GPT, AHCI, Windows 8.1. IRST Intel Rapid Start + Storage Technology: An unknown error has occurred

My laptop is an Asus Zenbook UX32A with an Intel® HM76 Express Chipset and 4GB of RAM. It has a 465GB HDD, and 22GB SSD. It supports Intel Rapid START Technology and Intel Rapid STORAGE Technology as Asus offer out of date Windows 7 x64 drivers for those technologies - I have called them about this and they told me they will not support clean installs, and no Windows 8 recovery media is available but I want a clean install anyway. Some months ago I did a clean install of Windows 7 and could never get these technologies to work and I am now experiencing the same problem on my clean Windows 8.1 install. Windows 8.1 is installed on a 100GB GPT partition of the HDD.

The guides I have been using:

http://download.intel.com/support/m...pid_start_technology_user_guide_for_uefi1.pdf

http://download.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/intel_smart_response_technology_user_guide.pdf

The Intel Rapid Start guide instructs I first make sure Intel Smart Response Technology installed, and the guide for that wants me to enable RAID in the BIOS. There is no RAID option in the BIOS, only IDE and AHCI, the latter of which I have selected. I continue anyway and run the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RAID) setup - I have tried various versions from the ASUS site and the Intel site including an Intel NUC AHCI version. A few minutes after restarting the Intel Rapid Storage Technology manager appears in the system tray, and it opens up fine but there is never an accelerate option like in the guide, instead I see this:





I continue onto the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Guide for UEFI mode anyway. It instructs me to go into the BIOS options Advanced and Power section, find the option for Intel Rapid Start Technology and enable it setting the Hibernation Timer to immediately but those options are definitely not in my BIOS, just like the RAID option, and I check each restart during my attempt to install all of this. I then run the Command Prompt as administrator:

C:\windows\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600

Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.

On computer: BANSHEE

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt

-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---

Disk 0 Online 465 GB 365 GB *

Disk 1 Online 22 GB 22 GB

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> convert gpt

DiskPart successfully converted the selected disk to GPT format.

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt

-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---

Disk 0 Online 465 GB 365 GB *

* Disk 1 Online 22 GB 22 GB *

DISKPART> create partition efi size=4096

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Some non-official guides say the partition size should be larger so I have tried 4396 but it made no difference. I have also read instead of the 'create partition efi size=4096' command I should be using something like 'create part MSR size=4300' but this also made no difference.

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset

------------- ---------------- ------- -------

Partition 1 Reserved 128 MB 17 KB

* Partition 2 System 4096 MB 129 MB

DISKPART> set id=D3BFE2DE-3DAF-11DF-BA40-E3A556D89593

DiskPart successfully set the partition ID.

DISKPART> detail disk

SanDisk SSD i100 24GB

Disk ID: {8C4539EA-CBAE-4016-BBF9-2ED02D409EF9}

Type : SATA

Status : Online

Path : 1

Target : 0

LUN ID : 0

Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#ATA(C01T00L00)

Current Read-only State : No

Read-only : No

Boot Disk : No

Pagefile Disk : No

Hibernation File Disk : No

Crashdump Disk : No

Clustered Disk : No

There are no volumes.

DISKPART> exit

I then confirm in Windows Disk Management I can see the 4GB Healthy Primary Partition on the SSD. I reboot to allow the BIOS to pick up the partition, which still has no IRST or RAID options, and then I run Rapid Start Technology Installer_3.0.0.1053 and reboot again. Just like Intel Rapid Storage Technology before it, the Intel Rapid Start Technology manager is running in the system tray, and when I click it it tells me it is turned on BUT when I click on settings it notifies me 'An error occurred while loading the configuration information for Intel Rapid Start Technology' and sometimes once open it warns 'Intel Rapid Start Technology detected software-based whole disk encryption on this system. Intel strongly recommends disabling Intel Rapid Start Technology to help preserve the security benefits of your drive encrytion software. Click "OK" to disable Intel Rapid Start Technology of "Cancel" to keep Intel Rapid Start running' and I just close that window - I have no drive encryption setup, no Bitlocker, and the only security software I have are Avast Free, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free, and Comodo Firewall Free. The Intel Rapid Start Technology manager does load up, and I am able to see it is set on with the timer set to on and and 0 mintues but even after more restarts, I get the same errors.

It is only natural to think I might have missed the BIOS options for RAID so please see the pictures below:







I had the same problem following the MBR Intel Rapid Start guide when I tried this before converting the Windows system partition from MBR to GPT. Maybe I am using the wrong drivers? Maybe I am not supposed to be able to select RAID in BIOS? If you have any idea what I might be doing wrong, please please comment - this is keeping me awake at night!

 

HM76 chipset does not support RAID, HM77 does so you won't able to find RAID options in the BIOS.

If RAID is not supported then accelerated mode won't be turn on in Intel Rapid Storage, here is the screenshot of a brand new out of the box UX32VD-DB71 with expresscashed and Intel Rapid Storage pre-installed:

 

Thanks for the reply.

I was researching the three chipsets in the series last night when I discovered same. The two official guides I linked at the top of this thread seem to suggest Intel Rapid START Technology will not function without Intel Smart Response Technology properly installed first.

Thanks for the screenshot. I see on Asus' website that model uses the same HM76 chipset and as it does I have some questions if you could indulge me:

1. Is Intel Rapid START Technology also installed and functioning on it? I think it must since Asus offer the drivers, but it would be great to have it confirmed. If so have you any idea what I could try to make it function properly on my machine?

2. Are both Intel Rapid STORAGE Technology and Intel Rapid START Technology accessible from the system tray? Sometimes it takes a few minutes after boot, but if I install both using drivers from Intel's website both will appear there without opening them up from Control Panel etc. From Asus support for the UX32A Win *8 I have installed IRST_Intel_Win8_64_VER12601033 which including installing PNPINST64 and IRSTPatch with a reboot between and afterwards - Intel Rapid Storage Technology is not running in the system tray or in Control Panel when searching for Intel.

3. Is there an option in the BIOS (in advanced or SATA configuration) to enable or disable Intel Rapid Start/Storage Technology as many of the guides say there must be - although not specifically on HM76? Last night I ran Winflash /nodate to force it to install 203 and 206, the first two versions of the BIOS in case Asus removed an IRST option for the public from the BIOS for some reason.

4. Do you think it would make a difference if I install F6 load driver Intel Rapid Storage Technology during Windows 8 installation instead of installing the driver afterwards?

Using diskpart I am able to create a 4096MB partition for MBR and GPT using the slightly different commands for the set id=. For MBR the 4GB appears in disk management as a Health Hibernation Partition but for GPT it appears as a Healthy Primary Partition - which is think is correct, once Intel Rapid Start Technology is functioning. I can also set up Expresscache on the remaining space of the SSD no problem, and I intend to, but I would really like 6 boot times and the fast resume from sleep Intel Rapid START Technology offers.

If for any reason I cannot, or should not, configure Intel Rapid START Technology properly I have wondered if Windows could just use the 4GB partition for hibernation without without it, just giving the whole 22GB to express cache, installing Windows itself or another OS I plan to dual boot on the SSD, or even just installing a large Windows program I will be using a lot on the SSD.