SSD shows up as removable disk on Windows 7?

[Fjodor2001]

Hi,

I'm running Windows 7 on an Intel X25-M G2 80 GB SSD (attached via a SATA cable and configured in the BIOS to use AHCI). Now I've noticed that the system tray icon "Safely remove hardware" lists the drive as a removable disk, so that there is an option saying "Eject INTEL SSDSA2M080G2GN ATA Device".

Is there anyone else who have experienced this or know what's going on? Is it a bug / driver issue / or simply something that is normal in Windows 7?

It sounds strange that it should be possible to eject an SSD!?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Fjodor2001]

I solved it. I had to update some of the Windows 7 drivers for my ASUS P5B-E Plus motherboard. Now the SSD does not show up as a removable disk anymore!

Strange that Windows 7 doesn't come with updated drivers for a several year old motherboard, or that the drivers aren't pushed out via Windows update, so that one has to download them from ASUS instead.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Actually in windows xp my two sata hard drives show up as removable storage. Guess it depends how the controller presents it to the OS.

 

[jkroeder]

it's normal because with SATA drives and AHCI enabled, you have the ability to hot-swap

 

[Fjodor2001]

I'm not sure if it's to be considered normal that fixed disks are presented as removable (even though SATA supports removable drives). Also, note that after I had updated the motherboard drivers, the fixed disks were no longer presented as removable.

I think the reason for this is that Windows obtained different info about the SSD device before I updated the motherboard drivers compared to after. This info can be seen in the Windows Device Manager; Under Disks, select the SSD disk, right click and select Properties. Then go to the Information tab. In the combobox, select "Capabilities". Before the driver update, this property had the value CM_DEVCAP_REMOVABLE and after the update it had the value CM_DEVCAP_SURPRISEREMOVALOK. There might be other property values that have changed as well, but I remember this one.

See also:

http://superuser.com/questions/1295...ject-sata-drives-from-the-windows-7-tray-icon

and

http://forum.soft32.com/windows/Safely-Remove-SATA-device-ftopict347478.html

 

[M0RPH]

You might consider your disk as fixed and never have any intention to swap it. Someone else might have a swappable tray on that same controller and want it to be listed in Safely remove. You're saying there was something wrong with your drive being listed as removeable and that's just not true. In fact every SATA disk should have that capability, it would just be nice if Windows had a check box for each drive so that you could choose which ones you want to be removeable.

Now if you decide at some point to install an SATA drive that you want to be swappable (ie. swappable tray) you'll be like 'oh shit, there's something wrong with my drive... I can't get it to show up in Safely remove.'

Of course the boot drive should never be treated as removable... Windows should be smarter than that.

 

[Fjodor2001]

I think Windows just acts on the info the driver & disk provides about the disk, i.e.:

CM_DEVCAP_REMOVABLE = Device is removable but must be explicitly ejected in Windows first => Show in "Safely remove hardware".

CM_DEVCAP_SURPRISEREMOVALOK = Device is removable but must not be explicitly ejected in Windows (i.e. surprise removal ok) => Do not show in "Safely remove hardware".

It is similar to the situation for USB Flash Disks. In earlier Windows versions you had to explicitly eject an USB Flash Disk in Windows before removing it. In later Windows versions you can just remove it without first explicitly ejecting it.

Likely this was what the driver update fixed, i.e. report the drive to Windows as CM_DEVCAP_SURPRISEREMOVALOK instead of CM_DEVCAP_REMOVABLE. Windows acts on this and don't show the drive in "Safely remove hardware" since it's not necessary to explicitly eject it before removing it.

For info about Dynamic Hot-Plug (e.g. surprise removal), see section 5.17.2 in http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/307013.pdf.

 

[gmjimmy]

I solved it. I had to update some of the Windows 7 drivers for my ASUS P5B-E Plus motherboard. Now the SSD does not show up as a removable disk anymore!

Strange that Windows 7 doesn't come with updated drivers for a several year old motherboard, or that the drivers aren't pushed out via Windows update, so that one has to download them from ASUS instead.

Which Win 7 drivers did you update? I have a new ASUS P7P55D-E Pro board running Win 7/64 Pro and my SSD is in the safe to remove list while using the standard MS driver ahci. When using the new Intel driver things are different. To further explain, read the following that I have posted on the Intel site so their tech staff can help me. This may not be relevant to your situation but may be related.

One thing I have noticed that has me deciding to use the MS driver. The "Safe to remove hardware" feature in Windows (Win 7/64 Pro) does NOT list the hard drives in the P55 controller with the Intel driver 9.6.0.1014.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18859&lang=eng

I have a ASUS P7P55D-E Pro mother board with 6 SATA ports for the P55, 2 for the J.Micron controller and 2 for the Marvel controller. With the MS driver ALL hardware except for the optical drives are reported in the Safely remove hardware list (Even the X25-M OS drive). For the six P55 sata ports I use one for the SSD, one for my 1 TB storage drive and 1 each for my DVD drives, one for my dedicated hot swap dock on top of my case (coolermaster CM690 2 Advanced) and the last one for an eSata connector on the back of the case. If I use the other controllers for my hot swap dock they are reported with the Intel driver but I find they are slower. With the hot swap dock attached to the same controller as my SSD and 1TB storage drive things are much quicker but I can't click safely remove hardware for this device because it's not listed. Due to the fact that the Intel drivers are so close in performance to the MS driver I'm sticking with the MS driver because of this. If there is benefit to the Intel driver besides the slight speed advantage I would like to know about it.
Thanks
Jim

 

[Spicedaddy]

it's normal because with SATA drives and AHCI enabled, you have the ability to hot-swap

+1

 

[Fjodor2001]

Which Win 7 drivers did you update?

I downloaded the drivers from the ASUS website:

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

1. Select "Motherboard", "Socket 775", "ASUS P5B-E Plus".
2. Press [Search].
3. Select "Windows 7 64bit".
4. Download and install all drivers.

I notice that you have a different ASUS motherboard, but you should be able to follow the same basic procedure as I did above.

Finally, have you received any response from Intel, and if so what did they say?

 

[gmjimmy]

No response from Intel!