Solved HDD SATA3 working in Win7 but Not detected in Bios

[3TnT]

Hi,

I built a new PC to my brother. All is working fine except one thing.

I bought him 2 X 1TB HDD SATA3. The first one has two partitions : one of 60 GB for Windows 7 and the other around 900 gb. The second HDD is 1 TB.

I installed Win7 64 bit without problem. The two HDD are working normally.

In the bios, on the main page, it display all the SATA as not detected.

In the boot menu, i see my 2 HDD in IDE mode.

I already did all the update from ASUS for the motherboard. I installed the Marvel SATA3 driver, flash the bios, updated the USB3, etc.

I also use the SATA 6 GB/s ports on the motherboard and the 6 GB/s wires. My motherboard is an ASUS P7P55D-E Pro with an Intel i5 760. The two HDD are : Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM

The performance index of Windows show me 5,9/7,9 for the HDD. I got the same number with my SATA2 HDD on my other computer. SATA3 is suppose to be better and faster...

The computer is working but why did I not see the two HDD in the main page of the SATA display in the bios ?

Thanks

 

[GeneO]

You have your 6GB/s drives connected to the Marvell 6GB/s SATA Controller. This is a chip separate from the Intel SATA controller. Hard drives connected to it will not show up in your your BIOS Main Page -> SATA controller, only drives connected to the Intel SATA ports will.

You will not see any performance improvement on 6 Gb/s SATA Hard drives over 3Gb/s hard drives. The WDC Caviar Black 6Gb/s and 3 Gb/s versions of the 1 TB drive both have a maximum transfer rate of 126 MB/s (WDC spec sheet). Either SATA II or SATA III sare capable of handling this rate.

You will not see an increase in performance or WEI score on 6Gb/s SATA unless you get a solid state disk.

If you want to see those hard drives flash up as your system boots up, go to the BIOS BOOT MENU -> boot settings configuration and disable Full Screen Logo. You should then be able to see the Marvell BIOS display the drives it detects as the system boots up (it will only flash momentarily).

 

[3TnT]

You have your 6GB/s drives connected to the Marvell 6GB/s SATA Controller. This is a chip separate from the Intel SATA controller. Hard drives connected to it will not show up in your your BIOS Main Page -> SATA controller, only drives connected to the Intel SATA ports will.

You will not see any performance improvement on 6 Gb/s SATA Hard drives over 3Gb/s hard drives. The WDC Caviar Black 6Gb/s and 3 Gb/s versions of the 1 TB drive both have a maximum transfer rate of 126 MB/s (WDC spec sheet). Either SATA II or SATA III sare capable of handling this rate.

You will not see an increase in performance or WEI score on 6Gb/s SATA unless you get a solid state disk.

If you want to see those hard drives flash up as your system boots up, go to the BIOS BOOT MENU -> boot settings configuration and disable Full Screen Logo. You should then be able to see the Marvell BIOS display the drives it detects as the system boots up (it will only flash momentarily).

Thanks for your reply !

So you said that the HDD are in SATA3 already ? Why did i see, in the boot menu, the two HDD in IDE if it's a external controler ?

What's the difference between the SATA2 and the SATA3 from WD if the transfer rate is the same ?

I also have a blue ray drive connect on a Intel SATA port and i don't see it too in the main bios page... ?

 

[GeneO]

Sorry I misread some of that. You can configure the Marvell to be either IDE or AHCI mode in the BIOS. You probably have it setup for IDE mode, which is OK (it is still SATA running in IDE protocol).

The difference is the SATA 6Gb/s transfer rate can potentially go twice as fast as the SATA 3Gb/s. But you won;t see any difference if the hard drive is slower than 3 Gb/s! The maximum speed of the WDC 1TB drive is 126 MB/s = 1 Gb/s so the 3 Gb/s SATA can run it at full rate.

Just because a drive has a 6 Gb/s interface doesn't make it faster. The manufacturers have to move ahead with new standards, even though their current devices may not be able toi take advantage of the higher rate. The only storage device that can take advantage of SATA 6Gb/s right now is solid state drives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

Don't know why you don't see the blue ray drive,

 

[3TnT]

Sorry I misread some of that. You can configure the Marvell to be either IDE or AHCI mode in the BIOS. You probably have it setup for IDE mode, which is OK (it is still SATA running in IDE protocol).

I already tried the AHCI mode and i didn't see any change... What's the difference ?

 

[3TnT]

Don't know why you don't see the blue ray drive,

He's working but I don't see it in the BIOS


And for the AHCI, will i see a difference of speed from the IDE ?

 

[GeneO]

No, no difference in speed really. AHCI adds hot swap capability (which you don;t need for internal drives) and native command queuing (NCQ). NCQ will order requests to the drive in an optimal order, but really doesn't affect the performance for a HDD much.

If you are already IDE then switching to AHCI can be difficult. Where did you set the AHCI - in the main menu? If so that doesn't change the mode for the Marvell controller. That is done in the Advanced -> Onboard Devices > Marvell SATA Controller [IDE or AHCI]

When you say you don't see it in the BIOS, does that mean you go to the main menu and all 6 SATA devices show "Not Detected"?

 

[3TnT]

No, no difference in speed really. AHCI adds hot swap capability (which you don;t need for internal drives) and native command queuing (NCQ). NCQ will order requests to the drive in an optimal order, but really doesn't affect the performance for a HDD much.

If you are already IDE then switching to AHCI can be difficult. Where did you set the AHCI - in the main menu? If so that doesn't change the mode for the Marvell controller. That is done in the Advanced -> Onboard Devices > Marvell SATA Controller [IDE or AHCI] I set the AHCI mode in the Main menu AND in the Advanced.

When you say you don't see it in the BIOS, does that mean you go to the main menu and all 6 SATA devices show "Not Detected"?
Yes, in the main menu. All 6 SATA devices show "Not Detected". In the Boot menu, I can select to boot on the Blue Ray drive... So, I only see it in the Boot menu...

...

 

[GeneO]

Have you plugged the BlueRay into the Jmicron SATA controller perhaps? If it is plugged into one of the Intel Controller ports it should show up in the BIOS Main menu. If not, weird.

I have the same MB btw.

 

[3TnT]

Have you plugged the BlueRay into the Jmicron SATA controller perhaps? If it is plugged into one of the Intel Controller ports it should show up in the BIOS Main menu. If not, weird.

I have the same MB btw.

Doh ! That's what I did... I hope it hasn't broke anything...Did it ??? I'll do the switch.

 

[GeneO]

Have you plugged the BlueRay into the Jmicron SATA controller perhaps? If it is plugged into one of the Intel Controller ports it should show up in the BIOS Main menu. If not, weird.

I have the same MB btw.

Doh ! That's what I did... I hope it hasn't broke anything...Did it ??? I'll do the switch.

No, eSATA is basically SATA. No problem there.

 

[3TnT]

The Blue Ray drive now appear in the main menu of the BIOS.

 

[GeneO]

All right

That Jmicron port is usually meant for hooking up to an eSATA port in the case.

Cheers!

 

[3TnT]

All right

That Jmicron port is usually meant for hooking up to an eSATA port in the case.

Cheers!

Thanks alot GeneO !