Is it possible to create a RAID 0 array using two Samsung 950 Pro NVMe's *via PCIe adapters* under IRST in the BIOS/UEFI pre-Windows environment?
Here's my equipment:
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
IRST 14.8.0.1042
ASRock Z170 OC Formula
i7-6700K
Samsung 950 Pro M.2 NVMe x 2 (MZ-V5P)
Addonics PCIE adapters (ADM2PX4)
Samsung NVMe driver installed
The motherboard has 5 PCIe slots.
I have attached the NVMe's to PCIE2 and PCIE4.
The OS is on a separate SSD, which is attached at SATA3_5.
I can see the NVMe's listed in Windows device manager and disk management. The UEFI also has an NVMe page that does list them.
But they do not show up in the Control-I pre-Windows boot IRST RAID management page.
Nor do they show up in the UEFI's direct IRST RAID management page.
I can create a RAID 0 array in the UEFI's direct IRST RAID management page IF I attach the NVMe's to the Ultra M.2 slots on the motherboard (I have tried it with slot 1 and slot 2). This apparently creates the array prior to Windows even being loaded, so it doesn't seem that the Windows version is the problem.
But I can't get the NVMe's to be recognized for RAID creation when the NVMe's are attached to PCIe adapters.
I don't know what level the limitation is at (IRST? the specific adapter model? UEFI software? quirks of the CPU/motherboard or slots I have chosen? Windows?)