As long as you have access to the Intel RAID Utility via hitting CTRL+I, the on-board Intel SATA RAID Controller is using the LEGACY mode Option ROM module. A not-working CTRL+I access and the presence of a new tab named “Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology” within the BIOS indicates, that it is using the Intel EFI RAID module named “SataDriver” or “RaidDriver”.
This is impossible. You cannot get any AHCI driver installed onto an Intel SATA Controller, which is running in RAID mode. So I suspect, that you have installed the related Intel RAID driver.
So just to be clear, The Intel SATA RAID controller supports both RAID and AHCI automatically and in the event that you are not running a raid setup, if your drives are installed under the Intel RAID controller it will automatically be in AHCI mode yes? My BIOS is the rare one that does not allow me to turn ACHI or raid on/off, but my drives appear under the Intel SATA RAID controller. Please reference the Intel RAID SATA driver I have installed and the benchmark below:
Intel RAID controller updated driver version. Is this the most updated/correct version?
Benchmark for SSD when connected to Intel SATA RAID controller (see link below as forum would not allow me to post due to exceeded width): http://i63.tinypic.com/xd6yv7.jpg
Does the green text to the left of the AS SSD benchmark (the iStorA text), the benchmark speed itself, and the driver (its version and appearance under the device manager) look all perfect to you? Is the iStorA driver better than the storahci?
Through some research, I’ve had suggested that I plug both my SSD and HDD directly into the Intel SATA RAID controller instead of the Standard AHCI controller because even though it says RAID on the controller, it automatically supports AHCI if not in RAID mode and you get all the same benefits of AHCI still + I can install the IRST software/driver for a slight performance bump. Am I correct in this assessment?
Finally, given what you now know provided that I’ve clarified the question more succinctly, would you suggest that I keep both my SSD and HDD on the Intel RAID controller or move it over to the Standard AHCI controller (the Intel Driver version is from 2015, but the Standard AHCI one is from 2006)?
Thank you for all of your help and sorry for my ignorance.
EDIT by Fernando: Inserted image downloaded, customized and re-attached with a smaller size (to save space)
You are of course correct, please forgive my ignorance in respect of the IRST setup. To confirm (and very much in my ignorance) I followed your advice in selecting the appropriate driver packs and then, assuming (obviously incorrectly), that as no RAID drives are at this stage setup I should install the iaAHCIC.inf driver rather than the iaStorAC.inf.
However, upon reboot I failed to check upon the driver state. On checking following your post it would appear that rather than the (wrong) driver I selected windows had used iaStorAC from an earlier erroneous update (V15.2.2.1030) installed by the Snappy Driver Installer (SDI) utility when I was trying to get to grips with the drivers. Clearly this confirms everything you said about it being impossible!
To clarify, I have now reinstalled (re-checked) that V14.8.12.1059 (iaStorA.sys of course) is installed to the Intel Chipset SATA RAID Controller, with V4.5.6.1004 (iaStorB.sys) installed to the Intel C600+/C220+ Chipset sSATA AHCI Controller I believe this to be what you recommended?
On the topic of the Control + I setup utility, I can confirm that the Intel Rapid Storage Technology option in the UEFI BIOS is set to “ON”. I can also confirm that when set to “OFF” the Setup Utility (Control + I) is no longer available at POST.
I do not see any specific “tab” in BIOS (other than this one) relating to IRST…am I missing something??
No, as long as the disk drives are connected to the RAID Controller ports, they are running in RAID mode.
Yes, but they are running in RAID mode, which supports some, but not all AHCI features. The usage of the Intel SATA ports, which are running in RAID mode, only makes sense, if you create a real RAID array by combining 2 or more SSDs resp. HDDs.
The Intel RST(e) driver v14.8.0.1042 matches your Intel chipset, but is one of the first (dated 11/04/2015) and not one of the latest from the v14.8 development branch. For details please look into the start post of >this< thread.
No, as long as you don’t create a real RAID array, I recommend to connect the system drive (probably your SSD) to one of the sSATA ports, which are running in AHCI mode. By the way: The SATA ports 4-6 are managed by your on-board “Intel(R) C600+/C220+ series chipset sSATA AHCI Controller” and not by any “Standard AHCI Controller”. The OS just gives it this name, when the Controller is using the generic MS in-box AHCI driver instead of the much better specific Intel sSATA AHCI driver v4.5.x.xxxx series named iaStorB.sys.
You will not see it as long as you are able to join the Intel RAID Utility by hitting CTRL+I. If you want to see it, you have to change the Option ROM settings within your BIOS to “UEFI” mode.
The only entries I can find within the UEFI BIOS are: 1. EZ Tuning Wizard - (a) Easy Backup - Set Up Easy Backup (RAID 1 or RAID 10) OR (b) Setup Super Speed Backup (RAID 0 or RAID 5) 2. PCH Storage Configuration - SATA Controller 1 Mode Selection [ACHI] - Set to [RAID Mode]
@PC_Pilot : No, this is not what I meant. You should look into the “BOOT” section of the UEFI BIOS. There you will find the related UEFI boot options like “AddOn ROM Display”, “Compatibility Support Module (CSM)” and “Launch Storage OpROM Policy”. The names of the related options may be different from mainboard to mainboard.
Option ROM Messages [Force BIOS] - Set to [Force BIOS]… (other Option [Keep Current]) Compatibility Support Module - Launch CSM - Set to [Enabled] Boot Device Control - set to [UEFI only] Boot from Network Devices - Set to [Legacy only] Boot from Storage Devices - Set to [Legacy only] Boot from PCI-E/PCI Expansion Devices - Set to [Legacy only]
NB. I understood that I could not set CSM to Auto and devices to UEFI only as the GTX 560Ti Graphics Card unfortunately does not support GOP boot and thus full UEFI Fast Boot…happy to be corrected if this understanding is inaccurate…
Which driver shall I download for VEN_8086&DEV_2922&SUBSYS_B0051458? It’s supposed to be ICH9-something, on X38 chipset, but 11.2.0.1006 won’t install (and neither the modded version). It simply says the driver is already up to date.
@Octopuss : The Intel SATA Controller DEV_2922 is the “Intel(R) ICH9R/DO/DH SATA AHCI Controller”. The Intel RST drivers v10.1.0.1008 WHQL and v11.2.0.1006 mod+signed by me definitive do support this SATA AHCI Controller.
11.2.0.1006, both the regular and modded versions, on Windows 7. I did so through Device Manager, the usual "update driver". It simply gave the usual message about up to date driver already being installed.
The WHQL version doesn’t natively support the DEV_2922 AHCI Controller. If you want to install any of my mod+signed drivers, you have to import the Win-RAID CA Certificate before you start with the driver installation.
You have to force the installation by choosing the “Let me pick…” option, hitting the “Have Disk” button, navigating to the driver you want to install and then clicking onto the file named iaAHCI.inf. After having done that, the installation will work.
So, although it says “Standard AHCI controller” in device manager, it’s actually a better Intel AHCI controller ports 4-6 are running on its just named wrong? I’d love to have the drivers that rename this Standard AHCI controller to the more specific controller you mentioned, but I don’t know where to find the AHCI driver you’re referring to, but if it is compatible with my system, would you be so kind to provide me with a direct link to download it (so I dont mess up and get the wrong one)? I went to the link you provided me with in an earlier post but I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the options and am afraid I might mess this up and get the wrong driver, so if you can PM me or provide the exact drivers I need (the better ones you’re recommending above) for the best AHCI updated performance drivers that would be much appreciated. I’m running Windows 10 64bit so you you know the exact drivers I need.
So sorry for the bother Fernando but I’d like to follow up with you because it seems you have a different understanding than others attempting to solve this problem with me. In the another tech forum (orig. post here: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/703…aid-controller/) there are many people who are saying things like:
- “RAID controller has AHCI enabled with it by default” > you mention that this isn’t the case but it is really in RAID mode. - “AHCI is disabled only if the controller is set to legacy” - "Even if it was in RAID mode, you wouldn’t notice. Drives that are connected to a RAID controller, but are not in a RAID configuration, will work exactly the same as it would be in AHCI."
So is the info/recommendations from these users incorrect? To make this a bit more clear so that there is no confusion, you are saying that I should definitely move my SSD and HDD off of the Intel RAID controller and back onto the Standard AHCI controller for best performance yes? Keep in mind, this would require me to move my SSD and HDD from SATA ports 1-3 to 4-6 in order for them to appear under the standard AHCI controller, and the driver date for the Standard AHCI controller is from 2006 @_@ as apposed to the RAID controllers driver from 2015.
To make things crystal clear and certain about what was going on, another user from another tech forum had me post benchmarks using AS SSD (1st benchmark shows my SSD on the Intel RAID controller plugged into SATA port 1, and the 2nd benchmark shows SSD performance while plugged into SATA port 4 under AHCI) and they said “AS SSD confirms you have AHCI enabled in both tests also, I suggest you stick with the Intel driver and not with the standard one provided by MS - it provides way better 4K results and access times” so I thought AHCI was in fact enabled on both–was he wrong in this conclusion?
So that you can fully understand the scope of system, I would like to share the two screen shots of the benchmarks so that you can compare them for yourself and offer me a final recommendation. It seems that the benchmarks show a slight performance gain when the SSD is connected to the Intel RAID controller over the AHCI (but this can just be variation). Please look at the green text to the left of the AS SSD benchmark and provide me your final recommendation for which controller my drives should show in device manager under (Intel RAID or Standard AHCI).
1st screen shot = Benchmark with both SSD and HDD connected to SATA ports 1 & 2 appearing under the Intel SATA RAID controller in device manager and it says iStorA in green text: http://i63.tinypic.com/xd6yv7.jpg . (width limit exceeded so could not embed image directly, please see link to image)
2nd screen shot = Benchmark with SSD and HDD connected to SATA ports 4 & 5 appearing under Standard SATA AHCI controller in device manager and shows storahci in green text to the left of AS SSD: http://i63.tinypic.com/i4gtj8.jpg (width limit exceeded so could not embed image directly, please see link to image)
Please confirm if these numbers, what you see to the left of AS SSD, and everything you see in the device manager all looks correct. Again, others have said definitively that “both AS SSD benchmarks show that AHCI mode is running in both”, but I’d like to have your confirmation by comparing the two screen shots.
My apologies for all the bother, I’m just doing my best to finally and confidently solve the problem of: should I install my drives to they appear under the Intel RAID controller or the Standard AHCI controller in the device manager for best performance. It has been very hard to finally make a decision because of the different recommendations I’m getting.
EDIT by Fernando: Unneeded fully quoted post and unneeded blank lines removed (to save space)
Okay Fernando I have some interesting results to report. I found the following driver you suggested I download and installed it to update my Standard AHCI STA controller to the sSATA Intel version and moved all of my drives back onto SATA ports 4-6 so they appear under the Standard AHCI controller. The device manager now looks like the image below–can you confirm if everything you see in the device manager looks correct (aka did I install the driver correctly?): http://i64.tinypic.com/5ycmkm.png and an image of the driver file I downloaded from your reference post and installed through device manager (see below) http://i68.tinypic.com/2u6fr5x.png I then immediately ran a performance benchmark on my SSD with both AS SSD and Samsung magician software to gauge performance and found that AS SSD would freeze every time at the 4k part of AS SSD’s test, but Samsung magician seemed to have no problem. I also noticed that in green text AS SSD now says iaStorB instead of the iStorA version from before. http://i67.tinypic.com/2ch2bs0.png Can you tell me whats causing the AS SSD problem and if everything in the images above look okay to you? Are the drivers I installed to change my Standard AHCI controller to the Intel version official drivers from Intel or are they modified/custom drivers form a third party?
EDIT by Fernando: Directly inserted extremely oversized images replaced by the links to them (to save space within this thread)
No, I don’t know it. My favorite benchmark tool is named “Anvil’s Storage Utilities”. You can find it within the start post of >this< thread. Furthermore I recommend to have a look into the start post of >this< thread.
The AHCI driver you have currently installed is named iaStorB.sys, has been built (coded) by Intel and has been digitally signed by Microsoft. This verifies, that this driver is an original and untouched Intel one.
I have been doing much research on the BIOS Mod Legacy OROMs with the UEFI tool and believe I now understand how to complete the update.
However, I have a query (mostly unrelated to the actual BIOS mod) concerning the Intel RAID drivers and hence the post here.
As you will likely recall from my earlier post my board is an Asus X99-Deluxe the configuration of which has some 12 available SATA ports. Discounting the SATA/SATA Express Combo using an ASMedia controller the remaining ports are (in legacy mode) split between two SATA controllers. From Asus I have confirmed that due to chipset behaviour Ports 7, 8, 9 & 10 do not support RAID. IRST RAID only being supported on ports 1 through 6.
Using the UBU tool, two (legacy) IRST RAID for SATA OROMS are identified (plus a further EFI IRST RAID for SATA module). Whilst both OROMS report the same device ID (DEV_2822) they are located in separate GUID locations: a) 20FEEBDE-E739-420E-AE31-77E2876508C0 which I have identified serves the RAID enabled ports (1 to 6) in legacy mode & b) E095AFFE-D4CD-4289-9B48-28F64E3D781D which conversely serves the remaining 4 ports (7 to 10) presumably as a Standard AHCI Controller??
UBO tool confirms the OROM IRST versions in use are: a) V14.8.0.2377 (file size 119 KB) serving ports 1 to 6 …whilst b) V13.1.0.2126 (file size 118 KB) serving the non RAID ports 7 to 10 (info from extracted OROMS)
Have you any idea why the two controllers should each be served by a different version of IRST? Especially as the one using V13.1.0.2126 is not RAID enabled?
Is there any reason you are aware of why both controllers should not be updated to the later V14.8.2.2397 OROM, this being closer to the installed V14.8.12.1059 driver (see earlier post)?
ASUS obviously has inserted the second Intel RAID ROM v13.1.0.2126 by mistake. If the Intel SATA ports 7-10 cannot be used in RAID mode, the Intel RAID ROM v13.1.0.2126 cannot and will never be used by your system.
Since you are only able to run the Intel SATA ports 1-6 in RAID mode, the version of the second Intel RAID ROM doesn’t matter. Only 1 Intel RAID ROM can and will be loaded while booting the system.
