topic Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver! in Archive

To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:19:20 GMT

Hi,

I installed yesterday my new Win7 32bits i put it on my new Intel 160gb gen 2 with 02HD firmware and started installing drivers.

I installed Intel SSD Toolbox - v1.2 just for curiosity because i know i didn´t need it for trim, i read agood part of the manual (requirements and similar stuff) and i thought i was ready to install the Intel SSD Toolbox - v1.2. AFTER other stuff i decided to see a little more of the toolbox manual and I FOUND IN PAG 13!!!!!!! THAT ONE SHOULDN´T INSTALL matrix storage driver BECAUSE THEN ONE REALLY NEED TO USE THE TOOLBOX for trim!!!!!!!! IT SAYS THIS IN THE Schedule SECTION!!! (INSTED IN THE BEGIN WITH EG THE TITULE I M P O R T A N T):

6. If your PC uses Microsoft Windows 7 and the Intel Matrix Storage Manager version 8.x (which can be used in place of the Microsoft AHCI driver), then the Intel SSD Optimizer tool is required to enable the ATA Data Set Management Command (Trim).

NOW I LOST LOTS OFF HOURS AROUND THESE, INSTED OF EXPLORING MY NEW OS AND SSD ONLY TO FIND THAT althoug i uninstaled this matrix thing I NEED TO REINSTALL THE OS BECAUSE matrix storage driver MANUAL SAYS THAT TO REMOVE THE DRIVER ONE NEEDS TO REINSTALL THE OS!!!!!!!!!

Does someone knows a workround this ANNOYNCE? i have already lots of stuff installed and configurated

i don´t use raid but i want AHCI (I HAVE IT ENABLED IN THE SATA CONFIG IN THE BIOS before the OS install)

I cant see Intel(R) SATA AHCI Controller in the 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' entry in device manager but i see this:

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:35:30 GMT

From what I gather in your post, it seems that your trim should be working without you having to change anything.

3 requirements: need to be running windows 7 (which you are), need to be running in AHCI mode (which you are), need to be using the default microsoft driver ahci.sys (which it seems you are, since it's listed as a driver for your ahci controller in device manager).

The controller you display in your post has no evidence of having IMSM drivers installed. Not sure why that's the case if you're sure you installed them!

Unless your SSD is connected to a sata port controlled by a different controller to the screenshot in your post, you're ok.

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 07:34:23 GMT

IMSM manual says

9b. UNINSTALLATION OF DRIVER COMPONENTS

The removal of this software from the system will render any

Serial ATA hard drives inaccessible by the operating system.

Back up any important data before completing these steps.

1) If the system is in RAID mode, delete any RAID volumes

using the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager option ROM

user interface.

2) Reboot the system.....

5) Reinstall the operating system.

but it also say´s

* 8. IDENTIFYING THE SOFTWARE VERSION NUMBER

8.1 Use the following steps to identify the software version

number following a Have Disk, F6, or unattended

installation. (none was my case)

8.1b Systems Configured for AHCI Mode:

1. On the Start menu:

1a.For Windows* XP or later operating systems,

select Control Panel.

2. .....

3. ...

4. Select the 'Device Manager' button.

5. Expand the 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' entry.

6. Right-click on the Intel(R) SATA AHCI Controller present. In this part i see the standart controler as i said before

I am a litle confuse, there is another way to confirm that i am using the standart driver?

P.S i runed the toolbox a trim and diagnostics scans were ok.

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 08:02:36 GMT

I'm pretty sure that if you were using the IMSM drivers, IaStor.sys would have been the listed driver under your sata controller in device manager. msahci.sys definitely is the default MS ahci driver, and if it's listed, you're using it for that controller.

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:44:32 GMT

thanks for the answears dokh22

I searched for IaStor.sys in the driver details of everything listed under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and didn´t found nothing with that driver so maybe i am good...

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:24:16 GMT

Not "maybe", you are good to go. Its really that simple: remove IMSM, check if the driver used is listed as msahci.sys and if not, change it manually. Though, using msahci.sys opens up a new can of worms for some people. Stuttering and generally lower performance than iastor.sys from IMSM have been reportet. Up to you what you want to do...

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:28:01 GMT

I wish you are right but what how about IMSM manual sayng that for one to complet uninstal the IMSM driver have to reinstall the OS and do this ((

3) Enter the system BIOS (usually done by pressing a keysuch as 'F2' or 'Delete' during system boot). 4) Disable 'Intel(R) RAID Technology' and 'SATA AHCI mode'. )) witch i dont understand

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:02:43 GMT

Perhaps the instructions are referring to IMSM rom, which is embedded in bios? Otherwise it's specific instructions on how to switch sata modes from one controlled by IMSM to one not controlled by IMSM.

For certain boards, running in ahci or raid mode will implement IMSM stored in the bios. If, for example, you installed your os while running in ahci/raid mode, then later you switch to ide mode, your os will not start up, and you would have to reinstall the os to continue using your system in ide mode. It seems to me this is what the manual is referring to.

But if you're just updating/changing the windows drivers for the sata controller, without changing the sata mode in bios, there's no need to reinstall windows.

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:05:53 GMT

Those instructions almost certainly are written to take care of the worst case scenario. If you installed Win 7, and the MS driver was used to install the OS, then it will still be there to take over the driver duties for the storage controller after removing the Intel driver.

In other scenarios, like if you installed XP by supplying the Intel driver using F6, then you would need to reinstall unless you knew the tricks to get the MS AHCI driver working.

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:43:23 GMT

I really installed Win 7 with the Micro$ driver after the instalation i installed the IMSM among other drivers but removed it later and the rest you know

Yesterday i sent an email to Intel and i will post the answear as soon i recive it.

Meanwhile i am enjoyng the speed added with my SSD, before i didn´t have Vista on it but now i have 7 on my X25-M and the speed is astonishing, everything Office 2007 open in a hart beat, i am anxious to try video editing and conversion.

How much did it make in Windows 7 Experience index? mine was 7.8 max is 7.9 that 0.1 less hurted my tech ego

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:25:37 GMT

It passed 7 days and no response from Intel so i reinstalled win 7 when i bought my core i7 it was the same stupid/inexplicable thing, everything (lots) freshly installed and then i saw that i was using only one core because Intel forgott to tell that one has to enable acpi apic support in the Bios before installing the OS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don´t know what to say about this...seriously maybe intel doesn´t want you to care to much about them and it´s going the Microsoft way all the way.

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:16:54 GMT

In http://www.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/sb/CS-029623.htm# 6 Intel still omites the fact that once IMSM is installed auto Trim is disbled:

Do Intel SSDs need special driver support?

No. The standard drivers for any HDD will support Intel SSDs as drop-in components, such as those bundled with Windows*. However, for best performance, a driver that supports SATA Native Command Queuing (NCQ) is recommended, such as the http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/ Intel® Matrix Storage Manager (IMSM) driver from Intel.

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:17:49 GMT

In http://www.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/sb/CS-029623.htm# 6 Intel still omites the fact that once IMSM is installed auto Trim is disbled:

Do Intel SSDs need special driver support?

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

Charles_F_Intel — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:45:49 GMT

To Techfan9000,

I'm sorry for the late response. Are you still having some problem with Intel SSD that you would like help with? It looks like you have the right storage driver in use to support Windows 7 Trim. Windows 7 MSAHCI driver needs to be installed at this time for Windows 7 Trim process to work. iMSM does not support at this time, but the iMSM driver, now called RST, will support Trim in the near future. The Optimizer tool will trim the drive regardless of driver you are using.

Regards,

Brady - Intel Solid-State Group

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:03:10 GMT

his problem that actually is mine as well is:

We installed Window 7 and then we substituted the driver MS AHCI with the driver iMSM but once we found out that the Window7-Trim didn't go through our new driver, the iMSM, we uninstalled it and automatically Window 7 restored the MS AHCI drivers.

We wonder if this restore the auto-trim of Window7 as well since in the iMSM manual actually it's written that to completely erase iMSM drivers you need to reinstall Window7

if i check:

Command prompt > fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify

DisableDeleteNotify = 1 (Windows TRIM commands are disabled)

DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Windows TRIM commands are enabled)

my trim is always been 0 before and after changing driver and changing it back... I actually hope that window7 just send the command no matter which driver you are using but the command itself is ignored by iMSM

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

idata — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:04:58 GMT

I actually hope that window7 just send the command no matter which driver you are using but the command itself is ignored by iMSM

You are correct.

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

Charles_F_Intel — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:06:37 GMT

Pekish79,

Ziggy answered as I am that Win 7 will send command and driver will just not pass it on if driver doesn't support Trim, like current iMSM 8.9 driver. The DisableDeleteNotify setting is not a status of Trim enabled/disabled. It is an override setting. If it is set to "0", then Trim is functioning accorinding to Win 7 and driver. If it is set to "1", then Win 7 will not send Trim command no matter what driver setup.

Regards,

Brady

Re: To iNtEl: I want auto trim but installed matrix storage driver!

Daniel_T_Intel — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:40:13 GMT

Intel(R) 9.6.0 general release supports TRIM. Please keep in mind that it is supported only for Pass-Through mode and is not to a RAID volume.