Access caching SSD

[Lordegor3]

I got a new Asus laptop which comes with a 24GB caching SSD on top of the standard hard drive. I'm curious if it's possible to disable the Intel RST and to have a free access to the SSD?

 

[rhysiam]

I think you'll find it's an SSHD, which is a single HDD with a small SSD cache built-in. They use their own internal algorithms to allocate data to SSD or HDD, and present to the system as a single drive. If it is an SSHD you can't get to the SSD on its own.

 

[Lordegor3]

How can I know if it's a separate SSD or an HDD with built in SSD cache? I can't see the SSD in the system though.

 

[rhysiam]

What's your laptop model? Check the specs of the laptop and see whether it's sold as an SSHD.

I'd be very surprised if a laptop OEM would install two separate drives with one being a 24GB SSD. The cost of the physical drive (package, connectors etc) and controller are constant regardless of the size of the SSD, so the price difference between a 24GB, 64GB and 128GB drive just isn't that big. Plus with that setup they'd need software (like Intel RST) to manage the cache. That's both more expensive AND more complicated than going with a single-drive SSHD solution. Also, it would be getting close cost-wise to a 128GB SSD + ~500/1K TB HDD setup which is just a much better solution.

SSHDs are a pretty good single-drive option. You should get most of the write-benefits and after a bit of training, a pretty hefty percentage of the read benefits for your commonly repeated tasks (reboots, opening key programs etc) of a native SSD. For normal use-cases you'd get much better performance allowing the drive itself to manage a small cache like that rather than trying to manage it yourself anyway.

 

[Lordegor3]

What's your laptop model? Check the specs of the laptop and see whether it's sold as an SSHD.

I'd be very surprised if a laptop OEM would install two separate drives with one being a 24GB SSD. The cost of the physical drive (package, connectors etc) and controller are constant regardless of the size of the SSD, so the price difference between a 24GB, 64GB and 128GB drive just isn't that big. Plus with that setup they'd need software (like Intel RST) to manage the cache. That's both more expensive AND more complicated than going with a single-drive SSHD solution. Also, it would be getting close cost-wise to a 128GB SSD + ~500/1K TB HDD setup which is just a much better solution.

SSHDs are a pretty good single-drive option. You should get most of the write-benefits and after a bit of training, a pretty hefty percentage of the read benefits for your commonly repeated tasks (reboots, opening key programs etc) of a native SSD. For normal use-cases you'd get much better performance allowing the drive itself to manage a small cache like that rather than trying to manage it yourself anyway.

I found out that it is a separate SSD.

 

[rhysiam]

Well there you go! Yes, you should be able to disable RST, and, once fully disabled. The drive should appear in Disk Management and you could then format it, assign a drive letter and start using it.

However... do you really want to? 24GB isn't useful for much at all. Certainly too small for your OS. You could put a couple of programs on there, but I think it'll do a much better job caching for your HDD.

Technically you can do it though.

For the sake of my own curiosity, what's the model and make of your laptop? It's surprising that manufacturers are going with a separate SSD for caching.

 

[Lordegor3]

It's an Asus VivoBook S550CB.

Now I have another problem with the Intel RST and I would be really grateful if you could help:

I own an Asus S550cb laptop which comes with 500 GB HDD and a 24 GB SSD. The operation system (Windows 8.1) used the SSD for caching through the Intel RST.
I had to reistall Windows and now I am trying to install the Intel RST again and use the SSD for caching as it used to be, but the RST software won't let me. There is no "Accelerate" button avaliable. After searching Google for couple of hours and trying different guides, still can't get it to work. Here is what I did:
1. On the Itel site it's told that the SATA should be on RAID mode but my HDD only has AHCI, which is still supported by an older version of the RST software - version 12.8. So my SATA is on AHCI mode.
2. The SSD should be unlocalized, which it is.
3. In guides it was told to shrink the last localized volume a bit (in my case D: ) and it didn't help.

I'm pretty much out of options.
I have read that one guy had to remove his SSD physically, install Windows, connect it again, and it worked for him.
I want to use this option as my last one, because it's a laptop and I don't want to open and and to screw things up.
I have contacted Asus in my country and they said that I have to send them the laptop for them to do the job, and I don't want to do that.

Please help me.