I have a Toshiba U940. It originally came with a hard drive and a 32GB Msata SSD installed. I took both out and replaced the HDD with an SSD. I then tried to put the Msata SSD back in (I booted into Gparted and deleted the partitions on the Msata and created one single unformatted partition) However, all I get now is a bluescreen at the Windows logo and a restart. I cannot change the hard drive configuration in the BIOS, the AHCI/RAID option is not available and does not exist. I'm assuming this has something to do with my blue screens. I have tried a few registry tweaks to no avail and also installed Intel Rapid Storage drivers. Nothing works. The system boots fine when the Msata is removed. I'm stuck.
I'd say leave the mSATA SSD out if you only want to use it for caching, your PC won't feel any faster with the mSATA in now that your main drive is an SSD.
Is Windows expecting the msata to be available as a cache device and as you've repartitioned it the calls to set the caching up fails. Try turning off caching (no idea how mind. Suspect it'll be a bios setting but could be in Windows?) and then installing the msata. I'm assuming you want to use the msata as additional storage space, as Lancer says caching with a primary ssd won't reap any notable benefits. Edit: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2023589 Seems possible to disable hybrid mode, rapid start and rapid response.
A full fresh Windows install was done on the current 2.5" SSD, so there was no caching set up on the Windows side. I believe it's done via the Intel Rapid Storage software. There isn't a setting in the BIOS unfortunately for this either. I do indeed want to use it as additional storage as my current SSD is only 64GB, the extra 32GB would make life a lot easier without having to constantly manage my storage. If I had the cash, I'd of course just go and buy a 256GB SSD, but I don't... so this is the second best option. I've erased all the contents off the Msata, in case it was partitioned or setup in such a way Windows wouldn't like. In theory Windows should now just be seeing it as a separate blank unformatted SSD which I should be able to assign a drive letter to and use it as storage. I also tried formatting it to NTFS, to no avail. It has to be something to do with RAID/AHCI settings. The laptop was originally configured in RAID to use the Msata as cache. There is unfortunately no RAID/AHCI settings in the BIOS to change like there usually is. I probably could do a fresh install and it would be fine with the drives attached. However I have Windows set up exactly how I like with a lot of software and tweaks. I'd hate to lose all that. I do have image backups, but obviously these aren't any good for this scenario. Googling around a few people have had the same issue. No solution found for me so far. I'd be ever so grateful if someone knew what the problem was.
can you get into safe mode with the msata in? run cmd prompt as admin, type diskpart type list disk then select the disk that matches the msata by typing select disk x where x = the disk number from the list then type clean then restart macine with it in and see what happens
When you booted into Gparted and deleted the partitions on the Msata and created one single unformatted partition, did you also wipe the MBR ? If not won't the Msata still be showing it's part of a RAID 0 array, linked to the other drive.
perhaps get yourself something like these so you can boot windows and plug it in after windows has booted, you should then be able to do the diskpart clean
Just to clear things up, a fresh install of Windows was done on the 2.5" SSD without the Msata drive plugged in, and now when the Msata drive is plugged back in the Windows install on the 2.5" SSD blue screens ? Also when you say you tried to format the partition on the Msata as NTFS but couldn't what software didn't let you format it, did it say why it couldn't ?
Hi, Thanks for your reply. What you said is indeed correct. I don't recall saying that I couldn't format it to NTFS. Maybe I worded it wrongly. I can format it as anything. I also checked the Msata for errors, it's fully functional. The MBR would have been deleted when I erased all partitions and changed the partition table. To note. I also tried plugging it in while Windows was active to see if it would pick it up, it didn't.
I don't need to plug it in externally to work on the the drive. That's what Gparted and other live linux distros are for .
is msata hot pluggable? if not then plugging in whilst the system is on really isn't a good idea, and could damage both the mainboard and the msata drive. can you do things to the drive at the moment, outside windows like writing files to it etc, just asking, as you haven't successfully booted windows with it installed since you wiped it. using an external connector may help diagnosing your problem
I wasn't sure if it was hot pluggable. I was trying to find that out lol. I guess it's not. Standard sata is when configured in AHCI, so didn't see why this would be any different... It was worth a shot, I knew the risks involved. I can indeed do anything I want to the drive, except boot into Windows with it. I installed Kali on it last night absolutely fine. Like I say, the drive itself is fine. It's Windows that has the issue with it booting.
