Note: This Part 1 is for PCs that have Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Part 2 for other PC can be found here in this link
It can be salvaged for your kids to play computer games.
The kids’ games have become more sophisticated nowadays. They used to be a few megabytes in size, then they grew to a few Gigabytes. Nowadays, the games, such as FiFa 19, are in the size of 50 Gigabytes and they demand faster disk drives and graphic cards too.
Why the Old PCs?
These old PCs such as those with Intel® Z68, Z87, Q87, H87, Z77, Q77 or H77 chipset has usually a small built in for SSD MSATA drive. This little MSATA drive can be used as cache SSD drive to speed up the mechanical Hard Disk Drive (HDD) by about 2 to 3 times using Intel Smart Response Technology (ISRT) .
Why Not use SSD Drive?
SSDs are still not cost effective. The 1TB SSD will cost around SGD$400/= whereas 1TB HDD cost less than SGD$60/=. Moreover, these SSDs consume more power than the MSATA SSD cache drives as HDD will not always be running full time and HDD may be set to rest in the IRST mode .
The Setup
This old Z77 Gigabyte motherboard being upgraded has an Intel I5 3570 CPU. The board has already a 32G MSATA SSD installed. The purpose of this article is to help those who wanted to install SSD cache drive to speed up the mechanical HDD.
What is Pre-requisite?
1. The Motherboard must have
a) Chipset that supports Intel Smart Response Technology (ISRT)
b) SATA controller that can be set to Raid mode (no arrays will be configured)
Older motherboard manufactured earlier like ASUS P5K would not be able to support ISRT.
Older motherboard manufactured earlier like ASUS P5K would not be able to support ISRT.
2. The PC or Laptop must have a SSD drive and a hard disk drive (HDD)
3. The software required are
a) Intel Rapid Start Technology (IRST)
b) The F6 IRST drivers for the window OS
What is IRST and ISRT?
It is a technology invented by Intel to speed up HDD when SSD was expensive. ISRT is one of the features in Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) that help users to store frequently used applications temporarily in SSD so as to improve the overall performance of the HDD.
What are the other Requirements?
1. The SATA controller of the motherboard must be first set to RAID mode (no arrays need to be configured)
2. The Intel RST software can be installed after the OS has been installed.
Assumptions
1. OS is Windows 7 though same could be applied to other OS
2. SATA mode in existing BIOS is [AHCI] or [IDE];
3. Gigabyte Motherboard has a cache SSD drive and a HDD
What about ISRT in Other PCs like ASUS?
One can use also other brands of PCs that do not have in-built slot for MSATA SSD drives provided they meet the pre-requisite requirement. One can use another smaller SSD drive but the set up may be slightly different from those described here.Is Re-installing the Windows OS A Must?
The recommended practice is to start afresh by re-installing Windows OS as there are some modification to be made to the Windows OS. However, for newer Windows installations, especially Windows 7, these standard modifications have already been added. ISRT has been successfully installed in existing Windows 7 that have SATA disk formatted in AHCI.Important Note:-
1. Step 1 and 2 is a must; otherwise, there would be installation problem such as not able to find the hard disks.
Step by Step
Description | Action | Remark (Dbclcik to Enlarge Pictures) |
1. Set motherboard in RAID mode | Hit [Del] button at the start to get into the setup screen. Navigate to [Peripheral]’s [SATA Mode Selection] and change the setting to [Raid], leaving the rest setting and [Save and Exit] the setting. |  |
2. Fire up the PC and one would be greeted by this screen showing the various drives after hitting [CTL-I] in the startup screen | Do nothing. Just to make sure the drive are all in [Non RAID] Disk. Reset the drive mode to [Non RAID] if necessary |  In this case, there are 2 drive; one 1TB HDD and 1 32GB LITEONIT SSD MSATA drive; Take particular note that the drives are shown as [Non RAID Disk]. If it is in other form such as [cache Disk] or otherwise, change them to [Non RAID Disk] using [Reset Disk to Non RAID] option. |
| 3 Prepare the F6 drivers | Download the F6 drivers and put them in a USB thumb drive | |
4. Download IRST software | Some newer versions of IRST might not work for older version of Windows OS such as Window 7. Try downloading version 15.2.16.1060 or other version if necessary | |
5. Windows 7 OS Installation | 1. DO Nothing if your existing SATA disk was formatted in AHCI; Goto Step 4 2. Otherwise, proceed to install the OS. | Important: All data in the HDD will be wiped. If one has set drive to [Non RAID], one should see the drives in this picture; otherwise, follow step 2.  It is also time to install the F6 drivers prepared in step 3 by selecting [Load Driver] |
6. After Windows OS installation | Check that the F6 drivers have been installed by running [regedit] as [run as Administrator] . Navigate to [IaStorA] folder as shown. If the [Start] is not set to (0), change it to (0) as shown |  Note: [start] = 3 is AHCI mode and [start] =0 is RAID mode |
7. Install or update chipset drivers | Download the chipset drivers either from the motherboard’s website or from Intel website | |
8. Setting up RAID cache in SSD | Fire up the ISRT software downloaded in step 4 Now press [Enable] as circled red to create the RAID cache drive |  Take note that the drives should show up with HDD as system drive and SSD as ordinary drive. Once [Enable] is pressed, the SSD will change to show as RAID cache SSD drive  |
9 Accelerating HDD | Select [Performance] tab and in the [Acceleration Configuration] select enable | The screen will change to following  Now we are ready to re-start the PC |
10 Complete with a re-start | Re-start the PC | When this screen shown in Step 2 appears again, notice that there is a green asterisk marked against the HDD indicating it has been accelerated. The PC will start in normal mode to re-configure set up to speed up HDD. Re-start the PC if prompted. |
Results
HDD w/o IRST | HDD After IRST |
 |  |
Common Problems
Description | Action | Remarks |
1. Cannot find hard drives when installing the OS or using Diskpart | Reset the disk drives as shown in Step 2. | If the disk drives are not correctly set, the OS installer will not be able to find them. |
2. Cannot accelerate the HDD .. error code 0xA004 or 0xA005 | Download older version of ISRT software and retry | The newer ISRT software is not compatible for use in older Windows |
3. Cannot install ISRT software | Delete this key in [regedit]. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\products\ | Some older version of software are in the way. |
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