Switching between iastor and msahci

[idata]

I have a HP Pavilion Laptop with the pm965 chipset, T9300 cpu, 4gig ram running win7 ultimate 64 bit. I have the 160 G2. Using the msahci driver I get 5.9 for my Windows Experience Index (WEI). I loaded latest intel matrix storage controller and score went to 7.7. Now I want to switch back from the iastor to the msahci because as I understand it, iastor does not support trim. I tried to edit registry and put a 3 for start and I get the bsod on boot up. One important fact is my bios has no entries for switching to compatibility mode or anything to do with controller. Is there a way to switch back to msahci without uninstalling the Matrix Intel Controller?

[DZand]

jjthenovice schrieb:

Is there a way to switch back to msahci without uninstalling the Matrix Intel Controller?

Yes, there is a way:

1. Run the Device Manager and open the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section.
2. Do a right click onto the listed "Intel ICHxxx AHCI Controller" and choose the "Update Driver Software" option.
3. Let the Device Manager show all compatible devices.
4. Choose the "Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller" (or similar, depending on your Intel Southbridge),
5. Close the Device Manager and reboot.

Nevertheles I do not understand why you want to switch to the generic MS AHCI driver MSAHCI.SYS, since you are able to get the same TRIM effect by using Intel's SSD Toolbox (only difference: you have to do it manually from time to time).

Further question:

If you really want to get rid of Intels AHCI driver, why do you not take the normal and easy way by uninstalling the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (resp. Intel Rapid Storage Technology)? You will not be able to use the MSM resp. RST Console anyway after having switched to the generic MS AHCI driver.

Regards

Fernando

[idata]

Thanks for your reply. My real problem was with the msahci I was only getting a 5.9 for the windows experience index. When I went to the matrix controller it (wei) went to 7.7. I thought if I then switched to msahci, I'd still get the wei of 7.7. Maybe it really doesn't matter about the wei. Not really sure what's going on with that. I'd like to load the latest RST controller 9.6 or better (I understand there's a possibility that it supports trim) but can't find them. One place suggested was a korean site but that was all in korean and I couldn't understand it. You're probably right about just using the toolbox and forsaking trim for the time being. However, I do like to use system restore, and when I use that, it takes 4hrs to run the intel optimizer. That's why it would be nice to have trim active. I'm new to all this SSD stuff and I've been reading everything that I can. Are you running the latest RST? If so which ver and where can I get it. How does the XM25 G2 do garbage collection? Is it on the drive or via the toolbox? My head is spinning with all that I've read. Some info seems to contradict other and so forth. I've noticed some of your postings and you seem to have some wisdom (knowlege) so this is why I'm asking these extra questions. Again thank you for taking the time to reply.

Regards

JJ

[DZand]

@ jjthenovice:

Since you asked me, I will try to answer:

1. I am using the currently latest Intel RST driver v9.5.7.1002.

2. You can get the Intel RST package v9.5.7.1002 (including the AHCI/RAID drivers and the RST Console application) here: http://www.station-drivers.com/page/intel%20raid.htm http://www.station-drivers.com/page/intel%20raid.htm

3. There is just a rumour, that the upcoming Intel RST driver v9.6.x.xxxx will support TRIM automaticly, but this driver is not yet available.

4. AFAIK the Intel Postville SSD's do not support Garbage Collection, but the Optimizer of Intel's Toolbox has the same or even a better effect.

5. The optimizer of Intel's Toolbox usually doesn't need more than a few seconds to clean the Intel SSD.

Regards

Fernando

[idata]

Fernando,

When you say that Toolbox only needs a few seconds, is this on a drive with system restore active? I have 5% of my 80GB set aside for system restore, I'm running Win7 AHCI mode with the msahci driver (so trim should be working), but Toolbox takes a long time to optimize the drive.