Rapid Storage Technology
Intel® RST, RAID
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Help re-enabling SRT on DZ68BC motherboard

idata
Employee
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I previously had a 2TB HDD accelerated with a 75GB SSD running fine, but HDD crashed.

I restored backup system image into new 2TB HDD.

Now both SSD and HDD are on same ports as my prior setup (Port0, Port1).

I wish to re-enable SRT on the new HDD.

Checking the MB BIOS, it is set to RAID. But system boots and RST application in Windows no longer has an "accelerate" option. Both drives are listed independently.

Rebooting and going [Ctrl]-I into the RST BIOS, both drives are reported as "Non-RAID Drive". From there, "Acceleration" option reports no drive available. Selecting to "Build new RAID volume" asks me for RAID0 vs. RAID1 vs. Recovery type...neither seemed like the path I expected.

I don't mind restoring HDD again from backup if need to, but how do I get to the stage where I'm able or asked to re-install OS and have the option to turn on SRT?

Thank You!

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
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Enabling acceleration is a function of the RST application in the runtime environment, not the RAID Op-ROM. To be honest, despite being a user of, and promoter for, the acceleration feature, I have never tested what happens if the accelerated drive fails and has to be is replaced. I will have to run some tests and see what happens...

One question that comes to mind: what version of the RST package did you install? Have you tried upgrading it to a newer package (the version does not need to match that of the Op-ROM)?

...S

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idata
Employee
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Hello Dominicus:

 

 

In order to try to accelerate the PC, first you need to install the operating system on the hard drive, also make sure the SSD has no partitions, you can check that on "disk management" option, also, once you get in there, check if there is a partition on the hard drive for unallocated space.

 

 

If you do not see it, try to create it with at least 100 MB, to do that, you just need to right click on the "C" partition and select "shrink volume", you will be able to choose the size once you choose it.

 

 

Both the hard drive and SSD needs to be set to "Non-RAID Drive", and the SATA mode needs to be on "RAID".

 

 

On the following link you will see the proper version of RST for the Intel® DZ68BC motherboard, the version is for Windows® 7 and 8, since those are the versions the board supports:

 

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22272/RAID-Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-for-Intel-Desktop-Boards?product=56461 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22272/RAID-Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-for-Intel-Desktop-Boards?product=56461

 

 

Please, try the steps above and let me know the results.

 

 

Any questions, please let me know.

 

 

Alberto

 

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idata
Employee
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Thx Alberto,

I migrated to Win10 several months ago.

Checked the drives: HDD has 100MB as first partition and SSD shows all space unallocated.

I installed the suggested RST package.

After reboot, the HDD was not recognized at first. Rebooted again and confirmed in BIOS SATA screen, only SDD was listed.

Powered off, unhooked the SATA cable to the HDD and re-seated again.

On power on, drive was recognized and booted OK.

I notice now, RST icon shows the waiting donut and hover over says "RST service is not running".

Opening RST, I again see the tab to "Accelerate".

I tried twice to set acceleration for the HDD, first time got Windows blue screen " Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart....error 0xc000021a", second time RST had the hourglass for very long and ended reporting "An unknown error occurred while an operation was in progress. The operation could not be completed."

I also tried Windows Program Compatibility Troubleshooter, selected RST application, and tested the program, but got same iRST error pop-up while trying to enable acceleration.

I went into Windows services screen, RST service status was blank. I started the service and status says "running", but RST icon still with hourglass donut.

I sure hope there's a way to get this back running. I didn't face any issues while migrating to Win10....SRT seemed to be doing its sweet work for many months in Win10.

I appreciate your help.

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idata
Employee
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Hello Dominicus:

 

 

Thank you very much for providing all those details.

 

 

The thing is that the Intel® DZ68BC motherboard does not support Windows® 10, it supports Windows® XP, Vista, 7 and 8, as you can confirm on the following link:

 

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/desktop-boards/000005640.html?wapkw=legacy+intel+desktop+boards http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/desktop-boards/000005640.html?wapkw=legacy+intel+desktop+boards

 

 

Still, some customers are able to install it, but the version of RST for Windows® 10 is not compatible with the chipset on the board which is Z68, so that type of errors are actually expected, and the reason for that is a compatibility situation.

 

 

Any questions, please let me know.

 

 

Alberto

 

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idata
Employee
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Thx Alberto,

I have to say I never expected I'd be trapped between obsolete Win7 and forgettable Win8 just 4 yrs after building a PC with intel's premium DZ68BC & i7-2700K & SSD products. I'll also save a good share of my frustration for Microsoft, for not making any mention during their "compatibility review" as they coaxed me to switch to an OS my MoBo didn't support....while the incompatible feature was running, no less.

Venting aside, is SRT the only area of incompatibility of Z68 with Win10? I'd like to know if switching to Non-RAID SSD boot drive + HDD file storage is a stable setup for this MB running Win10. Any other aspects of Z68 known to be incompatible with Win10? I'm not looking forward to a fresh install of Win7 + app reinstall + file migration.

After getting your news, I did find posts in other forums of people doing Frankenstein surgery to their drivers to run SRT with Win10, but IMO, storage drivers is just not a place I feel comfortable tinkering in this fashion.

I greatly appreciate your support and any other suggestions you may have.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
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Quite simply, Windows 10 was not on the visible horizon for its support to be included. Later on, when it did appear, Intel had already exited the Desktop Boards business and no one was around to validate for or release any updates. The emphasis is on the word 'validate'; Intel (rightly so) will not warrant anything that they have not exhaustively tested. They likely had to draw a line in the sand that guarantees that the latest generations of processor, chipset and peripheral silicon get the amount of testing that they should with the resources available.

I too hate that the fact that the older stuff is not supported (since I have so much of it myself) -- but I do respect the business decisions that companies like Intel have to make. I would guess that including support and validation for older products would significantly increase the cost of new/current products - and we wouldn't want that...

...S

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idata
Employee
603 Views

Hello:

 

 

Thank you very much to N. Scott Pearson for the information posted previously.

 

 

To Dominicus:

 

 

I just wanted to confirm the information above, and also in regard to your inquiry, it is hard to tell for us which features of the Z68 chipset will not work with Windows® 10, since we did not test the board with that OS, however, what we can tell is basically that any problem when you use the DZ68BC motherboard with Windows® 10 is expected.

 

 

I hope this information is useful for you.

 

 

Any questions, please let me know.

 

 

Alberto

 

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idata
Employee
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Thanks both,

I've ditched Windows10, gone back to Win7-Ultimate, and downgraded to RST 11.7.0.1013.

In the process, I've also installed a dedicated 256GB SSD as boot drive. My data files are on the HDD.

Although boot speed is much improved compared to SRT-accelerated HDD, I noticed applications that load large databases from HDD are sluggish.

Since I still have the 80GB Intel X25-M SSD unused, I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to enable SRT to accelerate the HDD.

I opened a new post to get help on that:

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idata
Employee
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Hello Dominicus:

 

 

You are welcome, thank you very much for letting us know that information.

 

 

Based on the information of the thread you gave us, it seems to be you were able to finally accelerate the volume, that is great to hear that finally is working properly.

 

 

Any other inquiry, do not hesitate in contact us again.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Alberto

 

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