Safe to uninstall Intel Matrix Storage Manager?

Question

New laptop came with this preinstalled. Is it bloatware or OK to uninstall?

Answer 1

TL;DR - If you have one of the below I/O controller hubs, leave the MSM installed to enable AHCI and native command queueing. Do so even if you have drives not in a RAID configuration.

Details: From the Matrix Storage Manager FAQ: Do I need Intel® Matrix Storage Manager if I don't want to use RAID?

The Intel® Matrix Storage Manager is recommended for installation on platforms with the below controller hubs, even if you do not want to take advantage of the benefits of RAID. This is because it also provides support for Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) on those platforms.

Some of the benefits of AHCI include increased performance and new usage models, enabled by features such as Native Command Queuing (NCQ), hot plug, and Link Power Management (LPM).

Intel® Matrix Storage Manager, when used in conjunction with a hard drive that supports NCQ and one of the below chipsets, can increase storage performance on random workloads. Hot plug (also referred to as hot swap) allows devices to be removed and inserted while the system is running. LPM is a mobile-specific feature that, when used in conjunction with a hard drive that supports it, enables lower power consumption under certain workloads.

AHCI is supported by the following I/O controller hubs:

Intel® 82801IR/IO controller hub (ICH9R) Intel® 82801HEM I/O controller hub (ICH8M-E) Intel® 82801HBM I/O controller hub (ICH8M) Intel® 82801HR/HH/HO I/O controller hub (ICH8R) Intel® 631xESB/632xESB I/O controller hub Intel® 82801GHM I/O controller hub (ICH7MDH) Intel® 82801GBM I/O controller hub (ICH7M) Intel® 82801GR I/O controller hub (ICH7R) Intel® 82801GH I/O controller hub (ICH7DH) Intel® 82801FBM I/O controller hub (ICH6M) Intel® 82801FR I/O controller hub (ICH6R)

Answer 2

The software is supposed to help enhance the performance of your hard disks and help prevent data loss. If none of those sound important to you, or you manage backups on your own, go ahead and free up some space!

Answer 3

If you have an Intel software RAID, I'm pretty sure that's the monitor/management program for it. If you uninstall it, you'll likely not be informed of any disk failures, and possibly you'll have to use the BIOS utility to rebuild after any failure (or, maybe, rebuild will not be possible at all)

Intel's page about it: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/