Internal Hard Drive Shows as a Removable Device

I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC

wrote:
I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC

Hotplug is a feature of AHCI driver.

Maybe you can tell us the make and model number of the motherboard ?

Paul

On 12/12/2014 01:12 PM, wrote:
I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC


Hi Denny,

You are using an AHCI controller (PCH is a variation). Drives
attached to it will show as "removable", including your DVD
drive.

This caused a bit of consternation on my part the first time I saw
it, out of fear I could remove a mounted drive and corrupted
my operating system. Do not worry, if files are open on the
drive, you will not be allowed to dismount it. (Your C:\
will have so many files open on it, your head will spin.)

So, just "hold your nose".

-T

écrivait newscmm8alp5npv2m8bs2b1garg67ahpu4cq5@
4ax.com:

I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC

There should be a place in the BIOS to deactivate "hotplug" on any drive in
the system.

HTH

Paul wrote, On 12/12/2014 2:30 PM:
wrote:
I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC

Hotplug is a feature of AHCI driver.

Maybe you can tell us the make and model number of the motherboard ?

Paul
Isn't it usual that the motherboard give a "hot plug or not" option for
each SATA port? I believe mine (ASUS X79 Deluxe) does.
--
Jeff Barnett

On Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:12:13 -0600, wrote:

I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC

Replying to all previous responses:

Paul: The motherboard is an Intel Z77GA-70K


Jeff Barnett: Using the Intel Visual Bios, I did find a "hot plug or
not" option for all SATA ports provided by the Chipset Controller
(Primary SATA Controller). But the Secondary SATA Controller does not
offer that option. Note that I connected the new (third) drive to the
Secondary Controller to be able to get the SATA III (6GB/s) speed. The
only 2 6GB/s ports from the Primary Controller were already in use.


Todd: None of the SATA drives connected to the Primary Controller
show as removable. Neither do the DVD drives. Only the USB ports
show the attached devices as removable.


Dominique: See my reply to Jeff Barnett (above).


I did find this via Google but haven't had time to read and digest it
yet.

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...emove-hardware


Thanks for all your responses. Further suggestions welcome!

DC

wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:12:13 -0600, wrote:

I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC

Replying to all previous responses:

Paul: The motherboard is an Intel Z77GA-70K


Jeff Barnett: Using the Intel Visual Bios, I did find a "hot plug or
not" option for all SATA ports provided by the Chipset Controller
(Primary SATA Controller). But the Secondary SATA Controller does not
offer that option. Note that I connected the new (third) drive to the
Secondary Controller to be able to get the SATA III (6GB/s) speed. The
only 2 6GB/s ports from the Primary Controller were already in use.


Todd: None of the SATA drives connected to the Primary Controller
show as removable. Neither do the DVD drives. Only the USB ports
show the attached devices as removable.


Dominique: See my reply to Jeff Barnett (above).


I did find this via Google but haven't had time to read and digest it
yet.

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...emove-hardware


Thanks for all your responses. Further suggestions welcome!

DC

If the Z77 connected drives are not listed as removable, it
could be the mode of the Z77 ports that has done that.
(You set them to IDE, or you used a tick box to disable Hotplug.)

The non-Z77 ports (on a Marvell chip perhaps), the BIOS may not
offer as many control options for those. A BIOS company writes the
"core" of a BIOS, and the Z77 would be covered by their design.
Add-on chips, they only come with an Extended Int 0x13 code module
(or a RAID management module for RAID chips), and they would not
include nearly the same set of controls. No attempt is made to
integrate those two kinds of codes - when a RAID Management module
runs, it takes over the whole screen. When an Extended Int 0x13
module runs, it dumps a couple lines of status in the window
and that is all. No tick boxes.

*******

OK, I checked their download site, and they list a Marvell RAID driver.
That means the chipset driver is likely AHCI/RAID, with no IDE option.
The IDE one, would automatically rule out Hotplug.

(Marvell 88SE9172)
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&ProdId=344 2

I downloaded the file and looked at the INF files in the archive,
but it delivered no "hints". It's a two level driver, based
on a SCSI stack (CDB blocks to pass commands). I don't see the word
AHCI or Hotplug in there at all. So the driver doesn't help me.

*******

There is a hint here, as to how a person might go about disabling
Hotplug on a specific controller. You use Regedit to do this,
and I'd want to make a backup before messing around. If you
modify the wrong setting, it might be embarrassing to no longer
be able to boot or something :-)

http://superuser.com/questions/12955...ws-7-tray-icon

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servi ces\msahci

\Controller0\Channel0
\Channel1
\Channel2
\Channel3
\Channel4
\Channel5

Now create a new DWORD - name: TreatAsInternalPort, value: 1
under each of the ChannelN keys. Now reboot for the changes
to take effect and the drives should no longer show up under
'Safely Remove..'

[this no longer works for 8 – user1643156 Mar 6 at 19:35] --- comment
section

"

So maybe something on that page will work for you.

The thing is, the driver for that chipset, isn't like to have
registry entries anything near what is shown in the example.
So don't be surprised if the idea is a bust.

*******

OK, this one looks like a winner :-)

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...ve-hardware/10

There is an actual tick box in Device manager, for the
"Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller" entry and its Properties.

http://cdn.overclock.net/5/58/600x45...ixmarvell.jpeg

That'll be a lot easier to do, that's for sure.

Paul

On Sat, 13 Dec 2014 19:03:42 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:12:13 -0600, wrote:

I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC

Replying to all previous responses:

Paul: The motherboard is an Intel Z77GA-70K


Jeff Barnett: Using the Intel Visual Bios, I did find a "hot plug or
not" option for all SATA ports provided by the Chipset Controller
(Primary SATA Controller). But the Secondary SATA Controller does not
offer that option. Note that I connected the new (third) drive to the
Secondary Controller to be able to get the SATA III (6GB/s) speed. The
only 2 6GB/s ports from the Primary Controller were already in use.


Todd: None of the SATA drives connected to the Primary Controller
show as removable. Neither do the DVD drives. Only the USB ports
show the attached devices as removable.


Dominique: See my reply to Jeff Barnett (above).


I did find this via Google but haven't had time to read and digest it
yet.

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...emove-hardware


Thanks for all your responses. Further suggestions welcome!

DC

If the Z77 connected drives are not listed as removable, it
could be the mode of the Z77 ports that has done that.
(You set them to IDE, or you used a tick box to disable Hotplug.)

The non-Z77 ports (on a Marvell chip perhaps), the BIOS may not
offer as many control options for those. A BIOS company writes the
"core" of a BIOS, and the Z77 would be covered by their design.
Add-on chips, they only come with an Extended Int 0x13 code module
(or a RAID management module for RAID chips), and they would not
include nearly the same set of controls. No attempt is made to
integrate those two kinds of codes - when a RAID Management module
runs, it takes over the whole screen. When an Extended Int 0x13
module runs, it dumps a couple lines of status in the window
and that is all. No tick boxes.

*******

OK, I checked their download site, and they list a Marvell RAID driver.
That means the chipset driver is likely AHCI/RAID, with no IDE option.
The IDE one, would automatically rule out Hotplug.

(Marvell 88SE9172)
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&ProdId=344 2

I downloaded the file and looked at the INF files in the archive,
but it delivered no "hints". It's a two level driver, based
on a SCSI stack (CDB blocks to pass commands). I don't see the word
AHCI or Hotplug in there at all. So the driver doesn't help me.

*******

There is a hint here, as to how a person might go about disabling
Hotplug on a specific controller. You use Regedit to do this,
and I'd want to make a backup before messing around. If you
modify the wrong setting, it might be embarrassing to no longer
be able to boot or something :-)

http://superuser.com/questions/12955...ws-7-tray-icon

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servi ces\msahci

\Controller0\Channel0
\Channel1
\Channel2
\Channel3
\Channel4
\Channel5

Now create a new DWORD - name: TreatAsInternalPort, value: 1
under each of the ChannelN keys. Now reboot for the changes
to take effect and the drives should no longer show up under
'Safely Remove..'

[this no longer works for 8 – user1643156 Mar 6 at 19:35] --- comment
section

"

So maybe something on that page will work for you.

The thing is, the driver for that chipset, isn't like to have
registry entries anything near what is shown in the example.
So don't be surprised if the idea is a bust.

*******

OK, this one looks like a winner :-)

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...ve-hardware/10

There is an actual tick box in Device manager, for the
"Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller" entry and its Properties.

http://cdn.overclock.net/5/58/600x45...ixmarvell.jpeg

That'll be a lot easier to do, that's for sure.

Paul


Wow, your effort is impressive and I sure appreciate it.

Looking at Device Manager, there is no item named "Storage
controllers" and therefore no Marvell 91xx SATA 6g Controller shown.

I'm going to look around the registry (carefully and after saving a
copy).

Thanks for your help. If I figure it out I'll report back here.

DC

wrote:
On Sat, 13 Dec 2014 19:03:42 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:12:13 -0600, wrote:

I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC
Replying to all previous responses:

Paul: The motherboard is an Intel Z77GA-70K


Jeff Barnett: Using the Intel Visual Bios, I did find a "hot plug or
not" option for all SATA ports provided by the Chipset Controller
(Primary SATA Controller). But the Secondary SATA Controller does not
offer that option. Note that I connected the new (third) drive to the
Secondary Controller to be able to get the SATA III (6GB/s) speed. The
only 2 6GB/s ports from the Primary Controller were already in use.


Todd: None of the SATA drives connected to the Primary Controller
show as removable. Neither do the DVD drives. Only the USB ports
show the attached devices as removable.


Dominique: See my reply to Jeff Barnett (above).


I did find this via Google but haven't had time to read and digest it
yet.

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...emove-hardware


Thanks for all your responses. Further suggestions welcome!

DC
If the Z77 connected drives are not listed as removable, it
could be the mode of the Z77 ports that has done that.
(You set them to IDE, or you used a tick box to disable Hotplug.)

The non-Z77 ports (on a Marvell chip perhaps), the BIOS may not
offer as many control options for those. A BIOS company writes the
"core" of a BIOS, and the Z77 would be covered by their design.
Add-on chips, they only come with an Extended Int 0x13 code module
(or a RAID management module for RAID chips), and they would not
include nearly the same set of controls. No attempt is made to
integrate those two kinds of codes - when a RAID Management module
runs, it takes over the whole screen. When an Extended Int 0x13
module runs, it dumps a couple lines of status in the window
and that is all. No tick boxes.

*******

OK, I checked their download site, and they list a Marvell RAID driver.
That means the chipset driver is likely AHCI/RAID, with no IDE option.
The IDE one, would automatically rule out Hotplug.

(Marvell 88SE9172)
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&ProdId=344 2

I downloaded the file and looked at the INF files in the archive,
but it delivered no "hints". It's a two level driver, based
on a SCSI stack (CDB blocks to pass commands). I don't see the word
AHCI or Hotplug in there at all. So the driver doesn't help me.

*******

There is a hint here, as to how a person might go about disabling
Hotplug on a specific controller. You use Regedit to do this,
and I'd want to make a backup before messing around. If you
modify the wrong setting, it might be embarrassing to no longer
be able to boot or something :-)

http://superuser.com/questions/12955...ws-7-tray-icon

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servi ces\msahci

\Controller0\Channel0
\Channel1
\Channel2
\Channel3
\Channel4
\Channel5

Now create a new DWORD - name: TreatAsInternalPort, value: 1
under each of the ChannelN keys. Now reboot for the changes
to take effect and the drives should no longer show up under
'Safely Remove..'

[this no longer works for 8 – user1643156 Mar 6 at 19:35] --- comment
section

"

So maybe something on that page will work for you.

The thing is, the driver for that chipset, isn't like to have
registry entries anything near what is shown in the example.
So don't be surprised if the idea is a bust.

*******

OK, this one looks like a winner :-)

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...ve-hardware/10

There is an actual tick box in Device manager, for the
"Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller" entry and its Properties.

http://cdn.overclock.net/5/58/600x45...ixmarvell.jpeg

That'll be a lot easier to do, that's for sure.

Paul


Wow, your effort is impressive and I sure appreciate it.

Looking at Device Manager, there is no item named "Storage
controllers" and therefore no Marvell 91xx SATA 6g Controller shown.

I'm going to look around the registry (carefully and after saving a
copy).

Thanks for your help. If I figure it out I'll report back here.

DC


There's two items in that Storage Controller section.
The Marvell 91xx one, and the Marvell RAID Console.
And that tells me that in the JPEG example,
the Marvell driver package was installed. Rather than
some built-in driver.

Check Device Manager, and see if a Microsoft driver took
the place of the Marvell.

If the Microsoft driver took over (MSAHCI), that raises the odds
that the Regedit method would work.

If the Marvell driver is installed, that raised the odds
that Device Manager gets the tick boxes.

Paul

On Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:26:30 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Sat, 13 Dec 2014 19:03:42 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:12:13 -0600, wrote:

I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC
Replying to all previous responses:

Paul: The motherboard is an Intel Z77GA-70K


Jeff Barnett: Using the Intel Visual Bios, I did find a "hot plug or
not" option for all SATA ports provided by the Chipset Controller
(Primary SATA Controller). But the Secondary SATA Controller does not
offer that option. Note that I connected the new (third) drive to the
Secondary Controller to be able to get the SATA III (6GB/s) speed. The
only 2 6GB/s ports from the Primary Controller were already in use.


Todd: None of the SATA drives connected to the Primary Controller
show as removable. Neither do the DVD drives. Only the USB ports
show the attached devices as removable.


Dominique: See my reply to Jeff Barnett (above).


I did find this via Google but haven't had time to read and digest it
yet.

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...emove-hardware


Thanks for all your responses. Further suggestions welcome!

DC
If the Z77 connected drives are not listed as removable, it
could be the mode of the Z77 ports that has done that.
(You set them to IDE, or you used a tick box to disable Hotplug.)

The non-Z77 ports (on a Marvell chip perhaps), the BIOS may not
offer as many control options for those. A BIOS company writes the
"core" of a BIOS, and the Z77 would be covered by their design.
Add-on chips, they only come with an Extended Int 0x13 code module
(or a RAID management module for RAID chips), and they would not
include nearly the same set of controls. No attempt is made to
integrate those two kinds of codes - when a RAID Management module
runs, it takes over the whole screen. When an Extended Int 0x13
module runs, it dumps a couple lines of status in the window
and that is all. No tick boxes.

*******

OK, I checked their download site, and they list a Marvell RAID driver.
That means the chipset driver is likely AHCI/RAID, with no IDE option.
The IDE one, would automatically rule out Hotplug.

(Marvell 88SE9172)
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&ProdId=344 2

I downloaded the file and looked at the INF files in the archive,
but it delivered no "hints". It's a two level driver, based
on a SCSI stack (CDB blocks to pass commands). I don't see the word
AHCI or Hotplug in there at all. So the driver doesn't help me.

*******

There is a hint here, as to how a person might go about disabling
Hotplug on a specific controller. You use Regedit to do this,
and I'd want to make a backup before messing around. If you
modify the wrong setting, it might be embarrassing to no longer
be able to boot or something :-)

http://superuser.com/questions/12955...ws-7-tray-icon

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servi ces\msahci

\Controller0\Channel0
\Channel1
\Channel2
\Channel3
\Channel4
\Channel5

Now create a new DWORD - name: TreatAsInternalPort, value: 1
under each of the ChannelN keys. Now reboot for the changes
to take effect and the drives should no longer show up under
'Safely Remove..'

[this no longer works for 8 – user1643156 Mar 6 at 19:35] --- comment
section

"

So maybe something on that page will work for you.

The thing is, the driver for that chipset, isn't like to have
registry entries anything near what is shown in the example.
So don't be surprised if the idea is a bust.

*******

OK, this one looks like a winner :-)

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...ve-hardware/10

There is an actual tick box in Device manager, for the
"Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller" entry and its Properties.

http://cdn.overclock.net/5/58/600x45...ixmarvell.jpeg

That'll be a lot easier to do, that's for sure.

Paul


Wow, your effort is impressive and I sure appreciate it.

Looking at Device Manager, there is no item named "Storage
controllers" and therefore no Marvell 91xx SATA 6g Controller shown.

I'm going to look around the registry (carefully and after saving a
copy).

Thanks for your help. If I figure it out I'll report back here.

DC


There's two items in that Storage Controller section.
The Marvell 91xx one, and the Marvell RAID Console.
And that tells me that in the JPEG example,
the Marvell driver package was installed. Rather than
some built-in driver.

Check Device Manager, and see if a Microsoft driver took
the place of the Marvell.

If the Microsoft driver took over (MSAHCI), that raises the odds
that the Regedit method would work.

If the Marvell driver is installed, that raised the odds
that Device Manager gets the tick boxes.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Here's what I tried and didn't work:

I assumed that the Secondary Controller would be Controller1 and since
I connected the SATA cable to the first of the ports for that
controller (labeled "A") I assumed it should be Channel0.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ services\ msahci
and create a new KEY called "Controller1"
Inside Controller1, create a new KEY called "Channel0"
Now inside Channel0, create a new DWORD called "TreatAsInternalPort"
set this value to "1"

Then I tried changing the Channel0 named KEY to Channel1 (hey, why
not?). That did not work either.

Here's what my Device Manager looks like:

Bluetooth Devices
Computer
Disk drives
Display Adapters
DVD/CD-ROM drives
Human interface Devices
IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers
Keyboards
Mice and other pointing devices
Monitors
Network adapters
Ports (COM & LPT)
Processors
Sound, video and game controllers
System Devices
Universal Serial Bus controllers
VSO devices

I've snooped through it and the only interesting/related items are
these, found under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers":

ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 2
ATA Channel 3
Intel(R) 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller - 1E02
(Intel Driver)
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller (Microsoft Driver)
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller (Microsoft Driver)


I've found a few more places to read and learn (?) about this issue,
but my time is limited right now. I'll keep in touch, if your 're
still interested.

Thanks,

DC

wrote:
On Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:26:30 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Sat, 13 Dec 2014 19:03:42 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:12:13 -0600, wrote:

I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC
Replying to all previous responses:

Paul: The motherboard is an Intel Z77GA-70K


Jeff Barnett: Using the Intel Visual Bios, I did find a "hot plug or
not" option for all SATA ports provided by the Chipset Controller
(Primary SATA Controller). But the Secondary SATA Controller does not
offer that option. Note that I connected the new (third) drive to the
Secondary Controller to be able to get the SATA III (6GB/s) speed. The
only 2 6GB/s ports from the Primary Controller were already in use.


Todd: None of the SATA drives connected to the Primary Controller
show as removable. Neither do the DVD drives. Only the USB ports
show the attached devices as removable.


Dominique: See my reply to Jeff Barnett (above).


I did find this via Google but haven't had time to read and digest it
yet.

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...emove-hardware


Thanks for all your responses. Further suggestions welcome!

DC
If the Z77 connected drives are not listed as removable, it
could be the mode of the Z77 ports that has done that.
(You set them to IDE, or you used a tick box to disable Hotplug.)

The non-Z77 ports (on a Marvell chip perhaps), the BIOS may not
offer as many control options for those. A BIOS company writes the
"core" of a BIOS, and the Z77 would be covered by their design.
Add-on chips, they only come with an Extended Int 0x13 code module
(or a RAID management module for RAID chips), and they would not
include nearly the same set of controls. No attempt is made to
integrate those two kinds of codes - when a RAID Management module
runs, it takes over the whole screen. When an Extended Int 0x13
module runs, it dumps a couple lines of status in the window
and that is all. No tick boxes.

*******

OK, I checked their download site, and they list a Marvell RAID driver.
That means the chipset driver is likely AHCI/RAID, with no IDE option.
The IDE one, would automatically rule out Hotplug.

(Marvell 88SE9172)
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&ProdId=344 2

I downloaded the file and looked at the INF files in the archive,
but it delivered no "hints". It's a two level driver, based
on a SCSI stack (CDB blocks to pass commands). I don't see the word
AHCI or Hotplug in there at all. So the driver doesn't help me.

*******

There is a hint here, as to how a person might go about disabling
Hotplug on a specific controller. You use Regedit to do this,
and I'd want to make a backup before messing around. If you
modify the wrong setting, it might be embarrassing to no longer
be able to boot or something :-)

http://superuser.com/questions/12955...ws-7-tray-icon

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servi ces\msahci

\Controller0\Channel0
\Channel1
\Channel2
\Channel3
\Channel4
\Channel5

Now create a new DWORD - name: TreatAsInternalPort, value: 1
under each of the ChannelN keys. Now reboot for the changes
to take effect and the drives should no longer show up under
'Safely Remove..'

[this no longer works for 8 – user1643156 Mar 6 at 19:35] --- comment
section

"

So maybe something on that page will work for you.

The thing is, the driver for that chipset, isn't like to have
registry entries anything near what is shown in the example.
So don't be surprised if the idea is a bust.

*******

OK, this one looks like a winner :-)

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...ve-hardware/10

There is an actual tick box in Device manager, for the
"Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller" entry and its Properties.

http://cdn.overclock.net/5/58/600x45...ixmarvell.jpeg

That'll be a lot easier to do, that's for sure.

Paul

Wow, your effort is impressive and I sure appreciate it.

Looking at Device Manager, there is no item named "Storage
controllers" and therefore no Marvell 91xx SATA 6g Controller shown.

I'm going to look around the registry (carefully and after saving a
copy).

Thanks for your help. If I figure it out I'll report back here.

DC

There's two items in that Storage Controller section.
The Marvell 91xx one, and the Marvell RAID Console.
And that tells me that in the JPEG example,
the Marvell driver package was installed. Rather than
some built-in driver.

Check Device Manager, and see if a Microsoft driver took
the place of the Marvell.

If the Microsoft driver took over (MSAHCI), that raises the odds
that the Regedit method would work.

If the Marvell driver is installed, that raised the odds
that Device Manager gets the tick boxes.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Here's what I tried and didn't work:

I assumed that the Secondary Controller would be Controller1 and since
I connected the SATA cable to the first of the ports for that
controller (labeled "A") I assumed it should be Channel0.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ services\ msahci
and create a new KEY called "Controller1"
Inside Controller1, create a new KEY called "Channel0"
Now inside Channel0, create a new DWORD called "TreatAsInternalPort"
set this value to "1"

Then I tried changing the Channel0 named KEY to Channel1 (hey, why
not?). That did not work either.

Here's what my Device Manager looks like:

Bluetooth Devices
Computer
Disk drives
Display Adapters
DVD/CD-ROM drives
Human interface Devices
IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers
Keyboards
Mice and other pointing devices
Monitors
Network adapters
Ports (COM & LPT)
Processors
Sound, video and game controllers
System Devices
Universal Serial Bus controllers
VSO devices

I've snooped through it and the only interesting/related items are
these, found under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers":

ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 2
ATA Channel 3
Intel(R) 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller - 1E02
(Intel Driver)
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller (Microsoft Driver)
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller (Microsoft Driver)


I've found a few more places to read and learn (?) about this issue,
but my time is limited right now. I'll keep in touch, if your 're
still interested.

Thanks,

DC

I wonder if the BIOS had a mode setting for the Marvell ?
Maybe there was a choice of AHCI or RAID. And the difference
is what allowed the MSAHCI driver to take over.

In some cases, in the BIOS there is a "RAID ROM" or similar,
in the add-on chip section. That would be the place you'd
turn on a Firewire chip and port, a Promise IDE controller,
or other sorts of add-on chips. Perhaps in there was an option.
I don't want you to flip it, merely understand how your
machine is currently configured.

I would not create a new key called Controller1. If the MSAHCI
driver has installed itself against the Marvell chip, it
would populate that key itself, as well as some number
of Channel entries. If it didn't do that, you need to
locate where the damn controller got to :-)

If you want to "search" Regedit for a Controller1, on the
theory it's hiding somewhere, that would be something to try.

And no, this stuff isn't easy. I've wasted a good hour or two
per machine, picking this stuff apart, trying to figure out
what happened to the drivers. It's very confusing. I've had
systems here, which were supposed to need an installed driver,
and they instead grabbed something from the OS. And I couldn't
figure out how that was possible (because one chip wasn't
supposed to be very compatible, and it had managed to
load an IDE driver). But the thing is, we know you've got
a "removal" icon in the Task Bar, and the root of that
has got to be AHCI or RAID.

Paul

On Mon, 15 Dec 2014 20:29:26 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:26:30 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Sat, 13 Dec 2014 19:03:42 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:12:13 -0600, wrote:

I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC
Replying to all previous responses:

Paul: The motherboard is an Intel Z77GA-70K


Jeff Barnett: Using the Intel Visual Bios, I did find a "hot plug or
not" option for all SATA ports provided by the Chipset Controller
(Primary SATA Controller). But the Secondary SATA Controller does not
offer that option. Note that I connected the new (third) drive to the
Secondary Controller to be able to get the SATA III (6GB/s) speed. The
only 2 6GB/s ports from the Primary Controller were already in use.


Todd: None of the SATA drives connected to the Primary Controller
show as removable. Neither do the DVD drives. Only the USB ports
show the attached devices as removable.


Dominique: See my reply to Jeff Barnett (above).


I did find this via Google but haven't had time to read and digest it
yet.

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...emove-hardware


Thanks for all your responses. Further suggestions welcome!

DC
If the Z77 connected drives are not listed as removable, it
could be the mode of the Z77 ports that has done that.
(You set them to IDE, or you used a tick box to disable Hotplug.)

The non-Z77 ports (on a Marvell chip perhaps), the BIOS may not
offer as many control options for those. A BIOS company writes the
"core" of a BIOS, and the Z77 would be covered by their design.
Add-on chips, they only come with an Extended Int 0x13 code module
(or a RAID management module for RAID chips), and they would not
include nearly the same set of controls. No attempt is made to
integrate those two kinds of codes - when a RAID Management module
runs, it takes over the whole screen. When an Extended Int 0x13
module runs, it dumps a couple lines of status in the window
and that is all. No tick boxes.

*******

OK, I checked their download site, and they list a Marvell RAID driver.
That means the chipset driver is likely AHCI/RAID, with no IDE option.
The IDE one, would automatically rule out Hotplug.

(Marvell 88SE9172)
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&ProdId=344 2

I downloaded the file and looked at the INF files in the archive,
but it delivered no "hints". It's a two level driver, based
on a SCSI stack (CDB blocks to pass commands). I don't see the word
AHCI or Hotplug in there at all. So the driver doesn't help me.

*******

There is a hint here, as to how a person might go about disabling
Hotplug on a specific controller. You use Regedit to do this,
and I'd want to make a backup before messing around. If you
modify the wrong setting, it might be embarrassing to no longer
be able to boot or something :-)

http://superuser.com/questions/12955...ws-7-tray-icon

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servi ces\msahci

\Controller0\Channel0
\Channel1
\Channel2
\Channel3
\Channel4
\Channel5

Now create a new DWORD - name: TreatAsInternalPort, value: 1
under each of the ChannelN keys. Now reboot for the changes
to take effect and the drives should no longer show up under
'Safely Remove..'

[this no longer works for 8 – user1643156 Mar 6 at 19:35] --- comment
section

"

So maybe something on that page will work for you.

The thing is, the driver for that chipset, isn't like to have
registry entries anything near what is shown in the example.
So don't be surprised if the idea is a bust.

*******

OK, this one looks like a winner :-)

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...ve-hardware/10

There is an actual tick box in Device manager, for the
"Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller" entry and its Properties.

http://cdn.overclock.net/5/58/600x45...ixmarvell.jpeg

That'll be a lot easier to do, that's for sure.

Paul

Wow, your effort is impressive and I sure appreciate it.

Looking at Device Manager, there is no item named "Storage
controllers" and therefore no Marvell 91xx SATA 6g Controller shown.

I'm going to look around the registry (carefully and after saving a
copy).

Thanks for your help. If I figure it out I'll report back here.

DC

There's two items in that Storage Controller section.
The Marvell 91xx one, and the Marvell RAID Console.
And that tells me that in the JPEG example,
the Marvell driver package was installed. Rather than
some built-in driver.

Check Device Manager, and see if a Microsoft driver took
the place of the Marvell.

If the Microsoft driver took over (MSAHCI), that raises the odds
that the Regedit method would work.

If the Marvell driver is installed, that raised the odds
that Device Manager gets the tick boxes.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Here's what I tried and didn't work:

I assumed that the Secondary Controller would be Controller1 and since
I connected the SATA cable to the first of the ports for that
controller (labeled "A") I assumed it should be Channel0.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ services\ msahci
and create a new KEY called "Controller1"
Inside Controller1, create a new KEY called "Channel0"
Now inside Channel0, create a new DWORD called "TreatAsInternalPort"
set this value to "1"

Then I tried changing the Channel0 named KEY to Channel1 (hey, why
not?). That did not work either.

Here's what my Device Manager looks like:

Bluetooth Devices
Computer
Disk drives
Display Adapters
DVD/CD-ROM drives
Human interface Devices
IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers
Keyboards
Mice and other pointing devices
Monitors
Network adapters
Ports (COM & LPT)
Processors
Sound, video and game controllers
System Devices
Universal Serial Bus controllers
VSO devices

I've snooped through it and the only interesting/related items are
these, found under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers":

ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 2
ATA Channel 3
Intel(R) 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller - 1E02
(Intel Driver)
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller (Microsoft Driver)
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller (Microsoft Driver)


I've found a few more places to read and learn (?) about this issue,
but my time is limited right now. I'll keep in touch, if your 're
still interested.

Thanks,

DC

I wonder if the BIOS had a mode setting for the Marvell ?
Maybe there was a choice of AHCI or RAID. And the difference
is what allowed the MSAHCI driver to take over.

In some cases, in the BIOS there is a "RAID ROM" or similar,
in the add-on chip section. That would be the place you'd
turn on a Firewire chip and port, a Promise IDE controller,
or other sorts of add-on chips. Perhaps in there was an option.
I don't want you to flip it, merely understand how your
machine is currently configured.

I would not create a new key called Controller1. If the MSAHCI
driver has installed itself against the Marvell chip, it
would populate that key itself, as well as some number
of Channel entries. If it didn't do that, you need to
locate where the damn controller got to :-)

If you want to "search" Regedit for a Controller1, on the
theory it's hiding somewhere, that would be something to try.

And no, this stuff isn't easy. I've wasted a good hour or two
per machine, picking this stuff apart, trying to figure out
what happened to the drivers. It's very confusing. I've had
systems here, which were supposed to need an installed driver,
and they instead grabbed something from the OS. And I couldn't
figure out how that was possible (because one chip wasn't
supposed to be very compatible, and it had managed to
load an IDE driver). But the thing is, we know you've got
a "removal" icon in the Task Bar, and the root of that
has got to be AHCI or RAID.

Paul

Searched for Controller1 and only found the one I added. I deleted it
now since it did not solve the issue. Also searched for Controller0
and didn't find any.

Looked through the BIOS again in both Virtual BIOS mode and Classic
(text only) mode. Couldn't find any settings that might correct the
issue.

Gonna give it a rest for now.....

DC

On Mon, 15 Dec 2014 20:29:26 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:26:30 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Sat, 13 Dec 2014 19:03:42 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2014 15:12:13 -0600, wrote:

I just added a third SATA hard drive to my Intel Z77, Windows 7 Pro
system. The install went smoothly and the new drive shows in explorer
and works fine.

The Intel motherboard has 2 SATA connectors "from the Intel PCH" which
were already in use with Disk 0 and Disk 1.

I attached the third drive to the first of two connectors referred to
as "from a discrete storage controller".

Now, in the System Tray/Notification Area the Windows "Safely Remove
Hardware and Eject Media" icon appears and shows the new drive as a
removable device, just like a USB device would be. I'd like for this
not to show the new hard drive so that I don't accidentally click on
it when I'm meaning to remove a different device.

Any ideas on how to make this internal hard drive not appear on the
list of removable devices?

DC
Replying to all previous responses:

Paul: The motherboard is an Intel Z77GA-70K


Jeff Barnett: Using the Intel Visual Bios, I did find a "hot plug or
not" option for all SATA ports provided by the Chipset Controller
(Primary SATA Controller). But the Secondary SATA Controller does not
offer that option. Note that I connected the new (third) drive to the
Secondary Controller to be able to get the SATA III (6GB/s) speed. The
only 2 6GB/s ports from the Primary Controller were already in use.


Todd: None of the SATA drives connected to the Primary Controller
show as removable. Neither do the DVD drives. Only the USB ports
show the attached devices as removable.


Dominique: See my reply to Jeff Barnett (above).


I did find this via Google but haven't had time to read and digest it
yet.

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...emove-hardware


Thanks for all your responses. Further suggestions welcome!

DC
If the Z77 connected drives are not listed as removable, it
could be the mode of the Z77 ports that has done that.
(You set them to IDE, or you used a tick box to disable Hotplug.)

The non-Z77 ports (on a Marvell chip perhaps), the BIOS may not
offer as many control options for those. A BIOS company writes the
"core" of a BIOS, and the Z77 would be covered by their design.
Add-on chips, they only come with an Extended Int 0x13 code module
(or a RAID management module for RAID chips), and they would not
include nearly the same set of controls. No attempt is made to
integrate those two kinds of codes - when a RAID Management module
runs, it takes over the whole screen. When an Extended Int 0x13
module runs, it dumps a couple lines of status in the window
and that is all. No tick boxes.

*******

OK, I checked their download site, and they list a Marvell RAID driver.
That means the chipset driver is likely AHCI/RAID, with no IDE option.
The IDE one, would automatically rule out Hotplug.

(Marvell 88SE9172)
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&ProdId=344 2

I downloaded the file and looked at the INF files in the archive,
but it delivered no "hints". It's a two level driver, based
on a SCSI stack (CDB blocks to pass commands). I don't see the word
AHCI or Hotplug in there at all. So the driver doesn't help me.

*******

There is a hint here, as to how a person might go about disabling
Hotplug on a specific controller. You use Regedit to do this,
and I'd want to make a backup before messing around. If you
modify the wrong setting, it might be embarrassing to no longer
be able to boot or something :-)

http://superuser.com/questions/12955...ws-7-tray-icon

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servi ces\msahci

\Controller0\Channel0
\Channel1
\Channel2
\Channel3
\Channel4
\Channel5

Now create a new DWORD - name: TreatAsInternalPort, value: 1
under each of the ChannelN keys. Now reboot for the changes
to take effect and the drives should no longer show up under
'Safely Remove..'

[this no longer works for 8 – user1643156 Mar 6 at 19:35] --- comment
section

"

So maybe something on that page will work for you.

The thing is, the driver for that chipset, isn't like to have
registry entries anything near what is shown in the example.
So don't be surprised if the idea is a bust.

*******

OK, this one looks like a winner :-)

http://www.overclock.net/t/974023/fi...ve-hardware/10

There is an actual tick box in Device manager, for the
"Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller" entry and its Properties.

http://cdn.overclock.net/5/58/600x45...ixmarvell.jpeg

That'll be a lot easier to do, that's for sure.

Paul

Wow, your effort is impressive and I sure appreciate it.

Looking at Device Manager, there is no item named "Storage
controllers" and therefore no Marvell 91xx SATA 6g Controller shown.

I'm going to look around the registry (carefully and after saving a
copy).

Thanks for your help. If I figure it out I'll report back here.

DC

There's two items in that Storage Controller section.
The Marvell 91xx one, and the Marvell RAID Console.
And that tells me that in the JPEG example,
the Marvell driver package was installed. Rather than
some built-in driver.

Check Device Manager, and see if a Microsoft driver took
the place of the Marvell.

If the Microsoft driver took over (MSAHCI), that raises the odds
that the Regedit method would work.

If the Marvell driver is installed, that raised the odds
that Device Manager gets the tick boxes.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Here's what I tried and didn't work:

I assumed that the Secondary Controller would be Controller1 and since
I connected the SATA cable to the first of the ports for that
controller (labeled "A") I assumed it should be Channel0.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ services\ msahci
and create a new KEY called "Controller1"
Inside Controller1, create a new KEY called "Channel0"
Now inside Channel0, create a new DWORD called "TreatAsInternalPort"
set this value to "1"

Then I tried changing the Channel0 named KEY to Channel1 (hey, why
not?). That did not work either.

Here's what my Device Manager looks like:

Bluetooth Devices
Computer
Disk drives
Display Adapters
DVD/CD-ROM drives
Human interface Devices
IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers
Keyboards
Mice and other pointing devices
Monitors
Network adapters
Ports (COM & LPT)
Processors
Sound, video and game controllers
System Devices
Universal Serial Bus controllers
VSO devices

I've snooped through it and the only interesting/related items are
these, found under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers":

ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 2
ATA Channel 3
Intel(R) 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller - 1E02
(Intel Driver)
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller (Microsoft Driver)
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller (Microsoft Driver)


I've found a few more places to read and learn (?) about this issue,
but my time is limited right now. I'll keep in touch, if your 're
still interested.

Thanks,

DC

I wonder if the BIOS had a mode setting for the Marvell ?
Maybe there was a choice of AHCI or RAID. And the difference
is what allowed the MSAHCI driver to take over.

In some cases, in the BIOS there is a "RAID ROM" or similar,
in the add-on chip section. That would be the place you'd
turn on a Firewire chip and port, a Promise IDE controller,
or other sorts of add-on chips. Perhaps in there was an option.
I don't want you to flip it, merely understand how your
machine is currently configured.

I would not create a new key called Controller1. If the MSAHCI
driver has installed itself against the Marvell chip, it
would populate that key itself, as well as some number
of Channel entries. If it didn't do that, you need to
locate where the damn controller got to :-)

If you want to "search" Regedit for a Controller1, on the
theory it's hiding somewhere, that would be something to try.

And no, this stuff isn't easy. I've wasted a good hour or two
per machine, picking this stuff apart, trying to figure out
what happened to the drivers. It's very confusing. I've had
systems here, which were supposed to need an installed driver,
and they instead grabbed something from the OS. And I couldn't
figure out how that was possible (because one chip wasn't
supposed to be very compatible, and it had managed to
load an IDE driver). But the thing is, we know you've got
a "removal" icon in the Task Bar, and the root of that
has got to be AHCI or RAID.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Just decided to try again and it's fixed!

To review, I had 2 hard disks attached to the first and second SATA
ports controlled by the Intel PCH controller. These are the only 2
that are 6 GB/s.

The other 4 SATA ports controlled by this same controller are 3GB/s,
so when I added a third hard disk recently, I attached it to the first
of 2 ports controlled by the discrete on-board controller and which
are labeled SATA A and B, and are 6GB/s.

What worked (but makes little sense to me) is adding registry entries
for all 6 of the Intel controller ports, as follows:

Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ services\ msahci
and create a new KEY called "Controller0"

Inside Controller0, create a new KEY called "Channel0".

Now inside Channel0, create a new DWORD called "TreatAsInternalPort"
set this value to "1".

Now, go back into the Controller0 folder again and create 5 new KEYs
called "Channel1", "Channel2", "Channel3", "Channel4" and "Channel5".

Inside Channels 1 - 5 create a new DWORD called "TreatAsInternalPort"
set this value to "1"

My third hard disk no longer shows as removable. Not sure which of
those 6 new keys made it happen and I don't care.

What's really funny is that in the process of creating those items, I
made an error and only set Channel0 to a value of "1". I forgot to do
the other 5. When I rebooted, it worked. But when I realized my
mistake, I changed them all to be a value of 1.

Bottom line, it works like it should.

DC