ASMedia controller on Fatal1ty Z77 Professional

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Hi parsec, 
Many thanks for taking the time and making the effort to respond.
What confuses this issue a bit is that the second (new) desktop system is built in another Lian-Li Diamond Series chassis - the PC-Z70 which is basically a full tower version of the mid-tower PC-Z60 and comes equipped with three hot-swap 3-bay modules to provide for a total of 9 3.5" HDDs.

This new system, as listed in my earlier post, is built around the X99X Killer board with an i7-5820K CPU, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2133 RAM, a 512GB Samsung 850PRO SSD (as system drive), 6 x 6TB 3.5" HDDs; 3 x 3TB 3.5" HDDs plus the usual pairing of DVD-R/W and BD-R/W.

This X99 system was built from new recently and Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit used as the OS.

This X99 system has an add-on PCIe 2.0 1x 2-port SATA6G controller card to provide for the two drives not catered for by the X99's 10 x SATA6G ports. Currently, the two optical drives are running on the add-on card and the SSD and all 9 x HDDs (in their hot-swap bays).

THIS X99 SYSTEM DOES NOT LIST ANY OF THE INTERNAL DRIVES MOUNTED IN HOT-SWAP BAYS AS REQUIRING "SAFE REMOVAL".  

The only time any devices are listed as requiring "Safe Removal" is when USB devices (flash drives or hard drives) are plugged in via either USB 2.0 or USB 3.0.

I've checked both systems and compared the results for the settings in the BIOS and the settings under Device Manager (Policies and Details tabs) and the only differences are in the Device Manager Details section (BIOS and Policies tie up). Under Details, all of the entries that would logically be linked to some Registry entry governing "Safe Removal Required" status, are <false> on the PC-Z70 system and on the PC-Z60 system the Intel ports all also show <false> while the Asmedia ports all show <true>.

The problem is that I can't find any mechanism by which to amend these Registry entries besides RegEdit but do NOT know enough about them to be able to:

a) Identify which Registry Entries need to be changed
b) What the valid Registry entry values are and how these map to <true> or <false>
c) How to make the necessary changes
d) How to save a copy of the registry before embarking on this exercise
e) How to re-load the registry in the (very likely) event that I screw up the exercise 
f) How to test everything

It is this lack of experience/knowledge with respect to the Windows Registry that has caused me to try to seek out an alternative mechanism to achieve the changes...

FYI: For any system equipped with hot-swap bays, the port/drive pairing for any Intel chipset SATA port can be set to "Internal" (in the BIOS under Storage section) which overrides any quasi-automatic setting of "hot-swap".

All drives on both systems have been set to:

a) Quick Removal: Unchecked
b) Performance: Checked

Despite this, those Asmedia-connected drives still show "Safe Removal Required" as <true> under Device Manager Details...

So, sorry, but that did not work...

Dave

Edited by DevillEars - 12 Sep 2015 at 4:10am

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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 Topic: ASMedia controller on Fatal1ty Z77 Professional Posted: 12 Sep 2015 at 4:07am
	Hi parsec, Many thanks for taking the time and making the effort to respond. What confuses this issue a bit is that the second (new) desktop system is built in another Lian-Li Diamond Series chassis - the PC-Z70 which is basically a full tower version of the mid-tower PC-Z60 and comes equipped with three hot-swap 3-bay modules to provide for a total of 9 3.5" HDDs. This new system, as listed in my earlier post, is built around the X99X Killer board with an i7-5820K CPU, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2133 RAM, a 512GB Samsung 850PRO SSD (as system drive), 6 x 6TB 3.5" HDDs; 3 x 3TB 3.5" HDDs plus the usual pairing of DVD-R/W and BD-R/W. This X99 system was built from new recently and Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit used as the OS. This X99 system has an add-on PCIe 2.0 1x 2-port SATA6G controller card to provide for the two drives not catered for by the X99's 10 x SATA6G ports. Currently, the two optical drives are running on the add-on card and the SSD and all 9 x HDDs (in their hot-swap bays). THIS X99 SYSTEM DOES NOT LIST ANY OF THE INTERNAL DRIVES MOUNTED IN HOT-SWAP BAYS AS REQUIRING "SAFE REMOVAL". The only time any devices are listed as requiring "Safe Removal" is when USB devices (flash drives or hard drives) are plugged in via either USB 2.0 or USB 3.0. I've checked both systems and compared the results for the settings in the BIOS and the settings under Device Manager (Policies and Details tabs) and the only differences are in the Device Manager Details section (BIOS and Policies tie up). Under Details, all of the entries that would logically be linked to some Registry entry governing "Safe Removal Required" status, are <false> on the PC-Z70 system and on the PC-Z60 system the Intel ports all also show <false> while the Asmedia ports all show <true>. The problem is that I can't find any mechanism by which to amend these Registry entries besides RegEdit but do NOT know enough about them to be able to: a) Identify which Registry Entries need to be changed b) What the valid Registry entry values are and how these map to <true> or <false> c) How to make the necessary changes d) How to save a copy of the registry before embarking on this exercise e) How to re-load the registry in the (very likely) event that I screw up the exercise f) How to test everything It is this lack of experience/knowledge with respect to the Windows Registry that has caused me to try to seek out an alternative mechanism to achieve the changes... FYI: For any system equipped with hot-swap bays, the port/drive pairing for any Intel chipset SATA port can be set to "Internal" (in the BIOS under Storage section) which overrides any quasi-automatic setting of "hot-swap". All drives on both systems have been set to: a) Quick Removal: Unchecked b) Performance: Checked Despite this, those Asmedia-connected drives still show "Safe Removal Required" as <true> under Device Manager Details... So, sorry, but that did not work... Dave Edited by DevillEars - 12 Sep 2015 at 4:10am
	If music be the love of food, eat on

parsec Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 04 May 2015 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 4996	Post Options Post Reply Quote parsec Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12 Sep 2015 at 1:46am
	SO sorry I missed or forgot your thread... The hot swap bays in your Lian-Li case are being detected by Windows as hot swap bays. I've used some add on SATA drive enclosures that are hot swap-able, and the drives in those enclosures are included in the safe eject list like USB flash drives. So you are probably right about the Windows registry keeping those drives in the safe eject list. But, if things on your system as they are on mine, did you check the Device Manager entries for the Disk Drives (NOT the SATA controllers) on that PC? If you open the Disk drive Properties for those four drives, and click on the Policies tab, you should see options for Quick Removal or Performance, with Quick Removal being checked. Uncheck Quick Removal and check Performance, which should remove the drives from the safe eject list. Let me know if that does not work for you.


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: 12 Sep 2015 at 12:50am
	Hi, Many thanks for response - even if it doesn't really address the problem, it at least gives some input into a diagnostic process. I, too, did a clean Windows 8.1 install on Z77 Professional BUT I did the clean install linked to Microsoft account and it seems to me now - given your feedback - that my problems may be tied to Microsoft Account-linked Windows Updates which are incorporating system settings changes from the system that share the account: a) Asus N750JV laptop (i7-4700HQ; 16GB RAM; 256GB Samsung 850PRO SSD; 1TB WD Red HDD) b) Desktop: Asrock X99X Killer; i7-5820K; 32GB RAM; 512GB 850PRO; 9 x HDD; 2 x ODD c) Desktop: Asrock Z77 Professional; i7-3770; 16GB RAM; 512GB 850PRO; 6 x HDD; 2 x ODD The laptop is running Windows 10 Professional 64-bit and the two desktop systems are both running Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit (both from clean installs). The laptop is fine, and the X99X Killer desktop with 9 x HDD; 1 x SSD and 2 x ODD is also behaving as it should (with only external USB-connected devices showing on the "Safely Remove" list. I hear you about "keeping current settings" but this seems to me a bit like a "let's duck the issue" approach. The alternative of using Intel SATA ports doesn't quite work either as the system is configured with 10 x SATA devices: 6 x Seagate ST3000DM001 3TB hard drives 1 x Western Digital Red 2.5" 1TB hard drive 2 x Optical drives (DVD and BD writers) 1 x Samsung 850PRO SSD The Z77 Professional comes with 6 x Intel SATA ports and 4 x Asmedia SATA ports. Currently the port:drive allocation is as follows: Intel port 0: SSD Intel port 1: 2.5" 1TB WD Red Intel port 2: 3.5" 3TB drive Intel port 3: 3.5" 3TB drive Intel port 4: DVD/RW drive Intel port 5: BD/RW drive Asmedia port 0: 3.5" 3TB drive ("A") Asmedia port 1: 3.5" 3TB drive ("B") Asmedia port 2: 3.5" 3TB drive ("B") Asmedia port 3: 3.5" 3TB drive ("C") The chassis is a Lian-Li PC-Z60 and all six of the 3.5" drive bays are "hot-swap" bays BUT THE BIOS SETTINGS FOR THESE DRIVES ARE ALL SET AS "INTERNAL" (i.e. NOT "Hot-Swap". These last four 3TB drives (A/B/C/D) are the drives that come up on the "Safely Remove" list and they're all connected to the Asmedia SATA6G controller (which is not drive-level configurable in the BIOS). I suppose it would be possible to change the drive:port assignment (via cable switching) so that the four drives currently giving the problem would be attached to the Intel ports and the remaining drives attached to the Asmedia controller. This would permit checking to see if the problem went away or remained a problem - with some additional info to be gained from how the problem remained (i.e. stayed with the port or moved with the drive). I may have misunderstood, but it seems to me from what I've read, that the BIOS settings and registry entries that govern this "Safe Removal" list operate at a "PORT-LEVEL" and NOT at a "DRIVE-LEVEL"? I'm just wondering if the problem could be linked to the Windows Registry and specific registry entries that govern "Safe Removal Required" settings where these settings could have been modified via one or more Windows Updates? Puzzled... Dave Edited by DevillEars - 12 Sep 2015 at 12:57am
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ASRock_TSD Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List ASRock_Official Joined: 20 Mar 2015 Status: Offline Points: 8607	Post Options Post Reply Quote ASRock_TSD Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 11 Sep 2015 at 5:25pm
	Dear customer, Greetings, this is ASRock Technical Support Department. We tested installing a clean Windows 8.1 on Z77 Professional. The hard disk will not be "Safety remove" list when connecting at ASMedia port. On your case, due to this symptom doesn't affect normal application, we recommend you to keep current settings to use the system. Or connect the disk to Intel SATA port. Thank you for your patience. Kindest Regards, ASRock TSD

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: 04 Sep 2015 at 6:15pm
	Burmp (Peter Sellers-style)
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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: 29 Aug 2015 at 4:23am
	Bumpity-Bump?
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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: 26 Aug 2015 at 11:26pm
	@parsec: Bump... (sorry to nag... :) ) Dave
	If music be the love of food, eat on

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: 25 Aug 2015 at 12:06am
	Okay, in the meantime I've downloaded and saved to a flash drive, the following files: a) ASMedia SATA Controller Driver (and printed the "Read Me") b) Asrock F-Stream Tuning Utility c) Intel Rapid Start Technology Utility d) Asrock Re-start to UEFI Utility e) Asrock XFast USB Utility All of these are versions as listed on the Asrock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional (Windows 8.0 page) Please advise is any of these are incompatible with Windows 8,1. I will wait until I hear from you before installing any of them (once bitten...) Thanks in advance. Dave
	If music be the love of food, eat on

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 11:27pm
	Thanks parsec, Let me see if I understand you correctly... After the clean install of Windows 8.1 (during which the generic Windows SATA AHCI driver was loaded), I loaded all of the drivers shown on the Asrock download page for Win8.1/64-bit except for the Teaming LAN driver which I don't need. The Intel Rapid Start Technology (IRST) driver was one of the drivers installed at this time. As a result of there being no Asmedia driver listed, the generic Windows SATA AHCI driver remains installed. Under Storage Controllers there is one entry: "Microsoft Storage Space Controller" (which - from your post - I would assume to refer to the IRST driver). BUT, under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, there is also an entry: "Intel 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI controller" The two Asmedia single-lane PCIe 2.0 1061 2-port SATA controllers are then listed below this last entry under Storage Controllers as "Standard SATA AHCI controller". Currently (under Microsoft standard driver) the Policies section on all four drives shows "Performance" as "checked" and Quick Removal as "Unchecked" but, under Details, the Safely Remove Required property still show a value of <true> (implying that the system still sees these four drives as "external" and requiring Safe Removal procedures. Shoud I now download the Asmedia driver from the Win8/64-bit section? And are there any rules/procedures required to install? Dave
	If music be the love of food, eat on

parsec Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 04 May 2015 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 4996	Post Options Post Reply Quote parsec Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 24 Aug 2015 at 10:47pm
	For some reason, the ASMedia SATA controller's driver is not listed in the Windows 8.1 64bit section of the Fatal1ty Z77 Pro's download page. You can try the version listed in the Windows 8 section of your board's download page, the ASMedia SATA3 driver ver:1.3.8.0. But read the entire post before doing so. http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20Z77%20Professional/?cat=Download&os=Win864 When a driver for any SATA controllers on a mother board, such as the Intel and ASMedia SATA controllers on your board, is not loaded during the Windows installation, the generic Windows AHCI driver will be loaded. For Windows 8 and beyond, that driver is storahci. I don't know if you installed the Intel IRST AHCI/RAID driver for the Intel SATA III ports, which would then be a Device Manager entry under Storage Controllers. When the Windows AHCI driver is used, you'll have a Device Manager entry under "IDE/ATA ATAPI" devices, which is where the ASMedia SATA controller is listed now. You won't see any mention of ASMedia in the entry, but under Policies you should find settings for Quick Removal or Performance, with Quick Removal checked by default. Changing that to Performance should remove your HDDs from the Safely Remove list. Installing the ASMedia driver should do a similar thing. If you check the Win 8.1 driver listings for a Z97 Fatal1ty board, the ASMedia driver listed for Win 8.1 is ASMedia SATA3 Driver ver:2.0.8.0. I would suggest using this newer version with your board.