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How to Enable, Install & Setup Intel Rapid Start Technology

So what s Rapid Start?

Intel Rapid Start is Intels proprietary rapid boot up technology which makes use of a technology built into Intel CPUs (namely the C3 State) to use a similar process to hibernation in order to boot up almost instantly. Basically what the process does it dump RAM content to HDD then tells the CPU to enter the C3 power state, C3 means your CPU is totally powered down. When you turn your system on the C3 state allows the HDD to recover the RAM and then boot up very quickly. If you've ever seen an Intel CPU notebooks instantly resume from a closed lid then that's what IRS does.

 

Prerequisites

 

An Intel H7x Chipset based or newer motherboard

An Intel Core I5/I7 2x00 or newer

Windows 7 or newer

Free space on your Windows HDD equivalent to the size of your RAM +1GB

AN SSD (IRS will not work without an SSD!)

 

Its also important you know if your system is set up to UEFI boot or Legacy boot!!!

 

UEFI Configuration

 

Enter your boards UEFI and make sure Intel Rapid Start Technology is Enabled. That's it for UEFI config, nothing more is required.

 

Windows Configuration

 

Note this process can also be done at install time by pressing Shift+F10 to access a command windows however it doesn't have to be, it can be done after install with no harm to your system.

 

First we must shrink your main windows partition down to create some free space.

 

1) Press winkey+r and type in

diskmgmt.msc

2) Locate your Windows partition (it will be the biggest partition on the drive), remember that your drive will have multiple partitions, its very important you do not mess with any of the other partitions except your Windows one.

 

3) Right click the partition and select Shrink

 

4) This is where your RAM size comes into it. You must create a new partition which is equal to the size of your RAM + 1GB. That means if you have 16GB of RAM then shrink the partition by 17GB, if you've got 8 shrink by 9 etc, use google to convert from GB to MB.

 

5) Now you should have a new blank partition, right click it and select New Simple Volume

 

6) Follow the wizard and select the following options

a) Do Not Assign This Drive A Letter

B) Do Not Format This Volume

c) Leave all other options at default values then click Finish

 

7) Open Command Prompt as Admin

 

8) Type in the following commands one at a time

Diskpart
list disk

9) Find your HDD in the list and get its ID umber

 

10) Type in

select disk ID

making sure to substitute ID for the drives ID number. For example if your drive is ID 0 then the command is "select disk 0"

 

11) Type in

list part

and locate the ID number of the partition you just created earlier. You can find it by its size.

 

12) Type in

select part ID

making sure to substitute ID for the partition ID number. For example if your part is ID 5 then the command is "select part 5"

 

13) This is where UEFI or Legacy boot comes in. If your system is UEFI booting then follow 13a, if your system is legacy booting then follow 13b

 

13a) Type in

set id=D3BFE2DE-3DAF-11DF-BA40-E3A556D89593

13b) Type in

set id=84 override

14) Type in

exit

then close the command window

 

15) Install the Intel Rapid Start driver either from your board CD or download it from your boards support website. Once its finished reboot your system.

 

16) Now you have IRS installed and working.

 

17) Now when you shut down your system you should select Sleep instead of Shut Down. Remember that it won't actually sleep but instead will enter C3 state, you can tell its working as when your system powers off it will power cycle for a second or two, this is normal as the CPU enters the C3 state.

 

You should notice nearly instant boot up times from a cold boot, unfortunately it doesn't work when you reboot your system so expect reboots to take longer.

 

Hope this helps some of you out

Main Rig:-

Ryzen 7 3800X | Asus ROG Strix X570-F Gaming | 16GB Team Group Dark Pro 3600Mhz | Corsair MP600 1TB PCIe Gen 4 | Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse | Corsair H115i Platinum | WD Black 1TB | WD Green 4TB | EVGA SuperNOVA G3 650W | Asus TUF GT501 | Samsung C27HG70 1440p 144hz HDR FreeSync 2 | Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS |

 

Server:-

Intel NUC running Server 2019 + Synology DSM218+ with 2 x 4TB Toshiba NAS Ready HDDs (RAID0)

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Great guide! Will it work to use a mSATA ssd for the IRST when my windows install drive is 2 SSDs in RAID 0 or is there going to be problems with that configuration?

- i7-2600k @ 4.7GHz - MSI 1070 8GB Gaming X - ASUS Maximus V Formula AC3 Edition - 16GB G.SKILL Ripjaws @ 1600Mhz - Corsair RM1000 - 1TB 7200RPM Seagate HDD + 2TB 7200 HDD + 2x240GB M500 RAID 0 - Corsair 750D - Samsung PX2370 & ASUS ROG SWIFT -

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Nope, shouldn't be an issue at all. I currently have it setup on a RAID 0. AFAIK as long as Windows can see your HDD your Golden :D

 

Obviously if you do encounter an issue please report it so I can add it to the guide :)

Main Rig:-

Ryzen 7 3800X | Asus ROG Strix X570-F Gaming | 16GB Team Group Dark Pro 3600Mhz | Corsair MP600 1TB PCIe Gen 4 | Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse | Corsair H115i Platinum | WD Black 1TB | WD Green 4TB | EVGA SuperNOVA G3 650W | Asus TUF GT501 | Samsung C27HG70 1440p 144hz HDR FreeSync 2 | Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS |

 

Server:-

Intel NUC running Server 2019 + Synology DSM218+ with 2 x 4TB Toshiba NAS Ready HDDs (RAID0)

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Nope, shouldn't be an issue at all. I currently have it setup on a RAID 0. AFAIK as long as Windows can see your HDD your Golden :D

 

Obviously if you do encounter an issue please report it so I can add it to the guide :)

Alright I might have to order a small mSATA drive since my motherboard has a mPCIe port with an adapter that allows me to use mSATA and give this a shot, I wonder if it will have any boot time increase over a RAID 0 SSD array though

- i7-2600k @ 4.7GHz - MSI 1070 8GB Gaming X - ASUS Maximus V Formula AC3 Edition - 16GB G.SKILL Ripjaws @ 1600Mhz - Corsair RM1000 - 1TB 7200RPM Seagate HDD + 2TB 7200 HDD + 2x240GB M500 RAID 0 - Corsair 750D - Samsung PX2370 & ASUS ROG SWIFT -

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Alright I might have to order a small mSATA drive since my motherboard has a mPCIe port with an adapter that allows me to use mSATA and give this a shot, I wonder if it will have any boot time increase over a RAID 0 SSD array though

Its less than 2 seconds from click to desktop

Main Rig:-

Ryzen 7 3800X | Asus ROG Strix X570-F Gaming | 16GB Team Group Dark Pro 3600Mhz | Corsair MP600 1TB PCIe Gen 4 | Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse | Corsair H115i Platinum | WD Black 1TB | WD Green 4TB | EVGA SuperNOVA G3 650W | Asus TUF GT501 | Samsung C27HG70 1440p 144hz HDR FreeSync 2 | Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS |

 

Server:-

Intel NUC running Server 2019 + Synology DSM218+ with 2 x 4TB Toshiba NAS Ready HDDs (RAID0)

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Just reporting back I got about a 6 second increase on boot times while doing this and that is with a 2x SSD RAID 0 array as my boot drive and a mSATA 64GB SSD that is plugged in with my motherboards mPCIe combo card

- i7-2600k @ 4.7GHz - MSI 1070 8GB Gaming X - ASUS Maximus V Formula AC3 Edition - 16GB G.SKILL Ripjaws @ 1600Mhz - Corsair RM1000 - 1TB 7200RPM Seagate HDD + 2TB 7200 HDD + 2x240GB M500 RAID 0 - Corsair 750D - Samsung PX2370 & ASUS ROG SWIFT -

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How is this different from hibernation? Isn't it the same thing, dumping everything which was on your RAM to boot drive

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How is this different from hibernation? Isn't it the same thing, dumping everything which was on your RAM to boot drive

The difference is CPU optimisation, Intel designed the C3 power state specifically to handle incredibly fast resume. In essence its not that different from hibernation, I believe Intel's goal is to replace hibernation with RS.

Think of it like Hibernation 2.0

Main Rig:-

Ryzen 7 3800X | Asus ROG Strix X570-F Gaming | 16GB Team Group Dark Pro 3600Mhz | Corsair MP600 1TB PCIe Gen 4 | Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse | Corsair H115i Platinum | WD Black 1TB | WD Green 4TB | EVGA SuperNOVA G3 650W | Asus TUF GT501 | Samsung C27HG70 1440p 144hz HDR FreeSync 2 | Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS |

 

Server:-

Intel NUC running Server 2019 + Synology DSM218+ with 2 x 4TB Toshiba NAS Ready HDDs (RAID0)

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