3rd internal SSD shows as removable SCSI Disk Device

Hi all. I have an Asus P8Z77V-Deluxe mobo with Win8.1x64. The mobo has 4 6G SATA ports, 2 are Intel and the other 2 are Marvell. I have the main OS SSD drive and 2nd internal HDD connected to the 2 Intel 6G SATA ports without issues. Today I added a 3rd SSD drive connecting it to one of the Marvell 6G SATA ports. The drive was picked up by Windows but problem is that in System Tray it shows as a removable SCSI Disk device. I tried to reset the BIOS to default values without success. How can I make Windows see this 3rd drive as a fixed drive and not removable? Thanks.

That port is probably set as eSATA and windows sees it as external drive. In the bios you can probably set it as "normal" SATA port but Marvel controller is not particularly good for SSDs anyway, you should ideally connect it to primary controller and connect HDD or CD there if there's no available connections on primary (Intel) controller, HDDs and DVDs don't care about it.
If you want to keep present configuration, you can go to Device manager > Disk drives > Policies and set to "Enable write caching for this device", it should make it an "Ordinary" drive.
Oh, just to ad, all IDE, PATA, SATA are part of SCSI standard so it's mention doesn't mean it's conventional SCSI connection.

Thanks, I tried all what you mention before posting here but unfortunately:
1) There is no option in BIOS to set the marvell port to "SATA", only to enable/disable it.
2) There is no "Policies" tab in Device Manager/Disk Drives/Properties. There is in Windows 7, but in Windows 8 that tab disappeared.

Apparently the only solution I found is a registry tweak as explained here and here. I have not tried it yet.

The reason I chose the Marvell controller for the SSD is that they are the only 6Gb/sec available ports left (the other 2 intel 6Gb/sec ports are busy with the main OS SSD and 2nd internal HDD). I could try connecting the 3rd internal SSD to available Intel SATA ports but they are all 3Gb/sec, do you think I will notice less performance as compared to 6Gb/sec?

I'm on 8.1 and there is policy tab on all drives, SSDs and HDDs.


Just looked up your MB: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8Z77V_DELUXE/specifications/
Intel® Z77 chipset :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray Put SSDs here
4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), blue Put HDDs here
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology, Intel® Rapid Start Technology, Intel® Smart Connect Technology
Marvell® PCIe 9128 controller :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), navy blue Or put HDDs here.
Support Raid 0, 1
ASMedia® PCIe SATA controller : *[SUP]6[/SUP]
2 x eSATA 6Gb/s port(s), red

Yes, there is a Policy Tab under Disk Drives, and it's already set to "Enable write caching", nevertheless Windows still sees it as a removable drive:

What I meant is that there is no Policy tab in the Marvell Storage controller properties:

The WD 2TB Black HDD (2nd internal drive) is 6Gb/sec, that's why I did not connect it to the Intel 3Gb/sec SATA port. I can connect it to the Marvell 6GB/sec port, but I will face the same issue as with the Samsung 830 SSD, it will see it as a removable drive.

Mechanical HDDs can't take advantage of SATA3 (6GB/sec) interface, can't even saturate SATA2 so influence on their speed is next to none. SSDs on the other hand need SATA3 to work full speed so it's better for them to be on faster interface.

OK, I will connect the HDD 2nd internal to the Intel SATA 3Gb/s port and the Samsung 830 SSD (3rd internal) to the Intel 6Gb/s. Will report back. One question though, I have a DVD burner/reader connected to one of the Intel SATA 3Gb/s ports, will the HDD be limited to the DVD drive's speed? Thanks.

antares said:

OK, I will connect the HDD 2nd internal to the Intel SATA 3Gb/s port and the Samsung 830 SSD (3rd internal) to the Intel 6Gb/s. Will report back. One question though, I have a DVD burner/reader connected to one of the Intel SATA 3Gb/s ports, will the HDD be limited to the DVD drive's speed? Thanks.

Click to expand...

No, it's not like in PATA times.

Ok, I finally connected the drives as follows:
Main OS SSD to Intel SATA III port
2nd Internal HDD drive to Intel SATA II port
3rd internal SSD to Intel SATA III port
Everything is smoother now, no conflicts and VM's that I run from the 3rd internal perform faster.
Lesson: avoid Marvell and stick to Intel.

antares said:

Lesson: avoid Marvell and stick to Intel.

Click to expand...

Glad it worked right, Marvel is one of first SATA - AHCI controllers and is nowhere as good and fast as Intel or even AMD.

CountMike said:

antares said:

Lesson: avoid Marvell and stick to Intel.

Click to expand...

Glad it worked right, Marvel is one of first SATA - AHCI controllers and is nowhere as good and fast as Intel or even AMD.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I wonder why ASUS includes Marvell ports in premium mobos like the P8Z77V-Deluxe instead of having just all Intel ports..

antares said:

CountMike said:

antares said:

Lesson: avoid Marvell and stick to Intel.

Click to expand...

Glad it worked right, Marvel is one of first SATA - AHCI controllers and is nowhere as good and fast as Intel or even AMD.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I wonder why ASUS includes Marvell ports in premium mobos like the P8Z77V-Deluxe instead of having just all Intel ports..

Click to expand...

Cheap *******s !