XPS 8960, clean Windows 11 install on striped NVMe drives?

While it is possible using the Intel storage software, note that many tests have shown that RAID 0 on SSD arrays doesn't boost performance (it can actually lead to slower performance than single, separate drives).  In exchange for not boosting performance, you have to accept a doubled chance of data loss (if either drive fails, you lose everything).

Translation:  though it is possible, it's not worth the risk for no gain.

You'll find many analyses just like this one:

https://ccsrents.com/solid-state-drive-performance/#:~:text=Can%20I%20RAID%20My%20Drives,anything%20for%20real%2Dworld%20performance.

Ok, no problem there, then I'd like to do RAID 1 for redundancy. Same issue though... how I get this set up at the UEFI level?

I was able to set up striped volumes for my spinning disks in Windows (as a fallback), but I'm looking to do this at the hardware level. My (updated) goal is to have:

• RAID 1 nvme redundancy
• RAID 0 SATA drive speed boost.
• UEFI level implementation

My computer came with AHCI turned on rather than RAID (refurbished), and switching back causes windows to crash, which doesn't matter to me, but it also doesn't turn on the RAID bios and nothing shows up in the target drive list in the windows installer either.

The UEFI/bios that came installed was 2.6 and I used Dell's update app to install 2.7, hoping that might help. I also installed the appropriate IRST driver from the Dell tool as well. Nothing has gotten the device configuration option to show up in the F12 menu.

There is no hardware RAID controller -  use the Intel Optane memory and storage utility to set up the array.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000030046/technologies/intel-rapid-storage-technology-intel-rst.html

You might also want to consider mounting the second NVME drive externally and using it to hold an image of the internal drive made with Reflect or similar software.

Okay, reading the documentation there is very helpful, thank you for the link. I believe that I need to install the application so I get the Windows UI for for RST, since I already installed the driver.

Ultimately, I'm fine if it's software RAID, I was just hoping for the UEFI-level support, but that's not seeming possible.

I have a Win 11 Pro key/install USB that I had intended to do a new install with, but now I'm thinking that if my RAID project is all through IRST, I should just update my key in settings so that Windows upgrades itself, and then mirror the upgraded volume to the second drive and set up RAID 1 using IRST once it's done. Does this seem sensible/doable?

I got the Optane app to install through the Windows Store, but it won't run due to out of date or incompatible drivers. The Dell drivers fail to install, and so do Intel's. Logs are no help, so I decided to proceed with an alternate route.

I performed the Windows 11 pro upgrade in-place rather than clean, since it seemed like it was already a clean install from the refurb. Then I used disk manager to mirror the nvme drives.

It's working, so I guess that's good enough...🤷🏼‍♂️

@ejn63​ What risk?  No difference in having one drive fail in RAID0 and just one drive fail in non-RAID.

Yes, there is.  If one drive fails in non-RAID, the other is intact.  If one drive fails in RAID 0, you lose the data on both drives.

You don't know what you are talking about.  

RAID0 - Two drives striped to make one with no fault tolerance.  Lose either and you have data loss. But one drive is still good.

Non-RAID - Single drive (OS installed) or multiple, no fault tolerance, lose that drive data loss.  Just because you have another drive doesn't keep your data safe.

Now, RAID1 - Mirrored, lose one and you still have one copy. 

In any case always have multiple backups.

RAID 0 stripes data over both drives -- neither has a full set of data.  Lose one drive, you lose it all.

Before making accusations, be sure you're correct.

https://www.diskinternals.com/raid-recovery/rebuild-raid-0-without-losing-data/#:~:text=Drawbacks%3A,the%20entire%20array%20has%20failed.

And for the RAID VS AHCI debate RAID is faster.  Read it again I said RAID is faster not "RAID0" that will be another test.  Just by switching from AHCI to RAID you get a boot in performance.  

Test was done with:

Dell XPS 9520

Drive: Samsung EVO Plus 1TB

AHCI:

Single Drive RAID: