HDDs Connected to Asus P8Z68 DELUXE/GEN3 look like USB on Marvell

[D'Souza]

My computer is using the Asus P8Z68 DELUXE/GEN3 motherboard. Few days ago I have connected 4 HDDs (all of them 1 TB) and SATA 3. At first I have connected 2 of them to the Intel connectors and other 2 on the Marvell connector. While booting with them I have noticed that the HDDs appearing like USB drives which are connected on the chipset and they seems slow. Is it normal? If not, what should I have to do fix this issue? They are really good drives since I have bought them very recently.

[Amadou]

It has been normal. The marvell driver loads the icon to safely remove the device, but other drivers and controllers do not. This is called hot-swap (or hot-plug) that removes peripheral devices during operation of the windows as do USB or Firewire devices. However it is possible for you to remove that icon easily. To do this you have to go into the Device Manager. There scroll to the branch "Storage controllers". Open the branch and there you will see a Marvell controller referred to as "Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller". Right clock on it and choose "Properties". In the "Properties" Windows select "Policies" tab and remove the mark on "Enable disk safely remove" check box. Reboot the computer and the icon will automatically disappear.

[Denholm]

I want to know whether your Marvels are booters or data. I don’t know for what reason they are showing you as a USB drives.

Can you see SATA as SCSI in the BIOS?

I have heard that HDDs on Marvell controller are 25% slower than Intel 6G. If you are going to use Marvell, it would be better if you use a SSD drive(s) rather than HDDs because you will never notice a difference in speed or performance. You will notice Marvell drivers installed on your computer. In Device manager you can see them as Diamond shaped blue icon separately. The latest drivers are v 1.2.0.1019. Make sure that you not installed the Marvel MSU app (Marvel storage Utility) and never will.

[Dannai7]

You have to reinstall your driver for Marvell is certainly it who controls your HDD which currently function as IDE and not SATA. You can find Marvell SATAII Driver. And keep the two drivers (Marvell, J-Micron and Intel the same way), since you seem to use both controllers. Anyway, it will not make your PC more rowing. The controller that you should use in my opinion is the Intel SATA AHCI. Attention during a reboot may be needed to IDE SATA option in BIOS if it no longer sees the hard drive.

[JErastus]

In order to boot Windows from the Marvell controller in AHCI mode you have to get installed the the Marvell AHCI driver. You can skip this process and directly connect the disk controller ports in the chipset. Many users are reported that they have dissatisfied with the performance Marvell controller: they are actually worse than SATA II. so i think that it is useless to hassle with installing drivers which do not bring the desired results. The performance of this controller was painful, even lower than SATA II. So i think that it would be more secure to rely on the chipset controller.

[ErikaGeek]

I know because it is less efficient, far be it from me to want to get better performance with the Intel chip. I intended to connect my 2 Raptors 36G into a RAID. 3Gbps disks into being, I tell myself as I see too much difference. The problem is that the Marvell is enabled in the BIOS, and the OPROM. But impossible to recognize any device, whether it is the SSD or the Raptors or my DVD burner. I read that the combination "CTRL + M" allowed configuring the BIOS Marvell. But it appears bios so fast (not even 1 second) that I never managed to access it for now. I read in the manual, it was possible to connect as "data drives". I do not know very well what they mean by it, if there is one type of disk or connect a type of cables.

[Mallory c]

It seems to me that one controller mode showing as AHCI and one as IDE. So I assume that you had Enabled Hot Swap at some point and due to this reason the disks are appearing like removable devices. It is a problem since it is not desirable for a system disk. We have seen thing kind of behavior before where the system drives first as removable devices when nForce chipset was introduced. But nVidia resolved this behavior quickly. I never thought that same kind of behavior can be seen Intel based controller. You can enable AHCI and hot swap but this capability does exist. Did you try connecting your boot drives to the Marvell controller? Like this the system may change its way of interpretation. One thing you always keep in mind that the Marvell controller must be used for secondary storage devices (data drives) otherwise storage arrays. If you are using the windows 7, it will automatically disables controller drivers which not being used.

[Mahalingam]

A rumor arose over the delay of the first motherboards equipped with SATA controller 6Gbit / s. concerned the only available controller, the Marvell 88SE9123, which would have shown problems of flows on all motherboards planned for the autumn, and has circuitry printed in less than eight layers. In order to address this rumor, Marvell has publicly responded: according to the firm, the rumor is unfounded. Its controller has shown no sign of weakness on its functionality either SATA 1.5 Gbps to 3Gbps or 6Gbps. But Marvell recognizes, however, have encountered problems. It turns out that also acts 88SE9123 PATA controller. Delayed motherboards took advantage of this compatibility to provide a channel PATA / IDE, useful to connect an old DVD for example. Marvell's explanation is quite plausible.