9470m - Clean Install of Windows 10

[FerrerJP]

I am having a hell of a time finding the correct drivers to get this system to be able to use the mSATA drive as designed.  I've downloaded all the Window 10 x64 Drivers from the HP site, along with a few of the Windows 8.1 x64 drivers.

The issue is that Windows 10 after a clean install loads the Intel Mobile Express SATA RAID driver ver 13.x.x.x with no Intel software.  I downloaded from Intel the ver 13.6.0.1002 (latest ver 13) driver and installed.  The software does not show the option to setup the SSD as a cache.  I downloaded and installed various other versions, but the only version that seems to partially work is the ver 11.7.0.1013 (the HP version is 11.6.5.1006).  It allows me to setup the SSD volume with a data partion and a cache partion BUT wil not activate the acceleration for the SATA drive.  It just gives back an unknown errer and says to try again.

Also have problems with the fast start technology on this system.  When the system does the auto hybernation it locks up hard and does not power off.  Have to do a hard power off to be able to restart the system.  I did find the hp and intel white papers on how to setup the partitions for the fast start but it definately is not working correctly.

The only drivers Windows 10 doesn't find are the JMicron card reader drivers (listed in the 8.1 drivers).

If it weren't for neededg the configuration software I wouldn't bother with all this but I would like this system to work correctly the way it did under 8.1.

I guess I could reload Windows 8.1, get it working correctly, and then upgrade to 10, but I would much rather do a clean install of 10.

Any ideas out there?

[soccer_dan]

I believe you have an Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) setup in your laptop. The way SRT works is there is an Intel RAID controller (you can access it at boot up pressing Ctl-I) that ties together your standard sata/ahci spinning drive and a small (around 30GB or so) SSD together creating a single volume that Windows sees as a storage volume. In order for the OS to use this, it requires that Windows have the Intel RAID storage driver (RST - not to be confused by SRT !!!), which understand the need to cache disk data on the small SSD

I do not know if Microsoft, or Intel support upgrading a standard SRT RAID volume directly to Windows 10, since probably Windows 10 will not see the RAID and then just install the OS on the hard disk.

What i would try - no guarantees - is go into the RAID controller (again Ctl-I), check out what it says about the volumes it finds. does is say it is RAID'd or just shows single volumes, a hard disk and the SSD?

When you boot Windows 10, make sure the Intel RST driver is installed. there should be a utility loaded that should also help recreate the SRT RAID volume.

Play with these and see if you can get it to work.

[FerrerJP]

Yes, it is the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) that I am having issues with.  I did not change any of the RAID options before installing Windows 10, so the array is still there.  I can see it in RST v11, setup the SSD, but not turn on the acceleration (errors with unknown error).  Any higher version of RST will not let me even see the SSD in the Performance tab (formerly the Accelerate tab in 11 and below) to setup the acceleration.  I have cleared and recreated the SSD partions several time so I am very familiar with this process, it's just that the old v11 software/driver will not turn on the acceleration.

The Rapid Start Technology will place the system in hybernation mode after 60mins in sleep mode (configurable in BIOS).  It uses a partion on the SSD drive to store the hybernation file.  The partion is created with the RST software, then I have to manually use DISKPART to setup the partition for use.  Not hard to do, but the system freezes up when it activates and will not power down.  I may end up just turning off this feature.

[soccer_dan]

You should not have hibernation turned on when using this technology. it is useless and uses up much of the lifecycle of the flash for no good reason. my recommendation is to turn that feature off. from suspend, go to shutdown.