I have a Lenovo Y580 laptop running 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium with a 1 GB HD and a factory installed 32 GB ssd with Intel RST also factory installed. The ssd has only been used for caching and has been about 1/3 full for the entire 2 years that I've had it. Everything is factory stock.
Recently checkdisk was run on the ssd, and at the end of the analysis, it went into an endless loop of an error message, something about "can't write to log file". After restarting, everything seemed to be working normally, but the ssd went from about 30% full to 75% full. I ran it again and it went to 100% full. But everything still seems to be working normally. There are only about 4 GB of visible files on the drive, and I assume a cache file, but it shows 0 bytes remaining. CrystalDiskInfo reports that the drive is healthy (95%). It makes me wonder if chkdsk screwed up the directory or blocked off all free space as bad.
I want to deactivate RST or whatever else might get in the way, then reformat the ssd (or replace it if it seems bad), then restore RST so that caching works exactly as it did before. And I would really like to do this without having to re-install Windows and starting from scratch. Is there a recommended procedure for doing this? I've read somewhere that if I just go and disconnect the ssd, that the system will not even start. I don't want this to blow up in my face. I can find my way around but am not a full-fledged techie.
Thanks!