SATA recognized as SCSI

[HavocXphere]

Hi guys

On my dads PC, a SATA HDD is being recognized as a SCSI drive. Performance also seems sub-par and the HDD light only flashes in burst compared the previous IDE drive.

Dev manager screenshot.

If I remove either the SCSI drive or the VIA Raid controller in the dev manager, windows just reinstalls them again.

SIW lists the drive interface as "SCSI SATA" which I find somewhat confusing.

So how do I get this thing to recognize it as a simple SATA?

XP Sp2
Asus P4V8X-MX
Seagate ST3250310AS

 

[Claymore]

The VIA drivers sets it up to look like SCSI to Windows; Windows didn't understand "SATA" then. It should be faster than the native Windows drivers, in thory.

 

[HavocXphere]

The VIA drivers sets it up to look like SCSI to Windows; Windows didn't understand "SATA" then. It should be faster than the native Windows drivers, in thory.

Any ideas how I could switch back to native MS drivers? I don't see anything under add/remove and it just replace them if I delete the Via under dev manager?

 

[Claymore]

Run the VIA storage drive installation file - it should give you the option of uninstalling the drivers. (As I remember...)

 

[HavocXphere]

Run the VIA storage drive installation file - it should give you the option of uninstalling the drivers. (As I remember...)

Will check. Thanks.

 

[SilverNodashi]

You don't need to. On many systems SATA is bein SCSI emulated.

Does the SCSI drivers give you any problems?

 

[HavocXphere]

Does the SCSI drivers give you any problems?

It feels slow & the HDD light seems to indicate that no sustained data transfer is taking place...only short bursts, then a pause, then another burst.

 

[Asha'man X]

As far as I know, Windows XP won't ever detect a SATA disk as a SATA disk, but rather as SCSI. It's something to do with the age of the operating system and the way SATA is designed.

I've installed many systems with SATA drives, and I usually just set it to IDE mode if it's a single hard drive, saves me time and effort, and there's no speed reduction.

On the one system I set up a raid array, the disks are picked up as SCSI, and so is the eSATA drive I use for backup, and this is on Windows 2003 Server.

A SATA optical drive also shows up as SCSI and not SATA.

I think Vista will properly label SATA drives.

 

[HavocXphere]

Good to know, Asha'man X. Still a bit worried about the performance hit. It really does feel slower than the previous IDE drives.

 

[SilverNodashi]

It feels slow & the HDD light seems to indicate that no sustained data transfer is taking place...only short bursts, then a pause, then another burst.

ok, so it's working - but you are worried that the light doesn't flash often, or even stay on? The light should only really flash when it's actively moving / deleting / copying / updating data.

As far as I know, Windows XP won't ever detect a SATA disk as a SATA disk, but rather as SCSI. It's something to do with the age of the operating system and the way SATA is designed.

This has nothing todo with Windows XP, it does the same on Linux & some UNIX's as well. It has todo with how the motherboard, or rather the HDD interface on the mobo handles it.

I've installed many systems with SATA drives, and I usually just set it to IDE mode if it's a single hard drive, saves me time and effort, and there's no speed reduction.

On the one system I set up a raid array, the disks are picked up as SCSI, and so is the eSATA drive I use for backup, and this is on Windows 2003 Server.

A SATA optical drive also shows up as SCSI and not SATA.

I think Vista will properly label SATA drives.

Again, see my reply above. Some motherboards will allow you to change the way SATA works, to look like an IDE HDD. I don't think it degrades peformace thouh.

Good to know, Asha'man X. Still a bit worried about the performance hit. It really does feel slower than the previous IDE drives.

How can you tell it's slower? Are you running a SQL DB, or doing a lot of data transfers to different HDD's?

Have you tried running some bench tests to see what happens?

 

[HavocXphere]

ok, so it's working - but you are worried that the light doesn't flash often, or even stay on? The light should only really flash when it's actively moving / deleting / copying / updating data.

I can't get the HDD light to stay on no matter what I do. Sustained data transfers should imo result in a light that is ON, not alternating between ON and Off. The previous IDE drive showed a constant HDD light during transfers.

I concluded that its not managing sustain transfers but only bursts.

How can you tell it's slower? Are you running a SQL DB, or doing a lot of data transfers to different HDD's?

Have you tried running some bench tests to see what happens?

I've not run run any tests yet, but I've done loads of XP reinstalls on PCs and this one is feels slow, esp for a clean install.