Disable optane, replace SSD

The actual data you need to clone (or back up) is on the main drive -- not the optane module.  Intel has instructions on disabling Optane (link below).

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000024626/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html

@ejn63​ Thanks for the response.

I understand that I need to disable optane, then clone the SSD to a new SSD, install the new SSD boot up, and all will be good.

I've been to the link you cite and did not get any joy there.  The link advises as follows: 

"To disable system acceleration with Intel® Optane™ memory choose the application listed below that is on your system. During this process the Intel® Optane™ memory is being un-paired from the drive/media being accelerated."

The application installed on my system is "Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management".  I'm advised to use this app as follows:

1. Open the application.
2. Click on the Intel® Optane™ Memory tab on the left.
3. Click Disable.
4. Confirm that you want to disable acceleration by clicking the Disable button. The disabling process will start.
5. Once complete, click Restart.

When I perform step 2 above, I get a spinning circle that never goes away.  I let it spin for just over 30 minutes last time I tried to use it, and it just kept spinning.

I can't find anything in the BIOS to disable it.  The word "optane" does not appear anywhere in the BIOS.

I look forward to any other ideas.  Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

There are multiple implementations of optane -- including its implementation integrated into some Intel SSDs.

Are you certain you have a separate optane modue, or do you have an Intel SSD with an integrated optane cache?

*edit

On re-reading the post, that's exactly what you have -- integrated Optane.  Try making an image of the drive as is, and then restoring the image onto a new (native, non-Optane) SSD.

Dell describes my SSD as M.2 2280 Intel Optane storage, so I'm pretty sure Optane is part of the M.2 drive, thus "integrated".  Maybe that's why it can't be disabled? 

I will try to proceed as you describe and see if I end up in a good spot.  If not, I guess I put the Optane storage back and use it till it dies.  Or something like that.

Thanks for sticking with me.

@ejn63​ I'm back after spending a few minutes over at the Intel Community.  Short answer from there:  the product is discontinued and they provide no support, so I'm stuck unless some user over there knows something and helps me.

It seems like nobody knows how to disable Optane on my Inspiron laptop with Optane/SSD.  Also, I've reviewed the service manual for my laptop and it appears from that that my Optane/SSD can be removed; i.e., it's not soldered in.  Given this, the way forward for me appears as follows:

Clone the Optane/SSD drive onto a new SSD.  For that I'll need a new SSD and a USB enclosure for it.  Once that's done, open the laptop, remove the Optane/SSD and install the new SSD, then fire up the laptop and see what happens.  If all is OK, then I'm done.

If the "simple" approach above doesn't work, then I'll have to proceed with a fresh installation of Windows 11 after installing a new SSD.  In this case, I lose all my apps, but I've been taking backups of all my important data.

Does this plan make sense?  Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

You can't disable Optane on your system  -- it is internal to the SSD and was used to allow Intel to build an inexpensive drive with cheap, less reliable QLC flash chips and yet provide better performance than a native QLC drive could sustain.  There were systems with Optane-boosted hard drives as well - -this is not one of those.

If the drive is readable now, I would add one further step.  BACK UP your data files (documents, etc.) separately to an external drive, NOW.  The drive you have is on borrowed time and you may or may not be able to image it.  Once you have a backup of your data, you can proceed with trying to clone the existing drive to a new one.  Rather than invest in one-time hardware, if you have an external drive with sufficient capacity, image the existing drive to the external drive.  It'll allow you to make multiple tries in case the imaging fails.

BEFORE you make the image, turn off bitlocker protection if it is currently enabled.

@ejn63​ Ah, thanks very much for the insight.  I'll stop looking for ways to disable Optane!

I've been taking backups of data for several weeks now, so I feel confident I won't lose anything important.  I use a third party backup solution for that, and that solution does provide the capability to clone a drive and recover it onto another drive.  I'll make a clone today.

I'm not sure how to avoid buying an enclosure for the new SSD.  I need some way to put the image onto the new SSD, right?  The only way I know how to do that is to use a USB enclosure.  I'm not an expert so I'm probably missing something.  My plan is to clone the drive to the cloud and then recover from the cloud to the new drive.  I could clone to an external hard drive and recover from it, but in either case, I need some way to get the image onto the new SSD.

I don't have bitlocker on -- at least I don't think I do.  My understanding is that you need Windows 11 Professional to use bitlocker.  I'm running the "Home" version.

A bit of a rant:  I think this Inspiron will be my last Dell.  My wife got it for me for my birthday 5 years ago.  She paid a lot of money for it.  Almost immediately, the camera quit and I had to send it in for warranty repairs.  Shortly after the warranty expired, the camera quit again.  Replacing it is apparently a big job.  The speakers are terrible and I have to connect an external speaker via USB to hear anything.  Replacing them seems to be a major project as well.  Now the Optane+SSD is failing...

Thanks very much again for your help.  I feel like I'm making progress now.

It turns out you can disable Optane by entering the BIOS via F12.  This is actually documented here.  It's not well documented at all, but I did verify that entering the BIOS via F12 brings up a menu to disable Optane.  I haven't done it yet.  I have a new SSD on order and when it comes in, I'll disable, clone, and replaced the Optane+SSD with the new one.

I'm not sure what will happen when I disable Optane via F12.  There is an option to save data and there is a note that it could take "hours" to complete the process.  I'm a little concerned that my laptop won't boot at all once I do it.  I'll start messing around once I receive the new SSD.

That's there for disabling a separate optane module -- it won't have any effect on an SSD with Optane built into it.

I would leave it as is and simply back up separately and image the drive as it is.

I glance through a few sentence of each of your posts and it seems that you have been worry too much about how to disable Optane.  If you wanted/planned to replace it with a non-Optane, larger capacity SSD drive, just remove the Optane drive and install the new SSD.  Disable or enable status of the Optane should not affect or interfere with the new SSD.  A fresh, clean install of operating system should give the new NVMe SSD all proper partitions and drivers.  Best of all, a clean slate will rid of all remnants from the old drive, allowing full potential and optimal performance of the new SSD. 

@Chino de Oro​ Of course if you're willing to go the route of a fresh install of the OS and applications, you don't need to worry about disabling Optane.  I understand that.  But I didn't want to go through a fresh install.  That's where a disk clone comes in, and that's where you have to figure out how to disable Optane.

As you can see from my previous post, I disabled Optane, cloned the "C drive" to a new SSD, and installed that new SSD.  The result has been very good.  My PC is faster and runs cooler than with the old Optane+SSD.

The main reason I suggested a clean installation of operating system due to all the accumulation of patches and updates in your system from the past 5 years.  I thought to save you time while bringing your system up to date with the latest and achieving the optimal performance because Microsoft will end supporting Windows 10 and Windows 11 23H2 about 7 and 8 months from now.

I appreciate your feedback.  Thank you.

My laptop is running Windows 11 now with no problems.  I'm happy with how the clone approach worked, and glad I didn't have to go  though a fresh installation, including re-installation of all of my software.  That would have been quite painful.