SSD cache drive for non-boot HDD

[flashbacck]

I was wondering if anyone has tried, or knows of an SSD caching solution that works on a non-boot HDD (i.e. one that I use for media and games, and not the OS). From what I've seen googling around the Sandisk and Dataplex solutions seem like they can't... but no one directly answers the question.

 

[lehtv]

What motherboard do you have?

If you have an Intel board with the chipset Z68 or newer, you can use Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) to set up SSD caching for any hard drive.

http://download.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/intel_smart_response_technology_user_guide.pdf

 

[flashbacck]

ooooh. I have a Z77. I'll check it out, thanks!

 

[LoveMachine]

ooooh. I have a Z77. I'll check it out, thanks!

Running SRT on my z77 board and non-boot media drive right now. I was having issues with some programs constantly hitting a few files, and since this is an HTPC computer, the noise was irritation. SRT really helped.

In case you haven't come across this yet, if you are running Windows, it should have been installed with your BIOS in RAID mode. There are registry hacks that allow you to retrofit Win if it was in AHCI, but I didn't have any success with that. A fresh install did the trick, though.

 

[flashbacck]

Running SRT on my z77 board and non-boot media drive right now. I was having issues with some programs constantly hitting a few files, and since this is an HTPC computer, the noise was irritation. SRT really helped.

In case you haven't come across this yet, if you are running Windows, it should have been installed with your BIOS in RAID mode. There are registry hacks that allow you to retrofit Win if it was in AHCI, but I didn't have any success with that. A fresh install did the trick, though.

Cool! I'm glad to hear it works. Yup, I was able to switch to RAID in my bios using the manual registry edit, thanks!

 

[flashbacck]

I just had the weirdest experience. I wasn't able to get the acceleration working because it was giving an "unknown error" message. A random post hidden in the intel forums from two years ago suggested shrinking the partition of the target HDD in windows disk manager, accelerating it through the SRT console, then re-expanding it. And it totally works! I have no idea why the F that matters. Anyway, I just wanted to post that in case someone runs into the same problem.