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IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers not showing up, unable to TRIM SSD
I am having an issue with my newly installed SSD. I just received an Alienware Aurora R4 with Windows 8. I immediately cloned the hard drive to an OCZ Vector 256GB drive using EaseUs ToDo Backup, as that worked flawlessly when I just upgraded to an SSD on my laptop. At first I had an issue with drive recognition, but then made sure bios was set to AHCI and UEFI and finally Windows 8 loaded. I reformatted the 2TB hard drive for (D:)Data and loaded all my music, video etc. Then when I went to optimize my drives, I clicked on the optimization for the SDD and it changed from needing optimization to "Optimization not available" - which it now says and is grayed out. I realized this is an issue as optimization in Win 8 on an SSD activates TRIM (works on my laptop). Not sure if this is a concern but the (I am pretty sure the previously hidden) DIAGS partition on the original drive was given a drive letter (F:) on the SSD.
Anyway back to the not optimization/TRIM. My first response was to google 'Optimization not available' and I found this link.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-performance/when-i-try-to-optimize-drives-i-get-optimization/20a45c49-a774-42b1-8317-20ef7799b6ad
The poster said he fixed his issue by updating his Storage Controller drivers. "Basically I downloaded the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers for Windows 8."
I checked my storage control drivers in device manager and these are listed:
Intel(R) 600 Series chipset SATA AHCI controller
Microsoft storage spaces controller
Reading futher into the article another person with a similar problem mentioned tried using the admin command promp to activate TRIM (which i then tried and had the exact same reult/error message), with the following results:
type "defrag c: /L"
Invoking retrim on drive name (C:)...
Retrim: 100% complete.
The operation requested is not supported by the hardware backing the volume. (0x8900002A)
This indiviual then upgraded to Windows 8 and let it pick the drivers and apparently his began to work. He mentioned that his IDE ATA/ATAPI controller changed in drive manager as well. Reading this I decided to see what mine were and noticed I do not even have IDE ATA/ATAPI controller listed on my system under drive manager! Even when checking to show hidden there is not an IDE ATA/ATAPI controller listing. Should I have this?
I went to the dell driver controller to check to see if I needed any updates. It only shows me Windows 7 updates as it says that it what my Aurora R4 came with when I added my service code (is there a way to fix this?). I just chose to look at a blank Arurora R4 and was able to see the Windows 8 drivers, and downloaded all the updates that seemed relevant (also updated bios from A06 to A07). When I downloaded the listed Serial ATA driver (7D9TS) and clicked update, it just said the file was unzipped but did not install anywhere (unlike the other drivers).
So does anybody know why I do not have IDE ATA/ATAPI listed and how to get this device?
For those that have an SSD drive on their Aurora R4 with Win 8 are you able to optimize and what drivers do you have that would affect this?
What are the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers for Windows 8 and how do I know if I even have Intel Rapid storage available?
Thanks so much. Sorry the the length but I wanted to be as detailed as possible.
Tesla1856
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February 12th, 2013 19:00
I think problems started here, on this EaseUs step.
Hopefully you still have this original Image backup ... likely on an external USB or something. Good ... keep that forever (especially since it sounds like you erased the original copy/drive).
You need to Clean Install Win-8 (and load proper chipset and other drivers) to that SSD so you can check hardware. It won't be easy because of no Win-8 media and hidden OEM serial key. You might have to talk with Dell to get some OEM media on DVD or USB-Flash.
Personally, I would have also created the Dell Recovery 16gb USB-Flash device in the beginning. It might come in handy now. It might have facilitated a full recovery of your OEM-Windows-8 ... even "bare-metal" (to your blank SSD).
morblore
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February 14th, 2013 00:00
A clean install would not have any intel RSTe or RST. Windows 8 does not come with it.
sutekh
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February 12th, 2013 10:00
forgot to list driver versions:
Intel(R) 600 Series chipset SATA AHCI controller 3.5.0.1096
Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller 6.2.9200.16384
DELL-Kanndy M
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February 12th, 2013 15:00
Hello Sutekh,
The “optimization” option you are talking about doesn’t refer to TRIM support, it actually enables a SSD to work as a caching device. Probably the reason why you can’t enable it is because you installed the OS in the SSD, therefore it cannot be used as caching device. (This option is often used for mSATA drives instead)
To check if your SSD is using TRIM you can download HWInfo64 and check the features that are enabled for your drives.
sutekh
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February 12th, 2013 17:00
above is a screenshot of my laptop in the process of being optimized (takes a few seconds). The "Stop" button will say "Optimize" when not running and can be clicked on to start the trim. However, on my desktop (pic below), the optimize button is grayed out and cannot be pressed. Also all the hidden partitions are shown which is odd.
sutekh
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February 12th, 2013 17:00
This answer confuses me. On my laptop and my friends PC which both have WIn 8 on the SSD, we can open the Optimize drive tool, and it shows last run (date) and current status (last run and OK if not fragmented). I am able to click on the Optimize button, and it shows 1-100% being trimmed then says OK once 100% reached, updating the current status and time. On my Aurora R4 the optimize button is grayed out and does not allow me to optimize.
On the Aurora R4 when I attempt the defrag command "defrag c: /L" I get the following error message:
Invoking retrim on drive name (C:)...
Retrim: 100% complete.
The operation requested is not supported by the hardware backing the volume. (0x8900002A)
And using the "defrag c: /A" prompt shows my fragmentation steadily rising.
When I run the "defrag c: /L" prompt on my ASUS ROG laptop I get:
Invoking retrim on OS (C:)...
The operation completed successfully.
Post Defragmentation Report:
Volume Information:
Volume size = 455.93
Free space = 197.33
Retrim:
Total space trimmed = 197.32
It makes me nervous that I get a full report on my laptop using the command prompts and am able to use the windows optimize feature to force TRIM, but am not able to on the new desktop and get an error trying to use trim. HWiNF064 does show that TRIM is supported on both, but I don't think it is being activated on my Aurora R4 as the errors show. As mentioned in the article I linked, others were able to start optimizing their SSD's once they updated drivers (the button now says" Optimize" instead of being grayed out and reading "Optimization not Available").
Shouldn't there be a IDE ATA/ATAPI controller in my device manager? I have never seen a computer without this - seems to be one of the necessary devices/drivers.
Also I am not able to access the drives I need using my service tag - it says my device uses Win 7 and only lists those incorrect drives. My PC came installed with Win 8. How do I change that so I can easily access the drivers I need for my device and that Win 8 is linked to my service tag?
In windows 7 I have read that optimization for SSD's was always grayed out - but that is not so for Win 8.
thanks for the assistance!
Tesla1856
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February 12th, 2013 19:00
Yes, that main folder should be there.
Both in Win7 and Win-8.
Both with Intel-RST installed or not. Although, Intel-RST installation usually makes items inside that folder look different.
Tesla1856
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February 12th, 2013 19:00
You can tell if they are installed by looking for the TaskTray icon and also an entry inside "Programs and Features".
Latest are at Intel.com .
If it is not already installed, I WOULD NOT install it (just run on the native Microsoft drivers).
sutekh
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February 12th, 2013 20:00
so I did find the Intel RSTe installed and upgraded to the latest driver from the Intel, but sadly it did not alleviate the problem (and I was quite hopeful as I found several more posts about Optimization on SSD's being fixed and not grayed out with current drivers for the X79 chipset.) I also confirmed on the Intel RSTe forums that if optimization is grayed out, then TRIM commands are indeed disabled and not cleaning up the SSD. I still have to wonder if it has something to do with no IDE ATA/ATAPI controller in my device manager. I may try a clean windows 8 install.
sutekh
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February 12th, 2013 21:00
Sadly I was not able to get an image back-up using the windows 7 tool. I kept getting the error of not having enough room on the drives I tried to copy to (even though one was a fresh 1.5 tb drive). I am able to get the OEM Windows key using Belarc Advisor, though I hear it often isn't accepted in a fresh install and a phone activation may have to occur. I plan to try a Refresh first and erase everything and reinstall Win 8 - if that doesn't help then I'll try the clean install.
I have read about the difficulty of getting the Win 8 media. I do have on USB (and also burned to disk) a Win 8 Pro upgrade from a different desktop that was just recently upgraded from Win 7 - will that allow me to install fresh Windows 8, or does some form of windows have to be on the drive to allow that to work? Hell, I would even be willing to mail my SSD to Dell and have everything factory installed on it if that were at all possible. I have a back-up desktop and my gaming laptop so would not be in any rush.
morblore
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February 12th, 2013 21:00
^----This is completely false.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/optimize-hard-drive#1TC=t1
Optimize your hard drive
Windows has the tools you need to optimize the drives in your PC. The types of optimization include:
Defragmenting: Rearranges fragmented data so a drive can work more efficiently.
Trim optimization: This process informs the backing storage which blocks of data are no longer in use. This allows the storage to optimize space and performance for future use.
Slab consolidation: Used primarily in thinly provisioned drives, this process rearranges data from sparsely populated slabs to densely populated slabs.
Tesla1856
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February 13th, 2013 16:00
Yes, that main folder should be there.
Both in Win7 and Win-8.
Both with Intel-RST installed or not. Although, Intel-RST installation usually makes items inside that folder look different.
morblore
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February 13th, 2013 17:00
Just a hunch but I bet it has something to do with doing a clone and not a fresh install. I am using Windows 8 but I did a fresh install and I do have the trim and it works just fine. Then again it worked on your laptop so who knows. Still a hunch but if you can try a fresh install.
sutekh
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February 13th, 2013 22:00
so I called DELL for the OEM Win 8 installation software for a fresh install. I attempted to use the "Remove everything and reinstall Windows" function in Windows 8. Luckily I had made the Win 8 recovery disk, which it said I needed to use to successfully reinstall as the files were missing form my computer. Loaded from disk and reinstalled that method, immediately looked in device manager and still no IDE ATA/ATAPI controller in device manager, still not able to Optimize, etc before even attempting to install all the drivers. Same after driver updates. I notice I have Intel RSTe installed, not RST. Should I have that instead? Considering the reinstall acts as a fresh install I am thinking there is some other issue causing my lack of TRIM support.
Tesla1856
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February 14th, 2013 01:00
A clean install would not have any intel RSTe or RST. Windows 8 does not come with it.