GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-D3H Intel Smart Response Technology via EZ Setup

gogogorski

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Hi Everyone, :hello:

I am trying to enable Intel’s Smart Response Technology on a GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-D3H and am running into snags with the EZ Setup Utility provided on the DVD that came with the motherboard.

I read through the User’s Manual and followed the instructions. From what I read all criterion are met for this system:

-An Intel Chipset-based motherboard supporting this feature (GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-D3H)
-An Intel Core series processor (Intel Core i5-2500K Unlocked Sandy Bridge)
-RAID enabled for the Intel SATA controllers in the BIOS Setup
-A conventional SATA disk and an SSD

-64GB KINGSTON SMS 100S mSATA SSD is designated to be the caching hard drive on this system, which is twice the size of the total system memory (32GB DDR3 @ 1866, which is half the size of the caching SSD hard drive).
-256GB ADATA SX900 SSD is designated as the OS and PROGRAMS hard drive on this system, this SSD is devoted only to the OS and PROGRAMS, so if partitions on the mSATA SSD are necessary they can be created (to enable Intel Rapid Start Technology).
-3TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM HDD, also available to be used on this system, if needed.

-Windows 7 with SP1

Then the User's Manual says to:

-Select EZ Smart Response and click Setup
-A screen should pop up that has three (3) blue lights, they look like a traffic light, and the first one says “EZ Smart Response.”
-Clicking on that should kick off the process, a prompt should indicate that the system will be forced into RAID mode, select Yes, and the system should restart.
-After the system restarts, it will install the Intel Raid Storage Technology driver automatically. The system will restart again after the driver installation.

The Problem:

-When in EZ Setup Utility the “EZ Smart Response” button is greyed out, cannot click on it. :fou:
-I followed their instructions in the manual and I even searched GIGABYTE’s Official YouTube tutorials that show users how “easy” the process is with EZ Setup Utility, I followed their instructions in the tutorials, but I can’t seem to set it working. :??:

Does anyone have any insights? Am I missing a step? Is there a workaround, where I do not need to use the EZ Setup Utility and can still enable Intel Smart Response? If so, can anyone provide instructions for how to do this?

Help!

-Justin
 

gogogorski

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BerylLee,

Thanks for responding. To answer your question: No, it did not say that. Unfortunately, it did not say much of anything. It just doesn't seem to do what I am wanting for it to do nor recognize that it is able to do so. Appears that I'm in a spot of bad luck with this thing. Am I doing something wrong here?

I heard about Intel Smart Response Technology and prior to that I had been thinking a RAID array may help things. In a nutshell, that is what has brought me here, to the forums. I am trying to learn more about how to set that up with what is available. So far this experience has me questioning the integrity of the hardware.

-Justin

P.S. I wish I had a way of getting a picture of Chapter 4-7-1, page 77 of the GA-Z77X-D3H User's Manual attached to this thread so we could all check it out together.
 

gogogorski

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More sub-questions:

Does Intel Smart Response Technology (ISRT) only work in environments where the OS is on one HDD and there is only one SSD? Is it even worth it to enable ISRT when there are two SSDs available? What happens if I ever need to add or replace a hard drive?

Is there a better way to do this caching thing? For instance, what if we were able to set up caching between two SSDs so the 64GB SSD becomes the caching drive while the 256GB SSD holds the OS and PROGRAMS, then the 3TB HDD can be used for data storage. That makes the most sense to me but I am interested to hear what you think.

-Justin
 

BerylLee

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The only one thing to be noticed is your SSD should not be a member of raid already. If it has been in that way, you must do clean disk on it and enter bios to enable raid/ahci for a standby, but don't do raid configuration in intel raid configuration panel.
 

gogogorski

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BerylLee,

Can we talk about process please? I'm not just thinking about myself here. I've been beating my head against the wall about this stuff for what feels like a while so I'm thinking it'd be a good idea to share knowledge with the greater community; so when people read through this they don't have to wonder how to do what we're talking about doing (like I'm doing).

Install 64GB SSD - for caching
Install 256GB SSD - for OS and PROGRAMS
Install 3TB HDD - for storage

NOTE: the below commands wipe hard drives, removing all data, and can potentially destroy them, beware!

============================================================================
Run "clean disk" commands via Windows, Windows boot disk:

During Windows install press SHIFT+F10 to open a command prompt
--or--
Open a command prompt with administrative privileges

Type "diskpart" then ENTER
Type "listdisk" then ENTER
Type "select disk #" then ENTER

Type "clean" then ENTER -- this wipes the hard drive quickly
--or--
Type "clean all" then ENTER -- this wipes the hard drive and performs a secure erase

When the process is completed type "exit" then ENTER

============================================================================
Creating new partition tables and converting MBR to GPT and/or converting GPT to MBR:

Using Parted Magic or another Linux Live CD use GParted and "gdisk" from an open terminal

Here's a link about syntax and stuff when using gdisk
[url=http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/gdisk.html]http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/gdisk.html [/url]

GParted somewhat resembles "Disk Management" in Windows (if your are new to Linux).
Here's a link about GParted and stuff that it can do
[url=http://gparted.org/index.php]http://gparted.org/index.php [/url]

============================================================================

Can we please move forward with uncovering and demystifying the process for how to set up a system that has 2 SSDs and 1 HDD with ISRT?

That is, of course, if it makes any sense to enable ISRT on a system with aforementioned resources available. I have read through what feels like countless forum entries saying one thing or another thing, but not how to do it with 2 SSDs and 1 HDD and whether or not it is worth it to do it.

-Justin
 

gogogorski

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Hey Y'alls!

Apologies for being so out of it and not following up in like, forever. Yes, long story short, it's all up and running and the system totally knocks! It's great, I'm pleased with ISRT and everything seems to be working properly so far, knock on wood. Problems were all related to shoddy hardware purchased on Cyber Monday through New Egg, so beware. I had to return bad RAM sticks, a malfunctioning SSD, a malfunctioning HDD, and the motherboard had to be replaced. RMAs for each component, it was pretty ridiculous and took weeks to get sorted out. Though those were the problems with the setup, everything about our process here seemed to work smoothly once the functioning parts arrived from New Egg after that whole fiasco. Nothing says, "I'm sorry," like a discount.

Anyway, I'm looking to soon pick up a decent video card for this set up, I've been using what's on the motherboard for the time being. Any suggestions?