I have searched all over and nobody seems to know how to solve this problem. Anyways here it is.

Okay, so yesterday I found out that my hard drive wasn't set to SATA AHCI but set to IDE. So to solve this problem I had to reinstall my whole OS and load the SATA drivers from there. The drivers were for Intel ICH9R SATA controllers called Intel Matrix storage manager 32.

So after I reinstalled the OS I go to my device manager and look at the drive properties to see if the advanced performance options were enabled, as they were when the drive was set to IDE. I found that under the enable write caching tab it says: this device does not allow its write caching settings to be modified. Also, this means I can't enable to advanced performance options either. Any suggestions on how to enable it? Also if nobody knows how to enable it would setting it back to IDE mode then enable it give better performance over SATA 2 with it not enabled?

Here are my specs:

CPU:E6850
MOBO:Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
RAM:2x1GB crucial ballistix PC2-6400
GFX:8800 GTX
HDD:160GB Western Digital Caviar @7200RPM SATA 2
OS:VISTA Home Premium 32-bit

Is there a setting in the BIOS to change it?

NO but when I go to device manager and click on properties under the policies tab, where the option is, it says this device does not allow its write caching settings to be modified.

I'm just puzzled because it was working before when the drive was set to IDE and now it's not. Plus it was a real pain to get it working as a SATA drive, basically I reinstalled my whole OS.

I know about your issue, I posted in your original thread. Did you look in the BIOS for any options?

There are no options in the BIOS for enabling write caching.

Do you have a listing in device manager for Serial ATA Controllers?

Yes under IDE ATA/ATAPI it says Intel ICH9R SATA AHCI Controller.

Look under the properties for the primary controller for options to:

Let BIOS select transfer mode
Enable read caching
Enable write caching

There are no such options anywhere under properties in any tab.

Have the motherboard drivers been installed after you reinstalled the OS?

Yes I have.

How many channels are listed under Serial ATA in Device manager.

Each SATA controller has a primary and Secondary channel. Do you have the SATA drive connected to the lowest number port on the MBoard? Do you have all the SATA controllers Enabled in the BIOS?

I have a MBoard with SATA using nVidia chipset. The questions I asked about the options were taken from MY Device Manager.

However, my SATA drive is installed like your drive WAS installed. Listed as an IDE.

In your other thread I advised you not to bother redoing it.

I can only guess that the option isn't appearing because it isn't needed. I have no basis to back that up though.

Under the IDE ATA/ATAPI it says Intel ICH9R SATA AHCI Controller. I don't see anywhere under any tab it saying primary or secondary channel. And yes I have the SATA drive connected to the lowest number port. Yes all the SATA Controllers are enabled in the bios except for the onboard SATA, I'm using Intel's SATA controller not Gigabytes onboard one.

I guess maybe I might have to reinstall the OS AGAIN and use the onboard SATA controllers to see if that helps. Thanks for trying to help though, but it seems this problem is without a solution.

Try this:

Device Manager> Intel SATA Controller> (right click the controller entry)> properties> primary channel.

That's what I'm saying under properties there is no primary or secondary channel listed.

Must be something to do with the add in card. If you have native SATA on the Board, why are you using a controller card?

You didn't need to install the SATA drivers for that card, did you?

If you intend to re-install anyway, I suggest you remove the contoller listing in Device manager, shut down, remove the card and connect to the first onboard SATA port. Boot and see what happens. A repair install is all I think it will take.

Maybe my terminology is wrong, but I'm not using an add in card I'm using the Intel SATA ICH9R SATA controller. One my MOBO there are 8 SATA ports that you could plug a hard drive into. Six of these ports are orange and if you use them you need to install Intel SATA drivers. The other 2 are purple and are the Gigabyte onboard SATA Controllers. If I used these I would have needed to install the Gigabyte SATA drivers.

I didn't use the Gigabyte ones because I heard that the Intel SATA drivers are better. I guess though I will need to install the drivers for the Gigabyte ones, hook my hard drive up to it, and see if that works. Thanks for helping me though Othehill, you would be suprised to know that you're the only one that has even tried to help me solve this problem. I guess this is a rare occurrence or just nobody knows what to do.

Hi. I got similar problem with XP and on my Seagate SATA drives; i can't enable "write caching". That option is disabled and also grayed-out. I got Via chipset.

It seems me and you aren't the only ones having this problem. I've found several other forums where people seem to be having the same problem and so far I have yet to see a solution.

Yeah.. I tried some things with registry, but wasn't able to fix the problem. In my case, it has something to do with V-Raid drivers, i think...? I have the latest 5.13 Hyperion pack. I have tried different versions, but with no luck.

At first I thought it was a problem with Vista but you said you're using XP so I guess it must be the drivers then. Let me know if you find a solution.

I just removed those v-raid drivers, rebooted, and then installed them again. Now "write caching" option was available, but when i checked it and hit OK, after that it was again disabled and greyed-out. It's weird, that in the registry it's enabled; "UserWriteCacheSetting" is set to "1".

There's still one thing that i gonna try, after i give up with this thing...

Where is the setting located at in the registry?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SCSI

Look sub-keys under that key.

It must be under a different location on mine because I'm not seeing it there.

Try registry search. Type UserWriteCacheSetting to search.

I did find something interesting under IDE in Enum, my hard drive. And I looked at the write cache setting and it was set to 1.

Do you got the same problem with your IDE drive(s)? I only got problem with my sata drives.

No I have a Western Digital Caviar 160GB SATA 2 drive. I found out the other day it was set to IDE and to solve the problem I had to reinstall the OS and load the SATA drivers from there. It should be working as a SATA drive now but under IDE in the reg it is showing my Hard Drive?

I think sata should be listed under SCSI.

I got one IDE drive that is under IDE in registry. SATA's are under SCSI.

I'm not seeing SCSI anywhere though?

I found the SCSI tab under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_HARDWARE_DEVICEMAP_SCSI.
Under SCSI it lists port0,port1,and port2. Still doesn't show my drive though.

Run a benchmark on the drive and I think you will find it is performing as well as you can expect already.

What's a good benchmark to use?

Just tried to enable write caching in safe mode, but no joy.

Btw, in Eventviewer there's an error: "The driver disabled the write cache on device..."

EDIT: Just tried one last thing and still with no joy. I am now done with this.

"Just tried one last thing and still with no joy. I am now done with this."

Same here.

Maybe it really doesn't matter after all. There's some advantages about caching, but also some downsides.

Well for me it matters, since I mainly built my pc for gaming, and I need every bit of performance out of it that I can get. But yes, I am done messing around with it. I guess I'll just leave it as it is.