Solved How do I set up SSD Cache again on ASUS VivoBook S551LB

[dukgo]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this and if there is already a solution posted somewhere, but I've been reading threads on many forums for 2 days and trying to solve this but nothing has worked yet.

I just bought an ASUS VivoBook S551LB laptop which comes with Windows 8. It has a 1TB harddrive and an extra 24GB SSD which is used for cache i guess. I wanted to reinstall Windows 8 because I didn't want to use the OEM version. Doing that took enough work. But after reinstalling i decided to check if the cache drive was still working. The Disk Management interface showed that the SSD was empty when previously it was completely full, so I guessed that the cache needed to be set up again.

I installed everything from my laptop's driver page and ran windows update until there were no more updates left. I looked in every ASUS and Intel application installed on the computer for options regarding the cache drive but there was nothing. The Condusiv ExpressCache program had no gui and the command line didnt help, and the Intel Rapid Storage Technology program wasn't showing most of the options which other people have. I read lots of threads and everything seemed to point to the need for RAID. I tried the registry edits, BIOS options (and with safe boot), and looking for RAID drivers for my laptop. The BIOS only has the option for AHCI, and there are no RAID drivers that I can find for my laptop. I installed different versions of the IRST program, tried deleting the SSD volume, formatting it, etc. The fixes people talk about in other threads don't work for me because my programs, BIOS, etc seem to be missing options. Is RAID my problem?

Here are some pictures of my OS:

Installed programs:
Drives/Volumes:
ExpressCache:
Intel Rapid Storage Technology:

I may have forgot to mention other things that I've tried and I can edit the post to mention them if anybody brings them up.

Thanks

Edit #1: Just rechecked BIOS settings for the 20th time and the only SATA configuration option is AHCI, and there are no extra options in the BIOS regarding either of the Intel IRSTs

 

[ectech]

Your SSD drive should be Disk 1 not Disk 0.

Have you updated the BIOS to the latest version?

 

[dukgo]

Thanks for the reply. I don't know why the BIOS version should matter since it was working on the OEM Windows and the BIOS hasn't changed since then. I just updated the BIOS now anyway and it hasn't changed anything except the laptop seems a bit slower and acts weird sometimes. The disks seem to be switching places on every reboot, no joke. The SSD was Disk 1 when I read your post and then switched back to 0 after my first restart and now its back to 1. Also this last time when booting, I briefly saw a message at the bottom which said something like "Scanning and ~something~ drives ...." I forgot the rest, it looked like a path to something. But other than noticing the disks switching on every reboot theres nothing new. BIOS and IRST still have no other options for me.

Edit: Also, in the properties of the SSD drive, in the Policies tab, 'Enable write caching on the device' is checked. I disabled this to see if it made any difference and it didn't. The same thing is checked on the other drives too so I understand that's not the same cache that I'm trying to achieve. The disk is also still empty, whereas it was full when I recieved the laptop, so I understand if it's working it shouldn't be empty.

 

[ectech]

The BIOS update is just good to have. It will often repair known bugs with the firmware.

Here is a guide I have used myself to repair SSD caching.. GUIDE Install ExpressCache for SSD Caching - Acer Community

Of course this guide is for Acer but the procedure is the same for any manufacture. As long as you are using ExpressCache for your particular model.

 

[dukgo]

THANK YOU ! I can't believe it was that easy and I've messed with both diskpart and expresscache. I used the steps for 'expresscache only' since I'm not sure if Intel Rapid Storage and Intel Rapid Start are the same thing. At least the cache drive is being used now and not wasted, I'll just uninstall all the other things. I think one of the replies on that thread also mentioned that Intel Rapid Storage requires RAID but ExpressCache doesn't. I guess maybe my laptop never was configured with RAID, all the stuff I read about it may have only applied to IRST and other laptops.


Here are the steps for anyone who needs them (Thanks to MuadDib):


1.) Open an elevated command prompt and type diskpart.

2.) type "list disk" (note the drive number of the SSD).

3.) type "select disk n" (n= the drive number found above)

4.) type "clean"

5.) type "exit"

6.) Now that you are back to the normal command prompt, lets navigate to the ExpressCache directory. Do this by typing "cd C:\Program Files\Condusiv Technologies\ExpressCache\"

7.) type "ECCmd -partition" (this tells ExpressCache to use the whole SSD drive)

8.) Your DONE! to confirm that it is working, you can type "ECCmd -info" and ensure that it starts showing you some caching statistics.

 

[ectech]

 

[theog]

Forum tutorial link:
Install Windows on MSATA (SSD) Drive - Windows 7 Help Forums
Install Windows on System with MSATA and ISRT - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[Himeko]

Is there any way to get Intel RST working instead? I've got nothing but issues with ExpressCache and had to reinstall the OS. I installed RST but the acceleration button does not show, and in the bios there is only "AHCI" mode for SATA, no RAID as I read was required for RST.

 

[Clintlgm]

Is there any way to get Intel RST working instead? I've got nothing but issues with ExpressCache and had to reinstall the OS. I installed RST but the acceleration button does not show, and in the bios there is only "AHCI" mode for SATA, no RAID as I read was required for RST.

Do you indeed have two separate drives one SSD the other Hard Drive? is it possible that you have a Hybrid hard drive? Should that be the case you wouldn't do anything as the hard drive firmware would interact with the OS to move the needed files to the SSD Cache?
Hybrid drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[WannaBeOCer]

Is there any way to get Intel RST working instead? I've got nothing but issues with ExpressCache and had to reinstall the OS. I installed RST but the acceleration button does not show, and in the bios there is only "AHCI" mode for SATA, no RAID as I read was required for RST.

I found ExpressCache useless on my Asus Zenbook. I replaced the hard drive with a SSD and used the small SSD as a recovery partition with my own custom refresh image. If you don't want to buy a SSD get a hybrid drive or a 7200 RPM hard drive. The 5400 RPM HGST hard drives in these laptops are obnoxious.

 

[Clintlgm]

Is there any way to get Intel RST working instead? I've got nothing but issues with ExpressCache and had to reinstall the OS. I installed RST but the acceleration button does not show, and in the bios there is only "AHCI" mode for SATA, no RAID as I read was required for RST.

I found ExpressCache useless on my Asus Zenbook. I replaced the hard drive with a SSD and used the small SSD as a recovery partition with my own custom refresh image. If you don't want to buy a SSD get a hybrid drive or a 7200 RPM hard drive. The 5400 RPM HGST hard drives in these laptops are obnoxious.

Since you have no option for RAID, have you worked with Asus Support surly they had some from of raid set up originally and you may need a custom file from them to set up the RAID Cache Drive? You might get lucky and actually get a tech that has a clue at least.

You also can post here in the Asus ROG forum there are some pretty switched on people there and I'm linking you to the Non ROG notebook Forum you can back up to other internal forums and post anywhere you might get someone that knows how Asus accomplished this raid/cache set up.

 

[xyber]

Hi, I know its very old thread but I am facing the same issue after reinstalling Windows on my Asus s550ca.

I have tried the procedure above mentioned, after executing eccmd -partition command its throwing below error:
**ERROR** ECCmd exited with error 0x7d9 (2009)

I really appreciate If anyone can help me out on this.

Thanks