M.2 TRIM Support in Windows 7

[CoPhotoGuy]

I'm getting an XP941 and one of the things mentioned in the Anandtech article was that TRIM was not working on Win7 systems. Can anyone confirm this is the case or does anyone know if the X99 chipset helps with this or not?

I don't really want to get Windows 8.1, rather wait for Windows 10. I suppose I could just not worry about TRIM as this drive will be strictly OS/Applications and once everything is installed nothing will really be deleted. I will relocate swap file, temp folders and documents folders elsewhere.

 

[Fernando 1]

TRIM is working fine on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 TP with my XP941 M.2 SSD. I dont see any reason why it should not work on Windows 7.

By the way: There is a fine tool named TrimCheck available to check the TRIM activity within the SSD. Here is the link to the tool: https://github.com/CyberShadow/trimcheck

This is what I just got for the XP941 as System Drive:

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

Here is why I ask:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8430/...-256gb-and-ocz-revodrive-350-480gb-reviewed/2

I already tested TRIM with the 512GB XP941 and found it to be functional under Windows 8.1 (but not with Windows 7), so it is safe to assume that this applies to the rest of the XP941 lineup as well.

 

[Fernando 1]

Here is why I ask:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8430/...-256gb-and-ocz-revodrive-350-480gb-reviewed/2

I suspect another reason for the problems with Windows 7:
The Win7 in-box MS AHCI driver may not support the M.2 SATA Controller, because its HardwareIDs (PCI\VEN_144D&DEV_A800&CC_0106) were unknown, when Win7 has been developed by Microsoft.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

I suspect another reason for the problems with Windows 7:
The Win7 in-box MS AHCI driver may not support the M.2 SATA Controller, because its HardwareIDs (PCI\VEN_144D&DEV_A800&CC_0106) were unknown, when Win7 has been developed by Microsoft.

So are you guessing that if I install the latest Intel drivers it should pick it up? I'm curious and I will have to test this out.

 

[Fernando 1]

So are you guessing that if I install the latest Intel drivers it should pick it up?

No, only the generic Win8/8.1/10 AHCI driver is able to support the XP941 SSD. The Intel AHCI driver only support SATA drives, which are connected to one of the Intel SATA Controllers.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

No, only the generic Win8/8.1/10 AHCI driver is able to support the XP941 SSD. The Intel AHCI driver only support SATA drives, which are connected to one of the Intel SATA Controllers.

Wait, but you said you didn't see any reason why it wouldn't work on Windows 7.....

 

[Fernando 1]

Wait, but you said you didn't see any reason why it wouldn't work on Windows 7.....

You asked about the TRIM support and I didn't see any reason why TRIM shouldn't work while running Win7, because the Win7 own MS AHCI driver does support TRIM. After having read the linked article it seems possible for me, that the MS AHCI driver cannot be used, because it doesn't support the HardwareIDs of the M.2 PCIe Controller. Maybe a modification of the related INF file will solve the problem.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

Well I finally got Win7 to install on the XP941 after some hassle with the EFI booting nonsense. Maybe my Win7 media is just older but it didn't have the EFI boot file already and had to pull it off of my other system. I'll run some checks to verify trim, but even if trim isn't supported, I'm thinking I may just leave it at Win7 anyway. The drive will only have OS and applications stored on it and the temp, user folders and swap file will be moved elsewhere anyway so I shouldn't really need trim as things won't really get deleted from the OS drive.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

Well good news:

That's on Windows 7 with an XP941 256GB.