Intel RAID0 on Windows 8 not Displaying Correct Media Type

I have my primary C Drive which consists of 2 Intel 120GB SSD Drives in a RAID0. I have a clean install of Windows 8 Pro, latest MEI software, latest RST software, latest Intel Toolbox. Prior to this I had installed Windows 8 Pro as an upgrade. When I went into the Optimize Drives while in the Upgrade installation, it showed the Media Types as Solid State Drives. However, now since I am in a brand new install, it is showing the Media Type as Hard Disk Drive.

I am worried about this because of the trim not working properly. Before when in the upgrade, it showed SSD as the media type and the Optimize option would perform a manual trim.

Unfortunately, my search credentials on Google are so common to many other things (ie Raid0, SSD, Windows 8, Media Type) that all I am finding are useless topics.

Before, (found on random site) it showed the Media Type as below

This died upgrading to Windows 8.1 for me.

The problem is caused by Microsoft WEI (Windows Experience Index) not being run (its even removed from the GUI in Windows 8.1).

To help Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 users, the core code that does this is still in Windows, but only accessible from the command line in 8.1.

To get the SSDs to be correctly listed:

1) Install the latest RST from Intel (currently 12.8 from Aug'13). 2) Go to an admin cmd prompt 3) Type: winsat prepop

This will run all the tests on the computer and reprofile it. This includes correctly tagging RAID0 SSDs.

Took me ages to find out how to fix this. Well worth sharing with everyone.

If you're keen you can limit the testing to just the disk, but why bother? Best get the whole computer back on track.

According to Intel's website, TRIM is not supported for any RAID configurations at the moment:

TRIM support in Windows 7 [and 8] (in AHCI and RAID mode [only] for drives not part of a RAID volume)

Source: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/cs-022304.htm

That page is dated 04-Oct-2012, so pretty recent, too. Their latest SSD Toolbox FAQ supports this stance as well (see Q11).

Of course, Intel being Intel, this appears to be completely wrong, and they DO support TRIM in RAID 0 configurations (but only for 7 Series chipsets).

RST 11.2 supports TRIM on RAID 0 only on Intel Desktop Boards with the 7 Series chipsets.

Source: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=21407

And the following Anatech article details support for TRIM support in RAID 0:

The feature is limited to Intel 7 series chipsets with RST RAID support and currently only works on Windows 7 OSes, although Windows 8 support is forthcoming.

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6161/intel-brings-trim-to-raid0-ssd-arrays-on-7series-motherboards-we-test-it

So it IS supported. Just not by Windows 8 at the moment.

Update: It appears Windows 8 RAID 0 TRIM is supported as of RST version 11.6.0.1030. Just make sure you install all the Windows 8 Updates before you unstall RST.

Good luck!

I was able to fix the issue. I first installed a clean version of Windows 8 Pro. I performed the Windows updates and installed the normal driver software for my motherboard's chipset. Afterwards I confirmed that the Optimize Disks showed the drives as a solid state drive. However, since the Raid Controller software was not installed, they could not be trimmed. I then installed Intel RST 11.6.1030 and rebooted. After the reboot the Optimize Drives showed the RAID partition still as SSD and was able to Optimize the drive (perform trim).