How to Configure Two SSDs in RAID 0 (or More!)

I won't deny that it's very tempting. With the absolute plunge in solid-state drive prices, the idea of configuring two SSDs in RAID 0 in search of double performance has stopped being a dream. However, there are many technical details we must follow (and obey) to reach a successful outcome, including downloading additional drivers and the ever-present quirks of Windows 10.

Double the hardware, double the speed. Computing maintains a rather harsh relationship with that concept. 20 years ago, the folks at Diamond Multimedia offered their "Shotgun Technology" to double connection speed with their old modems (it required two phone lines). On the graphics side, our love-hate crisis with SLI is very deep. The theory is excellent, but in practice we see that a large number of games ignore the second graphics card, or worse, performance is lost with its use. And in the storage field... there's RAID. Its application in mechanical hard drives is especially useful to guarantee redundancy, but when it comes to pure speed, we all imagine a pair of SSDs in RAID 0. If the most economical solid-state drives can saturate the SATA interface without too much trouble, we can break that limit by using an extra SSD... right?

As Facebook would say, it's complicated. What should we do to configure two SSDs in RAID 0?

Back Up Your Files

A common aspect I've seen across the Web is that everyone recommends entering the world of RAID 0 with a clean table, so if your current environment requires file backup, don't leave it for later. Another suggestion is to temporarily disconnect all drives that are not related to RAID. Some controllers have a life of their own, and conflicts are not impossible (although rare). In the name of stability, we'll follow that step in our example and leave only the two SSDs we'll use.

Download the Manufacturer's RAID Driver

This step is fundamental. Unless a miracle happens and the Windows 10 installation image has the driver built in, you have to visit the support section on your motherboard manufacturer's page and download a copy. Now, the zip file is not enough: You must unzip the content, find the build compatible with the version of Windows you're going to install (Windows 10 x64 in this example), and copy it to a temporary folder that will be moved elsewhere...

Prepare the Windows 10 Installation USB

It doesn't matter if you decide to use Microsoft's official tool, download the ISO from an alternative portal, or look for an edition without bloatware, the final goal is the same: Put Windows 10 on a USB drive to install it on our RAID 0. Now, do you remember the temporary folder where the RAID driver is? Copy that folder to the root of the Windows 10 USB drive. Later you'll see why.

Enter the BIOS and Enable RAID Mode

With the two SSDs already connected, we enter the BIOS of the motherboard, visit the section dedicated to the SATA interface, and change the mode from AHCI to RAID. Some BIOSes allow setting the RAID configuration from within, but most likely you'll need to restart and enter the RAID controller firmware.

Enter RAID Setup

This is where the difficulty level rises a bit, for the simple fact that not all controllers are the same (the key combination here was CTRL+R). Some controllers require initializing the drives before creating an array, and others do it automatically. In our case it was necessary to initialize the SSDs. That enabled the Create Array option, then we chose the two drives using the Insert key, the type (RAID 0), the cache mode (R/W), and the size (all available space). If your controller asks for the Stripe Size, it might offer 16k or 32k as default. Either should work well.

(Editor's note: The BIOS/UEFI can capture screens, but the RAID firmware cannot. I apologize for the quality of the images below; the camera-light combination is a disaster...)

Install Windows

With RAID 0 established at the BIOS level, the rest is a matter of installing Windows 10. But once you boot from the installation USB and reach the target drive selection screen, you'll probably see this:

Empty! The list is empty. That happens because the Windows 10 installation files don't include a compatible RAID driver. This is where that folder you copied to the USB comes into play. Click Load Driver, then Browse, find the folder, and confirm. The Windows 10 installer will read the .inf file, load the necessary files, and the RAID 0 array will appear as an available drive. Select it, click continue, and let Windows 10 finish its work.

That's It! Was It Worth It?

What do you think?

Sequential operations increased their performance by 70 to 75 percent, and most random numbers improved, but others went down and stayed that way with multiple benchmark repeats. If your main applications rely heavily on sequential reads and/or writes, the RAID 0 will have influence. However, speed in random operations is far from revolutionary.

We must also consider secondary factors, ranging from the natural performance of each SSD to the quality of the RAID controller built into the motherboard, through the availability of drivers and how well Windows 10 gets along with them. I hope this guide has been useful. Good luck!