ASMedia controller on Fatal1ty Z77 Professional

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Hi Folks, 
This system has a Fatal1ty Z77 Professional board which, according to the Asrock webpage, uses two ASMedia 1061 SATA controllers to provide an additional 4 x SATA ports over the 6 ports provided by the Z77 PCH.

I've been experiencing some funnies since a clean install of Windows 8.1 in which four of the 6 x 3TB Seagate ST3000DM001 drives are listed in the "Safely Remove" window when I request a safe removal of any USB flash drive. Further investigation via Device Manager shows the four Seagate "culprits" listed under "Portable Devices". Also, each of these drives has a Disk Management property attribute setting for Safe Removal Required = <true>. 

Checking in the BIOS for these drives, they reflect as being connected to the SATA3_A1 to SATA3_A4 ports which do not offer individual settings but rather utilise the controller-level settings for the Asmedia SATA3 Controller:

ASMedia SATA3 Mode: = "AHCI"
Sata Boot ROM: = "disabled"

I then hunted all over Windows for some mechanism to update the ASMedia Controller's driver and could find no device vaguely resembling the ASMedia 1061 listed in Device Manager.

EDIT: In Device Manager under the category "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" there is the listing for the Z77 PCH SATA AHCI controller PLUS two additional controllers labelled "Standard SATA AHCI Controller" (which, if these are indeed the ASMedia 1061 devices which offer 2 x ports per controller, makes sense as 2 x 2 = 4 if my ageing memory serves). 

Checking these devices they both reflect device drivers from Microsoft dated 2006-06-21 with version number 6.3.9600.16384 (the latest versions apparently) - so probably rely on the Windows registry for parameter settings - which would probably be based on the limited BIOS options of "AHCI" or "IDE". 

Now I'm not certain what is entailed in changing this parameter from "AHCI" to "IDE" (or back again) but I seem to recall that, in Win7, the changes had to be made in the BIOS and in the registry and the sequence was critical. 

So another couple of questions surface: "Does AHCI automatically dictate a <true> value for Safe Removal Required?" and "What are the performance implications of switching the mode from 'AHCI' to 'IDE'?".

I then checked on the Asrock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional Downloads webpage for Win 8.1/64-bit and could not find any mention of a driver for the ASMedia controller...

So, I guess my question has to be:

"Does anyone here know if an ASMedia driver is actually required for the ASMedia 1061 when installed on this board? Also, does anyone here have any suggestions as to how to change some parameter somewhere to stop these drives showing up as 'portable'" and requiring 'safe removal'? (Hopefully the change will not require yet another clean install of Windows 8.1)"

Dave

PS: Prior to the move to Windows 8.1, these 4 ports were used under Windows 7 Professional 64-bit with WD Green 6TB drives and these drives never showed up in the Safely Remove menu...

Edited by DevillEars - 24 Aug 2015 at 10:44pm

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DevillEars Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 09 Jul 2015 Location: South Africa Status: Offline Points: 52	Post Options Post Reply Quote DevillEars Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 24 Aug 2015 at 9:52pm
	Hi Folks, This system has a Fatal1ty Z77 Professional board which, according to the Asrock webpage, uses two ASMedia 1061 SATA controllers to provide an additional 4 x SATA ports over the 6 ports provided by the Z77 PCH. I've been experiencing some funnies since a clean install of Windows 8.1 in which four of the 6 x 3TB Seagate ST3000DM001 drives are listed in the "Safely Remove" window when I request a safe removal of any USB flash drive. Further investigation via Device Manager shows the four Seagate "culprits" listed under "Portable Devices". Also, each of these drives has a Disk Management property attribute setting for Safe Removal Required = <true>. Checking in the BIOS for these drives, they reflect as being connected to the SATA3_A1 to SATA3_A4 ports which do not offer individual settings but rather utilise the controller-level settings for the Asmedia SATA3 Controller: ASMedia SATA3 Mode: = "AHCI" Sata Boot ROM: = "disabled" I then hunted all over Windows for some mechanism to update the ASMedia Controller's driver and could find no device vaguely resembling the ASMedia 1061 listed in Device Manager. EDIT: In Device Manager under the category "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" there is the listing for the Z77 PCH SATA AHCI controller PLUS two additional controllers labelled "Standard SATA AHCI Controller" (which, if these are indeed the ASMedia 1061 devices which offer 2 x ports per controller, makes sense as 2 x 2 = 4 if my ageing memory serves). Checking these devices they both reflect device drivers from Microsoft dated 2006-06-21 with version number 6.3.9600.16384 (the latest versions apparently) - so probably rely on the Windows registry for parameter settings - which would probably be based on the limited BIOS options of "AHCI" or "IDE". Now I'm not certain what is entailed in changing this parameter from "AHCI" to "IDE" (or back again) but I seem to recall that, in Win7, the changes had to be made in the BIOS and in the registry and the sequence was critical. So another couple of questions surface: "Does AHCI automatically dictate a <true> value for Safe Removal Required?" and "What are the performance implications of switching the mode from 'AHCI' to 'IDE'?". I then checked on the Asrock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional Downloads webpage for Win 8.1/64-bit and could not find any mention of a driver for the ASMedia controller... So, I guess my question has to be: "Does anyone here know if an ASMedia driver is actually required for the ASMedia 1061 when installed on this board? Also, does anyone here have any suggestions as to how to change some parameter somewhere to stop these drives showing up as 'portable'" and requiring 'safe removal'? (Hopefully the change will not require yet another clean install of Windows 8.1)" Dave PS: Prior to the move to Windows 8.1, these 4 ports were used under Windows 7 Professional 64-bit with WD Green 6TB drives and these drives never showed up in the Safely Remove menu... Edited by DevillEars - 24 Aug 2015 at 10:44pm
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