topic Re: Enable SSD acceleration after Windows 8.1 already installed ? in Solid State Drives (NAND)

Enable SSD acceleration after Windows 8.1 already installed ?

SONei — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 17:26:21 GMT

Built a DIY gaming desktop and would like to enable SSD acceleration caching. Can't seem to find anything that indicates whether it's possible to do AFTER Windows has already been installed.

Can this be done ? If so, how ?

Thanks

Re: Enable SSD acceleration after Windows 8.1 already installed ?

ASouz7 — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 12:17:50 GMT

Hello Nukfror

We will be more than glad to help you. In order to do so, we need to know the following:

1 - Is the OS installed on the SSD or HDD?

2 - How many drives are in this set up?

3 - What type of drive are they (SSD or HDD)?

4 - Is this a RAID arrangement? What type?

Re: Enable SSD acceleration after Windows 8.1 already installed ?

SONei — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 14:09:43 GMT

1) OS is installed on HDD

2) Right now it's real simple. 1 @ HDD and 1 @ (unplugged) SSD

3) See # 2 - as basic as it gets right now

4) No RAID at this time. Just doing pure SSD acceleration at the moment in front of the HDD.

Re: Enable SSD acceleration after Windows 8.1 already installed ?

ASouz7 — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 21:07:33 GMT

Hello Nukfror,

These are the requirements to enable cashe:

1 - The chipset must support https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/smart-response-technology.html Intel® Smart Response Technology

2 - A traditional primary hard drive.

3 - A secondary SSD drive.

4 - The SATA controller must be set to RAID mode (no arrays need to be configured).

5 - The Intel® Smart Response Technology must be installed. http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-032826.htm Chipset Software — Intel® Smart Response Technology User Guide

We hope this piece of information helped you.

Re: Enable SSD acceleration after Windows 8.1 already installed ?

SONei — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 20:10:45 GMT

Thanks for the reply but it doesn't answer my question - see the subject where is says "Windows 8.1 *already* installed"

# 4 is where the problem starts. Windows is already installed and my AUS Z97 Pro MB is already setup for AHCI mode and not RAID. As such, when I change the mode to RAID, Windows fails to boot up. Put it back to AHCI mode and Windows boots up fine.

You've indicated the list of requirements in the order they occur for a green-field Windows not yet installed process. In your list, that happens between steps 4 and 5.

In my list, Windows was installed before step 4.

Question is is there some way to get Windows to boot up again when the motherboard mode is changed from AHCI to RAID ?

Re: Enable SSD acceleration after Windows 8.1 already installed ?

SONei — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 00:07:07 GMT

Apparently this is possible. It's just not readily apparently nor documented well from what I've found. I did a bunch of searching today and found this:

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/221972-switching-bios-sata-raid-ahci-setting-causes-bsod-windows-start.html Switching BIOS SATA RAID/AHCI setting causes BSOD at Windows Start - Windows 7 Help Forums

Very bottom of that post is a link to here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2751461 Changing the ATA Drive setting in System Bios causes reboot loop on Windows 8

Even though that is written for going from ATA to AHCI mode .. guess what .. the process works for Windows 8.1 installed in AHCI mode and post-install changing over to RAID mode.

I now have a SSD accelerated Windows 8.1 DIY machine