Enabled.

Step 2:After entering the operating system, make sure yourInternet connection works properly.
Method 1:
Insert the motherboard driver disc into your opticaldrive. On the Xpress Install screen, select Intel® Rapid
Storage Technology driver to install and follow theon-screen instructions to complete the installation.
Method 2:
Launch the GIGABYTE APP Center. On the "Not
Installed\New Drivers" screen, select Intel® Rapid
Storage Technology driver to install. Follow the onscreen instructions to continue.
When completed, restart the system.
Step 3: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.

•• 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-Step 4:
Launch the Intel® Optane™ Memory and Storage
Management application from the Start menu and makesure the Intel® Optane™ Memory has been enabled.

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.

-9-