Want to migrate OS from Intel RST setup to a SSD

[hollang]

I have an Omen 880-139 which came with an Intel Optane system which couples with a regular k1TB SATA Hard Drive under the Intel Rapid Storage (RST) Technology. I've got a new 1TB SATA SSD which I have cloned the OS onto from the Optane/HD pair, but having problems getting the boot process to move from the Optane combo to the SSD.

I "think" i need to use the Intel RST software to disable the Optane/HD array and reboot. and hit Esc repeatedly to pull up the  BIOS and reset boot volume, but wondering if I could just somehow redirect the Optane array to use the SSD rather than the HD? Seems I'd then get benefits of the Optane Caching AND the SSD speed.

Any advice appreciated. I don't really want to screw things up as the Omen is newly acquired (albeit a refurb model) and I don't want to screw it up. Even so, I'd like to make this change before I migrate all my apps from my older win10 laptop to this new desktop environment.

[Grzwacz]

Greetings,

Welcome to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

(Added thought) Best wishes. You are making a significant mod to your PC. There are many variables involved in this mod. One little mistake may result in a bad day. 

Intel Optane is a disk caching device. The operating system should be installed on the platter HDD.

You cloned the OS from the HDD to the new SSD. It won' boot.

You are right, you have to disable Optane. You can review the Intel Optane User Guide at this (Link). Section 2.2.2 describes this process. SSDs like SATA controllers in AHCI mode. Optane modifies the UEFI BIOS to run in RST Premium Mode.

I would do this before cloning the operating system to the SSD.

You don't need Optane acceleration when you use a SATA SSD.

I would backup the current Optane configuration to external media. What software did you use to clone the OS? 

Make a backup image of the current setup before you do anything. I use Macrium Reflect Free (Link) to do this. You also need to create Macrium bootable recovery USB or optical disc media to be able to restore the external backup image to the HDD if something goes wrong. I would also test the backup image before doing any mods. There is an advanced setting in Macrium to auto verify the image. I would tick this option before you make a backup image.

Did you make HP Recovery media? You may need this if your experiment goes bad. Always backup any data on the disk before proceeding.

Anytime you mess with the factory setup you run the risk of having an expensive system that does not work anymore.

Finally, be advised you will be changing a BIOS SATA controller setting (RST Premium to AHCI) that may adversely affect recovering the system to the factory config or the Macrium Image after you remove Optane from your PC. The Intel RST software is making this change in the BIOS.

I have never used this procedure because I don't use Optane disk caching in system builds. You are better off using fast SATA or NVME SSDs. Added thought, do a clean installation of Windows on the new SSD. Keep the existing HDD as a backup or use it as a data drive.

I would also check the BIOS for a RST Premium Mode setting that can be enabled/disabled before doing anything. You would probably need to set this to enabled to go back to the factory configuration (HP Recovery image) or to restore the Macrium image made with RST set to run Optane.

Regards

[hollang]

Thanks. It may well be that I'm getting in way over my head, but thought that by migrating from the Optane setup to the SSD as my boot drive that I'd get better performance. I know how to turn off Optane using the supplied RST application, but clearly there are bios changes or something somewhere that is needed as the cloned SSD is not being recognized as boot drive even when I turn off Optane & disconnect the hard drive it's not finding the SSD. The clone of the hard drive was done with AOEMI Backupper Professional software, most current version and seemed to go without complaint. But, I cloned while Optane RST was active, perhaps I need to deactivate it, reboot off "simple" HD and do the cloning? Doesn't seem logical, but maybe?

I did do a full backup to external NAS as first step before I did anything. And there's a HP Recovery partition on the SATA Hard drive.  I'd try a "clean install" of Windows 10, but the Omen desktop didn't come with an installation CD. Maybe there's a way to get one somewhere or maybe an img file ? Beyond my personal experience/knowledge base.

Well, don't want to risk "bricking" this new system. Maybe just sit on hands unless someone who's actually done it can add comments. HP on this 880-139 Omen has a UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) overlay on the BIOS with a lot of settings I've not seen before, so will just sit still unless I can get additional inputs.

Many thanks for your inputs, though as they're very helpful.

[hollang]

After hours with HP, Intel and Microsoft support including time at the local Microsoft Store support center, I'm still stuck. So, I've decided to remove the Inter Optane M.2 chip and replace it with a Samsun 970 EVO Plus 500 GB NVME SSD and set that up with a fresh install of windows 10 from the HP Recovery USB I bought. But, after removing the physical Optane card and putting in the Samsund SSD Card in its stead, the Samsung Magician software is not liking something as it says the SSD 970 is not supported. I see on the screen it's unable to detect the interface and AHCI Mode is "N/A". Checking in the F10 setup menu, I see that SATA Mode is set to RAID, but am nervous about changing to AHCI mode. I have my data backed up every which way so not too worried about it and as I'm planning to do a full reinstall as my current windows install is not allowing me to do upgrade from Windows 10 1803 to 1809 or 1903 so it much be corrupted somewhere and nobody has a clue where so cloning it is not an option, I think. just trying to sort out why the new SSD isn't being fully recognized.  Device manager recognizes it, but not sure if there's something else I should do. that samsung's own software is reporting it as unsupported is worrisome which is causing me to thinkg about your comments about changing the BIOS SATA controller from RAID (which is what shows in my Bios, not RST Premium terminology you used so I'm hoping it's the same) to AHCI mode, just thought I'd ask for any further advice as you're well informed, it seems to me, certainly more so than am i.

hre's what Samsung Magician software says:

[Grzwacz]

Hi Hollang,

You want to use ACHI to install W10 clean on the new disk but if you change this BIOS setting with the current OS installation you will see a blue screen error when trying to boot to the current RAID OS installation.

Did you check Disk Management to verify the Samsung SSD is online?

Samsung software will not see this new disk if the disk is offline. Installing Samsung Magician before initializing the new disk can sometimes cause this error.

Regards

[hollang]

I did install the Magician software and indeed it was not seeing the M2 disk.  I need to run the System Recovery USB stick HP provided me as I don't have a Win10 install key. The problem is that the system recovery runs through but fails. It provides a zip file of logs about the recovery attempt, but I'm not informed enough to decipher them to find out what went wrong and I can't seem to restart the recovery process, it keeps coming back to the same place, i.e., reporting that the install has failed.  I've put my original hard drive back in and am able to boot off it with the new Samsung M2 SDD still installed and I can see the SDD. It seems it's been formatted into 2 volumes, both of which have files on them, but it's not bootable.  Not sure where to go from here. HP is being a pain, trying to sell me their software support subscription which I'm resisting as I'm where I am because of a support problem that actually started with a CD/DVD RW drive that didn't seem to be working.  

Anyway, I understand your comment about changing the bios SATA from it's Optane related RAID setting to ACHI as I had to make that change in order for the SSD to be recognized for the System Recovery process.  My current status is that if I turn RAID SATA setting back on in the BIOS, I can reboot off the original toshiba hard drive under windows 10 V1803 with the new M.2 Samsung 500 Gb SSD in place.  It recognizes the SSD which it seems the failed System Recovery process has formated into 2 volumes, an F: drive (76.4 GB) labeled Windows and a G: drive labeled BP with 567 MB of which 424 MB is used, formatted as FAT 32. Seems strange it formatted it that way, but it was done by the system recovery process and it's left 388.50 GB unallocated (see screen shot below):

Not sure what to do now because if I set BIOS back to ACHI again and reboot off the System Recovery USB Stick again, it doesn't give me any options as it goes right back to the screen saying the System Recovery has failed without any actionable choices.  I am attaching the System Recovery log files in a zip which is what the failed System Recovery offered, but it's not decipherable by me.  Any suggestions appreciated. I'm thinking I'll just reformat the SSD Drive into an empty state and then reset the SATA to ACHI and try again. Very frustrating.

I would upload the log file zip, but can't seem to find a means for attaching a file to a posting.

Any way, any help will be appreciated.

[Grzwacz]

Hi Hollang,

I have not reviewed all previous posts when replying here. So I may be forgetting something you said. Correct me if I am missing anything.

Try the following:

Remove the HP factory installed HDD containing the Windows 10 Optane installation. This will preserve the HP factory installation and your data.

Only use the new SSD.

Go here (Link) to download Windows 10 installation media. Create this media per Microsoft instructions. Create USB media or DVD media, your choice.

Set the BIOS to AHCI.

Boot to the W10 installation media under UEFI boot sources.

Do a clean (Custom) install of Windows 10 on the SSD. This requires deleting all current partitions on the SSD until you have a disk showing only unallocated space. I think you have a 500 GB disk so you should see somewhat less when the SSD is clear due to differences in the way Microsoft and disk manufacturers calculate disk volume.

Skip the product key entry when installing W10, Windows should activate post installation when you are online because you have a digital W10 license on this PC

This should work.

Let me know.

You can get any needed drivers or some software at your PC's HP Support site.

The only caveat is if the current version of W10 will play nice with your PC. Previous versions of W10 can be downloaded at Heidoc (Link).

You will have to convert the Heidoc .ISO to bootable DVD or USB media if you need to go this route.

Good luck, hope this works.

Regards

[hollang]

thanks for your inputs. in terms of creating a new Windows install, I have a 32 gb USB key I can use. Do I need to reformat it? If so, FAT32 or NTFS format? Or, will the windows 10 install USB creation process take care of that for me?

[Grzwacz · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You're very welcome.

Microsoft installation media will reformat the USB stick.

Regards