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I recently purchased a Acer Timeline M3 Ultra, it ships with a 500GB HDD and a 20GB mSSD to use as a cache (which works fine out-of-the-box)

First thing I did when I got it was format the drives and install a clean OS (on the HDD, the mSSD has nothing on it) - but now I can't figure out how everything needs to be configured in order to use the mSSD as a cache, it just looks like a standard storage drive.

I've poked around in the BIOS and there is a SATA mode setting, but it only has one option (AHCI), most of the documentation I've seen on the subject says that the SATA controller needs to be in RAID mode otherwise 'Acceleration' isn't visible in the Intel SRT menu (which for me, it isn't)

I've seen a few things that suggest I just need the correct partition layout, I tried this using fdisk from a Linux LiveCD but got nowhere.

Any ideas? The laptop shipped with no recovery media so I'm marginally stumped. I don't have any issue with reformatting again if required.

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  • Mine came with the ssd partitioned into 3.7GB for iRST, and 16+ GB for Diskeeper ExpressCache , which seems to be running at least (not sure quite how effective it actually is) - yours didn't?
    – M.M
    Dec 25, 2014 at 6:55

2 Answers 2

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Original method.

Here's the explanation on how it works according to this site

The 20GB SSD has a 4GB hibernation partition (which will have to be changed if RAM is upgraded) and a 14.64 GB partition used for caching via installed ExpressCache software from Diskeeper.

So, if you increase the RAM (to 6GB, it's the maximum), you WILL have to increase the IRST partition and reduce in turn the expresscache one.

NOT TESTED, FOLLOW IT AT YOUR OWN RISK

Use this information at your own risk, playing with BIOS or software without knowing its inner workings may be catastrophic. You've been warned!

Enable ISRT (Intel Smart Response Technology).

If you follow this path you won't be able to use IRST unless you upgrade your SSD (even then, I am not quite sure on how both technologies would interact).

You have to upgrade your BIOS to an unlocked one, so that you turn on the option "RAID Mode" on the BIOS and in turn get the accelerate option on the software.

To do so you have to get EZH20 (look on google for it), so that you can modify your BIOS image.

  • Download Acer's 1.08 BIOS version and unpack it with winrar/7zip.
  • Open EZH20 and open in turn the file *.fd.
  • Replace the Setup Utility module (FE3542FE-C1D3-4EF8-657C-8048606FF670) with the one from here.
  • Save the file
  • Move the file to the same folder as where InsydeFlash is and FLASH.
  • Restart, hopefully everything will be fine.
  • If you DON'T want to reinstall Windows follow this guide on how to change HDD driver mode.
  • Change your mode on the BIOS.
  • Run/Reinstall Intel Rapid Storage Technology and hopefully you'll have the accelerate tab.
  • From here on just follow Intel's instructions on how to enable it.
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  • Only problem is I can't figure out how it wants the SSD to be partitioned.
    – PhonicUK
    Sep 14, 2012 at 12:19
  • Just follow the instructions posted here: communities.intel.com/message/166486#166486
    – yushir
    Sep 14, 2012 at 13:03
  • I'll have to get back to you later on that one, but looks like we're on to a winner...
    – PhonicUK
    Sep 14, 2012 at 13:05
  • Here they are talking (in russian) about the modification of the M3-581TG's BIOS (discussion between Tolsi and mask89).forum.ixbt.com/print/0017/038124.html. I myself don't know russian so had to use google translate and from what I understood, the option may be in the BIOS itself.
    – yushir
    Sep 14, 2012 at 13:32
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After 6 hours of investigating the answer is that: it has never been able to use smart response. The bios hasn't got raid mode. It is just a simply cache ssd without smart response.

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  • I can't figure out how to use it as a cache, right now it just appears as an extra hard disk (that I'm currently just storing a single large game on)
    – PhonicUK
    Aug 29, 2012 at 22:16

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