windows 7 - Installing Ubuntu to dual-boot from mSATA

I'm about to recieve a 2012 Dell XPS 15 with 128GB mSATA and 1TB 5400rpm HDD, it should come with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

I understand that Smart Response Technology (SRT) in the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) feature uses up to 64GB of storage on the mSATA drive to provide a fake BIOS level RAID in Windows to cache the HDD to increase performance. This is a nifty trick.

I've also read that SRT makes the mSATA device unavailable to install other operating systems, but that there may be ways to work around this.

My question is; can I use the unused 64GB of the mSATA drive to install Ubuntu, and still use SRT on my Windows installation?

This should be possible because the unused space should appear as a simple single disk RAID0 volume. I see this having 5 steps:

1. Make mSATA visible to Ubuntu installer (may disable RST)


2. Install Ubuntu 12.10 x86_64 in mSATA free space.


3. Install bootloader (GRUB2)


4. Restore SRT on Windows (if disabled)


5. Fix bootloader, because undoubtedly Windows will have broken it.

Caveats:

• I can not risk, remove, or reinstall the Windows installation, this is a $work machine and Windows is required. I can resize the partitions though.


• Being able to install Ubuntu on a partition on the 1TB and use SRT with it would be an alternative, and be awesome, but I don't think that Linux supports SRT (yet).