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 Topic: ASMedia controller on Fatal1ty Z77 Professional 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
	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.


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

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: 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: 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: 04 Sep 2015 at 6:15pm
	Burmp (Peter Sellers-style)
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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: 8532	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: 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
	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.