Dear Intel Staff,
I hope you're still monitoring this thread as it actually saved me hours of troubleshooting this awful mess.
First, I'd like to thank RHBH for taking the time to open a thread here and for linking over to the thread over at the Guru3D forums; Also, for -Tj- from Guru3D forums for this post.
Two days ago, I've spent around 3.5 hours troubleshooting this mess when I had to reinstall Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit.
Thinking that "the latest and greatest" drivers would be best sure did backfire on me this time, but the solution described in Guru3D's forums was right on the money!
I'll try to elaborate a bit more (and add some extra words) for Google to scan as much of this as possible.
My Hardware:
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-OC Bios F7 (2014/01/29)
SATA Devices:
Intel SSD 520 180GB SSDC2CW180A - Primary, OS / System
Samsung F3 500GB HD502HJ (1 x 500GB Platter) - Latest 1AJ100E5 Firmware - Storage
Samsung F3 1TB HD103HJ (2 x 500GB Platters) - Latest 1AJ100E5 Firmware - Storage
Samsung F3 1TB HD103HJ (2 x 500GB Platters) - Latest 1AJ100E5 Firmware - Storage
Intel SSD 330 180GB SSDSC2CT180A3 - Swap / Temp
Optiarc DVD RW AD-7240S
What went wrong, problem, issue:
1. When I first installed Windows 8.1 Pro, I loaded the latest Intel RST 64-bit drivers right before I selected to which hard-drive I wish to install the OS to (the old F6 / Floppy / USB method).
The drivers were Intel RST v13.1.0.1058 WHQL, dated 5/27/2014, here.
2. Right after the Windows installer finished its first round of copying files and rebooted the machine, the horrible mess of hearing my Samsung hard drives park, unpark, do their business and then park right back again merely 5-8 seconds after there's no activity needed for them - has begun.
The issue persisted even after Windows installation has finished.
Whenever the Windows was querying the hard drives for something, anything, they would unpark, do their business and then park again after 5-8 seconds.
Lots of click, clicking noises.
Fix / Fixed / Solve / Solved / Solution steps:
Once I read up on RHBH's and -Tj-'s ordeal, I tried this first:
1. Downloaded Intel RST v12.9.2.1000 (32/64-bit package) from Station Drivers website, here.
2. Installed the driver.
3. Turned off the machine.
4. Disconnected all Samsung F3 hard drives from the motherboard.
5. Connected just 1 Samsung F3 hard drive to a SATA port which it was NOT connected to ever before (at least for the life of the last Windows installation).
6. Turned PC back on and let windows load.
7. It was right at that moment, that the issue was indeed resolved.
8. Just to be sure, I repeated the procedure (steps #3-6) for the rest of the two Samsung F3 hard drives (I actually connected each of them, one-by-one, in turn, to the very same SATA port described in step #5).
9. Once I verified that they no longer exhibit the issue, I reinstalled Windows one last time and used the "F6" method again to load Intel's RST drivers, but this time with the using the Intel RST v12.9.2.1000 set.
So again, thank you very much!
@INTEL: It would be a shame if Samsung F3 hard drive owners' only choice for something new will continue to be a driver that's already starting to age.
Regards,
Some more, for Google: HDD / Hard Disk / Hard Disks / Hard Drives / Fail / Sound / Noise / Strange / Weird / Windows / Windows 8 / Windows 8.1 / AHCI / RAID / Non-RAID / Rapid Storage Technology