The Guide on How To Reformat, Repartitio​n AND Get RapidStart & RapidStora​ge Working!

Question

Intro: I bought a U310 a few days ago, and decided to take advantage of the Win8 upgrade.  I downloaded it, and via the Upgrade Advisor had it copied to a bootable USB drive.  You can also burn the ISO to a DVD.  I read about a ton of problems repartitioning and doing fresh installs online, so I decided to give it a shot myself.
*NOTE - NO BIOS settings related to RAID, AHCI or Compatibility mode need to be changed.  If you have the HDD+SSD combo, LEAVE IT on RAID.
*NOTE 2 - All of these files retained their original download names.  They are all from Intels website.  You can find them, but it can be difficult, their website is a bit hard to navigate.  Feel free to get them from their though if you're not comfortable.
First Steps: First, you will need your Win7 or Win8 disk.  I used 64 bit, so for all intents and purposes, all drivers listed here will be the 64 bit variety.  After you have your installation media, head over to Intels website and attain the following drivers.
http://www.filehosting.org/file/details/390409/f6f​lpy-x64.zip
These are the Intel Rapid Storage RAID drivers.  You will need these for windows setup.  Download the ZIP, and extract the contents to a USB flash drive.  
Beginning the Installation: Pop your Win7/Win8 installation media in, reboot the computer and press FN+F12 to bring the boot menu up.  Choose where your installation media is (USB, CD ROM).  Start the setup as normal.  You will reach the point where it asks to choose a hard drive to install WIndows to.  There will be none - do not panic.  This is where the USB drive comes in handy.  
Click browse, go to your USB drive and browse to the folder where the drivers you put in it are.  Windows will identify it, make sure it is clicked and click Next.  Then all of your drives and respective partitions will appear.  
Delete all the things: Delete all of your partitions.  Seriously, get rid of 'em.  You will be left with your 500GB disk, unpartitioned - and a 8GB drive, unpartitioned - this is your SSD.  It only shows up as 8GB because 22GB of that is dedicated to RapidStorage cache, due to the driver you just installed.  Now create a partition on the main HDD and let windows create the other necessary ones.  Click next to continue installation.
Once windows finishes installing: You will need the RapidStorage drivers now.  You can get these here.
http://www.filehosting.org/file/details/390411/iat​a_enu.exe
Install those, and then open up "Intel Rapid Storage Technology."  This can be found in your Start Menu under the Intel folder.  It should be automatically set up to accelerate your main drive.  You will also see it has identified your SSD as the proper size, 30GB (32GB).  
Link to picture
If not, it is relatively easy to set up.  Choose the drive you want to accelerate, and the SSD you want to use as cache.  This would be the 22GB partition.    
RapidStart: Now, you will set up your RapidStart.  This part is optional, but I wanted complete functionality.  This is what "replaces" windows Hibernation with Intels own rendition.  To do this, you will need to open up Computer Management.  If you are running Win7, search from the start menu "Computer Mangement" (you can do the same on Win8, just start typing on the Start Screen).  Click the application.  
Click Storage, then Disk Management.  Right click your 8.00GB partition, and click Create Simple Volume.   Choose DO NOT FORMAT, and create it to maximum capacity (this will already be chosen).  Once you click next next blah blah, it will have a blue bar over it and it wil say 8.00GB  RAW.  
Setting the Hibernation Parition: Now, press the Windows Key & R to bring up the Run box.  Type diskpart and press enter.  Type list disk and press enter.  
Now type select disk 0, or what ever number disk corresponds to your SSD.  Next, type list part and Partition 1 should be listed.  Finally, type select partition 1.  Once that is selected, type set id=84 override.  If you go back into Computer Management, the disk will now be listed as mine is in the picture a ways up - Hibernation Partition.  
SUCCESS!  You are doing good so far.  Now, download the Rapid Start management software here.
http://www.filehosting.org/file/details/390414/Rap​id_Start_Win7_2.1.0.1002.exe
Install this and reboot your PC.  Once you have rebooted, click Start, go to Intel and find Intel Rapid Start Technology Manager.  It should look like this.  You can set your own time to hibernation.
To Confirm: Reboot, press Fn+F2 like a maniac until you get into the BIOS.  Find Intel RapidStart.
Link to picture
Arrow down and click on it, and it should Not say INVALID but instead it should say ESTABLISHED.
Link to picture
Congrats!  You are all set up!  I also used this guide loosely to help with the diskpart stuff.  Hope this all works out for you, it worked great for me!
Nick
Moderator note; picture(s) totalling >50K converted to link(s) Forum Rules
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Answer 1

TheJapalian wrote:
Should this guide work well for the y580 with ssd and hdd?
Hi
This would work for all laptops having the ssd cache disk by default.
Ishaan Ideapad Y560(i3 330m), Hp Elitebook 8460p!(i5-2520M) Hp Pavilion n208tx(i5-4200u)
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