AHCI setup for 3 HDD drives

[3hdd]

I'm on Win 10 64-bit and have a problem with 2 of my HDD drives showing up as external devices.

My PC has the GA-P35-DS3 rev 2.1 motherboard. I want to use my Samsung 850 EVO SSD drive as the system drive and my other two regular drives as storage.

My PC uses the Serial ATA AHCI BIOS, version iSrc 1.07 08042006.

I'm completely lost on what to do to plug in and setup everything correctly.

I somehow got it to work but my non-SSD drives are now shown as external devices.

Any input would be much appreciated.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,
Haven't looked at your manual just yet...  but typically, you need to set the "removable" option under SATA (in BIOS) to disabled for non-removable "fixed" system devices like a boot drive.     This disables "Hot Plug".  Let us know what you find.  We can assist further if needed.

[3hdd]

I'm a newbie so I don't understand what you mean. There are bunch of settings in BIOS regarding this and I think 6 options where to plug in the drives on the motherboard. Two are purple and four are orange.

I have 4 devices (DVD drive, SSD drive and two regular drives. Which plug goes where?

[shadowsports]

I'm a newbie so I don't understand what you mean. There are bunch of settings in BIOS regarding this and I think 6 options where to plug in the drives on the motherboard. Two are purple and four are orange.

I have 4 devices (DVD drive, SSD drive and two regular drives. Which plug goes where?

This is an old board, wow.  Nothing wrong with being less experienced.  Lets see if we can help. 

Start by downloading your manual:

http://download1.gigabyte.us/Files/Manual/motherboard_manual_ga-p35-ds3p_2.0_e.pdf

Unless you have a hard copy already. 

Please understand this. The board has 2 SATA controllers.  Both are SATA 3Gbs.  Your SSD is 6Gbs, but won't operate at full speed.

Does your DVD have a SATA or PATA connection?   

You can connect all of your devices to the Intel southbridge (orange connectors). Unless your DVD is PATA in which case it will connect to the IDE connector (ribbon cable)

If DVD is PATA,,,  Connect it to the IDE connector.  Then connect the SSD and one of the plattered drives (that is used most frequently) to the orange connectors SATA 0~2.  Connect the other plattered drive (you use the least) to one of the purple connectors GSATAII0.

Here's the thing with the second controller GSATA...  it doesn't have dedicated bandwidth for each disk connected to it, so connecting 2 disks would effectively cut the performance of each in half.  Even if you connect SATA 3Gbs drives, each will operate at 1.5 instead of 3.  Connecting only one drive will allow it to operate at its full potential up to 3Gbs.

I mention this in order to help distribute the bandwidth across the available controllers without negatively impacting performance.  If all of the devices are SATA, they should all be connected to the orange connectors.  If not, put one on the GSATA controller.  If all devices are SATA, then set the operate mode to AHCI.  A by product of this is hotplug and your disks, including the boot drive can appear as a removable device.  This is by design as this is what was available approx. 9 yrs ago when this board was released.  Not ideal, but has to do with the way Intel implemented SATA support through controllers that had to support both IDE and SATA.  This is why you have to chose an operate mode IDE, AHCI or RAID.  In IDE mode (legacy) both PATA and SATA devices are supported together on the same controller, but at the expense of performance and features like NCQ and hotplug.  SATA support is emulated.  AHCI mode is true hardware support of the SATA standard and its features. 

[3hdd]

Thank you for the manual link and explanation. I think I understand now and have everything setup the way I want it. 

I thought I was doing something wrong since the drives kept showing up as external devices. Good to know it's supposed to be that way.