Does this screenshot of my ssd hardware ID mean its setup as SCSI or NVME

james_uk · Apr 3, 2026

Stupid question, but does the below screenshot of my ssd hardware ID mean its setup as SCSI or NVME?

I am not 100% because it seems to show both and i was considering if i can disable VMD or not?

Thannks
James

XxXxX · Apr 3, 2026

its a M2 type NVMe SSD
best of luck Steve ..

FreeBooter · Apr 3, 2026

Hardware id identifies hardware its assign to the PC hardware components.

Identifying the interface mode of an SSD (NVMe, SATA, or PCIe) can be done through Windows software tools without opening the computer, or by physically examining the drive. The most common interface modes for modern SSDs are NVMe (PCIe) and SATA.

Task Manager (Easiest): Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc, go to the Performance tab, and select the disk. The interface (e.g., NVMe or SATA) is listed next to the model name at the top.

Open PowerShell and type: Get-PhysicalDisk. Look at the "Friendly Name" or "MediaType" for "NVMe" or "SATA".

james_uk · Apr 3, 2026

brill mine says NVMe Samsung SSD 990 Pro 2TB

Does that mean i'd be safe disabling VMD in the bios, does that mean it would be safe to do so as it's not SCSI then?

FreeBooter · Apr 3, 2026

VMD is basically for RAID or Optane support. It doesn't change/improve the performance of a single drive.

zbook · Apr 3, 2026

To view the settings please boot to the BIOS.

This Asus video may be useful:

[Windows 11/10] Troubleshooting - Cannot Find Drives When Installing Windows OS | Official Support | ASUS USA

james_uk · Apr 3, 2026

I thought disabling vmd might improve performance on a single drive is that not right?

FreeBooter · Apr 3, 2026

james_uk said:
I thought disabling vmd might improve performance on a single drive is that not right?

Intel VMD (Volume Management Device) is a feature introduced with the Intel Xeon Scalable processor family to help manage NVMe drives. It provides features such as surprise hot plug, LED management, error isolation and bootable RAID.

james_uk · Apr 3, 2026

I would be best leaving it on then yes?

PerpetualCycle · Apr 3, 2026

james_uk said:
I would be best leaving it on then yes?

james_uk said:
Stupid question, but does the below screenshot of my ssd hardware ID mean its setup as SCSI or NVME?

I am not 100% because it seems to show both and i was considering if i can disable VMD or not?

View attachment 167689

Thannks
James

Windows implements the NVME protocol on top of the SCSI protocol. In the insiders releases there is a direct NVME feature that may see the light of day in a official release. So that is why it shows up as SCSI.

As for VMD, I would turn it off unless you plan to do RAID. The reasons are 1) You cannot do DirectStorage for games with VMD, it requires the Windows drivers, 2) there is little difference in performance between the two and 3) possibility of getting direct nvme sometime soon

hdmi · Apr 6, 2026

PerpetualCycle said:
Windows implements the NVME protocol on top of the SCSI protocol.

hdmi · Apr 7, 2026

james_uk said:
I would be best leaving it on then yes?

Either choice has its own unique set of both pros and cons. As others have said, the difference in performance is negligible if the SSD is not under constant heavy load, and the characteristics of the load are not in any way close to ones associated with a typical database server or heavy workstation. LED management is for when you need to pull a SSD out of a server chassis' backplane with multiple SSDs so you don't accidentally pull the wrong one, and, the M.2 connector type cannot be used for surprise hot plugging anyway because M.2 isn't designed for that (so with M.2 it isn't safe). Error isolation can help to prevent getting BSOD in some cases I guess, but I can't even remember when was the last time when I saw a BSOD in person TBH.

A common reason to disable VMD is because software like Samsung Magician or WD Dashboard (or SanDisk Dashboard) doesn't fully recognize the SSD when using VMD. So then you can't use Magician to directly upgrade the 990 Pro's firmware, and also you don't automatically get notified when a new firmware is available for download. Even so, you could always decide to turn VMD off later (be it temporarily or permantly), and besides, Samsung also publishes an ISO so you don't necessarily require Magician to upgrade the firmware, and, about the "not getting notified" part, you can be assured that people on here are going to shout it off of the digital rooftops when it happens again so...

hdmi · Apr 7, 2026

PerpetualCycle said:
Semantics. I was going to say the opposite but decided to do it from the user's perspective. It is not over or under, but a translation at the driver level.

Fabler2 · Apr 7, 2026

You've an ASUS laptop with an Intel CPU. Task manager should show raid because of that Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver. Turn VMD off in UEFI and you'll get a green screen of Death. Drive not seen. Turn VMD on again and it will boot fine.

hdmi · Apr 7, 2026

Fabler2 said:
You've an ASUS laptop with an Intel CPU. Task manager should show raid because of that Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver. Turn VMD off in UEFI and you'll get a green screen of Death. Drive not seen. Turn VMD on again and it will boot fine.

It only takes a few additional steps.

To set the default boot mode to Safe Mode, use msconfig.exe or open an elevated command/PowerShell window and run:
bcdedit /set '{current}' safeboot minimal
Reboot and enter the BIOS (F2 on Asus ProArt laptops)
Change the SATA mode to AHCI
Save and reboot
After Windows successfully boots into Safe Mode, disable Safe Mode with msconfig.exe or open an elevated command/PowerShell window and run:
bcdedit /deletevalue '{current}' safeboot
Reboot one last time. If you open Device Manager, there should now be a Standard NVM Express Controller device under Storage Controllers.

Fabler2 · Apr 7, 2026

hdmi said:
It only takes a few additional steps.

To set the default boot mode to Safe Mode, use msconfig.exe or open an elevated command/PowerShell window and run:
bcdedit /set '{current}' safeboot minimal

Reboot and enter the BIOS (F2 on Asus ProArt laptops)

Change the SATA mode to AHCI

Save and reboot

After Windows successfully boots into Safe Mode, disable Safe Mode with msconfig.exe or open an elevated command/PowerShell window and run:
bcdedit /deletevalue '{current}' safeboot

Reboot one last time. If you open Device Manager, there should now be a Standard NVM Express Controller device under Storage Controllers.

My ASUS is an entry level Vivobook (5 yrs old) bought second hand just to run Canary. So UEFI must be more basic than the ProArt as no SATA or AHCI settings available only enable/disable VMD.

Had to remove the NVMe and put in an enclosure and use another laptop to wipe so I could do a fresh install of Winders with VMD disabled. Couldn't find any other way for it to work

hdmi · Apr 7, 2026

Fabler2 said:
My ASUS is an entry level Vivobook (5 yrs old) bought second hand just to run Canary. So UEFI must be more basic than the ProArt as no SATA or AHCI settings available only enable/disable VMD.

I don't get it. How can a laptop with an AMD CPU have an option to disable Intel VMD ?

With an Intel Raptor Lake-HX mobile CPU (which the OP's Asus has, as does mine) the old SATA AHCI layer simply doesn't exist so that's why "AHCI" is nowhere to be found in the BIOS. On the Asus ProArt, if you disable VMD in the Advanced Mode (F7) > Advanced > VMD setup menu, the boot in Safe Mode "trick" should get the job done.

(The steps to switching it back to VMD are only just a little more tedious but you don't need to do things like jump trough burning hoops or futz around in the registry or etc..)

Fabler2 said:
Had to remove the NVMe and put in an enclosure and use another laptop to wipe so I could do a fresh install of Winders with VMD disabled. Couldn't find any other way for it to work

Fabler2 · Apr 7, 2026

hdmi said:
I don't get it. How can a laptop with an AMD CPU have an option to disable Intel VMD ?

With an Intel Raptor Lake-HX mobile CPU (which the OP's Asus has, as does mine) the old SATA AHCI layer simply doesn't exist so that's why "AHCI" is nowhere to be found in the BIOS. On the Asus ProArt, if you disable VMD in the Advanced Mode (F7) > Advanced > VMD setup menu, the boot in Safe Mode "trick" should get the job done.

(The steps to switching it back to VMD are only just a little more tedious but you don't need to do things like jump trough burning hoops or futz around in the registry or etc..)

CPU is 11th gen i3.

Helmut · Apr 7, 2026

hdmi said:
I don't get it. How can a laptop with an AMD CPU have an option to disable Intel VMD ?

Intel licenses some technologies from AMD and vice versa.

My laptop has VMD on/off in the BIOS/UEFI probably because some configurations have 2 SSDs RAIDed.

VMD should be off,
VMD is for RAID drives or the now deceased Optane drives.
Being Off has the potential for using Direct Storage and maybe other future features. Not a go faster switch.

hdmi · Apr 7, 2026

Helmut said:
Intel licenses some technologies from AMD and vice versa.

VMD is still Intel-only, though.

Helmut said:
My laptop has VMD on/off in the BIOS/UEFI probably because some configurations have 2 SSDs RAIDed.

VMD should be off,

To me, personally, there's absolutely no gain in turning it off.

Helmut said:
VMD is for RAID drives or the now deceased Optane drives.
Being Off has the potential for using Direct Storage and maybe other future features. Not a go faster switch.

DirectStorage is supported on 11th gen through 14th gen Intel CPUs with RST/VMD (driver version 18.0 and later). DirectStorage on Windows 11 nowadays also supports RAID 0 (but anyway...).

Does this screenshot of my ssd hardware ID mean its setup as SCSI or NVME

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