Optane 32MB for secondary data drive on ASUS BIOS

[jay.wooster]

Does anyone have experience using Optane for a secondary data drive (non boot drive) on an ASUS motherboard ? Using an ASUS ROG STRIX Z370--H Gaming and have the M.2_1 and Sata_1 organised as recommended but cannot get Optane installer to work due to:

"Unsupported BIOS Mode"

"Your system BIOS configuration is not compatible with Intel Optane"

Yes i have flashed the latest BIOS.

I did find this on the intel site and have posted to ASUS techinical asking if there is a BIOS version with it installed;

Secondary/Data drives are supported for system acceleration with software version 16.0.2.1086 or later only. For more information see Secondary/Data SATA Drive Acceleration with Intel® Optane™ Memory.

Does anyone have any experience using Optane for a secondary data HDD on an ASUS Motherboard ?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Install Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver software Version 16.0.2.1086.
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-Z370-H-GAMING/HelpDesk_Download/

 

[jay.wooster]

Still getting the BIOS error, believe it has something to do with my BIOS settings, CMS should be disabled I believe but won’t boot without it

 

[jay.wooster]

So i have spent the last 48 hours at Google Academy learning about Optane for Secondary Data Drives (any drive that isn't a boot disk) as i didn't realise Optane was designed for Boot Disks only originally and was later slowly upgraded by MB manufacturers to be used on secondary devices. Anyway, to hopefully save at least one more person 48 hours of their life this is what you need to do:

1. Make sure that the Optane module is in the correct M.2 slot and that the hard drive you want to link is in the correct SATA slot per your motherboard manual. (For my ASUS Z370-H Gaming board this was M.2_1 which linked with SATA_1 or SATA_2)
2. Convert your boot drive (yes, even though your not accelerating your boot drive) to GPT partition from MBR (Master Boot Record). You can double check that you are currently in MBR by going to "Disk Management", right clicking on the boot drive, selecting properties and then going to volumes and if the Partition style is listed as MBR you will need to change it, the good news is that it isnt that hard;
3. Via cmd administrator prompt you need to run a System32 program called MBR2GPT.exe, you can find instructions on this in the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfJep4hmg9o
If you have an issue where is does not allow you you can retype the command and follow it with the /allow command as instructed
4. Restart your PC into BIOS (or UEFI now) and change your CMS to ensure UEFI first is selected for your Storage devices
5. Save and restart into windows and install "Intel Optane Memory" program to enable the Optane module and link it with your secondary drive
6. If you get prompted for a Firmware update you will need to "disable" acceleration of the Optane module first in the Intel Optane Memory program, restart your PC first
7. The download Intel SSD Toolbox and click on Firmware to guide you through the update. Restart, enable the acceleration in the Intel Optane Memory program again and do a restart then your all set. Finally

Good luck. PM me if you need help, not that much info out there about it as yet, appreciate if someone could upvote this as the solution so others can find out how to do it.

 

[trick_daddy]

So i have spent the last 48 hours at Google Academy learning about Optane for Secondary Data Drives (any drive that isn't a boot disk) as i didn't realise Optane was designed for Boot Disks only originally and was later slowly upgraded by MB manufacturers to be used on secondary devices. Anyway, to hopefully save at least one more person 48 hours of their life this is what you need to do:

1. Make sure that the Optane module is in the correct M.2 slot and that the hard drive you want to link is in the correct SATA slot per your motherboard manual. (For my ASUS Z370-H Gaming board this was M.2_1 which linked with SATA_1 or SATA_2)
2. Convert your boot drive (yes, even though your not accelerating your boot drive) to GPT partition from MBR (Master Boot Record). You can double check that you are currently in MBR by going to "Disk Management", right clicking on the boot drive, selecting properties and then going to volumes and if the Partition style is listed as MBR you will need to change it, the good news is that it isnt that hard;
3. Via cmd administrator prompt you need to run a System32 program called MBR2GPT.exe, you can find instructions on this in the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfJep4hmg9o
If you have an issue where is does not allow you you can retype the command and follow it with the /allow command as instructed
4. Restart your PC into BIOS (or UEFI now) and change your CMS to ensure UEFI first is selected for your Storage devices
5. Save and restart into windows and install "Intel Optane Memory" program to enable the Optane module and link it with your secondary drive
6. If you get prompted for a Firmware update you will need to "disable" acceleration of the Optane module first in the Intel Optane Memory program, restart your PC first
7. The download Intel SSD Toolbox and click on Firmware to guide you through the update. Restart, enable the acceleration in the Intel Optane Memory program again and do a restart then your all set. Finally

Good luck. PM me if you need help, not that much info out there about it as yet, appreciate if someone could upvote this as the solution so others can find out how to do it.

Thank you so much for this - I've been going mad trying to get it set up! You're a legend, I was barking totally up the wrong tree. It's so good finding an answer to a super specific question somewhere out on the internet.

Just out of curiousity - do you know why the Optane has to be in the M2.1 slot? I have the z370-E and have a heatsink over that slot, and was hence hoping to use it for my NVME M2 system drive. Not the end of the world but I was just wondering.

 

[jay.wooster]

It's actually board specific mate. The M.2 Slot the manufacturer chooses on the motherboard is then connected with the SATA slot(s) named in the manual. Unfortunately you have to use both the M.2 slot and the SATA slot(s) specified in the user manual for your Optane and HDD respectively. It is a shame because the upper M.2 near the CPU runs extremely hot for me at about 65 degrees with a 1TB WD Black M.2 in it....

 

[olivarrosy]

Does anyone have experience using Optane for a secondary data drive (non boot drive) on an ASUS motherboard ? Using an ASUS ROG STRIX Z370--H Gaming and have the M.2_1 and Sata_1 organised as recommended but cannot get Optane installer to work due to:

"Unsupported BIOS Mode"

"Your system BIOS configuration is not compatible with Intel Optane"

Yes i have flashed the latest BIOS. Xvideos Youporn Xhamster

I did find this on the intel site and have posted to ASUS techinical asking if there is a BIOS version with it installed;

Secondary/Data drives are supported for system acceleration with software version 16.0.2.1086 or later only. For more information see Secondary/Data SATA Drive Acceleration with Intel® Optane™ Memory.

Does anyone have any experience using Optane for a secondary data HDD on an ASUS Motherboard ?

Install Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver software Version 16.0.2.1086.

 

[genel6710]

@Jay et al. - I have an ASUS Z390 board with 2 M.2 slots similar to Jay's, plus same situation where I have a secondary HDD that I want the Optane memory to assist with(my primary storage device is an M.2 NVMe SSD).

- Have my primary M.2 NVMe SSD plugged into the M.2 second slot that does NOT support SATA.
- Have the Intel Optane NVMe memory plugged into the primary M.2 slot

My secondary HDD (mine is a WD 1TB 7200rpm), I had difficulty getting the Intel Optane software to recognize the HDD as eligible for enablement.

As this was an upgrade (versus new build), the HDD was setup as MBR, which was the problem. Converted the HDD to GPT and the Intel Optane software recognized the HDD as eligible and all was good.

FYI: the Intel Optane software tracking statistics does NOT track non-system/boot disks, so there's no statistics to ascertain effect of Optane on secondary HDD. Although I have noticed after a few hours of use, that my Photoshop edits are executing MUCH faster (the images are on my secondary HDD).