Any idea why my SSD is listed as a 'Hard disk drive' instead of 'Solid state drive' as in your screenshots above? I am running Windows 8 Pro x64 RTM from Technet. In Device Manager my SSD shows as a 'Samsung SSD 830 Series SCSI Disk Device'. I wonder if it's being on a Marvell controller might be the reason. My mobo has both Marvell and Intel disk controllers.

The ssd should always be used in an Intel port imho bud. The driver you are using is making it appear to be a scsi device.

I ran my 'problem' past Ray Hinchliffe who is the author of the great program SIV with whom I've done testing for many years. He's got to know more about hardware than anyone I know. His program also didn't pick up my SSD as an SSD. He states it's because the Samsung 830 Series does not return many SMART attributes compared to other SSD's. He changed his code to correctly determine that my drive is an SSD. He stated to me that as long as SIV can read the drive's SMART data it can determine if it is an SSD regardless of the type of controller it's on. Keep in mind my drive is identified as an SSD in the program Samsung Drive Magician SSD with came with the drive. This is what I use to optimize it (TRIM). So I'm sure my problem is simply one of labeling my SSD incorrectly and not anything reducing it's functionality as it does perform as an SSD.

SIV now determines I have an SSD by checking the 0xB1 attribute in SMART. Here's what he sent me if you are into this stuff:

if( ( sap->aid == 0xAB ) || // Program Fail Count
( sap->aid == 0xAC ) || // Erase Fail Count
( sap->aid == 0xAD ) || // Wear Leveling Count

( sap->aid == 0xB1 ) || // Wear Leveling Count (Chip)

( sap->aid == 0xE8 ) ) // Endurance Remaining
{
sdm->ssd = TRUE; // Drive is an SSD
break;
}


Perhaps Windows 8 uses SMART data to determine an SSD and doesn't use the new method that SIV now uses. Of course I can just switch controllers to find out.