How to manage optane memory to dual boot?

[JDave2]

I'm attempting to set up Ubuntu 18.04 dual boot with Windows 10 on a HP 14s-cr0xxx laptop with Intel core i3. It has Intel Optane 16 GB NVMe along with 1 TB HDD.

Please help me with these questions -

1. As I have come to understand, dual boot won't work as long as RST/Optane is enabled - is that correct?
2. Is it safe to disable Optane and then dual boot? Please refer to this screenshot https://imgur.com/a/I6cinsC
3. Will the optane disablement affect my current Win10 installation?
4. Will the optane disablement disable just the 16 GB NVMe or the entire 1 TB HDD also?
5. After disabling optane and setting up Ubuntu on a new partition (fingers crossed) - will it be possible to enable optane again for the original windows partition?

[n_scott_pearson · Accepted solution]

Here are answers to your questions...

1. Correct; you cannot dual boot Linux while using Optane.
2. Yes, you could do this.
3. No. Disabling Optane causes all changes in the file structure to be applied on the HDD and then the two are disconnected.
4. While the Optane module is enabled, the module and the HDD will appear as one logical device; you do not see the two physical devices. When the Optane module is disabled, you will see both the Optane module and the HDD as separate and independent devices.
5. No, this will not work. You cannot have multiple partitions on the HDD and still use the Optane module.

My personal opinion? Yank that Optane module, set it aside and install a fast M.2 NVMe SSD. On this SSD, you can set up a dual boot installation of both Windows and Linux. Then, use the HDD as your data drive. Better yet, if you have a motherboard that supports two M.2 NVMe devices, you can dual boot from a M.2 NVMe SSD and still have the Optane module in the system to accelerate the performance of the HDD.

Hope this helps,

...S

[abTheMadGod]

Your answer of part 1 is wrong. It is possible to have windows & ubuntu/linux installed on the same hard drive, and have intel optane work with the windows partition. I've done this to my laptop. It boots up in 22 seconds and shuts down in 7.

[n_scott_pearson]

No, not wrong. You are using an unsupported configuration. That you get away with it today does not mean that you will get away with it tomorrow. Also, don't ever expect that, from Linux, you can access the Windows partition. This will corrupt it faster than you can wink.

The Intel FAQ says,

What operating systems does Intel® Optane™ memory support when used for system acceleration?

Intel® Optane™ memory requires Windows 10 64-bit to be used as a system accelerator.

Is Linux* supported when using Intel® Optane™ memory for system acceleration?

No, the accelerated SATA drive must be running Windows 10 64-bit to use the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) driver software. This enables the supported/validated method of using the Intel® Optane™ memory for acceleration of the most commonly used data. Using the device with other software for caching is is not supported or validated.

I intend to have multiple operating systems on my system across multiple drives. Can Intel® Optane™ memory boost the performance of multiple drives?

No, Intel® Optane™ memory can accelerate one drive.

...S

[talvarez]

It's possible yeah. I set it up myself. But there's a very horrible glitch that happens every now and then.  After a couple of weeks or maybe after 2 months, there starts to be cryptic hd errors when turning off or on the computer (probably related to ubuntu updates or win updates maybe), and after that it's just a matter of time till you hit this grub error message when booting ubuntu:

Gave up waiting for root file system device. Common problems:
- Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
 - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
- Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! UUID=f8e63e5a-de78-4159-8a4e-41bdd363ebd6 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

Then you're done. You will need to stop Intel RST from bios or windows and fix the partitions to recover your Ubuntu OS. As they suggested, best solution is to replace HDD with SSD or if you have two nvme ports, accelerate the HDD and use a smaller SSD for your other operating system.

[n_scott_pearson]

Yea, that is part of what I expected would happen. Worse, Linux could corrupt the Optane memory, which  represents portions of the Windows C: File System and some of the files contained within this file system. If this happens, the Windows C: File System will be toast and (barring a good file recovery tool and a lot of work) everything on this partition lost.

You really should have Linux installed on another physical drive.

...S

[abTheMadGod]

Thank you for the advice. I know this a little late, but the following configuration should be fine, right?

Hard Disk:

• Accelerated by Intel Optane
• Has four partitions:
  1.  260 MB / Healthy (EFI System Partition)
  2.  Windows (C:) / 597.40 GB NTFS / Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
  3.  (A:) / 332.88 GB NTFS / Healthy (Primary Partition)
  4.  Windows RE Tools / 980 MB NTFS / Healthy (OEM Partition)
• No linux.

Linux will be running from a normal USB pen drive.

EDIT: 

"You really should have Linux installed on another physical drive." - This is what I'll be doing. Using Linux from a pen drive. It'll be a little slow, but Linux tends to be pretty lightweight, so I guess it'd be fine.

[Babe_Chinwendu]

This is what worked for me:
https://superuser.com/questions/1782946/i-cannot-find-disk-partition-on-ubuntu-installation-page-screenshot-attached-i/1783244#1783244