Windows 10: Drivers for disk drives

My PC disk drives are currently using the drivers that came with Win10. I'm trying to find better drivers if they exist. I'm experiencing some minor performance problems.

I have a Samsung 840 Pro and a Western Digital WD1002faex-00z3a0.

I can find no drivers for the Samsung - just the Samsung Driver Installer, and the doc for the Installer says it support on the 950.

I can find some Win8 drivers for the WD drive on brand-x driver sites, but no Win10 drivers and nothing from WD itself. On one site I saw the comment that WD Win10 drivers are available only by using the WD Driver Installer.

I would like to get drivers from the device manufacturers rather than copies with unknown pedigrees, but I really don't like the idea of installing vendor bloatware in order to get the drivers. Should I just live with the drivers that came with Win10?

I wouldn't be going down this path if it weren't for an odd performance problem - slow reading of a bunch of files by one program. This problem did not exist until I did a clean install of Win10. I seem to have traded a problem with stability for a problem with performance. (On another PC the clean install fixed the disk performance problem, but that was with different disk drives.)

:)

 

Recovering Windows 10 from system image

If it's failing on different disks each time, then the problem is with the drive (or driver) - not the disks.

1. Try a lens cleaner disk

2. Check for an updated driver

 

WD MyPassport 071A

Check if the hard disk is assigned a drive letter under Disk Management.

Press Windows key + X

Click Disk Management

Expand disk management

Select your external hard disk if its displayed there

Right click Change Drive letter and paths

Restart the computer, open Computer from the Start menu and see if it shows then.

It is possible USB drivers for mass storage devices is not compatible with your external hard drive. Uninstall the USB drivers for mass storage devices from Device Manager (Windows key + X), then plug in in your external hard drive. It should automatically
downloaded the correct drivers.

 

I'm not sure your going to find any. My Samsung SSD 850 EVO is using the MS driver 10.0.10586.0 dated 6/21/2006. In fact all my internal drives(3) are using the same driver.

 

Drivers for disk drives are generally already built into Windows and cant be updated. However, you can update your chipser drivers, which may include driver optimizations, like for example the Intel AHCI driver.

 

Yes , try updating the Storage Controller Drivers not the Disk Drives ones which I think will always be the M$ ones....

 

The only thing I see under Storage controllers is "Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller" which (surprise, surprise) has driver version 10.0.10586.0 and has no newer driver. However, I had forgotten to update the chipset drivers after the clean install. I've now installed the package of drivers ASUS recommends for my motherboard. I don't see that it made much difference, but I'll watch it for a couple days.

 

Sorry I am using Raid on both my systems , if you are using IDE not AHCI or Raid for the Drives ( in the bios) I think the Controller is Under Standard IDE Devices or something like that . Usually these day AHCI is best if not using Raid and you usually have the choice of Intel or the M$ driver for that.

I usually use whatever is recommended on Fernanado's WinRaid website for my Intel Chipset but they aren't for IDE only AHCI or RAID.

I am using Fernando's modded driver for Raid or AHCI here :
https://mega.nz/#!wIEFlZoQ!ZQ0YYaCPO...4QKaxvQmRrilb0

see this post from earlier today:

ICH10R support? cannot install any driver other than generic

 

Reread you 1st post ....Western Digital does not make Drivers for standard IDE or SATA hard drives , those are handled by M$ or the Chipset Maker , intel in your case if your Sys Specs are upto date. Their External Drives Do need drivers depending on the Drive as they are usually USB 2 or 3 or perhaps Esata based connections.

The Samsung 950 SSD is a .M2 drive so needs special drivers but the 840 is a standard sata SSD so is usually using the AHCI Driver , do not switch the bios to AHCI from IDE if that is how you installed it without further research as you will likely not be able to boot with a stop error 07 and need a reinstall while in AHCI mode. ( your other computer may have AHCI enabled in the bios already)

if you need to switch , this might work if that's the case but a reinstall maybe better :

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/922976

 

My BIOS has AHCI enabled. I see that ASUS recommends installation of an IRST driver, but I'm almost certain I did not have it installed prior to my reinstall of Windows. I have an Acronis back of my system prior to reinstall. I can browse/explore the contents of my drives in that backup. Is there some way I can tell which drivers I had prior to reinstall? Those drivers must be somewhere in the disk image, but I have no idea where Windows puts them. If I had the same drivers prior to reinstall and after reinstall, I shouldn't be looking at the drivers for an explanation of my (admittedly pretty minor) performance problem.

 

IRST Package will install the Raid Software too which you don't need but you can install just the AHCI Driver from post no#6 above if you are on AHCI , it is supposedly the fastest of Intel's "Classical Drivers" anything from Ver. 12 on comes slightly differently in what is known as RSTe versions , you can move higher to them but it is not recommended to try to go bacl from an RSTe Driver to an iRST one as it causes Boot issues for many.

see this other thread too about Intel Drivers :

ICH10R support? cannot install any driver other than generic

 

I get an error when trying to use the 1st link in post #6:An error occurred while loading MEGA.
Filename: https://mega.nz/secureboot.js?r=1464587542
Exception: :
Please try again later. We apologize for the inconvenience.In any case, I'm a bit leery of using modded drivers, even if I understand the trivial nature of the modification.

 

Hi not sure why it doesn't link for you , it loads for me.
(** edit : I think it is a javascript error , you likely have java off for security reasons?)

His Modded Drivers are actually just a modification to the INF files not the Drivers themselves to let them install on all of Intel chipsets including those from Manufacturers who used the cheaper non-supported embedded chipsets intel does not support directly as those are sold cheaply to MB makers.

here is the Thread on his website , ( he has the M$ WHQL one too)

http://www.win-raid.com/t11f23-Modde...ly-signed.html

 

Yes, I use the Firefox plugin NoScript which disables javascript except when I specifically (and usually temporarily) enable it for a specific website. There have been a few times I've had javascript loops spinning off new browser tabs or windows until I ran out of storage and had to reboot..

I'll reread his comments a few times before proceeding. I've found the driver install package I downloaded from the ASUS website, and it seems to be at a level between Ferando's recommended list and his list of latest tested drivers.

 

I stick with the 1st one v11.2.0.1006 it works under XP, Win7 and Win10 , I had big problems and had to reinstall 10 on two of my computers (ICH9R and ICH10R chipsets) when Windows Update Installed Drivers without asking , so I made a W10 install disk using Nlite with the v11.2.0.1006 version embedded and all has been good since.