OCZ Agility 3 SSD without Intel Rapid Storage Technology?

[Danny89]

Hi,

May I know why doesnt my OCZ Agility 3 SSD show up in Intel Rapid Storage Technology?
It also doesnt show up in the SATA List..
Only in Boot sequence (displayed as [IDE:*model name*] in the BIOS, whereas my 2nd normal HDD shown up as [RAID:*model name*])

Thanks & regards,
Danny from Malaysia

 

[HugoStiglitz]

You must have your SATA mode set to either AHCI or RAID.

IDE or compatibility mode will HEAVILY impact on speed and disable features like TRIM.

 

[Danny89]

Hi,

I already set the IDE Mode (never seen any SATA Mode) into RAID in BIOS.. (also tried AHCI)
The WDC HDD will automatically adjust according to my settings, but not the OCZ SSD..

My PC specs:

Shuttle XPC SX58H7 Pro (500W PSU)
Intel X58 Express Chipset
Intel Core i7 980
16GB Corsair PC12800 DDR3 Tri-Channel RAM
MSI NVidia GTX 560 Ti
OCZ Agility 3 250GB SSD
WDC 2TB HDD
Windows 7 Pro 64bit

PS: I heard if we install our Windows on either IDE/AHCI/RAID, when we boot with different settings there will be BSOD? But I can load them fine with any settings.. So I guess my SSD's mode never actually changed?

 

[Danny89]

You must have your SATA mode set to either AHCI or RAID.

IDE or compatibility mode will HEAVILY impact on speed and disable features like TRIM.

Ah just got home & checked..
It's IDE Configuration > SATA Mode..
Already set as RAID..
But still shown as IDE for my SSD..
Is it possible it's due to my Windows was installed on IDE? (But i did an Upgrade while on AHCI, so it's considered to be on IDE or AHCI now?)

 

[catatafish]

If you were not in RAID before you installed Windows, and you added the SSD, you will have to set it to RAID in your BIOS, then reinstall Windows. Then the SSD will show up as an option to accelerate your HDD. Let me know when you get it working if it gives you 15 second boots to windows. It did nothing to speed mine up....still 38 seconds.

 

[Danny89]

If you were not in RAID before you installed Windows, and you added the SSD, you will have to set it to RAID in your BIOS, then reinstall Windows. Then the SSD will show up as an option to accelerate your HDD. Let me know when you get it working if it gives you 15 second boots to windows. It did nothing to speed mine up....still 38 seconds.

It used to load Windows in 15seconds with 7.4 in Windows Experience Index..
But i have frequent crashes etc..
Then i reinstalled Windows & updated the BIOS.. now it loads in 25seconds & Windows Experience Index dropped to 6.9

PS: It's a gift from the US & sadly i didnt record the original value before flashing the BIOS etc

 

[Danny89]

ah btw, the frequent freeze still happens..
so now i m worse off

 

[catatafish]

I'm a little confused. Using Intel SRT usually means having an HDD as your main booting drive, and the SSD supports it as a "cache" drive. So your WEI should be 5.9 because it will show you the lowest score there is, which is going to be your HDD (not measuring the cache). 5.9 is pretty close to the highest number you can get with an OS on your HDD, regardless of using an SSD for a cache or not (at least this was my experience).

Are you using the SSD as your boot drive? And trying to use Intel SRT as well?

 

[Danny89]

I'm a little confused. Using Intel SRT usually means having an HDD as your main booting drive, and the SSD supports it as a "cache" drive. So your WEI should be 5.9 because it will show you the lowest score there is, which is going to be your HDD (not measuring the cache). 5.9 is pretty close to the highest number you can get with an OS on your HDD, regardless of using an SSD for a cache or not (at least this was my experience).

Are you using the SSD as your boot drive? And trying to use Intel SRT as well?

Ya, I am using the SSD as my main boot drive..
Am i understanding the RST wrongly? =/

Previously I said i could boot on all IDE/AHCI/RAID..
I just updated to the latest BIOS (http://global.shuttle.com/products/productsDownloadUS?productId=1478)..
& now i can only load Windows on IDE/AHCI..

Here's the stat for both my SSD & HDD on Piriform's Speccy:

WDC WD2003FYYS-02W0B0
Manufacturer Western Digital
Form Factor TB/3.5-inch (new format)
Business Unit/Brand Enterprise/WD RE4; WD RE3; WD RE2 (4-platter)
Heads 16
Cylinders 16383
SATA type SATA-II 3.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 351 times
Power On Time 57.0 days
Speed, Expressed in Revolutions Per Minute (rpm) 7200
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, AAM, NCQ
Transfer Mode SATA II
Interface SATA
Capacity 1954GB
Real size 2,000,398,934,016 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
01 Read Error Rate 100 (253 worst) Data 0000000000
03 Spin-Up Time 253 (253) Data 00000016B0
04 Start/Stop Count 100 (100) Data 00000002FB
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
07 Seek Error Rate 200 (200) Data 0000000000
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 099 (099) Data 0000000558
0A Spin Retry Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
0B Recalibration Retries 100 (100) Data 0000000000
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 000000015F
C0 Power-off Retract Count 200 (200) Data 0000000074
C1 Load/Unload Cycle Count 200 (200) Data 0000000286
C2 Temperature 108 (094) Data 000000002C
C4 Reallocation Event Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
C8 Write Error Rate / Multi-Zone Error Rate 200 (200) Data 0000000000
Temperature 44 °C
Temperature Range ok (less than 50 °C)
Status Good
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #0, Partition #0
Disk Letter E:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number 26CC1079
Size 1863GB
Used Space 211GB (12%)
Free Space 1652GB (88%)

OCZ-AGILITY3 ATA Device
Manufacturer OCZ
Heads 16
Cylinders 16383
SATA type SATA-II 3.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 348 times
Power On Time 76.6 days
Speed, Expressed in Revolutions Per Minute (rpm) Not used (SSD Drive)
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ, TRIM, SSD
Transfer Mode SATA III
Interface SATA
Capacity 234GB
Real size 240,057,409,536 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
01 Read Error Rate 120 (120 worst) Data 0000000000
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 100 (100) Data 0000000002
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 098 (098) Data 000000072F
0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 000000015C
AB 000 (000) Data 0000000001
AC 000 (000) Data 0000000001
AE 000 (000) Data 0000000062
B1 000 (000) Data 0000000002
B5 000 (000) Data 0000000001
B6 000 (000) Data 0000000001
BB Reported Uncorrectable Errors 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C2 Temperature 128 (129) Data 0000810080
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 100 (100) Data 0000000000
C4 Reallocation Event Count 100 (100) Data 0000000002
C9 Soft Read Error Rate 100 (100) Data 0000000000
CC Soft ECC Correction 100 (100) Data 0000000000
E6 GMR Head Amplitude 100 (100) Data 0000000064
E7 Temperature 100 (100) Data 0000000000
E9 000 (000) Data 0000000630
EA 000 (000) Data 0000000560
F1 Total LBAs Written 000 (000) Data 0000000560
F2 Total LBAs Read 000 (000) Data 0000000BB2
Temperature 128 °C
Temperature Range bad (greater than 55 °C)
Status Good
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #0
Size 100 MB
Partition 1
Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #1
Disk Letter C:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number AE8D67CA
Size 223GB
Used Space 91GB (41%)
Free Space 132GB (59%)

As far as I know, my SSD should be on SATA3 6.0Gb/s rather than SATA2?

 

[catatafish]

1) If you have an SSD, yes it should be connected to an SATA3 6gbs if you have it.
2) Intel SRT is for an HDD as the primary drive, with an SSD to supplement it as a cache drive. If your OS is already on your SSD (a superior set up), you don't need Intel SRT.

If you are using your SSD as your boot drive, then you should be in AHCI and your mechanical HDD should not have an OS on it at all, and should just be used for extra storage of files (what most people do with their SSD).

Someone else please chime in if I'm advising him incorrectly, but that was my understanding of things. I have no idea how to read that error report though.

 

[Danny89]

1) If you have an SSD, yes it should be connected to an SATA3 6gbs if you have it.
2) Intel SRT is for an HDD as the primary drive, with an SSD to supplement it as a cache drive. If your OS is already on your SSD (a superior set up), you don't need Intel SRT.

If you are using your SSD as your boot drive, then you should be in AHCI and your mechanical HDD should not have an OS on it at all, and should just be used for extra storage of files (what most people do with their SSD).

Someone else please chime in if I'm advising him incorrectly, but that was my understanding of things. I have no idea how to read that error report though.

Yup, it's connected to the SATA3 6.0Gbs connector..
& my OS is on the SSD with the HDD only for extra files, so i guess that clears the part about RST.. Thanks!
So AHCI is better than RAID for my SSD?
Still dont get why my SSD is shown as IDE in the BIOS & not shown in the SATA List of Drives (only DVD-ROM & HDD shown) though..

 

[RetiredChief]

Two things first:
1) Download/install/run AS SSD. - DO NOT need to run the benchmark. Just look at the upper left. It will show what driver is being used:
.. pcide = Bad That says it all.
.. msahch That is OK
.. iaSTor that the best configuration.
2) look at the drive using my Disk manager - there should be two partitions, one a small 100 mb system partition and then the larger one should be "C" drive.
3) Hate to be the bear of bad news, But it does not matter if your SATA III Agility III is on sata II or SATA III - It will not run any faster on SATA III. Yes ATTO Benchmark will show higher on SATA III, BUT if you run AS SSD you will find it score the same for SATA II or SATA III - Yes this is in a review PLUS I verified on My system, Have two 128 gig Agility III.

Here is where it gets tricky.
1) How did you install windows on the SSD???? Did you do the recommended method of first disconnecting your HDDs BEFORE installing windows 7 on SSD. If NO then highly recommend that you re-install win 7 on the SSD.
2) While it is recommended that the Bios be set to AHCI, with an Intel chipset the Bios May be set to Raid. Here is a 2nd stick point, if you reinstall windows with the Bios set to AHCI you may not see the HDD after reloading windows. Simple solution is to back up the HDD just to be safe.
3) If you leave the Bios set to raid that is OK,
.. First visit Intels download and download the "F6 Driver. Put on a thumbdrive.
.. Just that you will need to Select custom install
.. Play it safe select advanced and delete any and all partitons
.. On page that displays the SSD (DON't FORGET need to disconnect HDD first) there is a check box for Additional drivers.
.. After checking the box and selecting where to install. you will be prompted for the additional driver, just broose to the thumbdrive and select the driver.
.. Then just continue as normal for reinstall.

If the Orginal installation was done with the HDD disconnected and Bios was set to IDE, you might be able to just force it to AHCI. Requires editting the Registry, reboot to Bios and setting the Bios to AHCI. (just google changing ide to ahci in windows 7 NOT this is a faily common problem. Then just un-install RST and reinstall, that should then convert the msahci driver to iaSTor.

Added:
You said "So AHCI is better than RAID for my SSD?"
Short answer NO they are the same if properly set up.
Long winded explaination. AHCI setting will set msahci as driver which can then be changed to iaSTor. When Bios is set to raid, and the SSD is NOT a member drive, iaSTOR can still be used and the drive will be treated as a AHCI drive.

 

[Danny89]

Two things first:
1) Download/install/run AS SSD. - DO NOT need to run the benchmark. Just look at the upper left. It will show what driver is being used:
.. pcide = Bad That says it all.
.. msahch That is OK
.. iaSTor that the best configuration.
2) look at the drive using my Disk manager - there should be two partitions, one a small 100 mb system partition and then the larger one should be "C" drive.
3) Hate to be the bear of bad news, But it does not matter if your SATA III Agility III is on sata II or SATA III - It will not run any faster on SATA III. Yes ATTO Benchmark will show higher on SATA III, BUT if you run AS SSD you will find it score the same for SATA II or SATA III - Yes this is in a review PLUS I verified on My system, Have two 128 gig Agility III.

Here is where it gets tricky.
1) How did you install windows on the SSD???? Did you do the recommended method of first disconnecting your HDDs BEFORE installing windows 7 on SSD. If NO then highly recommend that you re-install win 7 on the SSD.
2) While it is recommended that the Bios be set to AHCI, with an Intel chipset the Bios May be set to Raid. Here is a 2nd stick point, if you reinstall windows with the Bios set to AHCI you may not see the HDD after reloading windows. Simple solution is to back up the HDD just to be safe.
3) If you leave the Bios set to raid that is OK,
.. First visit Intels download and download the "F6 Driver. Put on a thumbdrive.
.. Just that you will need to Select custom install
.. Play it safe select advanced and delete any and all partitons
.. On page that displays the SSD (DON't FORGET need to disconnect HDD first) there is a check box for Additional drivers.
.. After checking the box and selecting where to install. you will be prompted for the additional driver, just broose to the thumbdrive and select the driver.
.. Then just continue as normal for reinstall.

If the Orginal installation was done with the HDD disconnected and Bios was set to IDE, you might be able to just force it to AHCI. Requires editting the Registry, reboot to Bios and setting the Bios to AHCI. (just google changing ide to ahci in windows 7 NOT this is a faily common problem. Then just un-install RST and reinstall, that should then convert the msahci driver to iaSTor.

Added:
You said "So AHCI is better than RAID for my SSD?"
Short answer NO they are the same if properly set up.
Long winded explaination. AHCI setting will set msahci as driver which can then be changed to iaSTor. When Bios is set to raid, and the SSD is NOT a member drive, iaSTOR can still be used and the drive will be treated as a AHCI drive.

Hi, I m not sure how Windows was installed as it was a gift from the US..
But everything should be fine as it's custom built by a big gaming Corporation..

Anyway, AS SSD shows it's on pciide
Already tried the fix both automatically(Microsoft Fix) or manually, but it still run on pciide whereas my normal HDD runs fine on iaSTor..
Use to be able to boot in 15seconds but now it takes almost 30seconds after i tried updating my BIOS & "Upgrade Windows" to try fix my Freezing issue..

 

[Danny89]

Just realised something..
Is this normal?
103424K Offset/Alignment..

 

[RetiredChief]

The 103424 k - OK should be OK (that is also what one of mine shows.
Did you check to see if the SSD has the small 100 mb psystem partition on it?

The rerason for your increase in boot time over time is because of the pcide controller not passing trim. I have a feeling that the windows installation was done with the HDDs connected and that is the reason it is not allowing you to "fix" it.

Before doing a Clean reinstall.
try this. disconnect your HDD. Boot to Bios and set to ahci. then boot to win 7 DVD and select repair. then boot th windows 7 (HDDs still disconnected. and se if that did the trick - If Not you really need to do a re-install as I outlined.

 

[Wisecracker]

It would help if you determined the firmware on the SSD -- or it were updated prior to the installation of the OS.

You can check OCZ for appropriate downloads and instructions -- and email the manufacturer. The needed firmware update on the OCZ Agility IIIs is widely known.

 

[Danny89]

The 103424 k - OK should be OK (that is also what one of mine shows.
Did you check to see if the SSD has the small 100 mb psystem partition on it?

The rerason for your increase in boot time over time is because of the pcide controller not passing trim. I have a feeling that the windows installation was done with the HDDs connected and that is the reason it is not allowing you to "fix" it.

Before doing a Clean reinstall.
try this. disconnect your HDD. Boot to Bios and set to ahci. then boot to win 7 DVD and select repair. then boot th windows 7 (HDDs still disconnected. and se if that did the trick - If Not you really need to do a re-install as I outlined.

Ya there's a hidden 100MB partition on it..
I used SSDLife & it shows TRIM enabled though..

That's exactly what I did before I went to bed, removing the other HDD..
It actually speeds up the Windows load time (15seconds now) even without having me to do anything else..
However, the mode is still pciide eventhough i tried the registry fix..
I also did a Windows Upgrade (even more comprehensive than repair i guess?) but it is still pciide now..
Windows Experience Index is still 6.9..

Another thing worth noting is that my SSD only shows up in Boot sequence when i was on IDE mode (AHCI/RAID doesnt show the HDD list at all)..
Both SATA3 ports doesnt show up on the IDE Configuration list, only the 2 eSATA & 2 SATA devices are shown (previously DVD-ROM + HDD, now only DVD-ROM since i disconnected the HDD)..

 

[Danny89]

It would help if you determined the firmware on the SSD -- or it were updated prior to the installation of the OS.

You can check OCZ for appropriate downloads and instructions -- and email the manufacturer. The needed firmware update on the OCZ Agility IIIs is widely known.

It's on 2.11 whereas the latest is 2.15..
Already downloaded the firmware & will be getting a Thumb Drive to try the fix (don't wanna reformat/erase etc)..

 

[Danny89]

Btw, i tried IDE/AHCI/RAID seperately & each time my Windows boot up fine too..
But everytime it's still on pciide..

 

[RetiredChief]

Even though trim is enabled, it will not be passed to the drive. Only msahci and iaSTor will pass the trim cmd (for intel chipset).

I'm still thinking that you are most likely going to have to bite the bullet and do a re-install.
In fact would have been done by now - LOL

going from 2.11-> 2.15 May work, that is allow the system to swap the msahci driver for the pcide driver. Don't think so, but worth a shot.

 

[Danny89]

Even though trim is enabled, it will not be passed to the drive. Only msahci and iaSTor will pass the trim cmd (for intel chipset).

I'm still thinking that you are most likely going to have to bite the bullet and do a re-install.
In fact would have been done by now - LOL

going from 2.11-> 2.15 May work, that is allow the system to swap the msahci driver for the pcide driver. Don't think so, but worth a shot.

Sorry i unintentionally clicked Submit.. laggy office PC..

Anyway, i did quite a number of Windows Reinstalls.. Just dont want to do a format/erase/clean install.. Doesn't seem to help..
I even tried all 4 available updated BIOS versions from Shuttle (including the latest 1 which was just released this month)..
But the SSD is always shown as [IDE:*model name*] in BIOS & runs on pciide in Windows..

Any idea why can i load Windows if I my SSD runs on pciide but SATA Mode is set as AHCI/RAID?

Such weird problem.. Can't google any similar problem as everyone fix theirs by the simple registry edit

 

[Danny89]

i am gonna try disabling PCIIDE, let see if it works (possible thing that i think may happen = i will lose access to my DVD-ROM or even my Boot device if my SSD is fixed at IDE independently of Windows drivers.. )

 

[Danny89]

now it goes to BSOD while loading Windows & I couldn't boot even while in Safe Mode nor fixed by System Repair

 

[ismaeljrp]

The 103424 k - OK should be OK (that is also what one of mine shows.
Did you check to see if the SSD has the small 100 mb psystem partition on it?

The rerason for your increase in boot time over time is because of the pcide controller not passing trim. I have a feeling that the windows installation was done with the HDDs connected and that is the reason it is not allowing you to "fix" it.

Before doing a Clean reinstall.
try this. disconnect your HDD. Boot to Bios and set to ahci. then boot to win 7 DVD and select repair. then boot th windows 7 (HDDs still disconnected. and se if that did the trick - If Not you really need to do a re-install as I outlined.

Don't want to steal the thread, but since it's well developed.

I didn't set my ssd boot drive to ahci when i installed OS. It is IDE now.

I have a backup image of the boot drive.

Can I do a re-install as you said. First setting bios to ahci, then win 7 repair, and install that backup image?

 

[ismaeljrp]

Didn't know this had to be done for Intel chipset, as I had came from an AMD AM3 setup, and my drive was just as new for over a year....( agility 2 60gb )