SSD AHCI vs RAID

brandoncatz · Jun 19, 2013

Hi, all. I recently purchased a Samsung 840 pro and am having what I believe to be driver issues. Hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction. Specs and config:

Mobo Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5
SSD (Samsung 840 pro 128GB) in SATA3_0
HDD (Samsung 1TB x2) in SATA3_2 and SATA3_3 in RAID 0
BIOS set to RAID currently
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

When I run Samsung Magician or any other SSD tools it says that I don't have an SSD installed and TRIM is not enabled. If I go in to the BIOS and set the controller to AHCI I don't have the above mentioned issues anymore, but I also don't have my 2 drives in a RAID, which is definitely an issue. The driver currently in use in Windows is AMD AHCI compatible RAID driver (when BIOS configured for RAID), which I thought would emulate AHCI, as well as allow for me to continue using my RAID setup. I've read from others that I should try using the MS driver (msahci?), but not sure how I can make that happen. Tried the regedit listed on numerous sites, same issue. If anyone has any thoughts, I would be grateful. Want the benefits of AHCI with my SSD, but don't want to sacrifice my RAID.

spooky2th · Jun 19, 2013

I believe you will have to load windows again to get the system to recognize the new drive properly plus RAID the two HDDs again. RAID0 does not have Trim support either. There is a way to set up trim support in RAID0, according to an article at anand.com. But it is seriously hard to get it right.

brandoncatz · Jun 19, 2013

spooky2th :

Sorry if my original post was worded funky. The RAID 0 is already set on my 2 mechanical drives. Definitely not trying to enable TRIM commands on that, only the SSD, which is a single drive. I've been troubleshooting and ran the FSUTIL command to confirm that TRIM is working in the OS, though I have no idea if the SSD is utilizing that.

Hoping that I don't have to wipe the SSD or the RAID drives, but I have been running a backup of the files on the RAID just in case. Considering backing up the RAID LD, breaking the RAID and restoring the files on to two separate disks. Then I can just set the controller to AHCI in BIOS and be done with it. Hopefully last resort.

spooky2th · Jun 19, 2013

Your system needs to be in AHCI for trim to work. It even works in IDE but IDE has slower R/W speeds.

brandoncatz · Jun 19, 2013

spooky2th :

So I have to be in AHCI mode in the BIOS in order for everything to jive, even though when in RAID mode Windows uses a driver that is "AHCI compatible". Thought that most mobo storage controllers set to RAID will work with AHCI...? But if what you are saying is true, then what are my options? Btw, thanks for the quick responses! Much appreciated!

spooky2th · Jun 19, 2013

Save your data first. Then I would just set up the 3 drives in RAID and RAID0 the 2 hdds again using the ssd to boot. You can do trim manually every so often.

Or just load windows on the ssd in ahci and use the 2 hdds as individual drives for backup/storage or what ever you need.

spooky2th · Jun 19, 2013

Here's the article that I was talking about.

TRIM & RAID-0 SSD Arrays Work With Intel 6-Series Motherboards Too
by Kristian Vättö on November 28, 2012

http://anandtech.com/show/6477/trim-raid0-ssd-arrays-work-with-intel-6series-motherboards-too

The article goes into how to set it all up.

Dereck47 · Jun 19, 2013

brandoncatz :

No, you don't. AHCI mode is a subset of RAID mode.
Any drive that is connected to a SATA port that is in RAID mode, but is not part of an actual RAID array will automatically default to AHCI mode.

brandoncatz :

Correct.

brandoncatz · Jun 19, 2013

Thanks, Dereck47. Any thoughts then on why Samsung Magician, CrystalDiskMark and SSDLife all state that no SSD exists in my system? There is definitely something not right in my system and I'm having a hard time pinpointing it. Drivers perhaps?

Dereck47 · Jun 19, 2013

Update your Chipset drivers and your RAID drivers to AMD's latest version. http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx#2

After you do that download and open AS-SSD benchmark software and post a screenshot of it. It will display what drivers you are currently using.
No need to run the benchmark if you don't want to, just open the software.

brandoncatz · Jun 19, 2013

Ok, the AMD drivers were updated, though I believe I had already done that a few hours before. Here is the screenshot from AS SSD, confirming that I am using the ahcix64s driver associated with AMD.

Dereck47 · Jun 19, 2013

ahcix64s - OK confirms that your drive is in AHCI mode.

You are good-to-go!

spooky2th · Jun 19, 2013

If you just added the ssd to your system after it has RAID 0 already set up and running, I believe that you need to set up your RAID configuration again with the SSD included in the mix. And RAID 0 the two HDDs again. If not, I sure would like to know what and how else to do it.

You probably should be backing up a lot if you're using a RAID 0 configuration.

brandoncatz · Jun 19, 2013

Good to know. But why do i still see this:

Dereck47 · Jun 20, 2013

Don't know why AS-SSD can see the drive and Samsung Magician & CrystalDiskInfo can't.

Only other thing I can think of is to uninstall Samsung Magician, reboot pc, reinstall Samsung Magician, reboot pc, open Samsung Magician and see if it sees your drive.
Download version 4.1 of the software. http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/MZ-7PD128BW

brandoncatz · Jun 28, 2013

First off, thanks for the quick responses, guys. I ended up going the long route to fix this. I backed up all my data, killed the RAID 0, put those drives in my NAS in a RAID 1, took the NAS drives (only 500GB each, but all I needed was 1 for an application partition and a temp partition) and put them in my machine, and took the 2TB drive I had for backups and am now using it as my Downloads drive. All that said, all software now recognizes my SSD, since I switched to AHCI from RAID in the BIOS and I was able to finish optimizing the OS.

p1tcho0 · Jun 29, 2013

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I bought this
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

I run this
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/ocz_...

I have this
http://imgur.com/tDaZLFS

dereck?

Gswiss · Sep 15, 2013

Dereck47 :

Samsung Magician tells me I'm not fully optimized because I'm not running in AHCI mode. Actually, I can only boot successfully in RAID mode (I have an ASUS P5Q3 MB, but RAID is deactivated). This was also the case with my SATA disk before I replaced it with SSD Samsung 840 Pro.

Should I just ignore the message since you say that AHCI is a subset of RAID?

Dereck47 · Sep 15, 2013

Gswiss :

You can probably ignore the message. Download & open AS-SSD benchmark software, and post a screenshot of it.
It will indicate whether your SSD is in AHCI mode or IDE mode. No need to run the benchmark if you don't want to.

spooky2th · Sep 16, 2013

Then there is a question of whether Trim is actually be done even if in AHCI mode and with it set to trim. A lot of users are finding that trim is not being performed on SSDs unless an OC is installed on it, Win 7 or 8.

Edit:
And I don't think that samsung magician will work properly or be able to see the ssd when your bios is set to RAID mode. Trim probably won't work either.

Palorim12 · Sep 16, 2013

brandoncatz :

Magician does not see the SSD when its in RAID, or if the SSD has SCSI drivers

Gswiss · Sep 16, 2013

Dereck47 :

I don't know how to attach the snapshot here. Am using Snagit and copy-paste doesn't appear to work. Anyhow, results are, for Read and Write respectively:
Seq 263.11 MB/s 250.86 MB/s
4K 26,24 45.92
4K-64Thrd 204.94 160.06
Acc.time 0.105 ms 0.062 ms
Score : 257 231
630

Dereck47 · Sep 16, 2013

Not looking for the benchmark results. I wanted to verify what driver your SSD is using.

Look at the AS-SSD benchmark that brandoncatz posted in this thread.
His results show ahcix64s – OK, which indicates he is using an AMD AHCI driver, which verifies that his SSD is in AHCI mode.

What driver does AS-SSD show for your SSD?

Gswiss · Sep 17, 2013

Dereck47 :

So far, I was running things under XP. In a W7 environment, isAtorV - OK is displayed instead of ahcix64s - OK. So, does that mean I have to reinstall Windows from scratch with AHCI in BIOS in order to benefit fully from SSD performance?

Dereck47 · Sep 17, 2013

iaStorV is the default Intel Matrix Storage Manager AHCI/RAID driver. So that confirms that your SSD is in AHCI mode. Your SSD is ok.

A fresh Windows install in AHCI mode may be the only way for Samsung Magician to recognize that your SSD is in AHCI mode.

One thing you could try before you do a fresh install is to update your drivers. That may allow Samsung Magician to recognize your SSD in AHCI mode.
Install Intel's latest RST drivers (version 12.8.0.1016) and see if that will allow Samsung Magician to recognize your SSD in AHCI mode.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=22271

SSD AHCI vs RAID

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