How to turn cache msata into regular partition?

Hi all,

Recently replaced my 750gb HDD with a 250gb SSD. I also have a 64gb msata that used to be a cache for the HDD.

Since I've now got 250gb SSD, I don't need the cache anymore and would like to turn it into a regular drive for storage.

How do I do this?

1. Currently in Intel RST my 64msata has a yellow exclamation mark beside it
2. I can't find my msata in disk management
3. I can see my msata in BIOS

Thanks guys!

 

If you go into the Intel RST panel, click on the Accelerate Tab then click on your mSATA drive, what does it say for status?

But to answer your question, to revert your mSATA back to a storage drive, you would need to disable the acceleration in Intel RST. You would also need to change your Drive mode in the BIOS from RAID to AHCI. It carries some risk that the OS drive (assuming it's your full size SSD) will not be read as the OS drive anymore.

 

Thanks for your help the sata mode was on ahci and rst doesnt have an option to accelerate for that drive.

I ended up popping in the Windows dvd and partitioned from there

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 4

 

Interesting. All's it needed was to be marked as active and partitioned? Did you have to do a clean install?

 

Can you elaborate this part? I have the same issue with you.

 

YannC this post gives a great overview. If you are in doubt at all I would recommend removing your primary (OS) drive first.
How do I format/partition my SSD please? - Tech & Computer Forums
From what I read it is a good idea to secure erase the mSATA drive in this situation.. But do not do a full format with the Win 7 DVD (do quick)

 

Thanks for the info, I did something else for my problem though and I guess I can share what I did.

Basically, my laptop originally came with a 750 GB HDD with a 64 GB mSATA SSD as the cache. I then removed both drives from the laptop and installed an SSD for the OS. My problem is that I decided to put the 64 GB mSATA SSD back in as an additional storage space without disabling cache from the 750 GB HDD that I no longer use. So after I put the mSATA SSD back in, Intel RST program showed the mSATA SSD as incompatible with the laptop and it does not show up under Device Manager as a hard drive nor does it show up in Disk Management.

What I did to solve the problem: With the mSATA SSD still in the laptop, I popped in the USB drive that I used to install the Windows OS. Hit F12 (for AW laptops) to choose to boot from the said USB drive. After it finished loading, I chose the language, click on Install, click Agree on whatever the user agreement is, select Custom Install, and format "Drive 1" (which shows 59 GB, indeed for marketed "64 GB" drive). The SSD that contains the OS has several partitions, all of them start with "Drive 0," so you should avoid do anything to them. After I formatted "Drive 1," I cancelled the installation, boot back into my normal OS, and the mSATA SSD now showed up under Disk Management as unallocated space, then I basically allocate ~85% of the space for my new partition and done!

Hopefully this helps for whoever encounters this problem in the future. -- Yann