Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Drive Requirements for Windows*
Content Type: Product Information & Documentation | Article ID: 000101218 | Last Reviewed: 05/19/2025
The following information outlines the requirements and expectations for drives used in an Intel® VROC RAID array/volume, 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 | Drive requirements are 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*. |
Intel® VROC RAID management expects that all drives used in or added to an Intel® VROC RAID array/volume start as new or clean drives. This means that the drive does not contain RAID metadata from a previous RAID volume. Using drives that are not new or clean can result in various unexpected behaviors. This applies to drives that are used as hot-spares and for drives used in a RAID volume rebuild process.
Intel® VROC RAID management has minimum disk size requirements for certain RAID management activities.
The Intel® VROC family of products supports the ability to add a disk to a RAID array. The size of the disk added must be at least as large as the smallest disk in the existing RAID array. If the disk does not meet this minimum size requirements it will not be allowed to be added.
The Intel® VROC family of products supports the ability to replace a targeted RAID array member. The capacity of the replacement member must be greater than or equal to the sum of the greatest allocated Logical Block Addressing (LBA) and the metadata size of the targeted member.