Windows 8 Raid 0 on 2 ssd's with an internal sata hdd for storage

[gregjmitch]

Hello all! Quick question. I have my BIOS set to RAID because I am using two 128gb Vertex 4's (in RAID 0) running my OS, games and apps for speed purposes. This configuration seems to be the bee's knees as it is lightning fast. However, I just bought a Western Digital WD20EARX 2TB HDD that I added to one of my internal Asmedia SATA 3.0 (6gbps) ports for storage that seems to be under performing. Ok, so here's what happen...

Installed the new WD HDD (no problems), quick formatted the drive with default settings (new volume, NTFS, quick format, bla bla...) (no problems), tried to transfer the same file (made a copy for testing purposes) from my ssd's to the new drive and from an external usb 2.0 drive.

Now, when I tried to transfer the file to the new WD internal drive things were going great for about 2-3 minutes then trouble started. I was getting a GREAT transfer rate of about 689 yes, 689 mbps from the ssd's to the internal drive and about 40-45 mbps transfer rates respectively then it dropped down to 0 kbps to 355 kbps on both attempts 2-3 minutes into the transfer. It essentially froze my computer as I tried to abort the copy and had to hard reboot both times.

It seems as though my computer is seeing this new HDD as a "mobile/ATA" device since it is listed in the "Safely eject media and remove hardware" section. I have successfully ejected the media, removed the device, plugged it back in and it works just fine. So here is my question...

Is my setup wrong somewhere that is not allowing me to use this drive as a "storage device", did I miss something or could it be something else?

Thanks for any information you can share, Best Regards and Cheers!

ASUS Sabertooth Z77 mobo
Intel I7 3770k 3.5ghz oc'd to 4.2ghz
32 GB G.Skill DDR3 1600
Asus Geforce 550Ti
Koolance liquid kit with 360mm radiator
AZZA Hurrican 2000 full tower
Corsair 1200 Watt PSU
Windows 8 x.64 with media center
Oh, and 13 internal blue LED fans cooling the box

 

[jasont78]

bit off topic but 1 of those drives will get close to the 6gb/s, stripped i would think they will be bottlenecked by the sata 3 interface

 

[mc_creeper]

^+1 and get a GPU upgrade for the system and send me your old GTX 550 Ti

 

[gregjmitch]

bit off topic but 1 of those drives will get close to the 6gb/s, stripped i would think they will be bottlenecked by the sata 3 interface

I only have one drive if you are referring to the WD. The ssd's are already stripped.

 

[gregjmitch]

^+1 and get a GPU upgrade for the system and send me your old GTX 550 Ti

I might seriously consider it if you can find the answer to my problem.

 

[jasont78]

I only have one drive if you are referring to the WD. The ssd's are already stripped.

im talkin bout the 2 vertex4s

 

[gregjmitch]

im talkin bout the 2 vertex4s

There seems to be alot of contraversy on that topic. I dont think that a change would give any noticable performance boosts. However, I do think I am risking my OS and programs if a drive fails. I'm not concerned with that though because installing everything back on new ssd's is quick. Besides, WEI already gives me a 7.9 on disk I/O. What more do you need? Oh, and I have already installed windows 7 x.64 on an old Vertex 3 with AHCI enabled and I was not impressed.

 

[gregjmitch]

So I found out last night that the "quick/hot swap pcb boards" that came with my AZZA Hurrican case were the problem (kept dropping the drives offline, I emailed Azza but have yet to receive a reply) so I just simply removed them. That, combined with having to set the SATA ports to quick disconnect in the bios helped as well. I have 2 Asmedia sata III ports, 4 Intel sata II ports and 2 Intel sata III ports. I installed the 3TB drive on one of the Asmedia ports and it now shows up in the lower right hand corner of the desktop with options to "safely remove hardware". I'm getting a consistant 200 mbps transfer rate internally between my ssd's and the new drive. The Asmedia do not show up in the bios with options to set as quick disconnects but the windows environment does. Weird but whatever, it works. Just remember, I have RAID set in the bios and I am running level 0 on the two Vertex 4 128gb drives but that has NO impact on adding a data drive what so ever. I really dont see the point in making TB hdd's with sata III interface if all you get is 200 megs so I might move them to the sata II's later if they will work there.

On a side note, when a file transfer is initially started the speed peaks at about 600-700 mbps then drops to around 150-200 for the rest of the file(s). Not sure why it just cant stay at that speed but at least I get that for about a minute or so. The files I am transfering are video files from my GoPro Hero 3 camera and they usually reach the 28-35 GB range each. Any other experiences from anyone with this setup please reply. Perhaps there is still something more we can do. Oh, and btw, I have not checked the transfer rates from the GoPro camera yet, these files were initially moved from an old usb 2.0 hdd from WD and that transfer gets me about 40-50mbps. not bad but still slow. Cheers!