Windows 7 - What is Intel Rapid Storage Technology? Do I need it?

Hi,

I've finished installing drivers for my laptop and I really have no idea about Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Do I need it? Help!

Hi

This is mainly used for RAID setup and management but you can use it to manage your SATA HDD's.

Regards
UKMedia

+1 ^

However, it has been my understanding that the Intel Rapid Storage driver is not necessary in modern operating systems since these OS's are fully capable of using Intel's Matrix RAID chipsets natively.

Cyber,
Remember-google is your friend.

I installed it on both of my systems with SSDs to get the iaStor driver rather than using the msahci driver. It gave me quit a boost in performance. I don't know if that matters to spinnider drives, so someone else will have to comment.

I've got one SATA HDD.

Thanks.

Yea! Thanks.

Thanks. Repped you all! I've got only one SATA HDD on my laptop. Shall I uninstall this program?

No. Leave well enough alone. Glad to hear that all is well now.

According to Intel, it provides benefits to users of single drives as well. I don't need to uninstall this driver.
Intel® Rapid Storage Technology — Product overview

I agree with the other posts, I have it installed and noticed a performance improvement. I would leave it installed.

Regards
UKMedia

I'm just a trial and error knucklehead, but for what it's worth, I did some research, found out my RAID wasn't using IRST, disabled it, and CPU usage dropped from 20 percent at idle down to 2 percent. Would have saved me a lot of time if someone else had posted this little piece of information -so I'm doing it now for someone with a similar problem in the future. To them, I say in advance, "you're welcome."
**IMPORTANT: Make sure your RAID isn't using it: It will tell you how to check when you go to remove it under add/remove programs... or here: Under device manager/Storage Controllers: You should NOT see intel controllers ALSO under Device Manger/IDE ATA/ATAPI controls Yous should NOT see intel controllers -if you do NOT, you should be able to remove IRST with no problems, like me.