Matrix/AHCI confusion

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Jan 31, 2002
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I just put together an MSI P55-GD80 based system and I'm a bit confused by the drivers on the driver download page for this mobo, specifically the "Intel Matrix Storage Manager for SATA RAID and AHCI mode" and "Intel P55 AHCI / RAID Drivers". I'm assuming the second is the actual driver itself whereas the first is more a utility. Should I bother installing these? My last system (P35) based) I didn't bother and things ran fine - in fact I think people advised against AHCI. BTW, I'm only using a single drive, no RAID, on the native P55 SATA channel, not the JMicron controller
 
I would set it to ACHI mode, there's no real reason not to anymore.

The Matrix Storage Manager is the management utility, it's useful if you're running RAID, otherwise you don't need it.
 
The storage manager is not needed just to use your raid controller, only the driver - and the storage manager is totally useless for you if you've only got 1 drive.

There are 3 ways your controller can function - 'legacy' mode which makes it emulate a PATA controller, or AHCI mode, which is SATA's native interface with command queueing, etc., or RAID mode which gives you the usual multi-disk-as-one-disk functionality.

If you don't use AHCI mode, but instead use legacy/ide mode, then even windows xp can use your disk right off the bat, as it acts like an old school IDE controller. This was done as a stopgap measure when drivers were still 'not there' for sata controllers. If you use AHCI mode, then you will need either the driver disc for your controller when installing windows, or a newer version of windows that has the drivers so you can just install as normal (win7 had my intel controller's AHCI drivers...winxp didn't.) AHCI mode is superior to legacy mode, as it allows the controller to communicate natively with the SATA drive and use NCQ etc.

The last mode is RAID mode, and that only needs to be used if you are running multiple discs in a RAID array.
 
I did a bit of research and it seems the matrix storage manager isn't just for RAID, it also contains the AHCI drivers too. From what I can tell, the F6 driver pre-install method is only if you want to set up a RAID array, otherwise the install instructions say to run the matrix storage manager from the OS only if you just want AHCI functionality (I'm using Win 7 64bit, BTW). I've tried running it and it throws up the error that my PC doesn't meet the minimum requirements. I've got a Barracuda 7200.12 which according to the specs supports AHCI and I don't see a place in the board's BIOS to enable/disable AHCI. I've also installed the INF drivers per the instructions. Ideas anybody?
 
1. I know you don't need the matrix storage manager to run a single drive in AHCI, because i'm doing it right now on my second PC. The matrix storage manager is only useful if you are using a RAID array or are about to turn your single disk configuration into a RAID array and don't want to reformat/re-install windows. That is all the matrix storage manager is for. it is not a device driver, though it may include drivers in it's install program (though that would be pointless, since you could not boot into windows in the first place without either windows having the drivers already, or hitting f6 on install and providing them to windows...)

2. Likewise, I know that the F6 driver pre-install is not only for RAID, but is also needed for AHCI mode to function UNLESS your operating system already has that AHCI driver - and as I mentioned, windows 7 does have AHCI drivers just about everything since it's so new.... If you use the IDE mode, then all versions of windows i've ever seen already have basic IDE drivers, so no f6 is needed then.

3. There is a spot in your bios to enable/disable AHCI mode/RAID mode/IDE mode on your controller. It'll be under integrated peripherals, under the 'On-Chip ATA Devices' menu, listed under an option called 'RAID MODE'. Changing this option after you have installed windows will likely result in a blue screen on boot saying unable to find boot device, and you'll need to re-install windows...so set it to AHCI before you install windows (or re-install windows if you've already done it while it was set to 'IDE'). If it's saying that your PC does not meet minimum requirements I suspect your sata controller is not in RAID mode...(and it shouldn't be if you don't have multiple disks.) Without AHCI mode, you can't do hot plug/unplug sata drives, or native command queueing.
 
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Never thought to look there, I was tooling around on the main IDE screen. Thanks, sounds like it should work. And if anybody else should ever check this thread, the MSI site is a bit confusing - it shows those two drivers labelled differently, but they're both really the Matrix manager, one is the English version, the other the international.
 
Is it possible to do hot plug and unplug of sata drives when running in raid mode? I would like to boot off a raid array and still have the ability to hot plug/unplug sata drives.
 
I suspect the answer is yes, judging on my experiences with server boards. If you're running raid-5, in fact, it's how you SHOULD be dealing with a disk failure. On the other hand, if you're running a raid-0 array and you unplug one of your drives you're fucked. I know that drives which are not part of your raid array would be fine with hot-swapping even if you have a raid array configured on other drives.
 
Actually, I am running raid 6 for storage. I have a raid 0 array for booting and doing video editing on currently. I was thinking of getting another set of drives in raid 0 and using it as a boot drive so I am not editing on the same drives as I boot and run programs from. I currently run everything off a seperate controller, but plan to use the raid on the south bridge to boot off of in the future.
 
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