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June 7th, 2017 17:00

Disk acceleration via SSD not enabled on XPS 8700

 I am having an issue with my XPS 8700. This is my second of this model, as the first failed and was replaced under warranty, but as I recall had the same issue. I am running Windows 10, but the system came with 8.1 installed. This version of the model has a 32GB SSD, as well as a 2.0 TB hard disk. 

In the Intel Rapid Storage application the 32 GB SSD shows status as Available, but under the Performance tab I only see Link Power Management settings.

I've dug through the help available from Intel and it appears that the SATA settings in the system's BIOS need to be set for RAID, which my system is not. I've tried changing the setting, but then Windows refuses to boot at all. I had to toggle the SATA setting back for Windows to boot again.

So my question is, was my system never set up to take advantage of the SSD for caching? The BIOS setting are as they were from the factory, so it appears that the SSD feature was never implemented at all. If I read correctly I can switch SATA back to RAID but then I need to reinstall Windows to get the system to boot, which I would like to avoid, as I did it several dozen times with my first, failed system, and twice with this one, which takes forever as the Dell Backup and Recovery app takes me back to Windows 8.1.

So, can I get this working without a reinstall of Windows? I would like to finally take advantage of the hardware I paid for.

(I found a 3 year old post with the same question, but the responses were not particularly useful and when I posted this question to get additional info no one replied. Pardon the duplication, but a new question seemed to be the only was to get additional help.)

15 Posts

July 10th, 2017 23:00

So, I finally figured it out. The SSD shipped already partitioned and formatted from Dell on this system. I deleted the partition and ran the Intel Rapid Stor software again and now it gives me the option the accelerate the hard drive using the SSD.

Really disappointed that this computer shipped with the SSD partitioned and formatted, making the acceleration feature unavailable until the partition was removed. Hopefully if anyone else runs into this issue they will find the answer here, rather than having to keep experimenting the way I was forced to do.

15 Posts

June 13th, 2017 13:00

Wow, nothing?

That is highly disappointing.

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9.4K Posts

June 14th, 2017 04:00

Hi NotEd,

Thanks for posting.

Have you seen this?  http://dell.to/2tl1lnZ

15 Posts

June 20th, 2017 21:00

No, I hadn't seen it before. I've now tried the installer but it says I don't have a supported chipset for this software. No joy there.

15 Posts

July 3rd, 2017 10:00

I was able to download the next to newest version of the spftware linked above, but there is not change in behavior of the Rapid Stor app after it's upgraded.

I ended up changing the setting for the SATA controller in the BIOS to RAID, requiring a reinstall of Windows 10, to get the feature working like the instructions of the Intel application indicate. Unfortunately the change doesn't seem to have made a bit of different. The Intel Rapid Storage Technology application still only gives me the "Link Power Management" option under the Performance tab.  I can't seem to get any Acceleration options to appear at all as the Help document for the application indicates I should.

15 Posts

July 4th, 2017 22:00

And as further followup, I used the Dell Backup utility to restore my original Windows 8.1 install, so I could recover some of the bundled software I lost when I used the Windows 10 repair option. I've double checked and there still is not option to set up the Intel Rapid Stor software to use the SSD for acceleration.

So far the only thing I can think to used this little 32GB SSD to do is host the Window's swap file, but that's not how this configuration is supposed to work so I don't wish to settle for that as a stopgap measure.

4 Posts

July 14th, 2018 18:00

I have the same issue... except my first MB, died (thanks to a "necessary" BIOS update  - which bricked the MB and killed the 2TB hard-drive)

Anyway, just put in a new MB and 4 TB Hard Drive (which coincidentally only shows 2 TB on the system... grrr) - and so I'm having the same IRS issues and messages. Guess I'll have to check the SSD as well. Can I do that from my installed Windows 10? Or is this something I need to do in BIOS?

Thanks for sharing

1 Message

September 29th, 2018 11:00

So, I just want to know: In your BIOS, is it setup like RAID?

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