That being said, Intel has also introduced its own Intel Rapid Storage Technology which helps users to manage their storage drives in an efficient way and improves the overall life and performance of the drives as well. So, in case you are wondering what Intel Rapid Storage Technology is and how it works, we will be discussing it all in this article, so make sure to read it till the end.
Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology: Explained
Speaking of the Intel Rapid Storage Technology, it is simply a firmware, or you can say a program that you can install on your computer for maintaining your disk drives in an efficient manner. Personal computers having multiple SATA disk drives installed for storage purposes can gain a huge benefit from it. As Intel Rapid Storage Technology not only enhances the performance of the drives but also lowers the power consumption of the disks at the same time. As per this, Intel Rapid Storage Technology not only reduces the risk of disk failures in the long run but also improves how they perform. One of the main motives of Intel Rapid Storage Technology is to combine the multiple storage drives into a single segment and operate it as one for faster data sharing. So, if you are not in the state to spend on a new and faster storage drive at the moment, using Intel Rapid Storage Technology offers you a budget-friendly way to upgrade your storage drives.
Intel Rapid Storage Technology: Features
Definitely, Intel Rapid Storage Technology offers a lot of benefits and is quite advantageous to use if you want to improve the performance of your storage drives on your computer. But, the story doesn’t just end here, there are plenty of useful features that the Intel Rapid Storage Technology boasts of and you all should definitely know about them.
1. Intel Rapid Response Technology
One of the best things about Intel Rapid Storage Technology is its Rapid Response Technology, a.k.a the Smart Response technology too. What it actually does is that it observes your usage patterns and moves all your often-used files to the fastest SSD present on your computer. While all the not-commonly used applications and files are moved to slower storage options. This way, Intel Smart Response Technology makes the overall performance of your computer faster and personalized for you. All the files that you usually access, will be stored on the fastest SSD drives of your computer, which will help them to load faster for you.
2. Accepts Multiple Commands
Generally, storage drives are not designed to accept multiple commands at a time, so when users try to do multiple file transfer operations, usually storage drives lack behind their actual performance. However, with the help of Intel Rapid Response Technology, it is possible as it makes your drives accept multiple commands. Although the commands should use Native Command Queuing to take full benefit of this feature, it’s still quite useful. Hence, in all, this feature also contributes to improving the health and performance of your storage drives.
3. RAID – Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks Technology
The IRS Technology is completely based on RAID which brings multiple new and enhanced features onboard. Basically, RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. RAID-enabled devices actually work a lot faster due to their improved data storage techniques, which you can also bring to your computer by using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology. The main purpose of using RAID is to make the data stored on your drives in multiple locations which eventually helps in accessing the data faster and improves the overall performance of your computer’s storage disks. In this, there are total 4 RAID levels that Intel Rapid Storage Technology uses:
Stripping – RAID Level 0 Mirroring – RAID Level 1 Striping with parity – RAID Level 5 Stripping and mirroring – RAID Level 10
4. Synchronizing SATA Disk Drives
As you might already know, Data Centre SSDs and Serial ATA devices are both quite different from each other and have their own different features and capabilities. Well, the Intel Rapid Storage Technology does the job of synchronizing the drives for you to make up a single enhanced storage drive personalized for your usage. Due to this, the drives are easier to access and even come in handy while handling errors or data recovery.
5. RAID Matrix Technology
The Matrix RAID technology is basically used to merge all the storage devices present on the computer. Thereafter, once the array of storage is created, two independent volumes out of the whole storage are created where one is faster than the other. Thus, all the files that you commonly access on a daily basis, are stored on the first segment of the storage for faster access. Meanwhile, the other files stay stored on the second storage portion.
Advantages Of Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology
If you are wondering what are the major benefits that Intel Rapid Storage Technology can bring to you, here’s a glimpse of it:
1. Enhanced Solid State Device Performance
These days, there are barely any computers or laptops out there that come without an SSD. Although SSDs are quite powerful and fast, there is still always some room for improvement where Intel Rapid Storage Technology can help you a lot. Since the Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology makes use of the dynamic storage accelerator, you can notice a significant improvement in its performance as it amazingly enhances the speed of your SSD.
2. Makes Data Recovery Easy
In case you are fearing data loss, Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology also covers it for you. Thanks to the improved data storage techniques used by this technology, even if you accidentally lose your data, it can easily be recovered within a short period of time. In fact, if you need a rough idea about the recovery rate, Intel Rapid Storage Technology can help you retrieve around 1 TB of data in just about an hour, which is way faster than any other conventional method.
3. Increases the Data Storage Capacity
If you do not opt to use the Intel Rapid Storage Technology, our assumption is that you will be wasting a lot of your storage space. It is because Intel Rapid Storage Technology is great at managing cached data. Of the applications that you most-commonly use on your personal computer, it keeps their cache data saved so that the applications load up faster for you. However, it also takes care to clear the cached data of the apps that you don’t use. So, there is always some extra space on your storage drives available for you whenever needed.
4. Improved Security
Apart from making your storage drives run faster, Intel (R) Rapid Storage Technology can even provide you security for your storage drives. With the help of it, you can simply encrypt your storage drives and save them from any unauthorized users or hacking attacks. Moreover, in the case of malware attacks, your data will stay secured and you will face no such data loss either.
5. High Reliability
As you might already know both HDD and SSD operate in different ways, using Intel Rapid Storage Technology to combine the best of both worlds together results to be highly reliable. With the help of this technology, you can simply merge your HDD and the SSD together to enjoy faster data read and write speeds while having a large enough storage to manage all your files and keep them safe.
How To Download and Install The Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology: Complete Guide
Although most of the latest laptops and computer systems do have the Intel Rapid Storage Technology pre-installed, if you own an old laptop that does not have this technology installed, it is still possible to install it manually as well. So, here are the steps that you need to follow in order to install Intel Rapid Storage Technology on your PC. Step 1: Installing The Right Operating System First of all, you must know that the Intel Rapid Storage Technology is designed to work on Windows platforms only. So, if you are using any other OS, you will need to install Windows OS on your computer first. Step 2: Enable The Intel (R) Rapid Start Technology in BIOS Once you are done with the Windows Installation, you will need to access the computer BIOS. You can do so by clicking the F2 key, or whichever key your computer says to press during the bootup. In case you are using the Intel Visual BIOS, follow these steps:
Go to the Advanced Setup option from the BIOS menu. Now, head to the Power settings. If you scroll down, you will find the Intel Rapid Start Technology option, make sure to check mark the box and enable it. Also, find Hibernation Timer option and set it to Immediately. Now, you need to save the settings by hitting F10 key. Close the BIOS setup and Reboot your computer.
For users who have any other BIOS setup installed on their computers, the process will be fairly similar and you can follow the same steps as given above. Step 3: Making A Hibernation Partition On The SSD Once you have enabled the Intel Rapid Start Technology from the BIOS, it’s time to create a hibernation partition on your computer’s SSD. So, here are the steps that you can follow:
select disk A (A is the drive that you wish to make your hibernation drive) create partition primary size=BBBB (AAAAis the partition size in MB that you want to allocate to the hibernation drive)
detail disk select volume C (C is the volume for which you want to make the partitions) set id=84 override Exit
Step 4: Confirming Creation of The Hibernation Partition Now, before you proceed to download any drivers into your computer, it is important to verify whether a partition has been successfully created or not. You can do so by following these simple steps:
In the windows search bar, search for the Control Panel. Open the Control Panel and go to System and Security. Here, click on Administrative Tools. Now, access the drop-down menu and open Computer Management. Go to Disk Management. Here, you will see all the partitions created, so make sure to confirm that the Hibernation partition is present there. Then, proceed to the next step.
Step 5: Downloading The Drivers Now, you are all set and can download the Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology drivers into your computer.
Visit the Official Intel website and download the drivers from there, or you can simply click on Download Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers to open the Download Page. Extract the downloaded file. Start the installer and follow the installation steps. Once the installation process is complete, reboot your computer. Now, click on the windows search bar and type Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Click on it to open it. Then, make sure to turn it On, and set the Timer to 0.
That is it, you have completely installed the Intel Rapid Storage Technology on your PC if you have completed all these steps nicely.
How Can We Use The Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology
Since the Intel Rapid Storage Technology is a computer driver, you do not necessarily need to open it and use it by yourself. All you have to do is install the drivers, and it will operate on its own. Users do not need to do anything with the driver, it works automatically.
Which Intel Processors Have Support For The Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology?
In case you are wondering whether your computer or laptop supports the Intel Rapid Storage Technology, there are plenty of Intel processors that can use it. Mostly on the latest chipsets, you will find that the Intel Rapid Storage Technology is supported. But, if you use a PC with a very old chipset, the chances are a little slim. Here are some of the processor options that can utilize the Intel Rapid Storage Technology and take benefits from it:
Intel Core B85, H87, Z75, Q87, X77, Z87 processors Intel H77 chipset-based computers Intel Core LGA 1155 processors
How To Update Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver
Windows is self-sufficient to update all its drivers on its own. So, there’s no need for the users to do it on their own. However, if you still wish to do it manually, you can do so by following the steps given below:
In the windows search bar, type in Device Manager and search for it. Click on Device Manager and open it. Now, double-click on Firmware to expand the list. Then, right-click on it, and click on the Update option. Now, follow the update steps and complete them.
Is It Important To Install Intel Rapid Scale Technology?
No, installing the Intel Rapid Scale Technology drivers along with the Intel Rapid Storage Technology is not actually necessary. You will still be able to enjoy all the benefits that we have discussed so far. However, we would suggest you to install it as well since it is offered in all the latest laptops and computer systems out there. It works quite well when it comes to the maintenance of the storage drives, and if you seek a high-performance upgrade and long life for your storage drives, installing the Intel Rapid Scale Technology is quite a good decision. So, if you have a PC that doesn’t already have this technology installed, and you wish to do so. Here are the minimum requirements that your system should meet in order to install this technology:
Internal Storage Space required: More than 2.2 TB Operating System: Windows 7 or later versions Processor: Intel Core i7 and i5 processors (3rd Generation and above) or G9650 Processor
Is It Mandatory To Have Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology Installed for SSD?
If you are only using SSDs on your computer, it is not necessary for you to install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology as they are quite fast in nature already. So, you will barely feel a noticeable difference. However, if you are using hybrid storage, both SSDs and HDDs, then using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology can provide you with great enhancements.
Is Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology Faster Than Microsoft Drivers?
As the Intel ® Rapid Storage technology makes use of the latest storage techniques and has the data storage array system for managing storage space on disks, it works much faster than the Microsoft drivers, which are outdated. While Microsoft drivers deal with the software only, Intel Rapid Storage technology deals with the hardware part as well and improves the user experience up to a great extent. Moreover, Intel Rapid Storage Technology also provides data security, lowers power consumption, and makes additional storage room on your disk drives as well. So, it’s definitely better than Microsoft drivers.
Can I Use Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology Without RAID?
If your computer does not support the RAID technology, using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology on your computer will not make a significant difference. Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver is based on RAID, and it even works as a combined unit inside a network of numerous RAID chipsets to provide users with a fast and improved experience. Thus, if your computer is not configured for RAID firmware, there’s no need to install and use the Intel Rapid Storage Technology as it won’t work properly.
Should I Uninstall Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology?
Once you have completely installed the Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology driver on your PC, we would suggest not uninstalling it as it brings plenty of advantages to your computer. In fact, having it installed is not going to bother you as it auto-updates and keeps optimizing your PC’s performance as it learns more and more about your usage patterns. However, if you have a computer that does not support RAID firmware, it is better to uninstall the Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology drivers from your computer. Without the support of RAID technology, IRST can not bring any beneficial changes to your computer, so there’s no point in keeping it installed on your computer.
Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology Vs. RAID
RAID technology basically creates arrays of storage space combining all your storage drives and working on the complete storage as a whole unit to improve its performance. Whereas the Intel Rapid Storage Technology uses the RAID technology and works on managing the cached data. This helps IRST to make use of storage drives in a better way, clean up space for you, and provide you with faster and improved performance. So, we can say that Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology is highly dependent on RAID technology, as, without it, the IRST can’t work properly. However, RAID technology is independent and can function properly even without Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology.
Conclusion
That is it from our side, we hope we have cleared all your doubts regarding the Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology. Definitely, it’s a great technology that you must install on your computer if your PC supports RAID firmware. It can not only improve the speed of your computer but also lowers the risks of disk failures and data loss. Although it comes pre-installed on most latest computer devices, we have also provided a complete installation guide if you want to do it manually. For any other queries related to the Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology, feel free to comment down below and share with us. Also, if you have any additional valuable information to share, you can also leave it down in the comments section. Comment * Name * Email * Website
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