Enabling 32GB SSD Cache on XPS 2720

I'm in the same boat.  Here are my steps if it helps:

1.  Installed Windows 8 from Dell recovery DVD onto 2TB mechanical drive.

2.  Upgraded 8 to 8.1, installed the very latest Intel RST v 12.

3.  Did the bcdedit trick to enable safe mode.

4.  Restarted computer, set BIOS to RAID from AHCI, got into safe mode to reverse the bcdedit and restarted

5. Windows 8.1 now boots with RAID mode option enabled in BIOS, but Intel RST still does not give me the accelerate option.

Windows 8 keys are baked into the firmware now, so you don't need to enter one....however, if you do a clean install of Windows 8.1 (not 8) you will. I grabbed it with Produkey for activation.

Mine is the latest BIOS so no difference there...

I've got an open ticket with Dell Prosupport and I'll update if we figure it out...I think it's really more of Intel's fault than Dell's. It's weird.

It might be worth just ebaying this msata for a 64-128GB and sticking the whole OS on there, but I don't want to reinstall or spend the money, haha.

It really is an awesome system! I did have some funkiness with the touch screen not working and needing to reboot, but I updated the firmware for it and haven't had it happen since. I do notice some flicker on really white full screens on IE but I noticed that on a 27" iMac I was using the other day as well with a totally white screen.

Otherwise it's so cool and I'm surprised how powerful the 750m is!

Seems to me that Dell should have a recommendation for resolving this.

I too received the refurb unit last week from the Woot deal.

When setting it up, I noted that the mSATA SSD was assigned a drive letter, and I knew this was not right.

Also note that my BIOS is still A01, not A05 which is the current release.

The refurb unit came with no documentation other than the warranty booklets.

The recovery disc was included. Was able to find all the documentation on the website.

Also note that there is no Genuine Windows Key code, but does have a genuine Windows sticker hiding on the back. Do Windows 8 OEM installs no longer require any Key?

Waiting for some official words from Dell before I attempt to change the BIOS settings to RAID and try to get RST mode working.

Otherwise, I really do like this AIO.

I have two systems with the raid/accelerate "bit" issue now.  My guess is that somehow between Dell's bios and Intel's drivers, the Intel driver is not getting that the raid "bit" is set.  They already took the first one back but the replacement had the same issue somehow...  Both were A01 Bios but I have other that work fine with both A05 and A01.

They've got to fix this!  Soon let's hope.

Still no luck. Here is what I did this afternoon:

- made System Recovery DVDs (two 4.7GB DVD+R discs)

- made USB Recovery Stick

- upgraded BIOS to A05; though instructions said to make DOS bootable USB Stick, I was successful running the updater from Windows 8

Reinstalled Win8 from the USB Recovery Stick. Noted that a few programs missing from the original factory delivered Win8 were now installed -- ie Intel and Dell utilities, in addition to the DVD Player utilities that were previously present. Ran Dell diagnostics, no problems found.

Downloaded and installed the RST update, installed. Still no opportunity to enable acceleration.

Oh well...now to wait for all the other updates to finish installing.

Hi,

I had the same problem too showing mSATA drive on my computer and had no option to enable the caching. Had a hour long chat with dell support  and they concluded that even if it doesn't show  on intel RST, they are pretty sure it was enabled. But i know it was wrong. And i did some research for hours and found that if the drive is formatted or has some data in the mSATA drive, the intel RST will not recognize the drive for caching.

Before you make nay changes make sure that you don't have any data in that mSATA drive and RAID is set in the BIOS correctly. Goto computer management and then click disk management. here you find different drives in the system. mSATA drive volume should on the list. Delete the mSata drive volume from it. Don't format it just delete the volume. Now goto intel RST, now you have the option the configure the drive for caching. This process worked for me. Let me know  whether it  worked for you guys or not.

-DJ

Taravind,

Missed your latest comment until now, but I came to same conclusion.

As delivered, my mSATA was formatted and partitioned, showing as a drive letter in Explorer as well as in RST.

So this morning, after thinking a bit,

- I opened an Administrator CMD window

- went into DISKPART

- selected the mSATA drive (be sure to select the right disk!)

- issued CLEAN command to remove partition info

- EXIT from DISKPART

- EXIT from CMD

- Restarted

- fired up Intel RST

- option to accelerate was enabled

- configured the mSATA as cache and the HDD as the volume to accelerate

- after about a minute, I got an error, and was advised to Restart

- I did Restart

- fired up RST again, and the statusscreen confirmed I now had an accelerated HDD

All is well!

This indeed did work for me and should be listed as answered

Thanks Taravind

I found the solution aforementioned to work on my particular XPS 2720. "Clearing the mSATA drive partition, installing the latest Intel Rapid Start software." I also found that Dell is correct about certain mSATA drives incompatible with Intel Rapid Start software. After a few tries I did get the 32Gb mSATA drive to cache as intended, however I was still not satisfied. I removed the 32Gb mSATA drive and replaced it with a Mushkin 240Gb mSATA drive, then loaded Windows 8.1 pro operating system on the new mSSD. My upgrade was rather expensive, and not a solution, but the outlet price with a $250 coupon discount allowed me to have a very responsive AIO XPS 2720 that impresses everyone that uses it in my shop. I just bought another Dell Outlet XPS 2720 and another Mushkin 240GB mSATA drive. I got the same discount on the XPS 2720 with a coupon, and the 240Gb mSSD Mushkin drive is only $119 at Newexx. There is no denying that booting from an SSD is by far superior to a cached mechanical drive. Ideally the XPS 2720 should have two SSD drives in raid 0. But that is another day.

"After I deleted the recovery partition with the diskpart utility (select disk, select partition, delete partition override) and extended the OS partition to the end of the disk, the acceleration tab showed up and Smart Response is working! So the error was not the mSATA SSD drive, but the partition structure on the OS disk."

That's it! I've looked so long for a solution, and found this in this sentence. I've created a restore partition at the end of the disk with dell "backup and restore", since this time accelerate option was not visible.

I did'nt remember me, but as I've read it was the only logical explanation to me, because nothing was changed, exept driver, and in that I've spended my time.

thx very much

Hi,

3 years later, I have the same issue after a new WIN10X64 clean installation on an XPS One 2720.

I made sure the specific Intel driver was loaded during Windows setup. I installed RST app on the clean installed Windows but I could not find any acceleration tab in the RST application (could see my 2 disk with a green tick in front of each).

I checked order of partitions as mentioned above:

DISKPART> list partition

 N° partition   Type              Taille   Décalage

 -------------  ----------------  -------  --------

 Partition 1    Récupération       450 M   1024 K

 Partition 2    Système             99 M    451 M

 Partition 3    Réservé             16 M    550 M

 Partition 4    Principale        1862 G    566 M

Last partition #4 is my OS partition hence not the solution in my case.

I checked the SSD disk and cleaned it as mentioned above with DiskPart (select disk, select partition, delete partition override) then after reboot RST app would not show any acceleration option neither.

In my case, the SSD drive is OEM DELL straight from factory and worked fine as accelerator before (I suppose as I never wondered to be honest).

I checked the BIOS and RAID is enabled.

Hence, nothing from the above worked for me. Any idea?

I called Dell and Intel support lines but got nothing so far (still pending from Dell level 2).

Thank you

Note: On a separate note, I did all this trick initially because I was looking for a proper driver for the screen as it is seen as a generic display by Win. For this different matter, Dell advised a downgrade to WIN8 as it came from factory but I could see after the factory image was back that the image also included a default generic display driver. Not ideal for calibration and ICC profiling knowing the OSD command only comes with brightness tuning... In case you found the specific driver, thanks (I am considering the monitor here and not the 2 video cards well equiped as far as drivers are concerned).

Hi,

Any chance either on the RAID issue or the screen pilote?

Dell support level 2 just gave up (after long hours trying and downgrade from W10 to W8.1) and asked for a return in factory meaning they don' t know and they don't care. They push back knowing warranty is over and I can't return it to Germany on my own.

Not the kind of support I would expect for such a company.