Yes, Samsung driver works very good
I’ll test with MS driver
I integrate the drivers into the ISO, and the Samsung driver will not work with the 980 Pro (without manual installation)
Thanks
Hi
I tested with MS drivers, is it is a little worse than with Samsung drivers in some cases
Otherwise the 970 EVO Plus is a little better (4k write)
Just an FYI for ASMedia SATA and Windows 10:
- you can install old Windows 7 drivers by manually going to Update Driver and pointing to old drivers (don’t use installers, they break on W10)
- your generic SATA driver will now become ASMedia 106x and it WILL have Policies tab where you can disable Hot swap / Hot plug / Safely remove, just like it was in W7
untested drawback might be that I haven’t tested if performance drops compared to the generic MS W10 drivers, or system stability
another drawback is that your W10 might boot into a Blue Screen of Death - just reboot, press F8, boot into Safe Mode, restart, and it should boot into W10 properly
On the other hand, using modern (2.x.x or 3.x.x.x) drivers however DO NOT have the Policies tab.
Also, the installed ASMedia in Device Manager isn’t treated as IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller (like for example Intel’s SATA driver is) but it’s under Storage Controllers.
And if you look in Registy you can notice that this ASMedia driver doesn’t have ENUM key, which means it might not even be in use.
Also, since there isn’t the Policies tab to make drives not-hot plug, you can still use the old workaround by editing STORAHCI and adding “TreatAsInternalPort” and it will make drives behave as internal - just search on the superuser website with this keyword.
Franky, I don’t know whats worse - using W7 ASMedia drivers on W10, but having no idea if you’re gimping your system OR using W10 ASmedia drivers, but hiding drives for generic MS SATA driver, which could mean that W10 driver isn’t actually used at all. OR actually just not installing ASMedia at all and use default MS SATA driver, and hide problematic drives as described.
If someone can shed some light on this, I’d be grateful.
@2mg :Thanks for your interesting report.
Since I still have access to my old Intel Z170 system, which has an on-board ASMedia 106x SATA Controller, I was able to do some tests while running Win10 Build 21301 Insider Preview.
These were the AHCI drivers I have used one after the other:
1. Microsoft’s 64bit generic Win10 in-box AHCI driver named storahci.sys
2. ASMedia’s 64bit AHCI driver v3.3.3.0 for Win7 dated 01/22/2020
3. ASMedia’s 64bit AHCI driver v3.3.5.0 for Win8-10 dated 06/24/2020
This is absolutely correct.
My results are different:
1. The "Policies" tab is only available for "Disks" (after having done a right-click onto the HDD/SSD and chosen the "Properties" option) and never for Storage Controllers or Drivers.
2. These are the details of the "Policies" tab I got - no matter which AHCI driver I had chosen among the 3 above listed ones:
@Fernando :
Go to Device Manager, open ASMedia SATA 106x Controller, and see if you have Policies tab with 3.x.x.x drivers:
(this is how proper 1.x.x ASMedia drivers on Win7 look like)
Now go to BIOS and try to disable Hot plug/Hot swap/External options for disks connected to ASMedia SATA Controller.
You probably won’t even find the option for ASMedia in BIOS, usually only for Intel’s SATA Controller!
Even if you do find it for ASMedia, when you reboot to Win 10, you will still have that annoying “Safely remove hardware” in taskbar/systray, and you will still probably have “Quick removal” in disk Policies.
That’s the issue with ASMedia 3.x.x.x (and probably 2.x.x) drivers on any operating system.
(this is how wrong 3.x.x.x drivers look on Win10)
I think this thread explains the issue properly:
[Discussion] Firmware for Asmedia Sata 6G Controllers (12)
Please try it and tell me the results!
@2mg :
Although it didn’t make much sense for me to test old ASMedia AHCI Vista/Win7 drivers while running Win10 (the in-box MS driver is much better!), I have done some additional tests with the following ASMedia 106x drivers, which were designed for Vista/Win7:
1. v3.1.9.0 dated 11/12/2015
2. v2.0.9.1 dated 03/26/2014
3. v1.4.1.0 dated 12/26/2012
Result: Only the more than 8 years old ASMedia AHCI driver v1.4.1.0 for Vista/Win7 lets the ASMedia 106x SATA Controller show the “Policies” tab.
Here are the related pictures:
My conclusion:
- I can confirm, that only the very old v1 platform ASMedia 106x AHCI drivers gives the user the option to disable the “Safely remove disk” feature from within the Device Manager.
- Since the connection of the bootable system drive to any ASMedia SATA port is never a good idea (the chipset own SATA ports are much better performant), the missing option to disable the “Safely remove disk” option from within the Device Manager is not important for me (some mainboard BIOSes offer the option as well, the systray icon can be removed anyway).
- Win10 users, who want or have to use the on-board ASMedia SATA ports for storage purposes or for an Optical Drive, should stick to the Win10 in-box MS AHCI or IDE driver.
- After having completed my tests, I don’t see any reason to offer the ASMedia 106x SATA drivers v1.4.1.0 within the start post of the thread.
@Fernando :
I know, however I stumbled upon this issue on a PC with ASmedia SATA when I installed W10 on it, and couldn’t figure out what to do.
As I also said, old 1.x.x drivers are probably a bad idea on W10, but 2.x and 3.x drivers don’t offer the Policies tab to disable hot plug.
But if you do install ASmedia SATA 2.x or 3.x drivers, the “TreatAsInternalPort” registry trick for generic MS SATA driver on W10 actually hides drivers, now I don’t know if that is because that driver is actually being used instead of ASmedia driver, or that registry works regardless if you have 2.x/3.x ASMedia drivers installed.
EDIT by Fernando: Fully quoted post replaced by directly addressing to the author (to save space)
@2mg :
It is very easy to verify which driver is currently in-use by a certain device:
Run the Device Manager, do a right-click onto the related device and choose the options "Properties" > "Driver" > "Driver Details".
If there are more devices with the same name listed, you should check as first step the HardwareIDs of them to find out the desired device.
If I check my disks, they all use a totally different .dll and .sys, be it on Intel controller or ASmedia.
How can I check that they are really managed by controller and driver they are attached to?
Blue = Intel, red = ASmedia - I know this because I connected them myself (this is on W7, ignore that for now)
@2mg : If you want to check the in-use storage drivers, you should not check the "Disk Drives" section of the Device Manager (the "Disk Management" is done only my MS drivers and INF files).
The Storage Controllers are listed within the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" or/and "Storage Controllers" sections.
Well, that will only show that these controllers are installed and enabled, but I still can’t confirm in W10 that 3.x.x ASmedia driver is actually controlling those 2 drives I’ve shown in my previous reply.
I checked registry for ASmedia entry, and they don’t have the ENUM key, which as I understand means that that driver actually is used/has a purpose.
@2mg : All listed SATA Controllers with a Company’s name in it (e.g. “ASMedia” oder “Intel”) are currently using a storage driver from the related Company. All SATA AHCI Controllers, which are currently using the generic in-box MS AHCI driver, are shown within the Device Manager with the name “Standard SATA AHCI Controller” (Win10) or “Standard AHCI1.0 Serial ATA Controller” (Win7).
Many free tools will tel you that (so you do not have to go in device manager) as this old one:
As you see, I have Intel, ASmedia and Samsung drivers…
I’ll check it out when I get some spare time, thanks.
Update of the start post
Changelog:
-
added: Phison NVMe drivers (usable with all NVMe SSDs/Controllers):
- generic 32/64bit Phison NVMe drivers v1.5.0.0 WHQL for Win7 dated 02/23/2018
- generic 32/64bit Phison NVMe drivers v1.5.0.0 WHQL for Win8-10 dated 02/23/2018 Note: Due to the fact, that these generic drivers are WHQL certified, they can be used from scratch with all NVMe SSDs resp. their Controllers!
Thanks to our Forum member Black6spdZ for the hint to these extremely hidden Phison NVMe drivers.
The 64bit Win10 driver has already been tested by me with a Samsung 970 EVO Plus (look >here<). Much more interesting will be a benchmark comparison with a non-Samsung NVMe SSD. Maybe I will do it tomorrow with a Sabrent Rocket 4.0.
Good luck!
Dieter (alias Fernando)
If I just wanna some universal nvme driver for win7, then what should I download/instal because i’m a bit confused.
@damianC902 : Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum!
I understand your confusion - the answer is different since yesterday, because we found recently a much better solution than before.
Within the start post of this thread I am offering now generic 32/64bit Phison NVMe drivers v1.5.0.0 WHQL for Win7 x86/x64. These are the first and lonely NVMe drivers, which
a) do support the NVMe Controller of all NVMe SSDs and
b) are WHQL certified (precondition for storage drivers to be accepted by the OS Setup).
Good news for users, who want to get Win7 installed onto an NVMe SSD: There is no need anymore to integrate the related 2 MS NVMe Hotfixes into the boot.wim and install.wim of the Win7 Image.
From now on it should be possible to get the NVMe SSD detected by the Win7 Setup and accepted as target disk drive by simply loading the related Phison NVMe driver, which has been designed for being used with Win7.
By the way - once the OS installation is completed, the NVMe driver can be replaced even by a mod+signed NVMe driver.
Good luck!
Dieter (alias Fernando)
Question: Why have the OFA NVMe Drivers been removed from the start post?
As you may have already realized, the previously offered very performant original and mod+signed OFA NVMe drivers are not listed anymore within the start post of this thread.
Reason: They are dispensable now, because now we got access to generic WHQL certified NVMe drivers with a performance like the OFA drivers (no wonder, see below). Contrary to the previously offered OFA drivers the Phison ones should be usable even from scratch with all Windows Operating Systems from Win7 up.
After having gotten access to the recently discovered (well hidden) generic Phison NVMe drivers v1.5.0.0 WHQL I suspected it already, but after having done a deeper look into the *.INF and *.SYS files I am sure:
The basis code of the Phison drivers v1.5.0.0 dated 02/23/2018 was not compiled by the Company Phison, but by the developers of the OpenFabrics Alliance (OFA). In reality these NVMe drivers are hardly hidden updates of the latest OFA drivers v1.5.0.0 Build 157 dated 04/07/2017.
These are the clues:
- The names of the real 32/64bit drivers (nvme.sys) and their version numbers (v1.5.0.0) are absolutely identical.
- The content of the related information text files named nvme.inf are almost identical
Really different are only the given names of the NVMe Controller and its Manufacturer:
a) OFA: “Community OFA NVMe 1.2 Storport Miniport” / "Community"
b) Phison: “Phison NVMe 1.2 Storport Miniport” / “Phison Electronics Corporation”. - As you can see here, the original OFA and Phison drivers named nvme.sys have both been digitally test signed by a “not trustworthy” Company (left Pic: OFA, right Pic: Phison):
KingSpec Nvme Drivers v10.4.31.0 (07/13/2017) Win7 to Win10 (32&64bits)
Apacer Nvme Drivers v1.3.0.0 (12/08/2014) Win7 to Win10 (32&64bits)
Micron Nvme Drivers v2.1.17.0 64bits only
Silicon Image Sil 3x12 SATALink Controller v1.2.9.0 64bit Xp&2003 (includes txtsetup.oem)
Silicon Image Sil 3x12 SATALink Controller Driver v1.3.71.1 32bit XP to 7 (includes txtsetup.oem)