[SOLVED] Crucial Storage Executive says my new SSD is connected with SATA2, but mobo supports SATA3. How do I fix this?

[Ozone86]

I installed a new 1TB Crucial MX500 SSD in my trusty old desktop. I cloned the OS drive with Macrium and it's working great. But I ran Crystal Disk to compare the read/write speeds with the previous Kingston V300 SSD and the Crucial achieved maybe 50% of its rated speed.

So I used Crucial Storage Executive to look over the drive status and it says the SSD and all my HDDs are connected via SATA2 at 3 Gbps when my motherboard should support SATA3 at 6 Gbps.

I poked around in the mobo manual and BIOS but I don't see a way to enable SATA3. Here's a photo of the BIOS settings:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ai7VCpPfziDEwh8S-myWz0ClOlIO?e=vToxY0

The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 Rev 1.1.

Thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

What BIOS version are you currently on for your motherboard? Have you tried working with another SATA3(6Gbps)cable?

in my trusty old desktop
Might want to parse the specs to your entire build.

 

[Ozone86]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

The boot screen says Award BIOS V6.00 PG.

System Information in Windows 10 says BIOS Version: Award Software International, Inc. F5 10/13/2011

I've tried two SATA different cables marked as 6 Gbps. Also, all 3 of my HDDs are connected at SATA 2 according to Storage Executive.

Full specs:

AMD Phenom II X4 960T
Crucial MX500 1 TB SSD
WD Red Plus 4TB HDDs x 2
MSI Radeon RX 580 4 GB Armor
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM 16 GB (4 x 4 GB)
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 Rev 1.1 AM3+ Chipset
Cooler Master CM690 Case
Corsair Professional Series HX750W PSU
Scythe Fuma 2 Rev.B CPU Cooler
CM690 Case
Windows 10 Home

 

[Lutfij]

System Information in Windows 10 says BIOS Version: Award Software International, Inc. F5 10/13/2011
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-990FXA-UD3-rev-11/support#support-dl-bios
You have BIOS versions pending update, see if things change once you've updated to the latest BIOS version.

 

[Ozone86]

System Information in Windows 10 says BIOS Version: Award Software International, Inc. F5 10/13/2011
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-990FXA-UD3-rev-11/support#support-dl-bios
You have BIOS versions pending update, see if things change once your updated to the latest BIOS version.

Well, I wouldn't have guessed it was the BIOS version. But updating it worked!

Thank you!

 

[Ozone86]

System Information in Windows 10 says BIOS Version: Award Software International, Inc. F5 10/13/2011
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-990FXA-UD3-rev-11/support#support-dl-bios
You have BIOS versions pending update, see if things change once you've updated to the latest BIOS version.

Hmm, okay, new questions:

When I launch Crucial Storage Executive, it says "Your motherboard BIOS configuration is set to 'IDE' mode. This configuration should be set to 'AHCI' mode for optimal performance and to ensure full software feature support."

So I go back into BIOS and set the OnChip SATA Type to AHCI and Port 4/5 Type to As SATA Type. This is the same as the settings in the BIOS screenshot above and they worked fine before.

Now, when I boot to OS, Windows gives me a BSOD with the error message "INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE."

I disconnected all the other drives, so it's failing to boot from the SSD.

I changed the settings back to "Native IDE" and it boots fine.

So strange. Any ideas? Is there much difference between IDE and AHCI?

 

[Ozone86]

From this article, this sounds like what' s happening:

If your operating system is Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, or Windows 10, your system drive may encounter some booting issues. If your SATA controllers are not in AHCI mode when installing the OS, the several operating systems won’t configure themselves to load the AHCI driver upon boot.

Especially if you switch the SATA controller to AHCI mode inadvertently after installing the OS in IDE mode, your Windows system may fail to boot with a Blue Screen error. As for this issue, Intel recommends that users change the drive controller to AHCI or RAID before an OS installation.

If you are a Windows 10 user, you can try fixing the booting issue by forcing the correct drivers to reload in Safe Mode. In a word, IDE mode owns better operating system compatibility than AHCI mode.

I'll see if I can boot to Safe Mode and install the AHCI drivers.

 

[Ozone86]

From this article, this sounds like what' s happening:

I'll see if I can boot to Safe Mode with Networking and download the AHCI drivers.

Okay, by following the advice in the article above and booting to Safe Mode, I was able to install Microsoft Standard AHCI drivers as recommended by Crucial in this guide.

So I think we're all good. Thanks for your help!

 

[Lutfij]

If your SATA ports were set to IDE all along and you'd installed the OS in that state, then you're going to have to reinstall the OS after switching to AHCI. On another note, your motherboard has 6 internal SATA ports that are native to the SB950 chipset, you merely need to install the chipset drivers for your motherboard. That being said, you're working with an AMD motherboard, not Intel.