MCP55 howto PCIIDE instead of NVSTOR for using SSD & TRIM?

[marcelser]

Hi,

I'm using an old DELL XPS 500 with an nForce 590 SLI MCP Chipset. The chip is MCP55 and the board does not support AHCI in Bios. I'm currently planning to connect an SSD to one of the SATA ports to host my Windows 7 64-bit as system drive.

The board has an SATA controller from nVdidia and also a PATA Controller with two ports.
So when I look into the device manager under the "storage controllers" node I have 1 "NVIDIA nForce RAID Controller" (with nrvaid.sys) and 4 "NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA-Controller" (nvstor.sys) entries listed. On the other hand under "IDE/ATAPI Controllers" node I have a "ATA Channel 0" and "ATA Channel 1" and "DUAL PCI/IDE Controller" (with 4 driver files one of them beeing PCIIDE.sys) listed.

If I'm correct, I would have to change of the "NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA-Controllers" (where I plan to connect the SSD) to use the pciide.sys instead of the nvstor.sys so I can flash firmware and have TRIM support correct? But how do I do this, when I choose "update driver" and then "choose" and "choose from drivers on this computer" (sorry for my bad english, my windows 7 is a german one but I try to translate as good as possible). The only listed driver is the nvidia serial ata driver. When I uncheck show only compatible devices und go to Microsoft the only thing I see is a "Storage Miniport" driver.

Can anyone tell me how to use the pciide.sys instead of the nvstor.sys on the serial ata controllers nodes?

Thanks a lot because I'm quite clueluess on how to change this.

[Fernando 1]

@ marcelser:
Welcome at nForcersHQ Forum!

Before I can answer your question I need to know your current hdd configuration.
How many hdd's are running within your system and which of them are members of a RAID array?
NForce RAID arrays need the nForce SATA driver named NVSTOR.SYS. If you would replace this driver by the generic MS IDE driver named PCIIDE.SYS, you would not be able to see the data of the RAID array anymore.

Regards
Fernando

[marcelser]

Thanks for your reply and your help.

Here's my configuration: I currently have 3 hdd's installed. 2 x 500 GB (Raid Striped) and 1 x 1 TB non-raid (in the bios I can set which disk are controlled by raid and which not). The raid controller itself has a second bios where the 2 x 500 hds are configured as striped. althouth the 1TB disk is controlled by the bios and the other 2 disks are controlled by the nvidia raid controller it seems that all of the serial ata devices use nvidia drivers either nvraid.sys or nvstor.sys.

If I understood you correctly from your answer, it's not possible to have the raid disks using nvraid.sys and the other non-raid sata ports (which are controlled by the bios somehow) using pciide.sys correct? If so, can I make a new raid somehow with pciide.sys drivers? If not, then I must sadly refrain from buying an SDD because it would also mean that I have to change my 2 x 500Gb hdds too and this is too much of a hassle. If it's possible can you explain me how? Thanks in advance but one question remaind, would the PCIIDE.sys be much slower then the nvstor.sys? Or do you have another idea?

It's also not an option to use the sdd with nvstor.sys because if problems arise or new features a re added a firmware update is needed you cannot flash the firmware as the drive is not recognized. Second problem the drives would fragment if the TRIM command is not supported. There were some tools for older harddisks to recondition them but as far as I heard the new sandforce controllers do not work anymore with this tools, so there wouldn't even be a way to recondition the drive. That's the big problem.

Best regards,

Marc

[Fernando 1]

Hello Marc,

maybe there is a chance to get the SSD running with the Trim supporting MS driver named PCIIDE.SYS.

Here's my configuration: I currently have 3 hdd's installed. 2 x 500 GB (Raid Striped) and 1 x 1 TB non-raid (in the bios I can set which disk are controlled by raid and which not). The raid controller itself has a second bios where the 2 x 500 hds are configured as striped. althouth the 1TB disk is controlled by the bios and the other 2 disks are controlled by the nvidia raid controller it seems that all of the serial ata devices use nvidia drivers either nvraid.sys or nvstor.sys.

Only the RAID0 array with the 2x500 GB hdd's as members need the nForce SATA driver named nvstor.sys and the nForce RAID driver named nvraid.sys (By the way: These are the Win7 in-box nForce SATA and RAID drivers. There are newer and better nForce SATA and RAID drivers available. You can find them within the start post of >this< thread.).
If I understood your first post correctly, your mainboard has 2 Parallel ATA (40pin) ports. I assume, that your optical drive is an IDE (non-SATA) one and connected with the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller". If this is correct, you are not able to use this P-ATA Controller for your SSD.

As a consequence the only chance to get the MS IDE driver installed instead of the nForce SATA driver is with the SATA ports, which are not connected with a RAID member hdd.

This is what I recommend to do (precondition: the OS and the bootloader is within the RAID array):
1. Open the Device Manager and find out, which of the listed NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controllers are connected with your single 1 TB hdd.
2. Do a right click onto that special Controller, choose the option "Update Driver Software" > "Browse my Computer" > let the Device Manager show all compatible devices.
3. If the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" is listed as being compatible, take it > OK.
After the next reboot your 1 TB hdd will be managed by the generic MS IDE driver named PCIIDE.SYS and you can be sure, that this will work with your SSD too.

Regards
Fernando

[marcelser]

Hi Fernando,

Thanks for the help. The problem is, when I choose to update the driver one of the nForce Serial Ata Ports the standard driver from microsoft is not listed as compatible. So I tried to install the newer drivers from the "Fernandos non-AHCI nForce Performance Pack for Win7Vista 64bit v8.8.rar" pack which should work for MCP55 right? The installation all went well and when the system rebooted and I looked into the device manager it showed nvraid64.sys and nvstor64.sys as driver files. But in the taskbar win7 reported that it is installing more device drivers and when the driver installation was complete I was asked to reboot a second time. After rebooting a second time I got a BSOD very early in the boot process (while the windows 7 logo flys in) so I had to revert to the previous system restore point.

So at the moment I have two problems.
1.) with the actual drivers then Standard Microsoft driver is not listed as compatible
2.) with the newer performance driver I get a BSOD after the second reboot

Do you have any advice?

Thanks a lot for your help

Marc

[Fernando 1]

Hello Marc,

thanks for your report, although it is not encouraging at all.
Unfortunately you didn't confirm or contradict my speculation, that the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" is a P-ATA Controller and used by your optical drive.

So at the moment I have two problems.
1.) with the actual drivers then Standard Microsoft driver is not listed as compatible

That indicates, that you are obviously not able to combine your currently running nForce RAID system with the use of the generic MS IDE driver, not even for a non-RAIDed single hdd/SSD. I didn't yet know about this restriction.
So I suspect, that you either have to run your system without a RAID or your SSD without Trim.

2.) with the newer performance driver I get a BSOD after the second reboot

After having installed any new nForce driverpack, but before they are going to reboot, users with an nForce RAID system should verify, that all NVIDIA nForce SATA and RAID devices have gotten the freshly installed nForce SATA and RAID drivers..
This is what you should do after having installed the driverpack, but before restarting the computer:

1. open the Device Manager and let it show all - even the hidden - devices (hit "View" in the menue bar > "Show hidden devices")
2. search for the following NVIDIA related devices within the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and "Storage Controllers" section and check the driver version they are using (right click > "Properties" > "Drivers"):
   1. "NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controllers"
   2. "NVIDIA nForce RAID Controllers"
   3. "NVIDIA RAID Devices" or similar names (these are the hdd's, which are members of the RAID array)
3. If any of the devices doesn't have taken the nForce SATA or RAID driver v9.99.09, you have to do a manual driver update for this device (right click onto it > "Update Driver Software" > "Browse my Computer" > "Let me pick..." > "Have Disk..." > point to the correct SATARAID driver folder of the driverpack > OK.
4. If you are sure, that all NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controllers and all NVIDIA nForce RAID Controllers/Devices have taken the nForce SATA/RAID driver v9.99.09, you can reboot.

Regards
Fernando

[marcelser]

Hi Fernando,

I will try the performance drivers as you advised as soon as I get home. To confirm your speculation: the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" is a P-ATA Controller and controls one optical drive (I have 3 of them installed, 1 x P-ATA, 2 x S-ATA drives). But why do you ask for the P-ATA Controller? There's still one P-ATA Slot free I think (would have to check if my mobo has one or two 40-pin connectors), but either way the SDD would be S-ATA3.

But another Idea came to my mind: Do you know if the MCP55 Bios allows for PCI-Express S-ATA Add-on cards to be booted from. If so I could install a cheap S-ATA3 card with a up-to-date controller which would use the standard driver? Did you ever hear from anybody who tried this?

Best regards,

Marc

[Fernando 1]

Do you know if the MCP55 Bios allows for PCI-Express S-ATA Add-on cards to be booted from.

No, I do not know, if this will be possible.
To be honest: If I were you, I would think about a new or already used Intel chipset mainboard.

Regards
Fernando

[marcelser]

Hi Fernando,

I really need new hardware (not only the mobo), my pc is now about 5 years old(!!) and it would be quite difficult to find a mobo with such an old processor socket and used ones I don't trust. Furthermore it would be too time consuming to re-install windows 7 and all my stuff only for a mobo change which would not give me any speed increase or more comfort. The only thing it would give me is the possibility to have AHCI on the SDD and TRIM support but that's not worth the effort. Thanks for the hint but either I can find a controller working with the SDD and my bios or I will have to wait till I buy a completely new system but that would cost me about $2000 and this money I don't have at the moment.

Thanks for your effort in trying to help me and I will post an update if I decide to try it with a add-on card and it works.

Best regards,

Marc