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Unsupported BIOS Mode issue

SCamp7
Beginner
3,137 Views

Dear Intel Team

A week ago on I successfully installed Optane hardware/drivers/software on an older SSD (840EVO). Then the OS decided to corrupt the disk (nothing to do with Optane) and I had to buy and clean install on a new nvme drive (with the old Optane still installed in the second M2 slot). At this point I did not change any settings in the BIOS.

So, i go to re-install the software to get things back up and running and now I get the unsupported mode error message.

I have gone back into the BIOS, checked specs against the Optane guides and added a 500mb unallocated slot to the end of the nvme (GPT) drive but disabling CMS stops my boot drive working at all. Boot/SATA mode: IRST / CSM tried both disabled and enabled). Latest BIOS for board installed V1205 (or similar)

I have 4 partitions on the boot drive (SYS@500mb / OS@930gb / NTFS@478mb / Unallocated@496mb) / Now showing as Basic MBR even though it was GPT when installed!

The Optane disk shows up as 27.25gb Unallocated / Basic MBR

New system (which I know works from last weeks install) is:

ASUS ROG STRIX H270F GAMING

32 GB DDR4 2400

INTEL i5-7400

BOOT DRIVE: 1TB NVME WD BLACK

Checking the installed Intel files I see:

Intel Network Connection Drivers V22.9 (this was also a massive headache to get the LAN drivers installed on this board)!

Intel Management Engine Components V11.7.0.1069

Intel Optane Pinning Explorer Extensions V16.5.1.1030

The install logs are as below:

I am somewhat confused and desperate to know what to do, can anyone help?

I use my system 16 hours a day and am somewhat desperate to get things solved and optimized again.

Thanks, in advance.

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6 Replies
idata
Employee
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Hi worldphoto42,

 

 

Thank you for posting in the Intel® communities.

 

 

If I understood you correctly, you had an issue with your old drive and you had to replace it with a new one, and now you would like to concatenate the Intel® Optane™ Memory with this new drive, correct?

 

 

If this is the case, I have to tell you that considering your current system environment, this won't be possible. The Intel® Optane™ Memory works only with SATA drives, NVMe* drives are not supported and they won't work with the module.

 

 

Your previous drive was a SATA drive, and you were able to concatenate the module with it because of this reason, however the new drive is an NVMe* drive and it won't work with the module.

 

 

Additionally, the Intel® Optane™ Memory has been designed to accelerate SATA drives due to the performance of the SATA interface, especially in the old HDD units, however an NVMe* drive is faster than a SATA drive and the acceleration provided by the Intel® Optane™ Memory wouldn't do any difference.

 

 

I hope this information has clarified the concern. Please let me know if you have further questions about the module, I'll be more than glad to assist you in any way I can.

 

 

Have a nice day.

 

 

Regards,

 

Diego V.
SCamp7
Beginner
869 Views

Hi Diego

Thanks for the quick reply.

I never even considered that as my original drive was fully compatible. Thanks for your clarity.

So, could I use the Optane module for either:

A) another fast nvme drive?

or

B) to accelerate another (3.5") SATA drive I use extensively for files (or if I fix and reinstall the other SSD could that be optimised with Optane even if my boot drive is not assigned to it)? I have 6 other 3.5 Drives in the system for various uses: scratch disk/photoshop, archive, back-up, docs etc...

or

C) can it accelerate system memory alone?

I would like to try and use the tech if possible - do I have any options?

Thanks

Shane

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idata
Employee
869 Views

Hi worldphoto42,

 

 

You can, with the Intel® Optane™ Memory, accelerate a primary drive or a secondary drive as long as it's a SATA drive. This means that NVMe* drives are not an option nor accelerating system memory alone.

 

 

In your previous setup, you were accelerating a SATA primary drive. Now, since you have a new primary drive which is the NVMe* drive, the option available is to accelerate a secondary SATA drive, however accelerating secondary drives involve other details.

 

 

The first requirement for secondary drive acceleration is the driver version as well as the processor and chipset. The secondary drive acceleration is supported in 8th generation processors. You are currently using a 7th generation processor with the chipset H270. This configuration doesn't support secondary acceleration, however it may be possible that with a BIOS update that includes the Intel® RST Pre OS UEFI driver 16.0.2.3402, the secondary drive acceleration is supported.

 

 

You can check this directly with your motherboard's manufacturer at the following site: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-H270F-GAMING/

 

 

Additionally, the secondary drive that is going to be accelerated, cannot have any OS installed and must have a GPT partition.

 

 

You can check additional information in the following article: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000027987/memory-and-storage.html

 

 

Having said this, the first recommendation would be to confirm there is a BIOS update that includes the driver version required, or to confirm if you already have the version required installed in the BIOS.

 

 

I hope you find this information useful.

 

 

Let me know if you have any further questions.

 

 

Have a nice day.

 

 

Regards,

 

Diego V.
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idata
Employee
869 Views

Hi worldphoto42,

 

 

I'd like to know if I have clarified your concerns regarding to the Intel® Optane™ Memory, or if there is anything else I can help you with.

 

 

Regards,

 

Diego V.
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SCamp7
Beginner
869 Views

Hi Diego

For now and until I fully research the options left to me and my board/bois and other disk options, yes, I am satisfied you have helped as far as you can.

Only one small question about using Optane as a standalone drive (given it shows currently in explorer as an unformatted drive) will this corrupt or make it malfunction for 'normal' future use?

Best

Shane

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idata
Employee
869 Views

Hi Shane,

 

 

Thank you for the confirmation.

 

 

Regarding to your question, the Intel® Optane™ Memory has been designed to accelerate a SATA drive rather than being used as a regular storage drive. If it's not paired with any drive, the module will appear in your system as a regular drive with unallocated space, however it doesn't mean that it can be used as a regular drive, so if you are not going to use it for what it was designed for, it's better that you remove the module from the system and then, when you are going to use it, install it again in the system.

 

 

You can format it and create partitions like in a regular drive. There is nothing that prevents you from doing that, however as that is not its real usage, it's unknown if the module will work fine or if it will fail at some point because that's not a validated usage, and it has not been tested in such scenario.

 

 

I hope this clarifies your doubt about the module usage.

 

 

Have a nice day.

 

 

Regards,

 

Diego V.
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