Intel Rapid Storage Technology gone from BIOS

XistenZ
XistenZ Member Posts: 3 New User

I have an Aspire S5, with a 128GB SSD. The SSD is seen in the laptop as two 64GB drives, and is configured in RAID0 as default. At one point the RAID failed, and I tried to factory reset but the laptop wouldn't get into the recovery-mode (pressing ALT+F10 and all variations of ALT/CTRL/F-buttons) so I reinstalled manually with a USB.

 

In BIOS, both drives are seen as 64GB, but in Windows only the one drive I installed on is seen as 64GB, the other one is still seen as the RAID-drive (128GB). It's not usable since I have to format it first but I don't dare to do that. I can see that the recoverypartition is still on this, but since RAID0 being RAID0, I'm assuming that all data on this ghost-partition is not usable in any way.

 

When starting the laptop I get the Intel Rapid Storage Technology prompt (press CTRL+I), and it's saying that the RAID has failed, listing both drives (partitions), one of them as a member and the other one (the one I reinstalled Windows on) not as a member. So I deleted that configuration and thought I'd recreate it and reinstall Windows again. But when I deleted the configuration I can no longer access Intel Rapid Storage Technology at all, the prompt never comes up! It just boots straight into Windows. Pressing CTRL+I at startup gives nothing, probably because IRST isn't loading at all...

 

I'll assume that the recoverypartition is gone forever since I already reinstalled on one of the partitions, but I'd like to at least get RAID working again. 

 

TL;DR - Intel Rapid Storage Technology uninstalled itself from the board, how can I enable it again?

Best Answer

Answers

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    check if your BIOS is in UEFI mode, if so, when you delete the array, CTRL-I is no more available.

    so switch back to Legacy with RAID as SATA device, save and exit

    at the next boot CTRL-I will be again available

    set your ARRAY

    exit

    enter BIOS again and set UEFI back

    check if SATA is still RAID

    save and exit

     

    re-install windows

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • XistenZ
    XistenZ Member Posts: 3 New User

    It's in legacy mode, if I change to UEFI the Acer logo barely flashes for 0.000001 milliseconds and I get a message saying no boot device found. 

    It's also set to RAID, if I change this to AHCI then Windows will fail to boot.

     

    In short, BIOS set to Legacy and RAID will not let me enter IRST.

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓

    if you are not using windows 7, i strongly suggest you to re-install under UEFI.

     

    i suggest you to update BIOS if any update for your S5 is available, maybe this can fix your IRST issue:

    http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support

     

    if you still had issue with CTRL-I

     

    have a look here:

    http://community.acer.com/t5/S-and-R-Series-Laptops/R13-R7-371T-Raid-0/td-p/366145/page/2

    and check KEHinWA post

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • XistenZ
    XistenZ Member Posts: 3 New User

    Thank you! This was exactly what I was experiencing.

    For future readers, this link takes you straight to the post. I did have some trouble following the authors instructions, but I made it work.

     

    - I don't know how to install the new RSTCLI drivers and make a bootable recovery USB of an already installed OS, so I used a Windows 8 USB I already had, made from an ISO-file

     

    - when running the first command (RSTCLI64 -I --Controller), I had to adjust it somewhat to (RSTCLI64.exe -I --controller) for it to work, note the .exe-extension and controller with a SMALL 'c'.


    - When executing this the prompt informed me that the installed driver was of version 12, so it could not run the one I just downloaded because it was newer (as I said earlier, no idea how to install it on the OS).

    I downloaded the apropriate version and redid the procedure, this time it worked and the drives was listed.

     

    - Take note of the #-#-#-# sequence, for the author of the post the drives was '0-3-0-0' and '0-1-0-0', for me they were '0-0-0-0' and '0-1-0-0'.

    Adjust the last numbers in the next command accord to your drives numbersequence:

    (RSTCLI64.exe -C -l 0 -n SOMENAMEYOUWANT 0-1-0-0 0-3-0-0).

     

    The CTRL+I option is still gone from BIOS, but it's merely an inconvenience now Smiley Happy

     

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    Good to hear it!

    I'm not an Acer employee.