I bought this motherboard to save my Windows 7 installation and programs after failure of my old motherboard (GA-H77-DS3H) where I was using the rapid start/smart response technology with the dedicated mSATA port of that m/b.
Now with GA-Z68X-UD7-B3, the BIOS is updated to F10 and it works with my Ivy Bridge i5-3350p Intel processor.
I bought an 1TB SSD and installed Windows 7 again and connected it to the SATA III Intel port (SATA3_0), and because I cannot activate again some programs (or because the purchased programs do not run in Windows 10 now that Microsoft forced us to buy a new system), I managed to restore the boot up problem with different hardware of the Old Win 7 Hard Disk Drive, which boots up now from the second SATA III intel port (SATA3_1).
Now I bought a small 128GB SSD and I want to put the second small SSD to Intel port (SATA3_1) and reconnect the Old (but also SATA III HDD) to the only other SATA III (6Gb/s) ports (grey slots (, GSATA3_7) right from the white) that are taken care from the Marvell chip and then activate the Intel rapid start/smart response caching.
But I have some problems that are questions for you:
1. My HDD with the old Windows 7 installation that I want to keep and speed-cache, is EFI boot-partitioned gpt formatted (SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200.14 ST3000DM001 3TB SATA3). When I connected it to (GSATA3_6) although it is seen in Windows explorer and activated in BIOS when I boot from (SATA3_0) but I cannot select it as a boot drive for some unknown reason. Why? Are these slots not meant for booting up the system?
2. Will I be able to utilise the IRST thing or is this not compattible when one of the components is not on the Intel SATA III ports but on the Marvell SATA III port? In that case the new SSD was an unnecessary purchase and I should have just partitioned the 1TB again to make room for the caching thing to have HDD and SSD on Intel chipset, but I didn't want to do this in fear that it would mess the boot EFI partition and the new Win7 installation.
3. What version of IRST should I download and install?
4. To install IRST, I must change from the present AHCI to RAID mode right? I did the registry changes advised here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/error-message-occurs-after-you-change-the-sata-mode-of-the-boot-drive-0e3ab9b8-99aa-c2b3-1f27-dc9eaf58a14bWhat changes must I do in BIOS?
Thanks a lot and sorry for the long message but I am sure there are still some Win7 enthusiasts with this motherboard that was a gem in its time that want to keep it going and will benefit from your insight.
