XPS 8910, Samsung 970 EVO Plus, Intel RST, RAID off AHCI

Question

So I installed the M.2 in my XPS 8910 lastnight, too bad they dont include the mounting screw, lol. Anyway as others have mentioned, Intel RST doesnt work with the 2nd M.2 Drive installed so the icon in the tray says something to that effect. I then decided to disable the services since they were not needed, is what I assumed. This and the fact that the Samsung Software didnt work because RAID was on added to my confusion. I switched the BIOS to AHCI mode and installed the Samsung software. Everything seems ok, but when I went to uninstall the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software, it popped up a window about it still being used to manage a drive and could uninstall the front end and software but not the driver. I hit the next button, thinking it would show me details before uninstalling but it went ahead and uninstalled. Im not seeing any services related to RST anymore, but today I got an update from Windows that wants to install "Intel Corporation - HDC - 7/15/2019 12:00:00 AM - 16.8.3.1003" Im not sure if this is in direct response to uninstalling the RST software or switching to AHCI??? There was an RST controller device that said it wasn't connected that I also uninstalled in device manager this afternoon, but this was after I got the Windows update notification. I have paused updates at the moment.

How much of what I did was incorrect?

Should I try and reinstall the Dell RST package? and switch back to RAID? Is there anymore I can do to completely remove any leftover RST software? Was the notes about it managing a drive not true? I still have the original 1 TB Toshiba Drive and then just added the SSD M.2 as extra storage not a boot drive.

Whats the Intel HDC update for? (Ive diabled the onboard graphics driver and the associated services for Intel Command Center, Control Panel and HDCP, HECI.

Thanks very much! I love my XPS 8910! Ive upgraded the RAM, Power Supply and GPU and now the M.2. Its been a good machine for many years.

Vic384 · Answer

I don't understand what you mean by '... 2nd M.2 Drive...'. The XPS 8910 only has one M.2 SSD slot. While Samsung software (Samsung Magician and the PCIe NVMe driver) requires SATA operating mode set to AHCI, it does not require the uninstallation of Intel Rapid Storage Technology.  Also, you don't make clear how you switched SATA operating mode from RAID to AHCi. Normally you either have to reinstall Windows after making the change in the BIOS or use a procedure that switches the installation from RAID to AHCI. I have an XPS 8910 and in Device Manager, under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, is an Intel 100 Series/C230 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller. The properties of that controller match exactly (Driver Date: 7/15/2019 and Driver Version: 16.8.3.1003) the Intel HDC update you indicate Windows wants to install.

Ebojager · Answer

Thank you for replying. Regarding 2nd M.2, I meant that because the 2nd drive is a SSD that RST wasn't going to work or said something to that effect when I tried to open it from the tray icon.

I switched to AHCI by following some terminal command I found online about setting safemode restarting to BIOS setting from RAID to AHCI, then rebooting into safe mode going to command prompt and deleting the safe mode flag and restarting.

Thanks for confirming that the HDC is a hard drive controller driver update. I didn't know what HDC stood for.

Vic384 · Answer

Thank you for clearing up what was done. Now I understand.

I have Intel Rapid Storage Technology version 16.8.3.104 installed. I can open the application and go through the tabs, but, not that I need it to, it provides no useful function for me.

XPS Desktops

XPS 8910, Samsung 970 EVO Plus, Intel RST, RAID off AHCI

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