AHCI on SSD:How to determine AHCI is working or not??

[weatherphobia]

In my GigaByte Motherboard GA-EP45-UD3P (Rev 1.1) I have set the following 4 options to make sure AHCI mode is ON With my boot drive 128GB Crucial SSD.


Integrated Peripherals
SATA RAID/AHCI Mode (Intel ICH10R Southbridge) ............. AHCI
SATA Port0-3 Native Mode .................................................. Enabled

Onboard SATA/IDE Device (GIGABYTE SATA2 Chip) ............. Enabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode (GIGABYTE SATA2 Chip) ........... IDE


All this is setup in the BIOS, but where of where is some software to tell me YES AHCI is working?
Is there a clue, software, anything to test to determine if I am AHCI instead of IDE Mode?

Please help.

 

[dEAne]

You see an AHCI during boot time.

 

[Crashman]

In my GigaByte Motherboard GA-EP45-UD3P (Rev 1.1) I have set the following 4 options to make sure AHCI mode is ON With my boot drive 128GB Crucial SSD.


Integrated Peripherals
SATA RAID/AHCI Mode (Intel ICH10R Southbridge) ............. AHCI
SATA Port0-3 Native Mode .................................................. Enabled

Onboard SATA/IDE Device (GIGABYTE SATA2 Chip) ............. Enabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode (GIGABYTE SATA2 Chip) ........... IDE


All this is setup in the BIOS, but where of where is some software to tell me YES AHCI is working?
Is there a clue, software, anything to test to determine if I am AHCI instead of IDE Mode?

Please help.

I'm going to make the big assumption that you're using the Crucial drives on the Intel controller. Heck, if I were you I'd disable the GSATA2 controller because it just adds boot time.
Anyway, control panel will tell you that you're in AHCI mode once you have the Intel AHCI driver loaded, because it will combine all the Intel ports into one controller (the list of Intel controllers will go from like six items to one).

But, I'm going to make another assumption that you're NOT using the Intel driver because I've heard that TRIM only works with the Microsoft driver. In any case, there really isn't a need to confirm anything because I've done that for you.

I've tested the EP35-UD3P, with AHCI mode enabled in BIOS, and it worked.

 

[sub mesa]

Download AS SSD and start it; it will tell you directly what driver you use:
- pciide.sys = microsoft IDE driver
- msahci = Microsoft AHCI driver
- iastor.sys = Intel AHCI/RAID driver

TRIM works with all these drivers, Intel from 9.6 RST version. But none of these drivers support TRIM on RAID.

 

[Crashman]

Download AS SSD and start it; it will tell you directly what driver you use:
- pciide.sys = microsoft IDE driver
- msahci = Microsoft AHCI driver
- iastor.sys = Intel AHCI/RAID driver

TRIM works with all these drivers, Intel from 9.6 RST version. But none of these drivers support TRIM on RAID.

Download something? He could just as easily find the driver in Device Manager as well.

DOWNLOAD NOTHING!!!

 

[sub mesa]

AS SSD is a great SSD benchmarking tool, comparable to CrystalDiskMark.

Besides benchmarking you can also use it to:
- check your alignment (says GOOD if good, BAD if bad; that easy)
- lists the I/O driver you are using for that particular volume
- test whether NCQ is really working (the 4K-64 read score should be ~10x as high as 4K read score)

I see no bad in downloading and using this useful utility; every SSD owner on Windows should have it.

 

[weatherphobia]

Download AS SSD and start it; it will tell you directly what driver you use:
- pciide.sys = microsoft IDE driver
- msahci = Microsoft AHCI driver
- iastor.sys = Intel AHCI/RAID driver

TRIM works with all these drivers, Intel from 9.6 RST version. But none of these drivers support TRIM on RAID.

My SSD Drive is the 128 GB one (# CT128M225 )


AS SSD reads as 'msahci = Microsoft AHCI driver'


But is the MSFT AHCI Driver the best or fastest one to use?
Obviously I'm speaking considering AHCI mode with my Crucial 128 GB drive.


Thanks to all, for all you do for the not-so-smart people like me....

 

[sub mesa]

If you have Intel chipset it may be worth trying out the Intel storage driver (iastor.sys), it also supports TRIM, if your SSD is not part of a RAID array; though the BIOS may be set to RAID mode for other HDDs in RAID; but not your SSD.

Other chipset vendors have drivers of their own, but they all don't support TRIM, including AMD chipset drivers. For those platforms, just use the default Microsoft AHCI driver, then you have TRIM support.

 

[weatherphobia]

If you have Intel chipset it may be worth trying out the Intel storage driver (iastor.sys), it also supports TRIM, if your SSD is not part of a RAID array; though the BIOS may be set to RAID mode for other HDDs in RAID; but not your SSD.

Other chipset vendors have drivers of their own, but they all don't support TRIM, including AMD chipset drivers. For those platforms, just use the default Microsoft AHCI driver, then you have TRIM support.

I cannot find the Intel AHCI SSD Driver anywhere.

Do you or anyone have a download link or url?

 

[randomizer]

AS SSD is a great SSD benchmarking tool, comparable to CrystalDiskMark.

It's better than CDM, but only because it writes about 2GB of data each go in order to get a better average result.

 

[Crashman]

I cannot find the Intel AHCI SSD Driver anywhere.

Do you or anyone have a download link or url?

That's because there is no such thing. If your motherboard has an Intel chipset, you would need the Intel AHCI driver for your chipset.

Drives haven't required special drivers in a long, long time.

 

[sub mesa]

You can use the Intel driver, such as this one:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/detail_desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=&DwnldID=15251&strOss=&OSFullName=&lang=eng

But you may want to check the version on your motherboards manufacturer first, to see if they have an up-to-date storage/RAID driver for you as well. Chances are that it is outdated, however, in which case downloading directly from Intel may be a solution. But i cannot personally vouch for it, since i'm not on Windows platform. You need at least the version above for TRIM support, so anything earlier than March 2010 does not have TRIM support.

 

[weatherphobia]

You can use the Intel driver, such as this one:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/detail_desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=&DwnldID=15251&strOss=&OSFullName=&lang=eng

But you may want to check the version on your motherboards manufacturer first, to see if they have an up-to-date storage/RAID driver for you as well. Chances are that it is outdated, however, in which case downloading directly from Intel may be a solution. But i cannot personally vouch for it, since i'm not on Windows platform. You need at least the version above for TRIM support, so anything earlier than March 2010 does not have TRIM support.

I did not/do not need or want to use RAID so what 'drivers' do I download and Install to force it back to 'msahci'' instead?

My motherboard is a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P ( NOT EP45T.. A LOT of people add the T to the motherboard model and I'm sure it's an honest mistake.

Thanks and sure hope you can get me back to MSAHCI

 

[Crashman]

I did not/do not need or want to use RAID so what 'drivers' do I download and Install to force it back to 'msahci'' instead?

My motherboard is a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P ( NOT EP45T.. A LOT of people add the T to the motherboard model and I'm sure it's an honest mistake.

Thanks and sure hope you can get me back to MSAHCI

If it's set in BIOS to AHCI and booting into Windows, it should load msahci.sys by default. If you want to boost controller performance, get the AHCI/RAID drivers from Intel, they're both in the same package, and load those. And don't worry about whether people refer to your board as the T or non-T version, the only difference between the two is the type of memory slot and BIOS (drivers are the same).

 

[mark_k]

That's because there is no such thing. If your motherboard has an Intel chipset, you would need the Intel AHCI driver for your chipset.

Drives haven't required special drivers in a long, long time.

The guy is new.
I beleive that was what he was asking.
He's looking for the ACHI Driver for his Intel Chipset.

 

[weatherphobia]

The guy is new.
I beleive that was what he was asking.
He's looking for the ACHI Driver for his Intel Chipset.

Just to be clear:Am I suppose to go with latest INTEL chipset or my Board maker's?


FWIW I'm getting ~200 with AS-SSD Benchmark which I should assume is good news?

Thanks for hanging on here trying to assist me.

 

[bramke]

can u guys see if my ssd is running in ahci by this screenshot?

the score is pretty low for a samsung 830



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[JohnnyLucky]

bramke - This thread is from 2010. It is 2 years old. You would be better off starting a new thread.

Anyway, check your motherboard BIOS or your Samsung SSD Magician utility for the information.

 

[bramke]

i don't know how to check it in bios


but here it says this

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Did you run the Samsung SSD Magician?