Recommended AHCI/RAID and NVMe Drivers

Important Drivers General: Storage Drivers (AHCI/RAID, NVMe and USB)
921

@Fernando

I see you posted the driver on the front page but there is a slight error. You wrote 1.3.1.227 instead of 1.3.1.277.

922

@all:
Update of the start post

Changelog:

  • AMD AHCI drivers:
    • new: mod+signed 64bit Win7-10 AMD AHCI driver v1.3.1.277 dated 04/15/2015 and mod+signed by me at 12/26/2017
      Notes:
      • AMD has made this driver, but never released it to the public. The original driver was incomplete (no *.CAT file) and part of the Windows installation medium, which has been delivered by HP to their customers.
      • Supported are the AMD SATA AHCI Controllers with the DeviceIDs DEV_4391/4394, DEV_7801/7804 and DEV_7901/7904.
      • Credits go to our Forum member Phoenix48, who found the original driver and successfully tested the mod+signed variant with his AMD system.

Good luck with this latest AMD AHCI driver!
Dieter (alias Fernando)

@Phoenix48 :
Thanks for your info. The typo has been corrected within the start post.

923

Anyone notice that after installing the Plextor 64-bit drivers Samsung Magician fails to start with Windows? This is in consideration of having both a Samsung 950 Pro and a Plextor M8Pey drive both on the same system. I mean do we really need Magician?

Thanks

Well after running some tests I noticed that Samsung Magician software fails to load if the oem driver for either the Plextor or OpenFabrics is installed. The basic Windows NVME controller driver is safe however.

Fwiw I removed Samsung magician…

924

I don’t know if this is normal but, whenever I install windows 10 64 bit pro 1607 or any OS related to Windows, I always disconnected extra hard-drivers and the optical drive, leaving only connected my main SSD
So for that reason i have noticed that in a fresh installation or first run of my Windows 10 + latest AMD-DRIVERS for b350 chipset (ryzen) i got this AHCI drivers:

In this Picture, I show the only 3 SATA AHCI devices, the first one (1) I can uninstall or disable, the second one (2) it says only Uninstall, and the third one(3) i can uninstall +disable
Also when doing automatic AMD-CHIPSET installation it seems that it won’t install automatically the Ryzen drivers, also this three SATA AHCI are signed by microsoft 2006 version 10.0.14393.53
PS: Once my Windows 10 64 bit was installed and first boot i proceed to connect my optical+HDD.



While I was typing this comment, I found this in my Device-Manager :O, seems that i got a extra Sata AHCI drivers below the Speakers


Question: Should I Stick to your 64bit Win7-10 AMD AHCI driver v1.3.1.277 Fernando? or try luck with the b350 chipset packages ahci? Thanks alot.

925

Well I Downloaded this folder: ( 64bit Win7-10 AMD AHCI driver v1.3.1.277 mod+signed by Fernando) ran the certificate before installing the driver through device manager, and It only leave me to install the driver on this:

This one I downloaded:


Currently installed:

926

@davidm71 :
Nobody needs Samsung’s Magician (except users, who want to flash a new Firmware into a Samsung SSD, which is supported by the tool).
In my eyes this tool is crap and has been primarily designed for users, who want to swagger about the benchmark results they get by using the “Rapid mode” feature, which measures the speed of the Memory and not the speed of the SSD.

@x58haze :
Thanks for having tested my freshly mod+signed AMD AHCI driver and for your detailed support.
It would be interesting to know, whether the mod+signed AMD AHCI driver v1.3.1.277 is better performant than the generic MS in-box AHCI driver.
Can you do a benchmark comparison?
By the way: Only the first one of your 3 on-board AHCI Controllers (DeviceID: DEV_7901) is natively supported by my recently modded v1.3.1.277 driver.

927

I was curious and checked his SATA devices:
https://vendev.org/pci/ven_1022&dev_7901/ - AMD
https://vendev.org/pci/ven_1022&dev_43b7/ - AMD
https://vendev.org/pci/ven_1b21&dev_0612/ - ASM

What driver does he need for the other AMD SATA controller, DEV_43b7 ?

928

Hi Fernando,

I attempted to use the Samsung drivers you provided to install 64 Bit Windows 7 on an NVME based drive but had no luck, I need a driver for the Hardware ID: ven_144D&DEV_A808

Can you please help me?

929

@phrygn :
Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum!

Samsung hasn’t yet released an NVMe driver for this specific NVMe Controller, but I may be able to offer 32/64bit mod+signed variants of the latest Samsung NVMe drivers v2.3.0.1709 very soon.
Which is the exact model name of that NVMe SSD and when did you buy it?

Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)

930

That would be very helpful! The model name is:

SAMSUNG MZVLB512HAJQ-000L7

It was purchased just before the New Year, around 12/19

931

@phrygn :
Thanks for the quick reply.

That is the OEM SSD named PM981.
This evening I will modify the INF files of the related 32/6bit drivers to make them compatible with the NVMe Controller of the PM981 SSDs.

932

Thanks so much, you are a wonderful person!

933

@all:
Update of the start post

Changelog:

  • Samsung NVMe drivers:
    • new: mod+signed 32/64bit Win7 Samsung NVMe drivers v2.3.0.1709 dated 10/12/2017, mod+signed by me at 01/04/2018
    • new: mod+signed 32/64bit Win10 Samsung NVMe drivers v2.3.0.1709 dated 10/12/2017, mod+signed by me at 01/04/2018

      • Notes:
      Contrary to the original Samsung NVMe drivers v2.3.0.1709 these mod+signed drivers (hopefully) will additionally support the NVMe Controllers DEV_A804 of the Samsung PM981 OEM SSDs.

Good luck with these Samsung NVMe drivers!
Dieter (alias Fernando)

934

@phrygn :
Just to avoid any misunderstanding: Modded drivers are generally not accepted by the OS Setup, if you have integrated them into the OS image or load them while starting the OS installation.
Although my mod+signed drivers have been correctly digitally signed, it is not easy to get them installed within the early stage of the OS Setup. Reason: The OS Setup doesn’t accept the digitally signature of a Company (here: Win-RAID CA), which it doesn’t know and whose trustworthiness cannot be confirmed by importing the Certificate (impossible during the OS Setup).
So it may be possible, that you have to integrate the MS NVMe Hotfix for Win7 to get Win7 installed onto your Samsung PM981, but you should be able to get my mod+signed driver installed once the OS is up and running (don’t forget to import the Certificate before you start with the manual driver update).

935

Hi Fernando,

Thanks for your insight. I was able to successfully modify install.wim and boot.wim on my W7 installer to include your drivers (using DISM) and everything has been going smoothly so far. The “DISM GUI” offered by codeplex has a feature that allows you to force unsigned drivers. Just thought I’d let you know! Thanks again.

936

@Fernando

Of course i can do a Benchmark for you, which software do you recommend me? to do the benchmark.

937

@x58haze :
Thanks for willing to do a benchmark comparison. The best benchmark tool for such purposes is named “Anvil’s Storage Utilities” (requires .NET Framework 3.0). >Here< is the link.

938

On regular Windows driver ahci, i did 2 test:

Device Manager Pic1.png



On regular Windows driver ahci, i did 2 tests:

Benchmark Test Pic1.png

Benchmark Test Pic2.png



Now testing with your AHCI driveR:

Device Manager Pic2.png



Test One + Two Fernando Ahci DriveR:

Benchmark Test Pic3.png

Benchmark Test Pic4.png



EDIT by Fernando: Since the originally inserted pictures were too big, I have replaced them by resized ones (can be enlarged by clicking onto them)

939

Hello Fernando,

I recently bought one ssd XPG sx9000 and intended to use with windows 7. Adata apparently only gives one copy of acronis to clone from one hdd to ssd, but I’d like to install directly on ssd since another disk isn’t always available. I tried to load some drivers found here, but the ssd was never recognized. Later I found out MSI Smart Tool and was able to create an installer which was supposed to be ready for ssds… and it recognize mine, but the installation was painfully slow, so I gave and installed windows in a regular hdd then cloned it to the ssd. I don’t know if the performance is at it’s best and if there are some issues starting programs due to the cloning aproach, so I wonder If I could get any help here to get a pure driver or at least someone giving ideas where to look for it.

940

@x58haze :
Thank you very much for having done the benchmark comparison tests and for the screenshots, which verify, that there is no measurable performance difference between the MS in-box AHCI driver and the mod+signed AMD AHCI driver v1.3.1.277.
Conclusion: Only the stability of the driver will decide, which driver is the better choice.
Remark: Very interesting for me is the fact, that all your 3 on-board SATA AHCI Controllers are listed within the “System devices” section of the Device Manager. Usually they are listed within the “IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers” or “Storage Controllers” section.


@HotLobster :
Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum!

The choice of the “best” driver doesn’t depend on the HDD or SSD model, but only on the specific on-board SATA AHCI resp. SATA RAID Controller shown within the Device Manager by its HardwareIDs (right-click onto the related SATA Controller > “Properties” > Details" > “Property” > “HardwareIDs”).
So please post the HardwareIDs of your in-use SATA Controller and I will try to give you my recommendation regarding the “best” AHCI or RAID driver.

Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)