Former Optane boosted HDD inaccessible.

[R3537L1F3]

I had an old Z370 motherboard and a 3TB HDD with an Optane Memory stick paired to it. Unfortunately that board no longer boots (can't even get it into BIOS), so I was forced to upgrade to a Z790 motherboard. It is my understanding that these are not compatible with Optane Memory and now, whether connected directly or in a USB enclosure I have no access to the HDD.

While connected to the MB it is not seen (not even in bios) and when in the HDD enclosure it tells me it needs to be initialized but can't because "The Drive isn't Ready".

Any help in recovering the data (lots of old work on it I would like to recover) would be greatly appreciated.

[pujeeth]

Hello R3537L1F3,

Greetings!

Thank you for trusting Intel with your business. As with all good things, your product has reached the end of its interactive technical support life. However, you can find intel Optane memory recommendations at Intel Community forums and additional information at the Discontinued Products website. It is our pleasure to continue to serve you with the next generation of Intel innovation at Intel.com.

Additionally, could you please share us the picture's Optane SSDs to check if its under warranty.

Regards

Pujeeth

Intel customer support technician

Intel.com/VROC

[pujeeth]

Hello R3537L1F3,

Thank you for contacting Intel.

This is the first follow-up regarding the issue you reported to us.

We wanted to inquire whether you had the opportunity to review the plan of action (POA) we provided.

Feel free to reply to this email, and we'll be more than happy to assist you further.

Regards,

Pujeeth

Intel Customer Support Technician

intel.com/vroc

[R3537L1F3]

I know that optane was discontinued, I alluded to that in my initial post. Since it was purchased in or before 2018, I'm sure there's no warranty. Even if there was it doesn't help me since I don't need a new optane memory, I need a device that uses it to regain access to the hard drive it was paired to.

[AlHill]

Sorry to jump on this thread, but you do have a backup, right?

Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[Fear and the desire for control are primary motivators for shadow dwellers. ]

[R3537L1F3]

No, if I had a backup, I wouldn't be concerned about accessing the drive. It was a 3TB drive that I was speeding up using Optane memory, as solid-state drives larger than 1TB were prohibitively expensive at the time.

[pujeeth]

Hello R3537L1F3,

Greetings!

As this product has reached to its End of life interactive support, all the product related to this has been discontinued so would request you to reach out to third party tool for drive backup and data recovery.

Regards,

Pujeeth

Intel Customer Support Technician

intel.com/VROC

[pujeeth]

Hello R3537L1F3,

Greetings!

Unfortunately, as this product has reached the end of its interactive support, we recommend reaching out to third-party tools for data recovery.

Regards

Pujeeth

Intel customer support technician

Intel.com/VROC

[n_scott_pearson]

When you have the Optane module actively accelerating the HDD, a portion of the HDD's directory structure, as well as files, may be stored in the Optane module. What is present on the HDD is 'stale'. If you abruptly take the Optane module away, the HDD will likely appear to be a corrupted mess. If you keep accessing this HDD without the Optane module, you can make the corruption worse (stop!).

You need to go to a system with Optane support and put the Optane module and this HDD into it. Then, you can close out the acceleration, which will flush the data present in the Optane module to the HDD, restoring the HDD to accessibility in systems without the Optane module.

If you do not have any way to get the Optane module and HDD into a system supporting Optane, the only thing you can do is run chkdsk and see if it is able to recover from the corruption; there is no Intel tool that can help you here. There may be third-party tools that can be used to recover files in an easier manner than chkdsk, this is something you will have to investigate.

You really should keep an offline backup of your important drive contents...

...S