Windows 10: SATA SSD showing up as portable storage device after upgrade

I recently upgraded my system, moving from Intel (i7-7700K/Asus Maximus IX Formula) to AMD (3900X/Aorus X570 Master). In the process of updating the BIOS, drivers and whatnot, I also updated Windows to 1909.

After I was done, I noticed that the icon to "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" was showing up in the taskbar, listing my 1TB Samsung 850 Pro SSD as a portable storage device that could be ejected.

The SSD itself is working fine, I can access its files and folders normally, but I don't want to end up accidentally ejecting it once I have an actual portable storage device (like a flash drive) plugged in.

AMD themselves recommend using "the Microsoft provided Standard SATA AHCI Controller driver that comes installed with Windows by default", for 9-Series running Windows 10. And even if I wanted to install different drivers, both AMD and my motherboard vendor (Gigabyte/Aorus) only list AMD RAID drivers for SATA SSDs, which can't be installed.

Samsung do not offer drivers for that SSD, only for NVMe devices (which I also have and are properly installed). Speaking of Samsung, the SATA SSD shows up in the Samsung Magician software, and it's updated to the latest firmware, but nothing can else can be done from there.

Any ideas?

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:)

 

Remove SATA Partitions Showing as Portable Devices


Hello, first post. I've gotten some good advice on this and the Seven/Eight forums; time to attempt to return the favor.

I have had this issue since installing Win10 (x64), either as upgrade or after a fresh install.

Easy fix:
Device Manager: Simply select the partitions listed under Portable Devices and disable them. They will not show up anywhere else.
Downside: I like to open my Device Manager and not see any problematic devices. (OCD on my part.)

Easy but hard-to-find fix:
No amount of deleting the partitions listed in Device Manager under Portable Devices did the trick, and messing with the registry only led to restoring my backup and trying again. Downloading the Windows Driver Kit just to get devcon.exe and attempt to eliminate devices this way was also a dead end.

I finally came across a setting in Group Policy that seems to do the trick, while looking there in desperation:

• run gpedit.msc
• navigate to Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | Enhanced Storage Accesss
• enable the "Do not allow non-Enhanced Storage removable devices" policy
• open Device Manager
• uninstall all the partitions listed under Portable Devices
• reboot
• repeat steps in gpedit to reset the policy to Not Configured.
• Bob is now thine uncle.

Just in case:
When doing the above, I used another supposed workaround from the net, which I mention, but doubt played a role. I uninstalled all of my USB hubs (without uninstalling drivers) before rebooting. To be precise, once the mouse and keyboard related hubs were disabled, I had to do a HW reset. As mentioned, I do not think this helped, but am not about to go back to my old situation and test again. Try it before rebooting only if the above fails.

This was the last remaining niggle in my Win10_x64 fresh install, which involved eliminating all sources of errors and warnings in Event Viewer.

Aside:
Do note that if you use OneDrive, you will not be able to avoid messages like these, the last ones I get now (apart from the occasional drop of internet connection or other transient events that do not indicate configuration problems:

• The Sync Host_<xxxxx> service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 10000 milliseconds: Restart the service.
• The Contact Data_<xxxxx> service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 10000 milliseconds: Restart the service.
• The User Data Storage_<xxxxx> service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 10000 milliseconds: Restart the service.
• The User Data Access_<xxxxx> service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 10000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

At least, no amount of sleuthing, or delaying the launch of OneDrive to a minute after logon and internet connection (Task Manager) does much, perhaps eliminating an error on occasion. These are related to shutdown and startup, and only appear after these actions.

 

How to determine if mobo/system has SATA 6Gb/s ?

It would impact which SSD he would get though. In the device manager, what shows up under the "Storage controllers" portion of the list?

 

SATA-IO to Enable Higher Speed Storage Applications with SATA Express Specification

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced it is developing SATA Express, a new specification that combines SATA software infrastructure with the PCI Express (PCIe) interface. SATA Express enables the development of new devices that utilize the PCIe interface and maintain compatibility with existing SATA applications. The technology will provide a cost-effective means to increase device interface speeds to 8Gb/s and 16Gb/s.

Solid state (SSDs) and hybrid drives are already pushing the limits of existing storage interfaces. SATA Express will provide a low-cost solution to fully utilize the performance of these devices. Storage devices not requiring the speed of SATA Express will continue to be served by existing SATA technology. The specification will define new device and motherboard connectors that will support both new SATA Express and current SATA devices.

“The SATA Express specification provides SSD and hybrid drive manufacturers the advantages of performance and scalability enabled by PCIe 3.0 – which is available now – and the ubiquity of SATA,” said Mladen Luksic, SATA-IO president. “We expect the SATA Express specification to be completed by the end of 2011.”

The Complete SATA Ecosystem
SATA Express is one of several specifications from SATA-IO designed to offer low-cost, high performance storage solutions optimized for specific device segments. Since its introduction in 2001, SATA technology has penetrated 99% of the PC market and evolved to provide options for a number of applications beyond traditional hard disk storage. SATA is now implemented in a variety of applications including solid state and optical drives, embedded mobile devices, consumer electronics products and enterprise storage. Key specifications for implementing SATA technology beyond the HDD device segment include:

• mSATA: A low-profile solution for mobile computing devices and other small form factor applications.
• SATA Universal Storage Module (USM): An integrated SATA interface for providing portable, volume storage I/O to consumer electronics devices, as well as PC applications.
• SATA µSSD: Also announced today, an embedded, single-chip solution that connects directly to the motherboard to enable ultra-thin form factor devices.

More information on these and other SATA specifications is available at SATA-IO.