Question Can I SSD Cache a Secondary drive WITHOUT reinstalling Win 10?

[orlando1974]

I've got a small SSD I want to use to speed up data reads on large capacity 7200RPM secondary drives. Apparently I have to switch from ACHI to RAID in the ASUS UEFI. However, it leads to a blue screen when rebooting. I don't think I'm trying to setup a traditional RAID (mirrored drives etc) - I'm just trying to speed up a certain drive. Is the BSOD happening because I didnt originally install Win 10 with RAID drivers? And is there a workaround if that's the case?

 

[popatim]

You may get away with pre-installing the raid driver before you change the sata mode
You may also need to go into the raid bios (ctrl+i for intel boards) and set the boot drive as a single drive.

 

[geofelt]

If your ssd device is an optane device, that function can be easily done.
For a normal ssd, there are some utilities that can set up such an arrangement.

AHCI is a subset of raid so that should not be an issue, but I think you would need to reinstall windows if the bios specified raid.

 

[orlando1974]

How do you get into raid bios? ctrl-i did nothing for me once I was in the asus uefi?

also raid drivers already installed i think because i installed latest RST

i thought i'd seen people do registry hacks , or maybe even a program that use to be in distribution called RAIDfix..

the moment I disable AHCI in my bios, i get the BSOD on reboot with error "Inaccessible Boot Device".
my bios shows RAID in this order when enabled:

HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH12LS39 --> blu-ray drive
Crucial_CT1050MX300SSD1 (1050.2GB) --> C: drive with OS and programs
WDC WD5001FZWX-00ZHUA0 (5000.9GB) --> this is the drive I want to ACCELERATE
WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0 (2000.3GB)
M4-CT128M4SSD2 (128.0GB) --> this is the SSD I want to use for the SSD caching

 

[orlando1974]

** UPDATE: I've decided to download and try Primocache for the trial period. I was able to select the drive I want to accelerate as the "Cache Task" and assign my 128GB SSD as the Level-2 Storage. I set it to Accelerate: Read. It seems to be faster but I would like to test. What benchmark software can do this?

I just want to see numbers so I know FOR SURE that it IS working. That way I can confidently buy a license knowing that it makes a difference.
If this works, then I can avoid the nightmare of resintalling Windows.

 

[JazzyJazzJ]

http://support.thinkcritical.com/kb/articles/switch-windows-10-from-raid-ide-to-ahci

Switch Windows 10 from RAID/IDE to AHCI
Support Team 2019-03-14 12 Comments in Microsoft Windows
Some systems will have the Windows operating system installed using RAID drivers including the Intel Rapid Storage Technology. SSD drives typically perform better using AHCI drivers. There is in fact a way to switch operation from either IDE / RAID to AHCI within Windows 10 without having to reinstall. Here are the steps:

1. Click the Start Button and type cmd
2. Right-click the result and select Run as administrator
3. Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal (ALT: bcdedit /set safeboot minimal)
4. Restart the computer and enter BIOS Setup
5. Change the SATA Operation mode to AHCI from either IDE or RAID
6. Save changes and exit Setup and Windows will automatically boot to Safe Mode.
7. Right-click the Windows Start Menu once more. Choose Command Prompt (Admin).
8. Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot (ALT: bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot)
9. Reboot once more and Windows will automatically start with AHCI drivers enabled.