How to safely disable Optane from the BIOS?

[User1587310339342312]

Hello. I am trying to fully disable Optane on my system. I have disabled Optane from the Intel Rapid Storage Technology app. I was hoping that this would disable Optane completely, but my SSD is still set to SATA Mode: "M.2/RAID Optane" in the BIOS. I want to change this to SATA Mode: AHCI. (My motherboard: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z390-AORUS-PRO-rev-10#kf)

When I try to change this option, it persists even though I save changes. Now, there is one feature I haven't tried to change- In my BIOS, when "M.2/RAID Optane" is selected as the SATA mode, there is an entry for "M.2/Optane Genie" and "M.2_1/RST Pcie Storage Remapping". I can disable M.2_1 without issue. However, when I try to disable M.2/Optane Genie, I get this warning:

"Disable M.2 Genie would cancel RAID mode in this system, it could cause the data lost. Please make sure you already backup all the important data before you proceed to disable M.2 Genie."

Now we see the extent of the problem. I can't back up the system. If I use a Windows utility to image the drive, I will need Windows to run the utility and restore it. Now if Windows is damaged when I disable the feature, how can I restore it if I used a Windows Utility!? But if I try to use a Linux-based utility like Clonezilla, the drive is unreadable, because Linux cannot mount the device.

So I have three questions:

1) Will changing the SATA mode even do what I want? I need an SSD drive that can dual-boot multiple OS's securely. Perhaps it's possible to install a Linux OS on the drive without changing the SATA Mode? (I suppose I can try this myself).

2) How great is the risk associated with changing the SATA Mode? Is this warning just there so Gigabyte can waive liability? Since I have disabled Optane in Windows, is it actually safe to change this?

3) How can I backup the system? I can't do it from within Windows, because if I lose Windows, I can't restore. I can't do it from Linux, becuase Linux can't mount the device. I don't have a drive big enough to clone it directly, but the Windows partition is itself very small. Perhaps there's a way to clone partition to partition? Clonezilla supports this... but it's Linux under the hood.

A good answer for any of these questions will be sufficent for me. If I can install Linux on the device without changes, good! If I can turn off the RAID and use it as an AHCI device, good! And if I lose the data in the process, it's OK if I can recover it and continue booting into Windows.

[LeonWaksman]

1. Once you have disabled Optane in Windows, backup your drive (even SATA mode is still "M.2/Optane".
2. Click on Windows + R key and run msconfig. In the Boot tab select SAFE boot mode.
3. Reboot your computer and verify that Windows is booting in SAFE mode.
4. Reboot again, enter BIOS.
5. Change SATA mode to AHCI. Save the settings and exit to Windows.
6. You may see warning telling that because SATA mode was changed, Windows may become not bootable. Confirm booting. Computer should boot into Windows (in SAFE mode).
7. Now, you can run msconfig again and uncheck the SAFE boot.

Leon