Romex Software Forum

I use a Samsung NVRam L2 Cache which was working. I shut down the PC and changed the motherboard and CPU and now that NVram is not seen by Primo Cache or Windows Disk Manager or Disk Part. It is a newish 1TB 870 Pro drive and I do not wish to lose it. Please advise.

After changing the motherboard you got a new BIOS too. You should start with checking if the SSD is recognized by BIOS. When it comes to PrimoCache, its license is tied to the motherboard too. So quite likely, with a new motherboard, your license reverted to the trial mode. You will need to contact Romex user support with this issue.

Here the license is not the cause. The license wouldn't affect the hardware, it only affects PrimoCache software. You may check if your drive is recognized by BIOS/UEFI first.

No the drive is not seen by the BIOS. I have the old motherboard and Intel i9 9900KS CPU but only one PSU so it will be a pain to put everything back as before as the affected 1TB L2 Cache Nvram was on the Asus DIMM2 Expansion board accessory next to the DIMM4 chips hi. With a clean install of Primo Cash and Windows 10 will it even be seen again if I do revert back?

You still should investigate why the NVRam chips are not recognized by BIOS. If this is a new modern motherboard it should work. Maybe you need a BIOS update, it happens quite often with freshly bought motherboards.

PrimoCache wouldn't affect the drive recognization by BIOS or by Windows Disk Manager. Please check your hardware components and at least make the BIOS see the drive.

OK, I have a problem as the bios are the latest for the dark hero and I am seeing and booting from the same make of Samsung Evo drive but not the one which has been formatted as a hidden L2 Cache and of course with the new motherboard and bios it is not seen in bios either. Not good. I have seen this exact same problem with Intel Optane disk cache memory. Is there anything I can do to fix this now?

You can reproduce this in your workshop. Take two motherboards. Seet up NVRAM L2 cache on one. Without deleting the L2 cache move that drive to the second motherboard and you will have the same problem as I have. I can not go back to the old board as I have sold it and this is a pretty new Samsung Evo 970 PCIe Gen 3 I TB drive. Do you wish that I mail it to you?

Whether an SSD disk is seen by BIOS is unrelated to how it is formatted (Windows, L2, or not formatted at all). If you have a twin working SSD try to swap them and see how the BIOS reacts to it. It may happen that you have only one SSD slot activated. Maybe checking the documentation of the motherboard will give you some ideas.

iMSMalta wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 9:25 am You can reproduce this in your workshop.

Actually we frequently swap different L2 devices to different machines. We have never had such problems. In principle, PrimoCache is not possible to cause the recognization issue in BIOS/UEFI. As janusz521 suggested, you may try different connection cable, slot, etc, or perhaps nvme options in BOIS.

Sorry for the delay in posting - but given this seems to be a case of an existing Windows install being moved to a new system (something which would pretty much guarantee BSODs on booting with older versions), it seems most likely to be a driver issue. However, try connecting the SSD to another system first, just to confirm that it is working - or use a USB-to-SATA adaptor to test it on your current system.

Assuming it is a driver issue, you may be able to force a reinstall by using Device Manager to delete the interface the SSD is plugged in to (assuming the SSD itself is not showing which it probably isn't - if it is though, delete that instead) and then select the menu option "Scan for Hardware Changes". You may find it easier to identify the interface to delete by sorting devices by connection type first.

If that doesn't work, then deleting the entry for your motherboard chipset should trigger an almost complete rescan/rebuild of your system. This is a nuclear option though, so (a) make sure you have taken a full system backup and (b) that you have an alternative means of starting your system (such as a backup boot partition, or a USB stick with a rescue setup) in case that leaves you with an unbootable system.