AHCI mode not enabled?

[j0ndafr3ak]

Hi,
I've just bought 2 120GB Samsung SSD 840 (not PRO). And I also have a Asus Sabertooth 990fx.

The SSD's are connected to Sata III ports with Sata III cables (the ones that came with the motherboard). In the BIOS settings I have AHCI mode selected.

I've read here (< click) that, in order to take advantage of TRIM, I must have AHCI on. And to see whether AHCI is enabled, I have to check in Device Manage > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and see "If an AHCI controller is identified, then the system is in AHCI mode" (quoting the article)
All is displayed in my PC's device manager is "AMD Sata controller" when in the BIOS settings I have the controller set to AHCI (other 2 options are either RAID or IDE).

Then I run "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify" command from CMD and it says that TRIM is enabled (DisableDeleteNotify = 0).

Now, is TRIM really on?

 

[Pinhedd]

The "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify" only indicates that the OS will try and use TRIM, it does not mean that TRIM is working correctly.

TRIM should work automatically on all non-raid member disks on Windows Vista SP1 and subsequent operating systems (Vista does not have native TRIM support, but some manufacturer tools add it in). If you want to use TRIM on SSDs which are members of an Intel firmware RAID then then the chipset must be of 7 series or later (not including x79, but some motherboard manufacturers have added support) and you must be using the Intel RST drivers version 11.6 or later. Windows 8 comes with the latest drivers, but Windows 7 does not.

If you want to use your two SSDs as a bootable RAID then you must put the storage controller into RAID mode (this also enables AHCI, don't worry).

Since you have an AMD chipset I can't comment on how their storage controller is implemented or whether or not it supports TRIM in RAID.

I believe that a software JBOD will support TRIM without much of a hassle though.

 

[j0ndafr3ak]

The "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify" only indicates that the OS will try and use TRIM, it does not mean that TRIM is working correctly.

TRIM should work automatically on all non-raid member disks on Windows Vista SP1 and subsequent operating systems (Vista does not have native TRIM support, but some manufacturer tools add it in). If you want to use TRIM on SSDs which are members of an Intel firmware RAID then then the chipset must be of 7 series or later (not including x79, but some motherboard manufacturers have added support) and you must be using the Intel RST drivers version 11.6 or later. Windows 8 comes with the latest drivers, but Windows 7 does not.

If you want to use your two SSDs as a bootable RAID then you must put the storage controller into RAID mode (this also enables AHCI, don't worry).

Since you have an AMD chipset I can't comment on how their storage controller is implemented or whether or not it supports TRIM in RAID.

I believe that a software JBOD will support TRIM without much of a hassle though.

thanks for the reply.

So, in other words, TRIM only works on Intel chipsets? I didn't get that part, sorry.

As for RAID-0, I did put the controller into RAID mode, but nothing happened. Like, it still tries to read from the OS ssd and somehow it starts loading windows (the logo screen appears for half a second), but it immediately crashes. Thought all data would be lost when creating a raid array, but when I set AHCI back on, all data is intact.

I think I'm supposed to run RAID configuration utility on boot by pressing the key combination CTRL+F, and set up the array configuration (like RAID 0, 1, 5 or 10). Nothing happens here, either...

Oh, one more thing that just popped to my mind. Can I control the RAID settings from Windows environment? I can download the AMD RAID drivers from AMD website. Will that help with RAID configuration?

 

[Pinhedd]

thanks for the reply.

So, in other words, TRIM only works on Intel chipsets? I didn't get that part, sorry.

As for RAID-0, I did put the controller into RAID mode, but nothing happened. Like, it still tries to read from the OS ssd and somehow it starts loading windows (the logo screen appears for half a second), but it immediately crashes. Thought all data would be lost when creating a raid array, but when I set AHCI back on, all data is intact.

I think I'm supposed to run RAID configuration utility on boot by pressing the key combination CTRL+F, and set up the array configuration (like RAID 0, 1, 5 or 10). Nothing happens here, either...

Oh, one more thing that just popped to my mind. Can I control the RAID settings from Windows environment? I can download the AMD RAID drivers from AMD website. Will that help with RAID configuration?

TRIM works on AMD and Intel chipsets, but currently only Intel 7 series chipsets support TRIM on SSDs that are in a RAID formation. If the SSDs are independent, then TRIM will work just fine.

The RAID provided on AMD and Intel based motherboards is not a true hardware RAID, it is a firmware assisted RAID. All it is is a firmware ROM which exposes the logical volumes to the OS as well as the appropriate interface. This is functionally similar to a software RAID that would be created by the OS, but can be booted from whereas one created from within Windows cannot (chicken and egg problem).

If you get a BSOD when switching to RAID mode then you may have to update the chipset drivers from AMD's website (including the ones that you mentioned). I am not sure how AMD handles this, but on Intel platforms it is possible to switch between AHCI mode and RAID mode without issue provided that the latest drivers are installed.

If you have only the two SSDs and do not have a platter disk RAID, I would suggest just leaving it in AHCI mode.