Should Intel® Optane™ Memory Be Disabled before a BIOS or OS Update? 

• Unable to boot the system after a major Windows* 10 update.
• No boot after BIOS update.

Intel® Optane™ memory should be disabled before applying the OS or BIOS updates, and then re-enabled again once the process is complete. Follow the steps below to disable the module:

1. Access the Intel® Optane™ Memory and Storage Management application.
2. Go to the Intel® Optane™ memory section.
3. Disable the Intel® Optane™ memory.
4. Start the OS or BIOS updates.
5. Once the updates are complete, enable the Intel® Optane™ memory again from the application.

When OS updates are initiated, the system reboots multiple times in order to complete the update process. Although not common, it is possible that the Intel® Optane™ memory configuration changes when the system reboots during the OS update process. This may conflict the system in fetching the data from the HDD/SSD being accelerated, which causes the system to crash.

When a BIOS update takes place, most of the time the BIOS settings are returned back to default. Therefore SATA mode would be changed back to AHCI, which conflicts with the Intel® Optane™ memory configuration and could cause booting issues.

What to do if you cannot boot anymore after the OS or BIOS update

If the OS or BIOS update was applied while still having the Intel® Optane™ memory enabled and booting issues occur, the best recommendation is to try to re-configure the Intel® Optane™ memory setup. Unfortunately, if re-configuring the BIOS for Intel® Optane™ memory acceleration does not fix the issue, it may be necessary to re-install the OS and format the Intel® Optane™ memory. Always back up your data before doing any system changes.

If additional help is needed, contact Intel Customer Support.