Which are the "best" Intel AHCI/RAID drivers?

Important Drivers Specific: Intel AHCI/RAID Drivers
61

@ Fernando:
Thank you very much.

So I think, I will use 11.2.0.1006



I know, but for me, SCSI-Filter wasn’t installed in drivers 11.5 up. There only was one entry in device manager an no iastorf-service was running and also no iastorf-registry-entrys where present.

62

If you are running Windows 8/8.1, the SCSI filter driver named iaStorF.sys will not be installed, because this OS doesn’t need it.

63

Hi Fernando!

I have an Asus Sabertooth Z77 motherboard (BIOS 2104) and am not running RAID, but I do have (what I believe to be) the latest Intel RST drivers (12.9.0.1001). My question is, is this the best configuration for me. I am seeing slow response (especially with my primary drive). I have even tried switching around the SATA connections (moved it from the outside brown to the outside black, as the drive is not a 6g).


The controller lists itself as SATA ACHI (Computer expands to indicate ACPI x64-based) -

Device Manager.jpg



But when I look at the properties of the "ATA Channels", they indicate "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" -

ATA Channel 1.jpg




Advanced Settings indicates "ATA Disk" and UDMA6 -

ATA Disk.jpg




Shouldn’t this indicate AHCI somewhere???

Yes, I have checked the registry entry and it is set to “0”, and the BIOS is also configured for AHCI.

Thanks so much for any assistance with this!

64

@ DeathStalker:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!

Your pictures verify, that the ASMedia SATA ports of your system are running in IDE mode and not in AHCI mode.
Please enter the BIOS and look for the ASMedia SATA Controller settings.

Furthermore you should check the SATA port connections of your HDDs/SSDs.
According to the ASUS Support pages your mainboard has the following SATA ports:

  1. 2 x Intel Z77 6G SATA ports (colour: brown)
  2. 4 x Intel Z77 3G SATA ports (colour: black)
  3. 2 x ASMedia 6G SATA ports (colour: gray) and
  4. 2 x ASMedia 6G eSATA ports (colour: red)

You will get the best performance, when you connect your system drive to one of the brown Intel 6G SATA ports.
Depending on the amount of connected HDDs/SSDs I recommend to prefer the Intel SATA ports and to avoid the ASMEdia ones.

Regarding the in use Intel RST(e) driver I recommend to manually update it to v12.9.3.1000 WHQL.

Regards
Fernando

65

Well, it means pulling out my HUGE video card again, but I’ll switch it back to the brown port.

What about the Intel ports? Are they also running IDE?

Do you know the best driver for the ASMedia?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

66

No, they are running in AHCI mode.

It depends on the SATA mode (IDE or AHCI) you are running the ASMedia SATA Controller. Anyway I recommend to use the generic MS IDE resp. AHCI driver instead of the ASMedia driver.

67

Ok, so I’m grabbing the 12.4 RTSe drivers, but how do I switch the ASMedia controllers to ACHI?

I presume I can just manually select to update the driver and select the new Intel?

Thanks!!!

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Also, would you mind terribly posting some similar screenshots of your controllers in Device Manager?

Thanks again!!! :slight_smile:

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One more qq - so the Channel 00 and Channel 01 I see are the Intel ports? or are you interpreting it because the ASMedia controlers indicate only SATA, not SATA ACHI?

68

If the ASMedia SATA Controller of your mainboard supports AHCI at all (look into the mainboard manual), you can do the switch from IDE to AHCI only from within the BIOS.

You can only switch from the generic MS AHCI driver to an Intel AHCI driver, if the HDD is connected to an Intel SATA port.

No, all your Intel ports are already running in AHCI mode. These channels obviouly belong to the ASMedia ports, which are running in IDE mode. The related IDE Controllers are usually named "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" and managed by the generic MS IDE driver named PCIIDE.SYS.

69



If the ASMedia SATA Controller of your mainboard supports AHCI at all (look into the mainboard manual), you can do the switch from IDE to AHCI only from within the BIOS.

[quote]I presume I can just manually select to update the driver and select the new Intel?

You can only switch from the generic MS AHCI driver to an Intel AHCI driver, if the HDD is connected to an Intel SATA port.

Ok, so what setting do I need to change (registry, I presume), to switch the ASMedia to ACHI? So I will need to maintain the ASMedia drivers for the ASMedia controllers?

70

As first step you should check, which SATA port your system drive (with the OS you are running) is using. If it should be connected with any of the Intel ports, it will be easy for you.
Then enter the BIOS and look for the ASMedia SATA Controller setting options. If there should be no option to set the Controller to AHCI, I recommend to do a backup of the storage drives, which are connected to the ASMedia ports. After having done that, you should connect them to any of the Intel ports and to restore the data to the drives.
If any of the Optical Drives are connected to the ASMedia ports, I recommend to let them there (they usually like the IDE mode more than AHC mode).

71

ugh, thought it would be easier than that. Well, I think I’ll just re-install Win7 again this weekend - system is sluggish as it is (tried one of those driver auto-update programs and I think it basically screwed everything up - better to just search at Station-Drivers :wink: )

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FWIW, no option for the ASMedia ports in the BIOS at all.

72

@ DeathStalker:
A fresh install of the OS is a good idea, but before you are doing that, you have to make sure, that the system drive is connected to the first of the fast Intel SATA ports.

Which drives are connected to the ASMedia ports?
As I already stated, the connection of Optical drives doesn’t matter. They like the IDE mode.

73

Just other storage drives in the system.

74

Why did you connect them to the ASMedia SATA ports? Didn’t you realize, that they are just running in IDE mode?

75

But WHY would they be running in IDE? They shouldn’t be (and I’m not sure they were, with my prior installation - this install I tried one of those driver auto-updaters and I think that’s what screwed things up. Guess I’ll find out this weekend when I re-install :wink:

76

Yes you can, but I recommend to read the chapter "Switching from Intel RST to RST(e) drivers and vice versa", which you can find within the start post of >this< thread.


i don’t want to start nit-picking, but is now save or not ?
in the post you say yes and in the tutorial you say BSOD requiring a re-install can occur. that are somewhat opposing statements ;).
Does the warning also apply to non-raid setups ( raid enabled, but no raid created yet) ?

77

What is the difference between Intel’s Rapid STORAGE Technology and their Rapid START Technology chipset drivers?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

78

>Here< are the details about Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology and >here< you can find the details about Intel’s Rapid Start Technology.
The Intel(R) Rapid Start Technology is a special feature and not supported by all Intel chipset mainboards, whereas the Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology is supported by all Intel chipset mainboards.

79

Ah, great! It looks like the Z77 does support Rapid Start (I was going by the Station-Drivers page for the Sabertooth).

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Ok, but it seems that the “main” factor with Rapid Start is that it requires a SSD (which I don’t have … yet, lol)

80

@ jones23:

Since I got recently myself 2 times an unbootable Win8.1 system after having tried to "downgrade" from any new Intel RST(e) RAID driver v12.x.x.xxxx or v13.x.x.xxxx to any "classical" Intel RST RAID driver like v11.2.0.1006, I do not recommend to try that.
Nevertheless my quoted answer to the user theal was correct, because his Intel RAID system worked with an old Intel RST RAID ROM v10.x.x.xxxx.