Sandisk SSD i100 24GB in an Asus S56C

[sorcerer]

Currently got in an Asus S56C Ultrabook which apparently has a 750GB HDD plus a 24GB SSD inside. According to GSmartControl the SSD has failed (or will do very soon). I've not yet got the laptop opened up (that's a job for tomorrow) but I've never come across this configuration before. 24GB seems too small to have Windows installed and to use as the boot drive (it's 8.1 by the way) so what's the purpose of such a small drive? Does it have any data on that I should try to save if possible?

Where can I buy a replacement in the UK - my usual places such as Scan, Ebuyer, CCLonline or Amazon don't appear to sell them.

 

[MrMacca]

If this is like my samsung laptop, then the SSD is on the board and not easily removed. I believe it's just used as a cached drive. On mine on Windows 7 it was using ExpressCache to control it. Since updating to WIndows 10 i've lost this feature making the ssd redundant.

 

[sorcerer]

Ah right, thanks MrMacca. If though, as you say, it's actually mounted on the board and not replaceable, what actually happens in practice? Does the system still try to use the drive and throw lots of error messages because it can't? Can it somehow be disabled so that that doesn't happen?

 

[brandonkick]

A quick google search reveals to me that the following two things are a possibility:

You can go into the services manager and disable the expresscache service

and / or (mainly if the above doesn't work)

You can do a fresh install of windows 7, the expresscache software will not be there by default

 

[sorcerer]

That's great, thanks very much Brandonkick.

 

[sorcerer]

Sorry to resurect an old thread but I've got the same machine in again.

I need to say that it is, and always was, Windows 8.1 but the advice given (although aimed at Win 7) has indeed worked for over a year now but messages of impending doom have now started reappearing again. I looked in the services manager and found that the Express Cache service is still disabled and not running so what has caused the messages about drive failure to come back again I don't know.

Is the best advice still to do a fresh install of Win 8.1 and hope the SSD drive is somehow ignored or has a better approach come about in the last year?

TIA

 

[seedubya]

Sorry to resurect an old thread but I've got the same machine in again.

I need to say that it is, and always was, Windows 8.1 but the advice given (although aimed at Win 7) has indeed worked for over a year now but messages of impending doom have now started reappearing again. I looked in the services manager and found that the Express Cache service is still disabled and not running so what has caused the messages about drive failure to come back again I don't know.

Is the best advice still to do a fresh install of Win 8.1 and hope the SSD drive is somehow ignored or has a better approach come about in the last year?

TIA

Can it be disabled in either the bios or device manager?

 

[Diggs]

I just went through this in a slightly different form factor. The SSD is probably a common mSATA.

https://www.technibble.com/forums/threads/hp-20-envy-ssd-hdd-combo-and-confused.75700/

 

[sorcerer]

Seedubya - thanks for the suggestion, I'll have a look later.

Diggs - had a look at that thread you linked to but not applicable in my case sadly as it's soldered on the board and I have neither the equipment nor the skill to be doing that sort of thing, but thanks anyway.

 

[sorcerer]

Seedubya my friend, disabling it in Device Manager seems to have done the trick!

Rebooted about 10 times and each time I left it on for about 10 or 15 minutes and not a single error message/nag screen about the impending failure of the SSD has appeared.

Cheers