iaStorA.sys

Patrick · Nov 25, 2013

I have seen more IRST BSOD's in the past 24-48 hrs than I have in most of my time as an analyst. Is there a bug, was there a recent update? It seems most are on 8 and/or 8.1 systems, but I could be wrong and it could be 7 as well.

jcgriff2 · Nov 25, 2013

It could be an outdated Intel Storage driver or perhaps infection.

I would advise using Driver Verifier if BSODs continue after updating the driver.

https://www.sysnative.com/forums/bs...er-verifier-blue-screen-of-death-related.html

x BlueRobot · Nov 25, 2013

Those IRST drivers always cause problems, it's almost every version of that driver.

Patrick · Nov 25, 2013

x BlueRobot said:
Those IRST drivers always cause problems, it's almost every version of that driver.

I never installed it on my machine. What is the correct removal process for these drivers? I know that on some systems when removed they cannot boot. Is that because they need to change SATA settings via BIOS from RAID to AHCI afterwards?

Wrench97 · Nov 25, 2013

There is no advantage to using IRST in non-Raid setups, if removed you would need to use the MS AHCI driver in it's place.
However actually getting it swapped can be troublesome.
> https://communities.intel.com/thread/44074

Patrick · Dec 2, 2013

Does anyone have a canned reply or something that has the actual removal steps for this driver? Bruce I checked your link but unless I am blind (probably am) I couldn't see anything, only arguments on how to truly remove it being one upped over and over.

Wrench97 · Dec 2, 2013

Yea that was the point, seems everyone has some other issue when trying to remove it.

satrow · Dec 2, 2013

This is a driver I've had concerns about for some time, reading this just prompted me to do something about it on my own machine; I'm using the standard W7 MS SATA (AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA) driver but the Intel driver was still loading in the background.

I enabled viewing of hidden drivers in DevMan then disabled the iaStorA.sys, it rebooted fine and iaStorA.sys is no longer loading, as confirmed by Nirsoft's DriverView.

If you suggest this to anyone, Last Known Good should get them back up and running if it goes wrong

Patrick · Dec 2, 2013

Wrench97 said:
Yea that was the point, seems everyone has some other issue when trying to remove it.

:banghead:

I figured this was unfortunately the case.

satrow said:
This is a driver I've had concerns about for some time, reading this just prompted me to do something about it on my own machine; I'm using the standard W7 MS SATA (AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA) driver but the Intel driver was still loading in the background.

I enabled viewing of hidden drivers in DevMan then disabled the iaStorA.sys, it rebooted fine and iaStorA.sys is no longer loading, as confirmed by Nirsoft's DriverView.

If you suggest this to anyone, Last Known Good should get them back up and running if it goes wrong

What was it listed under, Andy? I have IRST installed but I don't see it listed after enabling Hidden Devices. It's not under IDE ATA/ATAPI, etc.

satrow · Dec 2, 2013

When showing hidden devices, it's under non-plug and play, I used the Boot tab selector to disable it.

Patrick · Dec 2, 2013

That's where I looked, but I don't see anything in regards to Intel Rapid Storage Technology. What was the name of it on the Non-Plug and Play Drivers drop-down?

satrow · Dec 2, 2013

iaStorA, Patrick. Check with DriverView that it's loading: DriverView: Loaded Windows Drivers List

Patrick · Dec 2, 2013

This is very strange, it's listed and loaded in the DriverView list:

However it is not listed in DevMan under Non-Plug and Play :confused2:

satrow · Dec 2, 2013

Ok, go back a few steps, have you changed the SATA controller driver to the stock MS one yet? If not, it'll show there instead.

Patrick · Dec 2, 2013

satrow said:
Ok, go back a few steps, have you changed the SATA controller driver to the stock MS one yet? If not, it'll show there instead.

Oh, this is why! Thank you... For reference, I am not asking for my sake, but for another user. I have had no IRST troubles (knock on wood) so I am not going to touch it on my system.

Also, since I have never done this before, if you don't mind, what steps did you take from the beginning to end regarding the removal of your IRST and replacing it with the generic MS driver? I am planning on creating a canned reply for this because the amount of IRST issues lately is unreal :roll eyes (sarcasti

satrow · Dec 2, 2013

First step, DevMan, IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, change the drivers for the Intel (also works for AMD/Nvidia - enables TRIM for SSDs and allows SSD software to access the drive for firmware updates, etc.) to the standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller. Reboot, wait a minute or two, check with hidden devices enabled that the MS driver has 'stuck'.

Next stage, enable those hidden devices and open the Properties > Drivers tab for iaStoreA; under Startup, change the Type to Disabled - reboot, wait a few moments - if Windows prompts that you need to reboot again, it may have re-enabled it - reboot and check that iaStoreA is still disabled.

Check with Driverview that iaStoreA is now missing - if you see iaStoreF loaded, don't rename/remove it! - or you'll need to run System Restore to fix it.

As usual, always have a recent backup/image to fall back on in case something goes wrong and/or Last Known Good or System Restore does not fix it. This is only applicable to non-RAID systems.

If the problem actually lies with the iaStoreF, this probably won't fix anything, I'm just testing these things out - I've not had an issue with iaStore that I know of so I've no clue whether this will be of any real help.

EDIT: this is only on W7 - I don't have a later version to test it on.

Patrick · Dec 2, 2013

Thanks, Andy! I'll work up a canned and such when I get home from work.

satrow · Dec 2, 2013

No worries, Patrick, you should be able to follow that - even if you don't commit the changes

If we can get others to test it out as well, to ensure it works for all, you could add it as a sticky here, perhaps?

jcgriff2 · Dec 3, 2013

Does this affect OEM systems - laptops like the average consumer would purchase?

I only have iaStorV ; desc = "Intel RAID Controller Windows 7"

Registry is set to "demand"

Code:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV

It is of course listed in AutoRuns; "Drivers" - http://live.sysinternals.com/autoruns.exe

satrow · Dec 4, 2013

jcgriff2 said:
Does this affect OEM systems - laptops like the average consumer would purchase?

I've no idea on that, John, little to no recent hands on notebook experience here. Where I see potential problems is the (3x?) different types of Intel drivers (or drive setups): base SATA (JBOD), RAID and SATA+SSD caching.

I also have iaStorV listed in the Registry here, though it may be a hangover from the old B75 'board it was hooked up to previously. That 'old' build has the same entries/starts set as the current one: iaStorA with start 4, iaStorF with start 0 and iaStorV with start 3.

<Notebooks are sometimes crippled in the BIOS (historically at least) regarding the 'board's capabilities, depending on the market segment the finished notebook is aimed at, eg: the same base 'board may be used in 3 notebook ranges, Consumer, Pro, Workstation, with prices matched to the different segments - the main difference being what each BIOS version 'allows' the board to use. This is only likely to happen with mainstream and 'heavy' notebooks, 2-3 spindle builds, not the single spindle/Ultrabook types.>

iaStorA.sys

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