RAID Setup Procedure for Intel® NUC Kits

Documentation

Content Type Install & Setup

Article ID 000021493

Last Reviewed 02/13/2020

Software RAID technology allows the combination of multiple physical disks into one logical unit, or disk. You can use this technology for the purpose of redundancy, performance, or both.

All Intel® NUC products that have multiple drives allow for the creation of a software RAID. This guide shows the process for setting up software RAID using the SATA (AHCI) method and the PCIe (NVMe) method and provides resources to setup RAID in Linux*.

If you want to configure Intel® Optane™ Technology on supported Intel NUCs, see Installing Intel® Optane™ Memory on Intel® NUC Kits.

What's needed?

USB flash drive
Latest Intel® Rapid Storage Technology driver, available on Intel® Download Center
Windows 7*, Windows 8.1*, or Windows® 10 64-bit* Installer
Drives (one of the following combinations):
- One 2.5" SATA drive and one M.2 SATA drive
- Two M.2 NVMe SSDs (supported by NUC8i7HNK, NUC8i7HVK, and NUC6i7KYK only)

Notes

The capacities of the drives don't have to be the same, but the RAID volume will only be two times the size of the smallest capacity drive. For example, if your two drives are 256 GB and 128 GB, the largest size the RAID can be is 256 GB (128 GB × 2).
Both drives need to be either AHCI (SATA) or NVMe* (PCIe*). The two technologies can't be mixed.
If you're using Windows 7*, the Windows 7 ISO image should be written to your USB flash drive via UEFI. See the instructions in the Windows 7 UEFI Image Creation guide.

Caution

Creating a new RAID, SATA, or PCIe, will format your discs and erase all content.

Click or the topic for instructions for your drive type:

SATA (AHCI) RAID

RAID Setup Procedure

Press F2 during boot to enter the BIOS setup.
Click Advanced > Devices > SATA.
Set Chipset SATA Mode to RAID.

Press F10 to Save and Exit BIOS Setup.
The system will reboot. Press CTRL+I during boot (repeatedly, if necessary) until the RAID Option ROM utility opens.

Select Create RAID Volume.
Name the RAID volume.

Set the Strip Size.

Set the Capacity.

Select Create Volume and press Y to confirm.

Exit the RAID Option ROM utility and press Y to confirm.

Install Windows*.

PCIe (NVMe) RAID

Note

PCIe (NVMe) RAID is only supported via UEFI boot. Windows 7* must be installed via UEFI. For instructions, see a Guide to Create a Windows 7* UEFI Installer.

Press F2 during boot to enter BIOS setup.
Click Advanced > Devices > SATA.
Set Chipset SATA Mode to RAID.

Enable M.2 Slot 1 RST PCIe Storage Remapping and M.2 Slot 2 RST PCIe Storage Remapping.

Press F10 to Save and Exit BIOS setup.
Enter BIOS Setup again, by pressing F2 during boot.
Click Advanced > Devices > Add-In Config.
Click Configure next to Intel® Rapid Storage Technology

Select Create RAID Volume.

Name the RAID.

Select which RAID version to use.

Note Only RAID0 and RAID1 are supported.

Select the disks to be part of the RAID by pressing Enter on the disk, then selecting X. Repeat for the second disk.

Select the Strip Size and the Capacity.

Select Create Volume.

Press ESC to exit and tap Y to confirm.
Press F10 to Save and Exit BIOS Setup.
The Intel NUC will restart. Turn off the Intel NUC.
Connect the USB flash drive or USB optical drive that has the Windows* installation files.
Turn on the Intel NUC.
At the prompt during boot, press F10 to open the boot menu and select the UEFI USB.

Follow the Windows Installation instructions.
When you get to the Where do you want to install Windows? screen below.

Insert the USB flash device with the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology driver: RST_f6floppy_Win7_8.1_10_64_14.8.0.1042.zip.

Note Make sure the driver is unzipped.

Select Load Driver > Browse > USB drive > RSTxxxx Folder.

Note The USB flash drive is the C: drive: for example, xxxxx (C:)

The screen below shows if Windows finds the Rapid Storage Driver.

Select Next. It can take a minute or two for the driver to load.
When the screen below displays, Windows is ready to be installed. Select Next to start the installation.