SOLVED: Another SSD / AHCI question

[Herkulese]

Motherboard: Gitabyte 970A-UD3 (AM3+ / SATA 3)
CPU : Phenom II X4 965
SSD : Crucial M500 240 SATA
HD : WD Blue 1TB 7200 RPM, SATA
DVD-RW : LG 24x SuperMulti SATA

When I finished my build, which has an SSD System drive and a Platter Data Drive, both of which are SATA, I neglected to change to AHCI mode in BIOS. The drives all showed up in BIOS, but Windows did not see the Plater Drive, which should have been Drive-D, however it did see the SSD as Drive-C.

Then I remembered that I needed to set AHCI, so I did that, and then both drives were shown in Windows. Yes, for other reasons, I also did a reinstall of Windows 7, so that Trimm and other items were automatically set, and I have double cheacked this items.

My question is this: In BIOS, under the AHCI setting, where you would expect to see the list of drives, like are shown when in IDE mode, there are just empty blued out lines. No drives are listed.

On the other hand, when I go to the Boot priority section, the SSD is shown, the DVD is listed, and LS-120, but the second HD is still not shown.

All is working perfectly, so I am wondering if this is normal when in AHCI mode.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Motherboard: Gitabyte 970A-UD3 (AM3+ / SATA 3)
CPU : Phenom II X4 965
SSD : Crucial M500 240 SATA
HD : WD Blue 1TB 7200 RPM, SATA
DVD-RW : LG 24x SuperMulti SATA

When I finished my build, which has an SSD System drive and a Platter Data Drive, both of which are SATA, I neglected to change to AHCI mode in BIOS. The drives all showed up in BIOS, but Windows did not see the Plater Drive, which should have been Drive-D, however it did see the SSD as Drive-C.

Then I remembered that I needed to set AHCI, so I did that, and then both drives were shown in Windows. Yes, for other reasons, I also did a reinstall of Windows 7, so that Trimm and other items were automatically set, and I have double cheacked this items.

My question is this: In BIOS, under the AHCI setting, where you would expect to see the list of drives, like are shown when in IDE mode, there are just empty blued out lines. No drives are listed.

On the other hand, when I go to the Boot priority section, the SSD is shown, the DVD is listed, and LS-120, but the second HD is still not shown.

All is working perfectly, so I am wondering if this is normal when in AHCI mode.

I couldn't be sure about an AMD system. I would think if the onboard controller is not disabled, you'd see those drives listed on the main BIOS "system" screen. I am confused by your reference to "LS 120."

There should be a "boot priority" submenu on the BIOS "Boot" menu, and a "HARD DISKS" submenu. The latter chooses WHICH hard disk will be determined for the "Hard Disk" option of the first menu.

As familiar as I'd become with these things of necessity to use either an onboard RAID option or a PCI_E controller card, I've been fooled by my own negligence thinking that something else was wrong when my system failed to boot because of misconfiguration of the BIOS boot menu.

If the HDDs and other storage devices are revealed by Windows, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Or maybe someone else could offer better insight on AMD-specific hardware.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I'm now thinking that those drives would not appear in the main "system" BIOS screen if you have RAID configured. They would instead appear under an "onboard devices" menu or whichever menu reveals the RAID configuration submenu. If the drives are "standalone," they'd be shown as I said in the boot menu. If there is a conventional RAID array, the boot device would be the controller itself and its array.

I'm looking toward the same "conversion" that you mentioned. SSD-caching/HDD-acceleration requires RAID-mode with the SSD and HDD as standalone devices. TRIM is implemented under that scenario for Intel boards I know of.

For converting an existing configuration from RAID to AHCI, there is a Microsoft "Fix-It" button on one of their web-pages, and I even provided the link to it on one of these forums, either "Storage" or "OS's." After the Fix-it has executed, your must re-boot to immediate BIOS access and change the configuration to AHCI. You should then be able to boot Windows normally, provided your BIOS "boot" menu is properly configured. And after such a change -- yes -- I'd check that menu again so that your boot SSD or HDD is indeed the first priority device under "Hard Disks" and referenced as "Hard disk" again in the boot priority menu.

Again, if you don't create a RAID ARRAY of SSDs required to be bootable, you still get TRIM under Windows. I personally just think it's better to use AHCI unless you absolutely need a RAID array for your hard disks. And I don't think it's such a great benefit to make a RAID array of SSDs -- even if there's been some confirmation that the disks are TRIMmed under Windows for certain BIOS updates for certain Intel chipsets and updates to Intel controller software. If you don't have the Intel controller on your motherboard, then these "new developments" don't apply to you AFIK.

This fog and confusion about TRIM has been a hot and endless topic for at least a couple years. Using an SSD boot-system disk in AHCI mode totally resolves it so you don't need to read copious piles of material about it or nit-pick over the details.

 

[Herkulese]

The LS-120 reference is simply one of the choices for boot priority.

It was another Floppy Disk platform that never really took off, but still has legacy fingers in certain places.

I am running in AHCI, and Trim was automatically set, and Defragg was automatically disabled in Win 7, as I said, and I did check to be sure.

Yea, in windows the drives all show up just as they should, so I didn’t worry about it, but have become more and more curious, as I learn more about running SSD’s and the specifics that have to be considered.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The LS-120 reference is simply one of the choices for boot priority.

It was another Floppy Disk platform that never really took off, but still has legacy fingers in certain places.

I am running in AHCI, and Trim was automatically set, and Defragg was automatically disabled in Win 7, as I said, and I did check to be sure.

Yea, in windows the drives all show up just as they should, so I didn’t worry about it, but have become more and more curious, as I learn more about running SSD’s and the specifics that have to be considered.

Casual note -- mindful about making judgments about your experience with all this sh -- stuff.

This is why my dentist, whose remarks I absorbed during my "cleaning" last week -- explains that he's no longer interested in building PCs. He buys corporate surplus, which has been tweaked and refurbished to run perfectly. those are all OEM computers, like Mainstreamers buy all the time.

Once it was likely true that "enthusiast" DIY'ers "saved money" over the OEM offerings. Nowadays, I think this has reversed itself in a statistical distribution of PC users -- anyway.

Your OEM computer-maker puts together a team of techie lab testers, orders various options of parts to test, settles on a particular configuration for a "model" slated for release, configures the operating system perfectly (we'd hope!) on a single prototype, and then clones thousands of those disks from the prototype to insert into the production units as they roll off the assembly line. I should've used the expression "probably puts together . . . " because I mostly deduce all this and gather tidbits about it as reported here and elsewhere. It would only make sense, and common sense at that!

But for all that, I've never been all that impressed with [mainstream] OEM retail offerings. So Moral of the Story: become familiar with BIOS and keep picking the brains of your contemporaries on these forums!

Just keep track of your credit cards and exercise reasonable restraint . . .

 

[razel]

Since it shows up in the boot priority, it's probably normal. It's just an oversight in the BIOS programming. UEFI BIOSs are very complex.

 

[Herkulese]

Since it shows up in the boot priority, it's probably normal. It's just an oversight in the BIOS programming. UEFI BIOSs are very complex.

The second disk dose not show up in the boot priority list.
The SSD, DVD, and LS-120 are the only choices.

Again, all seems to be working, so this is more of a curiosity than anything esle. But I thought I would ask, just in case it was an issue to be dealt with.

Thanks,
Roger

 

[Cerb]

All is working perfectly, so I am wondering if this is normal when in AHCI mode.

Perfectly normal.

You also might want to see if you have a HDD group to change the order of. It's now common for setups to have an HDD boot option, that groups all SATA disk drives together, and then a separate/sub list, with the drives. Almost every EUFI mobo I've seen does this, but I've seen it pre-EUFI, too.

 

[Herkulese]

Perfectly normal.

You also might want to see if you have a HDD group to change the order of. It's now common for setups to have an HDD boot option, that groups all SATA disk drives together, and then a separate/sub list, with the drives. Almost every EUFI mobo I've seen does this, but I've seen it pre-EUFI, too.

Thanks, I will check it out.

 

[Herkulese]

Perfectly normal.

You also might want to see if you have a HDD group to change the order of. It's now common for setups to have an HDD boot option, that groups all SATA disk drives together, and then a separate/sub list, with the drives. Almost every EUFI mobo I've seen does this, but I've seen it pre-EUFI, too.

I went back and checked and those blued out lines show IDE Master and Slaves, and there are none. But that is weird as this board has no IDE plugs.
Anyway, I looked in the boot priority, list and both drives are listed there.

 

[Cerb]

If you set SATA mode to IDE, it will typically overlay your SATA ports 0-3 on to virtual IDE primary/secondary master/slave, they'll show up there, and it will work old DOS software.

 

[Herkulese]

If you set SATA mode to IDE, it will typically overlay your SATA ports 0-3 on to virtual IDE primary/secondary master/slave, they'll show up there, and it will work old DOS software.

Just curious: Why would I do this, other than to run old dos software?
Again, not being a smart*&&^S at all, just wanting to learn as much as I can.
Thanks

 

[Cerb]

You generally wouldn't. It would entirely be to run DOS, XP, 2K, OS/2 (eCommStation), etc. (in some cases, bootable discs may require it, as well, like a backup restore CD/DVD). Just the same, you can buy Haswell systems with serial and parallel ports on the back. Old software and hardware, when expensive and reliable, keeps on keepin' on.