Hey all! New week, so want to get off to a good, productive start. Going to rebuild and reinstall the main box, based on some info I've been gathering from you helpful lot. It's going to look like this (sketched out for now): 500GB MX500 - new Win 10 install for general use 250GB MX500 - new Win 10 w Ableton only 256GB MX100 - Win 7 backup OS for when games don't work on Win 10 3TB Barracuda - Steam install location and backups for other machines 4TB Barracuda - to backup all of the above But I have two (I think simple) questions: @sandys pointed me towards Intel Smart Response* previously, looking into this it seems like I'm going to try and use it for something it wasn't necessarily intended for but that to me makes sense so I'll ask anyway - can I use 64GB of the 500GB MX500 as IRST to speed up the 3TB Steam disk, PLUS install Win 10 on the MX500 to use as OS (without speedup, of course)? if the MX100 already has Win 7 on but is becoming a bit clogged up, to save removing all the data and doing a clean install, can I do an in-place upgrade of Win 7 to refresh the OS without issues? If there's anything else I'm missing, grateful for all advice! *EDIT: Apologies, I originally had this in as Rapid Storage Tech in error, along with the original title.
Before I push the final switches and on the off-chance someone knows about this stuff, can anyone advise whether the Intel Smart Response Tech treats the cached SSD/HDD as a strict RAID volume, or just a temporary caching system? I ask because it occurred to me that if I set it up and then at a later stage change the SSD out, for example (or swap the data drive for a bigger one), I have no idea whether I will lose access to any data as in a proper RAID 0 setup. I only say this because the Intel documentation seems to suggest the volume is treated in similar fashion to "proper" RAID, even though the concept would suggest otherwise. Grateful for any advice!
Yes you can use 64Gb of an existing SSD drive if partitioned and it will leave the rest for what every you decide. Yes you can do an in place upgrade of OS and it works for the most part but be prepared for failure (backups etc just in case) with RST you can disable later and reclaim drive, is an acceleration button, what I can't remember is if it creates and wipes partitions when you activate/deactive of of ot uses partition you already created, it was years ago I last used it.
Ah, cheers bud. In that case, I'll give it a go and use it as an experiment (with backups, of course).
Finally getting around to doing this now, what with the events of the last year (annoyingly just in time for this to have become a thing)... Only thing is, we had to install the OS onto the SSD so the box could be used before I had a chance to set up SRT. We've now recently installed a games/data HDD as D:, so taking into account what @sandys said above and with reference to this, I'm going to: image the OS on C: to an external drive with Acronis shrink the OS partition to leave enough room for a 24GB SRT cache (min is 18.6GB, just allowing a bit extra - SSD is a 240GB with ~60ish used) name the new partition W: or something down that end of the alphabet reboot to BIOS and change SATA mode to RAID (think this is an "across the board" change for all ports) reboot OS from C: and look for the RST/SRT application - if this isn't natively present (which I have an idea may not be the case), I'll grab from here load RST and designate W: as the drive to use, hoping this doesn't format the whole SSD for use, just that partition. However, this screenshot from the Intel site worries me a bit as it just shows an SSD on "Port 1" being used, not a partition (but then, I've no idea what version that screenshot is from, things may have changed): hold breath Questions I have are: will setting the SATA mode to RAID in the BIOS a) have any impact on the data already installed to D:? and b) have any impact on the data/OS installed to C:, when changing it from AHCI mode? in the event the whole SSD is chosen for overwrite rather than the W: partition, I'll have no OS, so surely the RST app won't allow this since it normally requires the OS to be on the target disk being accelerated? In which case am I out of options and either need another SSD or to abandon the idea? if it does somehow overwrite itself (VERY doubtful), will I then have to try to restore the C: image to what would have to be a new (C partition on the SSD, from the external backup, using a separate machine to load Acronis? if anyone has had a different experience of using this, would they happen to know whether my C: partition will remain intact throughout the Intel formatting process? can I then still use Acronis to image C: and D: as normal, or do I need to treat anything as a RAIDed image? I've not dabbled with RAID before so have no idea if that's a stupid question (although track record would suggest it may well be) can anyone see any other issues with doing any of the above? Anything I've overlooked? Thanks in advance for any constructive input!
Swapping from AHCI to RAID will temporarily knacker your OS. Before you restart to make that change, head into msconfig>Boot tab and tick Safe boot. Restart, make your change, and then boot back up. You'll end up in safe mode. Then repeat msconfig but untick Safe boot, then restart as normal As for the rest of it, I've never used RST as it doesn't make enough difference in my opinion.
Thanks @noizdaemon666 - appreciated. Seems odd! What does the safe boot solve, out of interest? So just to be clear - boot from C:, tick safe boot, reboot to BIOS, change to RAID, reboot (to what is now safe), untick safe, reboot and all is good? Only reason I'm attempting the RST effort is because we do notice load times are much longer from the HDD and the SSD is too small, so constantly moving installs based upon the whims of a child would be a royal faff. The hope is that the cache can remember the last few games played and boot those quicker. If it turns out we just have to put up with those load times, then fair play, but would it be easier to just buy that new SSD and use the whole thing as a cache for the HDD (again, purely to avoid keep swapping installs around but keep costs down)? Is the performance difference vs the natural HDD no good?
If the SSD and HDD are empty you could have a go at doing tiered storage in Windows 10 with some powersheel commands, you wouldn't have to worry about RAId status then
Cheers @sandys - they're both occupied though, unfortunately. I over-procrastinated the build (as usual) and the requirement for a functioning machine became more pressing!
