Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Hot-Plug Capabilities for Windows*
Content Type: Product Information & Documentation | Article ID: 000101211 | Last Reviewed: 05/19/2025
The following information outlines the hot-plug features and functionality supported by Intel® VROC, including the Intel® VROC sub-products: Intel® VROC (VMD NVMe* RAID), Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) and Intel® VROC (Non-VMD NVMe* RAID). To learn about specific features supported by each Intel® VROC sub-product, refer to the following resources:
| Intel® VROC Features | Hot-plug is one of the features of the Intel® VROC family of products. To learn about other features of Intel® VROC, refer to the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Technical Product Specification for Windows*. |
The Intel® VROC family of products supports the ability to hot-plug (remove and replace) disk drives on properly configured and operational platforms whether or not the I/O is being processed. Hot-plug, also referred to as hot-swap, is a feature that allows disk drives (SATA or NVMe*) to be removed or inserted while the system is powered on and running under a Windows* operating system. As an example, hot-plug may be used to replace a failed drive that is in an externally accessible drive enclosure.
Managed hot-plug support only applies to Intel® VROC (VMD NVMe* RAID) for both pass-thru drives and drives in a RAID volume. Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) currently does not contain support for managed hot-plug for SATA drives attached to the SATA, sSATA or tSATA controller. Managed hot-plug refers to the process of informing the system that a drive will be removed. To accomplish this, Intel® VROC has an option in the Intel® VROC Graphical User Interface (GUI) application that is used to provide this notification.
Intel® VROC supports surprise hot-plug on both pass-thru drives and drives in a RAID volume. Surprise hot-plug refers to removing a drive at any point and time. To be able to take advantage of this feature, the system and platform BIOS must have this feature enabled. Consult the platform design documentation for additional information.
| Note | Surprise and managed hot-plug are only supported in platforms that have hot-plug capable backplanes. Using the data cable and/or power cable plugging can result in unknown behavior. |
This series of instructions will guide users through the Intel BIOS configuration for enabling a RAID with a spare drive addition. This allows for configurations, such as a data volume using a file storage service, using multiple drives, or having backup drives ready in case a failure occurs, enabling Auto Rebuild to assist in the recovery.
The following steps are an example of how to enable surprise hot-plug in the Intel Customer Reference Board (CRB) platform BIOS:
This will enable the feature for all NVMe* drives that are associated with the system. This is a distinction from hot-plug as it works with PCH drives. Consult the user’s platform documentation because each BIOS is different, and the steps taken to enable this feature may be different.
The following steps are an example of how to enable surprise hot-plug in the Intel Customer Reference Board (CRB) platform BIOS:
Each port may be individually enabled for hot-plug. The user may turn this feature on for all or none of the ports as appropriate as the administrator. Consult the user’s platform documentation because each BIOS is different, and the steps taken to enable this feature may be different.
The Intel® VROC family of products supports the ability to perform drive hot-plugs in the Pre-OS environment when the drives are in a pass-thru configuration (not in a RAID volume). The Intel® VROC HII interface does not dynamically update, and the screen must be refreshed (by going up a menu level and coming back in) to see the hot-plug transition.
Intel® VROC does not currently support Pre-OS hot-plug on drives within a RAID volume.