Changing ATA to SCSI

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LeftyInSpades13

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May 29, 2012
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Hello good folks. I started another thread, which was kinda solved, for detecting and testing, but I think the title and description I went with was somewhat erroneous. Basically what I was originally thinking wasn't expressed properly, so I'm trying again.

Here's my problem. I have 3 internal HDDs, technically 4.
C: drive is 2 HDDs that are 1 TB Seagate SATA III 6GB/s 7200 RPM in RAID0
E: drive is a 1 TB Seagate SATA III 6GB/s 7200 RPM HDD
F: drive is a 1 TB Seagate SATA III 6GB/s 7200 RPM HDD

All are plugged into Sata III ports on a GIGABYTE GA-870A-USB3 AM3+ 870 DDR3 US rev 3.1 mobo, my CPU is an AMD PHENOM II X6 1100T Black Edition running Win 7 Pro with 16 GB Kingston 1600 RAM and C: drive has some AMD strip thing for RAIDing (sorry, I'm not at all comp savvy. To put that into perspective, even though I've had comps since the Commodore 64 and 128 days, about 5-6 or so years ago I still tried to fix a comp tower with a five pound hammer. Sure it didn't fix anything, but I did feel a lot better afterward 😀 )

Now back to the problem, both C: and E: are recognized as SCSI Disc drives and have the name Seagate & model number up, while drive F: is referred to as simply an ATA device with no name just a model number.

E: and F: are identical drives, from the same factory, same production batch, same everything, and plugged into Sata III ports. I was informed that certain detection/scanning software won't work on RAIDed drives, even Seagate Tools can test C:, but won't give info like hours on and such for it, because it's RAIDed. That's fine, but everything detects and IDs E: drive while many things don't detect F: drive, such as CrystalDiscInfo, which only detects E: and my externals (C: is RAIDed so not registering that is understandable).

Moving along, both E: and F: tested healthy and fine, BUT from what I know, SCSI is run by the comp's controller while ATA uses the HDD's internal controller, plus SCSI has speeds up to 160, while ATA only goes up to 100. I know SCSI is faster, because transferring same files to E: goes faster than to F:.

How can I make my computer recognize drive F: as SCSI as opposed to ATA?

65de05.jpg


 
Solution
Wisecracker
*We* suspect in your system BIOS that ports 4/5 in your HDD setup are set to IDE instead of of SATA/AHCI.

It really helps to load the AMD AHCI sata.inf driver with the F6 -- you are running the MS SATA drivers.

There is a registry hack that works maybe 50% of the time to force the AMD SATA drivers over the MS drivers, but see the sentence above :)

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Try changing the driver for it. Like update the driver, only difference being, you choose the driver most suitable for it.
We had this problem with Intel SSD tools and had to change the drivers manually to get it to function with the disc.

Although, my suggestions would be to first re-check the speeds of the two drives you have underlined there and see if there is too much of a difference and only then try to change the settings/drivers etc.
 
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I'm not really understanding the "most suitable" part. They are both identical drives, bought and installed at the same time, they are even out of the same production batch, with the same drivers, which supposedly are the most up to date. All the tests I've run have them healthy and at similar speeds, as far as I can tell, but I've noticed repeatedly in real application, that transferring 10, 20, 30, 50 GB files from C: to E: or F:, that they go noticeably faster to E: as opposed to F:. The only thing I can come up with is that F: was made an ATA device when installed and E: was made SCSI Disc Drive when installed, just like my main C: drive. I mean, I have like 800 GB on it, should I just transfer that to another drive, reformat it and try again, but if I do, how do I make my system make it an SCSI disc drive instead of an ATA device?

Oh yeah, one other thing I've noticed. I go through about a 6-700 GB up to 1 Terabyte a month of uploads and downloads and it seems using my E: drive always seems a little or a lot faster than my F: drive, which is kinda what made me start looking into the drives to begin with. I mean, when I first put them in, they were detected, stuff went in and out of them, so I was like yippy it works I don't care. I didn't know there was a difference between SCSI and ATA till I happened to see the different tags on the drives and looked the stuff up.
 
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:)... That's why they say "Ignorance is bliss"
Anyway, I'll try and explain the "most suitable" part, the "Driver" listed on the SCSI HDD is the one that should be used on the other HDD (ATA HDD) too.
First check details of ports on which the 2 HDDs are connected first check and see if they are on ports of the same controller on the Mobo, you might need to check the Mobo Manual for that.
Then, check and see the drivers that are used for both the HDDs. Make a note on a piece of paper or a screenshot.
Then , reinstall manually the driver for the other HDD. Same as the driver on the SCSI HDD.
 
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I'm kinda ignorant, but I hope I'm not THAT stupid. :pt1cable:
Both drivers on the HDDs are same; MS 6/21/2006 ver. 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255) and both drives are plugged into Sata III ports and from what I can understand all 6 SATA III ports go to the same controller as far as Disc Drives are concerned. Maybe I'm missing something about the controller thing, but all 6 SATA III ports are taken up. This was pre-built, so 2 are the HDDs in RAID0, 1 is the Bluray/DVD, 1 is the touchscreen fan/temp control thing and the last two were left for the two hot-swap trays. Oh and I tried flippin plugs, they still stay the same, E: stays SCSI in either plug and F: stays ATA in either plug.
 
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Ports 4 and 5 are configured independtly in your RAID BIOS. I would imagine 1 of the drives is on port 3 and the other on 4/5 and that the config in the BIOS is not the same for the 2 port groups.
 
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So I have to go into the BIOS and change what to what and why do they stay the same even if I flip the plugs? Or would it be easier to change the BD/DVD plug with the the one that says ATA instead of SCSI?
 
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This.

Verify in the system BIOS that SATA ports 4/5 are properly configured.

When you installed your OS, did you F6 the AMD AHCI sata.inf ??


 
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Nope, I didn't. The whole thing came in the mail, OS & all with a nice bow (JKin) and two empty hotswap trays in which I threw in 2 identical HDDs. Then I went into the disc manage scanned and was done, then proceeded to fill the drivers as fast as my net connection would allow. Probably missed a step or something, I guess.

"Properly configure"??? Uhm, could you please be a little more specific to the n00by?
 
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*We* suspect in your system BIOS that ports 4/5 in your HDD setup are set to IDE instead of of SATA/AHCI.

It really helps to load the AMD AHCI sata.inf driver with the F6 -- you are running the MS SATA drivers.

There is a registry hack that works maybe 50% of the time to force the AMD SATA drivers over the MS drivers, but see the sentence above :)

 
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Solution

And where would I go about getting AMD AHCI sata.inf and how exactly would I use it? I do have the motherboard box and some AMD discs, 1 is for Overclocking I think. I mean even if I get sata.inf, do I just load and start pressing F6 like a spaz? I know little to nothing about computer programming. I've only gone into BIOS when I manage to bluescreen myself after doing something amazingly stupid and the last time I was even in BIOS was about 2 or so years ago.


No, I'm not worried that it's showing up as an SCSI, I'm worried that a drive is showing up as ATA, when it should be showing up as a SCSI.
 
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Alright, I still find it kinda strange, that the guys that put my comp together would leave the 2 ports that were left for the hotswap trays with different settings, but I've seen all sorts of duuuuuh in my life. So could someone please walk me through the BIOS steps. I get into BIOS go where and do what? I kind of understand the final step, change things so that the ports I have the two HDDs in both say SATA/AHCI if one says IDE. My question is, in what menu or where in BIOS do I find these ports.

Finally, where do I get AMD AHCI sata.inf and how do I install it and where?

YES at this point all sensors should be indicating NOOOOB!!!
 
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It would have been nice if someone would have told my nooby ass that in BIOS all I had to do was go to the periferals menu to find change IDE to AHCI, because it did actually take me a while to find it, but I would like to thank everyone for their help, especially Wisecracker. Problem solved. :)
 
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We tried to make it as hard as we could on you -- that's the way we roll :lol:

It's always good to survey the BIOS (and in the case of Gigabyte, you MIGHT have the BIOS F11/F12 functions that let you save up to 8 different BIOS configurations) and get an idea what is going on -- especially when we teach you a bit of over-clocking.

Understanding the boot sequence and optimal HDD setup in the BIOS is simply a good place to start in learning about your computer. Once you reach this level of understanding, you are pretty much ready to build your own stuff.

The AMD AHCI sata.inf file is on your mobo CD in a 'drivers' folder. The most current version may be downloaded from here (see the AMD chipset drivers).

The MS drivers are okay, but you would most likely get better performance from the AMD inf driver with more features (everything from NCQ, hot-swapping and even the port-multiplier function).

The issue is ... the F6. If you copy the AHCI sata.inf to a thumb drive, you load it during the installation of Windows for proper operation and features. You would need to re-install Windows.

Presumably, your rig came with the Windows OS disk and you have your key.

Also -- perusing the mobo manual while you gaze at the BIOS could help explain a lot of things.

 
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Thanks for that. :) It was kinda weird, because I was used to hitting F1, F2, DEL, ESC or F10, to get into BIOS, but on this thing I had to hit delete during the splash screen then during the couple quick flashes of the black DOS screen doing the Boot thing and HDD disc scan, I had to hit Ctrl+F. It was so retarded, because it took me several attempts before I noticed the final black screen that stays up for less than a split second listing the HDDs that mumbles some jazz about going into the RAID control by hitting Ctrl+F, which was at the very bottom, in the right corner :fou: , but that finally took me into BIOS.

New problem though, now that all my internals are detected and working as SCSI disc drives, nothing detects any of them; not CrystaDisc, not Speedfan, not HDD Temp 4.0.25, not Astra32 absolutely nothing I can find that's suppoooosed to detect and give me temp along with other pertinent info on my HDDs. A couple of them are even supposed to detect my RAID drive. They all detect my USB externals though. About the drivers, in another topic that had the same problem with an SCSI drive not being detected by software it was recommended to go *HERE* and get the chipset driver set which also comes with the AHCI drivers, which is what you just described. Got it, installed, rebooted and still no detection by software. So, you're saying that I have to install the AHCI sata.inf during Win OS? Would that make the warez detect those drives? I mean I'm not really sure what you mean by performance, because my main issue was that the HDD that was detected as IDE was slower on transfers than an identical HDD detected as SCSI. I went into BIOS as you recommended, switched it to SATA from IDE and it fixed everything. As a funny sidenote, the BD/DVD drive that worked just fine, supposedly wasn't supposed to work on IDE, that it was only supposed to work on SATA and it too was in the same port controller that was set to IDE, but as I said, it worked fine.

Long story short, I have the OS disc & key, I know how to install drivers off a thumbdrive, but I've only done that on a virgin or just reformatted system, so my question is; if I re-install the OS, what do I lose as far as installed warez? I mean all the security crap and most of my apps/warez, wouldn't be too much of a hassle, BUT I have multiple media players, a couple of which are total custom jobs, i.e. nightbuilds along with installed filters, renderes and decoders that are nightbuilds which took me forever to get perfectly running. I have over 7 Terabytes of Media in every frickin format imaginable and to get the highest quality playback along with funtionality on all the different formats (especially MKV containers with 8bit encodes, 10bit encodes, multiple audio tracks in AAC, AC3, OGG, FLAC and so on, along with multiple subtitle tracks, with even the sub tracks in different formats, which is a total biatch for renders to display properly), as well as disc image files (ISO/BDMV) without having to burn to disc nor mount to a virtual drive, so on and so forth, was a HUUUUGE pain. If I have to re-install, then re-tweak all my media crap after re-installing the OS, I'll have a frickin aneurysm. OR... could I just copy the big Program, Program x86, Program Data files and stand alone entities, like madVR, on an external drive or just a different drive, re-install the OS then recopy all that program crap back?

*Edit*
WAIT... can't I just update the drivers on the HDDs and instead of letting it get them from online, where it would just grab the MS ones, can't I just send it to get them off the thumbdrive or would it just ignore me or would Windows and AMD get into like an argument about it?

*Edit 2*
Nope that didn't work, I stuck that AMD chipset file (12-4_vista_win7_32-64_sb) with the Chipset, AHCI and USB3 things on a thumbdrive, sent the HDD to every possible part of it, for a driver update and it just basically tells me to f*ck off the driver is already up to date using that MS driver. So back to my original question, how much havoc will be caused to my set-up (specifically my Media set-up) if I re-install the OS and will that even fix the actual detection of the HDDs by like Speedfan or CrystalDisc or Astra32?

Btw, I can't find any AHCI sata.inf file or name anywhere, not even anything called AHCI sata. On the mobo disc, I looked through all 12 drivers folders as well as I could manually, after I first did the auto-search for them, but with no results. I did find one AHCI folder that has a SCSI miniport driver folder and a Drvsetup file, but that AHCI is in a folder called "Marvell" in a folder called "Other". 😱
 
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My HDD started to showing as removable (in addition to the fact that my HDD changed type from ATA to SCSI) exactly after installing Gigabyte Raid Configurer in Windows 10.
So I just entered Safe Mode, searched for "recovery" (via Windows Search), opened Recovery -> Advanced startup -> reboot now, chose "Restore from a system restore point" and selected point related to Gigabyte.
 
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