SSD Raid TRIM without using Intel Software

davidst99

Senior member
Apr 20, 2007
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Hi,

Does Windows 8.1 offer support for TRIM on a 2xSSD Raid 0 without using the Intel Raid software? I have a PCIe SSD with two M.2 chips in RAID 0. The manual says it supports Raid but the OS has to support it for it work. Thank you.

David
 

Fernando 1

Senior member
Jul 29, 2012
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Windows 7 and Windows 8 do support TRIM. Both Operating Systems send TRIM commands into the related Intel SATA RAID Controller. The only question is, if the Controller lets TRIM pass into the RAID array.
You don't need the Intel RAID software, but the appropriate Intel RAID driver and Intel RAID ROM/SataDriver BIOS modules to get TRIM in RAID0 support.
 
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G73S

Senior member
Mar 14, 2012
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I don't know about 8 but on Windows 7, until I installed the IRST driver, TRIM wasn't working.

You can install the IRST driver onnly by manually pointing the driver updater in device manager to where the IRST package was, then it will only install the INF drivers.

Or you can simply download the FLOPPY x64 packaged of the IRST driver:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/23496/eng/f6flpy-x64.zip
 

Fernando 1

Senior member
Jul 29, 2012
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I don't know about 8 but on Windows 7, until I installed the IRST driver, TRIM wasn't working.
That is impossible, because the only alternative is the MS AHCI driver, which definitively supports TRIM.
 

Coup27

Platinum Member
Jul 17, 2010
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I don't know about 8 but on Windows 7, until I installed the IRST driver, TRIM wasn't working.

You can install the IRST driver onnly by manually pointing the driver updater in device manager to where the IRST package was, then it will only install the INF drivers.

Or you can simply download the FLOPPY x64 packaged of the IRST driver:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/23496/eng/f6flpy-x64.zip
You want to be careful doing this. When I experimented with an SSD RAID0 I loaded the f6-floppy driver during installation and after booting Windows 7 took a benchmark. I then installed the full RST package of the same version number and took another benchmark and scores across the board were significantly higher than before. I did make a thread at the time asking what was the difference between the f6-floppy and the full package was but nobody could tell me.
 

G73S

Senior member
Mar 14, 2012
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That is impossible, because the only alternative is the MS AHCI driver, which definitively supports TRIM.
nope, I tried bro, Installed Windows 7, ran all Windows updates, TRIM check failed until I installed the IRST driver then it worked.

When I say TRIM check, I don't only mean if the command was sent successfully, I mean if it actually reached the drive which are 2 different things, to properly check, I used trimcheck.exe:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386818
 

G73S

Senior member
Mar 14, 2012
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You want to be careful doing this. When I experimented with an SSD RAID0 I loaded the f6-floppy driver during installation and after booting Windows 7 took a benchmark. I then installed the full RST package of the same version number and took another benchmark and scores across the board were significantly higher than before. I did make a thread at the time asking what was the difference between the f6-floppy and the full package was but nobody could tell me.
oh I never load them during installation mate, that's not really needed any more. I manually load them AFTER I've installed Windows and after installing the Intel Chipset Software Utility
 

Fernando 1

Senior member
Jul 29, 2012
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When I experimented with an SSD RAID0 I loaded the f6-floppy driver during installation and after booting Windows 7 took a benchmark. I then installed the full RST package of the same version number and took another benchmark and scores across the board were significantly higher than before.
My benchmark results were always vice versa: I got better scores without the RST software.
Since the Intel RST Console and Service usually are running in the background all the time, they decrease the performance.
 

Fernando 1

Senior member
Jul 29, 2012
351
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nope, I tried bro, Installed Windows 7, ran all Windows updates, TRIM check failed until I installed the IRST driver then it worked.
You are wrong. A negative TrimCheck Tool result doesn't mean, that TRIM doesn't work, it only means, that TRIM activity is actually not detectable by the tool.
The OS doesn't send all the time the same amount of TRIM commands. Furthermore the TrimCheck Tool is not able to detect low TRIM activities. In this case the manual TRIM test by using a Hex Editor is better.
 

G73S

Senior member
Mar 14, 2012
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My benchmark results were always vice versa: I got better scores without the RST software.
Since the Intel RST Console and Service usually are running in the background all the time, they decrease the performance.
what about the performance enhancement that they offer like Dynamic Storage Accelerator?

And why the heck everytime I enable it, if I reboot, it's disabled again and I have to re-enable it?
 

G73S

Senior member
Mar 14, 2012
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You are wrong. A negative TrimCheck Tool result doesn't mean, that TRIM doesn't work, it only means, that TRIM activity is actually not detectable by the tool.
The OS doesn't send all the time the same amount of TRIM commands. Furthermore the TrimCheck Tool is not able to detect low TRIM activities. In this case the manual TRIM test by using a Hex Editor is better.
Well if you think so, I will however always install the IRST driver if I was on RAID mode as it is known that RAID 0 mode supports TRIM when and only when the IRST driver is installed. I trust that tool and if it gives me a TRIM check pass after installing the IRST driver then I'm a happy camper.
 

Fernando 1

Senior member
Jul 29, 2012
351
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I will however always install the IRST driver if I was on RAID mode as it is known that RAID 0 mode supports TRIM when and only when the IRST driver is installed.
When your Intel SATA Controller has been set to RAID mode, you cannot install any other RAID driver than the Intel one. None of the Windows Operating Systems has an MS RAID driver on board.
 

G73S

Senior member
Mar 14, 2012
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When your Intel SATA Controller has been set to RAID mode, you cannot install any other RAID driver than the Intel one. None of the Windows Operating Systems has an MS RAID driver on board.


can you tell me then what's the difference between iastor and MASAHCI? because on Windows 8.1 I notice that even before installing the IRST driver, the controller is set to use the IASTOR by default?
 

Fernando 1

Senior member
Jul 29, 2012
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can you tell me then what's the difference between iastor and MASAHCI? because on Windows 8.1 I notice that even before installing the IRST driver, the controller is set to use the IASTOR by default?
The default RAID driver, which is used by Win7 and Win8, is the on-board Intel RAID driver named iaStorV.sys.
Microsoft's MSAHCI resp. STORAHCI driver can only supprt the AHCI mode, whereas Intel's iaStor resp. iaStorA driver is able to support the AHCI and the RAID mode (it just uses different INF files for the different action).
 

G73S

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Mar 14, 2012
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The default RAID driver, which is used by Win7 and Win8, is the on-board Intel RAID driver named iaStorV.sys.
Microsoft's MSAHCI resp. STORAHCI driver can only supprt the AHCI mode, whereas Intel's iaStor resp. iaStorA driver is able to support the AHCI and the RAID mode (it just uses different INF files for the different action).
ah I see, thanks for your advice Mr. Pro
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
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You can install the IRST driver onnly by manually pointing the driver updater in device manager to where the IRST package was
No. Once you install IRST, you can select the Intel drivers as one of the list of compatible drivers for your ATA controller, the other option being MS'. I've done this several times on my home PC, checking out benchmarking and feature differences. I never had to point it to a set of files.

then it will only install the INF drivers.
IRST and the INF drivers are not packaged together.
 

SolMiester

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2004
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oh I never load them during installation mate, that's not really needed any more. I manually load them AFTER I've installed Windows and after installing the Intel Chipset Software Utility

I imagine it would be rather difficult to install the O/S onto the logical drive of the array when the setup cant see the logical drive, because it doesnt have the RAID driver!?
 

Fernando 1

Senior member
Jul 29, 2012
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I imagine it would be rather difficult to install the O/S onto the logical drive of the array when the setup cant see the logical drive, because it doesnt have the RAID driver!?
Windows 7 and Wndows 8 have an Intel RAID driver on board.