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176948
Smart Response caching: HDD+SSD on Inspiron 15R SE, mSATA set to SRT, still no "Accelerate" button
Hi,
This is probably a common problem which has been explained earlier but I didn't manage to find an answer here yet - I've found threads describing almost the same issue, but still not the same one.
So I have a fresh Inspiron 15R SE with pre-installed Windows 8, 1Tb HDD and 32Gb SSD on mSATA included for caching purposes. The problem is that as far as I can see, no acceleration/caching is actually happening with my SSD acting as just another drive.
In BIOS my mSATA operation mode is set to "Intel Smart Response Technology" which seems to be a correct option for caching. It looks like on this screenshot I took from another thread, in my system the option highlighted with yellow is selected:
But when I boot in Windows 8 and run Intel Rapid Storage Technology application, I see no "Acceleration" button / tab - as if my drive is not eligible or is in an incorrect mode. This is the screenshot of my Intel utility for you to see there is no option to enable caching:
If that is relevant, my SSD drive appears in my Disk Management console and is also accessible as a usual drive in Explorer and other file managers with a drive letter assigned (guess that indicates the acceleration is not in use).
There is also a hibernation partition (8Gb) on that drive, but the free space is still enough for caching (min 16Gb required, 20Gb left). Should I try disabling the hibernation? My hiberfil.sys file is on HDD though so that probably won't help. Here is a screenshot of another pre-installed Intel utility, Intel Rapid Start Technology Manager, if that could be relevant:
Any ideas are much appreciated, I was very keen on trying that additional drive and that was actually the main reason for me to choose that particular laptop model. It's a shame I can't use it for some reason.
Many thanks!
yurri
5 Posts
1
June 19th, 2013 16:00
I have found the answer. In order to enable acceleration there must be NO PARTITIONS on the SSD even if there is still enough unallocated space.
So the Rapid Start Technology partition my laptop came with was preventing Rapid Storage from accelerating.
After I have removed all the partitions from the drive, it worked.
If you still need the partition for Rapid Start or for other purposes you can specify less space for acceleration when setting it up and create your partition afterwards.
DELL-Sundeep B
874 Posts
0
June 19th, 2013 07:00
Hi yurri,
It appears that SSD caching has been disabled as Link Power Management is active. I would suggest you to disable the Link Power Management in Performance tab of Intel Rapid Storage Technology console and restart the computer. Upon restart you may follow the steps below to verify the status of SSD and HDD association and reassociate them if needed :
If the issue persists, I would suggest you to uninstall the Intel Rapid Storage Technology utility from control panel, restart the computer. Once restarted, you may download Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver from Here -> Type the Service Tag of computer -> Select Correct OS -> Expand Serial ATA -> Download Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver. Follow the onscreen instructions to install the driver, restart the computer when prompted. Upon restart try to configure SSD caching by following steps given above.
Hope this helps.
yurri
5 Posts
0
June 19th, 2013 15:00
Hi Sundeep,
Thanks for your feedback.
I have tried disabling Link Power Management, but that didn't help. I also tried uninstalling and then re-installing the RST drivers and utility, and still I can't see the "Accelerate" button.
I have tried that with both unallocated space on my SSD and with an NTFS partition on it.
It still doesn't work. What else can I try?
DELL-Sundeep B
874 Posts
0
June 21st, 2013 07:00
Hi yurri,
Glad the issue is fixed. Thank you for sharing the knowledge; appreciate it.
Do reply if you have any further questions. I would be happy to assist you.
Shane.S
7 Posts
0
March 3rd, 2014 20:00
Does the SATA controller have to be on RAID? I have it on ACHI and I can't get my SSD to work As a cache drive.
ramparc
1 Message
0
September 1st, 2015 20:00
Lets make sure the SSD is exactly as we want it
Setting up Smart Response
Setting up Rapid Start
Now that the Smart Response is up and running we can create our Rapid Start Partition. Intel recommends making this partition the same size or more as the amount of memory that is installed in your computer. They recommend just making a 8192 GB partition as this will always work for all configurations but you can play to see what works best for you!