Windows 11 Reconnects to NAS Boot Drive Instead of RAID Data Drive

Operating System ZimaOS
1

I have a NAS with a 128 GB SSD boot drive called ZimaOS-HD and a 2×4 TB RAID 1 hard drive setup that I use to store my data. I want to share only the RAID drive on my Windows 11 network so my computers can use it for storage.

On my Windows 11 computers, I can see both drives. I can connect to the RAID drive without any problem, but after I restart the Windows computers, they automatically reconnect to the smaller boot SSD instead.

Is there a way to turn off sharing on the boot drive, or make Windows always connect to the RAID drive? Also, does Samba have to be turned on for the boot drive, and if so, how can I stop Windows from using it?

2

This is normal Windows behavior.

ZimaOS shares the boot drive (ZimaOS-HD) by default, so Windows sees it first and auto-reconnects to it after reboot.

Fix:

  • In ZimaOS → Files / Storage, disable SMB sharing on ZimaOS-HD
  • Leave SMB enabled only on the RAID 1 data drive

Then on Windows 11:

  • Disconnect the mapped ZimaOS-HD drive
  • Re-map the RAID share directly and enable Reconnect at sign-in

Result:

  • Windows can no longer connect to the boot SSD
  • It will always reconnect to the RAID data drive
  • Safer setup, no accidental OS disk access
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