Asus Vivotab RT: drive optimization not available

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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Asus Vivotab RT: drive optimization not available

Post by kevm14 »

The issue:
RT 8.1 optimization not available.png
I've posted on the MS forums: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 057b51eb8d

I've also asked Asus. They told me they couldn't duplicate the problem and I should reset my system. First, I don't know if this is an 8 vs 8.1 issue or an Asus issue, so I have no idea if they tried to verify the issue on a Vivotab RT with original shipping OS or 8.1. Second, resetting proved to be quite a trial.

Under RT 8 (just called RT), I created a USB recovery key, then removed the partition, saving ~3.5GB or so. This is supported via MS instructions.

Well, when I tried to reset my tablet, I first tried without inserting the USB key I made under RT. I got this:
Windows RT recovery insert media.png
Then I inserted the USB key and got this:
Windows RT recovery media not valid.png
Nice. I figured it was because it wanted an 8.1 image and all I had was an RT image.

I tried a couple of things, one of which involved rebooting and selecting advanced startup, and resetting that way. I did get a prompt to enter my BitLocker key. That is available at http://skydrive.com/recoverykey/

Still didn't work. I tried a hard reset, which means shut the tablet off, and while holding the vol-down key, press power. This initiates a recovery. But I had the same problem here, too!

I finally read somewhere that you aren't supposed to unlock your drive, and just tap "skip this drive" when the BitLocker prompt comes up. Interestingly, this worked. I suspect the reason why is when I unlock the drive, the recovery tool sees an 8.1 system and won't let me "downgrade" to recover. But without unlocking the drive (which is far easier than typing that long-ass key in), it just happily overwrites and is resetting as I type this.

All in the name of getting defrag/trim to work.

Oh, I found some other directions on how to restore the recovery partition here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/drey/archive ... ition.aspx

But that failed telling me it couldn't shrink the partition. Ironically, that COULD be because the drive needs to be trimmed.

I'm curious if the recovery process re-creates the recovery partition and everything. That would be nice. Either way I'll have to go through the entire 8.1 upgrade process again. Before I do, I will check to see if trim is available in 8/RT as a data point.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Asus Vivotab RT: drive optimization not available

Post by kevm14 »

Finished resetting. Same thing. It says "Needs optimization" then when you select the drive and click "Optimize" it instantly shifts to "Optimization not available."
optimization not available in RT.png
optimization not available in RT 2.png
I will run through all the updates but I do not expect to have any success with this issue as I update back up to 8.1 (a complete waste of time). I wonder what Asus will say. RMA? Shouldn't need one...this is not a hardware problem.

The recovery partition did not recreate. But as I was able to reset to 8/RT via the USB drive, I see no need to recreate the partition.

May I also add that the change going back to 8.0 was surprisingly jarring, as lots of small things are different.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Asus Vivotab RT: drive optimization not available

Post by kevm14 »

I upgraded to RT 8.1. Same thing, as predicted. When I first open the drive optimizer, it looks like this:
optimization not available in RT 8.1.png
Then I click Optimize and the screen goes away then comes right back with the status changed to this:
optimization not available in RT 8.1 2.png
I sent this off to Asus. The Tegra 3 and slow eMMC need all the help they can get. I need to be able to run TRIM.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Asus Vivotab RT: drive optimization not available

Post by Adam »

Mine appears to be broken in the same way except I still have my recovery partition on the system. There have been lots of issues with the new surfaces and 8.1 and disc things as well, so maybe this will work itself out later like the bit locker issue.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Asus Vivotab RT: drive optimization not available

Post by kevm14 »

Asus wants to RMA it so they can look at it. I don't see why that's necessary so I asked them to elevate it. I would like to have it for my final course which starts next week. After that, it will be over a year old so I dunno if that means no more support.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Asus Vivotab RT: drive optimization not available

Post by kevm14 »

I stumbled upon this while researching this issue.

Open an admin command prompt and type

Code: Select all

fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
If you get

Code: Select all

DisableDeleteNotify = 0
as output, then TRIM is enabled.

I ran this on my desktop (Win 8.1 x64), laptop (Win 8.1 32-bit) and tablet (RT/8.1) and all were 0. This is what we expect.

I bet this is well documented but I'll speculate anyway: we already know the drive optimizer is an explicit form of TRIM on SSDs (rather than performing a conventional read/write defrag process). However, if TRIM is enabled, is there really a need to run the drive optimizer? How does all of this differ from Automatic Maintenance in the Action Center (which seems to have a defrag or TRIM-related sub-process).

This is a good article about the changes Win 7 brought to natively handle SSDs properly: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009 ... s-and.aspx

I couldn't find where Win 8.1 improved things further, but it probably did.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Asus Vivotab RT: drive optimization not available

Post by kevm14 »

I have good data here. Here's what a manual reTRIM looks like on a normal system (my desktop):

Code: Select all

C:\WINDOWS\system32>defrag c: /L
Microsoft Drive Optimizer
Copyright (c) 2013 Microsoft Corp.

Invoking retrim on Windows 8 - SSD (C:)...


The operation completed successfully.

Post Defragmentation Report:

        Volume Information:
                Volume size                 = 167.67 GB
                Free space                  = 81.62 GB

        Retrim:
                Total space trimmed         = 79.73 GB
Here's what I get on my tablet:

Code: Select all

C:\WINDOWS\system32>defrag c: /L
Microsoft Drive Optimizer
Copyright (c) 2013 Microsoft Corp.

Invoking retrim on (C:)...

        Retrim:  100% complete.

The operation requested is not supported by the hardware backing the volume. (0x8900002A)
I believe this may be an eMMC controller driver issue. Read here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 6ad?page=1

The first answer indicates an update of the Intel RST driver fixed the issue on Win 8 (not RT) solved the problem.

Pro tip: Run the elevated command prompt by typing "cmd" and pressing ctrl-shift-enter, which triggers run as administrator. Easier than right clicking. This existed since Vista and works great in 8.1.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Asus Vivotab RT: drive optimization not available

Post by kevm14 »

Hmm.
Asus Vivotab RT eMMC controller driver.png
This doesn't seem....particularly optimized. The driver version is consistent with Win 8.1 (6.3.9600) at least. I wonder what it says on a Surface. James!
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