Intel RST data at risk warning - how to resolve? (SSD & Intel Optane)

larrens · 17 Feb 2021

I have an Acer Aspire 5 (A515-51G). (Specs: i5-8250u; 4gb DDR and 16gb Intel Optane memory). I replaced the mechanical HDD with a 240gb Sandisk SSD and did a fresh install of Windows 10 home (ver 20H2).

I updated the drivers from the Acer website, and after it installed the Intel RST (Rapid Storage Technology) I got a ‘warning’ that data may be at risk.
Is this a genuine error?

It shows the SATA SSD as ok, however the PCIe NVMe SSD (13gb) Controller 3, Port 0 is ‘’offline’’. This also has an option to ‘’clear metadata’’.

I noticed in my Device Manger that under ‘’Other Devices” PCI Memory Controller and SM Bus Controller both have a yellow triangle with ! mark.

I googled this an found there is an Acer hotfix IRST (Intel® Rapid Storage Technology) Driver Hot Fix 16.7.8.1024

Any idea how to resolve this? I am assuming this PCIe NVMe SSD (13gb) has something to do with Intel Optane.

should I uninstall RST and replace it with an Optane driver?
remove RST altogether?
install driver hotfix no sure this is the solution?
setting in BIOS?
Clean Win10 install?

Any other suggestions appreciated?

Thanks

jumanji · 18 Feb 2021

Hi @larrens,

When you want to replace an Optane enabled disk, you are required to follow a specific procedure.

The specific procedure for a DELL Optane enabled PC is given in this article: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...e-device-fails

Similarly ASUS may have an article detailing the procedure to be adopted when replacing the disk associated with the 16GB Optane memory ( may show as 13GB). Please search for it and go through that procedure.

In general, before removing the original disk, you must enter into the BIOS,and "Reset to non-Optane" to remove the existing metadata on it from the previous pairing.

Once you have reset to non-optane and cleared the metadata on it, exit Bios, Power off.
Remove that original disk and replace it with the new disk.

Reboot. Now your system will be operating with the 4GB RAM.

Reinstall the OS and drivers. (Dell recommends "Make sure Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver is greater than v16.8.0.1000.")

When the system restarts after installation, Open Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) UI and enable Optane.

In your case I think you did not clear the metadata in Optane before removing the original disk and so it is giving that message.

NOTE :Follow the procedure given by ASUS. If you cannot find it online or in the User Manual, contact ASUS support and ascertain the correct procedure.

jumanji · 18 Feb 2021

Hi there,

I just noticed in the screenshot you posted there is a a link "Clear Metadata" against the PCIe SSD 13GB which is your Optane.. Click on it to clear all metadata in the Optane. Then enable optane and check whether it mates with your 240GB SATA SSD.

larrens · 18 Feb 2021

Thannks - I removed the Optane module and set BIOS to AHCI. I have reninstalled Windows onto the SSD and its all good.
(I understand the Optane module does not offer much benefit when i have an SSD anyway.

jumanji · 18 Feb 2021

OK, you removed Optane and changed from Raid to AHCI in the BIos. That would mean that your system is now operating with only 4GB RAM. Am I correct?

Do you feel any difference with and without Optane especially when loading most used programs?

hdmi · 19 Feb 2021

larrens said:

I understand the Optane module does not offer much benefit when i have an SSD anyway.

What makes you think that?

How to Install and Manage Intel(R) Optane™ Memory in Windows(R) 10 (Basic)

larrens · 19 Feb 2021

jumanji said:

OK, you removed Optane and changed from Raid to AHCI in the BIos. That would mean that your system is now operating with only 4GB RAM. Am I correct?
Do you feel any difference with and without Optane especially when loading most used programs?

Correct - no difference as of yet

- - - Updated - - -

hdmi said:

What makes you think that?

How to Install and Manage Intel(R) Optane™ Memory in Windows(R) 10 (Basic)

Thanks - well I asked a similar question on the Acer community forum website and was told

"The optane card is absolutely useless or worse with an 2.5" SSD installed. It's not even that great with today's 2.5" mechanical HDDs. Remove it completely. It does not help at all. Optane memory was another one of Intel's not-so-good ideas for speeding up really cheap mechanical HDDs with little or no solid state cache. Even today's 1TB HDDs have half-way decent caches for under $50 that don't benefit much from optane memory."

To be fair, I took this comment at face value so don';t really know.

Are you saying that even with an SSD and Optane I will see some benefit? If so, I will reinstall it and configure based on the vidoe help file you provided.

hdmi · 19 Feb 2021

larrens said:

Correct - no difference as of yet

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks - well I asked a similar question on the Acer community forum website and was told

"The optane card is absolutely useless or worse with an 2.5" SSD installed. It's not even that great with today's 2.5" mechanical HDDs. Remove it completely. It does not help at all. Optane memory was another one of Intel's not-so-good ideas for speeding up really cheap mechanical HDDs with little or no solid state cache. Even today's 1TB HDDs have half-way decent caches for under $50 that don't benefit much from optane memory."
To be fair, I took this comment at face value so don';t really know.

Are you saying that even with an SSD and Optane I will see some benefit? If so, I will reinstall it and configure based on the vidoe help file you provided.

There's only one way to find out I guess, but the sequential read speed is limited to 550 MB/s with a SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD, versus 900MB/s─and 4K reads at a whopping 190.000 IOPS─with that Intel Optane M10 16GB SSD that you have. That's still a respectable 63.6% difference in sequential read speed alone.