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Windows sees my SSD as A HDD

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

My problem is windows sees my SSD as a HDD, And even the SSD toolbox reported no SSD.

using a 60GB 520 as the windows boot disk.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Jose_H_Intel1
Valued Contributor II

Hello Glenn,

This happens because the SSD is connected to a SATA controller that is identified as RAID (SCSI) in device manager. In this case we suggest you to connect the drive to a regular SATA AHCI controller (which does not appear as SCSI in device manager) such as the Intel® SATA controller/chipset.

Reinstalling the operating system is recommended if this is the boot disk and if you want to connect it to a different controller as Windows* will require a different driver.

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5 REPLIES 5

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

Thank you for your post.

If the toolbox has trouble detecting your drive, check the following:

  • Check if the SSD is initialized and formatted (check in disk management)
  • You may need to update the SATA controller drivers, chipset drivers and BIOS.
  • If this is in a desktop computer you may test the SSD in another SATA port.
  • Note that the SSD toolbox only sees SSDs connected to the internal SATA port (not through USB)

If the issue persists please describe the issue further, and mention which Operating System you run and the model of your computer.

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

1. The SSD is running windows 7 64bit no problems.

2. The BIOS detects it as an SSD

3. this is a desktop, with the SSD running off the Marvell Serial ATA 6.0 Gb/s internal port of a ASUS P8Z77-v Deluxe motherboard.

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

You will get much better performance using the Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports on your board, rather than the Marvell 9128 SATA chipset.

You may not need to reinstall Windows to use the Intel SATA ports and IRST driver. Search on "changing to AHCI mode with OS installed" and look for entries that describe a Windows registry change that allows either the native Windows 7 AHCI driver to be loaded, or Intel's IRST driver, which can be used in AHCI or RAID mode.

I do know that for some reason the Marvell SATA chipset does not communicate appropriately with the SSD Toolbox, which happens with some other chipsets as well. But I wonder if it is due to the Marvell chipset being recognized as SCSI or RAID by Windows. The Marvell chipset can be set to AHCI mode.

Intel's own chipsets, like the Z77, when used with IRST version 11.6 drivers or later in RAID mode, are seen by Windows 7 as SCSI in Device Manager, with any SSD. Intel SSDs are recognized by the Toolbox fine in that situation, whether a single SSD or SSDs in RAID volumes.

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

Changed to Intel ports, no problem. SSD was seen as SCSI on Marvell SATA.

Thanks. Mark As Solved