How do I find the actual Device that uses this driver?

Almighty1 · Nov 2, 2024

A few days ago, Windows Update forced installed a driver as I was not able to check for updates as the only option was to install for something I never knew was even on my system:

Driver Store Explorer v0.11.92 shows this:

Device Manager with Show Hidden Devices shows the following:

Using Devices by driver view based on the oem251.inf name from Driver Store Explorer v0.11.92 above:

Drivers by Type shows the following:

However, using the regular view, Devices by type, it does not even show the device above under System:

This is the first time I had even heard of the name Areca as this is on a Dell XPS 15 9570 notebook so I am trying to find out if it's even actually being used. Thanks!

antspants · Nov 2, 2024

Probably a RAID driver

neemobeer · Nov 2, 2024

This will show you connected devices and their associated drivers

Code:

pnputil /enum-devices /connected

PerpetualCycle · Nov 2, 2024

The device name is blank in driver store explorer so I believe it is not in use. Did you ever connect an external drive enclosure to your laptop?

antspants · Nov 2, 2024

Possibly for Thunderbolt (USB-C)

Areca is apparently a big name in tech. Do a search on them.

Here is one page in there website. The site is buggy and keeps failing when I leave the downloads page

Support & Downloads | Areca Technology

SIW2 · Nov 2, 2024

You could have a look with deviceremover

https://files1.majorgeeks.com/10afebdbffcd4742c81a3cb0f6ce4092156b4375/system/DeviceRemoverSetup.exe

Almighty1 · Nov 2, 2024

antspants said:
Probably a RAID driver

There is no RAID in this thing other than Intel Rapid Storage drivers.

Almighty1 · Nov 2, 2024

neemobeer said:
This will show you connected devices and their associated drivers

Code:

pnputil /enum-devices /connected

Thanks, this is what I did:
notepad 1.txt

and then:

Almighty1 · Nov 2, 2024

PerpetualCycle said:
The device name is blank in driver store explorer so I believe it is not in use. Did you ever connect an external drive enclosure to your laptop?

No, only USB Flash Drives.

antspants · Nov 2, 2024

Almighty1 said:
There is no RAID in this thing other than Intel Rapid Storage drivers.

I really don’t think that matters. There are probably hundreds of drivers in Windows we don’t have hardware for, if you do a google search, apparently raid storage is still a thing. Areca is mentioned in that relationship.
I don’t know of a PC that I have ever owned that hasn’t had RAID storage drivers.

Also, like I said, it could also be related to Thunderbolt. Apparently Areca are also architects for that.

PerpetualCycle · Nov 2, 2024

Almighty1 said:
No, only USB Flash Drives.

Looks like it may be Dell bloat to me.

Almighty1 · Nov 2, 2024

antspants said:
Possibly for Thunderbolt (USB-C)

Areca is apparently a big name in tech. Do a search on them.

Here is one page in there website. The site is buggy and keeps failing when I leave the downloads page

Support & Downloads | Areca Technology

Yeah, it says this is some type of SCSI driver per the INF when I looked at it except the RAID in this machine is Intel. Thunderbolt is also Intel but that had never showed up anywhere in Device Manager, maybe it requires plugging in a Thunderbolt device which I don't have before it will even show up.

The INF seems to says it's a Virtual SCSI RAID Device.

Almighty1 · Nov 2, 2024

antspants said:
I really don’t think that matters. There are probably hundreds of drivers in Windows we don’t have hardware for, if you do a google search, apparently raid storage is still a thing. Areca is mentioned in that relationship.
I don’t know of a PC that I have ever owned that hasn’t had RAID storage drivers.

Also, like I said, it could also be related to Thunderbolt. Apparently Areca are also architects for that.

Actually, all my PC's prior to 1995 didn't have RAID as the only time I got RAID was with Adaptec 39xxxx series RAID SCSI controller cards and then ofcourse when the newer Pentium 4 and later motherboards had the RAID as part of SATA on both the Intel Chipset and the external Promise RAID controller. Intel chipset based systems would use Intel RAID drivers and in this case, it would be the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers. As for Thunderbolt, this system uses Intel Thunderbolt drivers but I could never get the Thunderbolt controller to ever show up in Device Manager in Windows 11, it might have shown up in the original Windows 10 Home that shipped with the system back in May 2019.

antspants · Nov 2, 2024

Almighty1 said:
As for Thunderbolt, this system uses Intel Thunderbolt drivers

Intel also uses Areca drivers/.inf
Areca also provides for WiFi adapters and other things.
Areca pops up in all sorts of searches.

Almighty1 · Nov 2, 2024

@SIW2 - just installed deviceremover, what should I be looking for?

antspants · Nov 2, 2024

This is how I look at it.

Raid drivers are like a defibrillator, which sits on a wall and may never get used.

Almighty1 · Nov 2, 2024

antspants said:
Intel also uses Areca drivers/.inf
Areca also provides for WiFi adapters and other things.
Areca pops up in all sorts of searches.

Anything is possible but not in this instance as remember the INF itself should clue one in, Virtual SCSI RAID Device, I mean the word Virtual is there so it could be used for some software similar to mounting ISO images, etc but still need a way to find out what uses it if that is the case. When I said Intel system, I am talking about the motherboard chipset not the CPU itself as a motherboard can use VIA, SIS or any number of other chipset brands but this is a Intel chipset system that uses the Intel Coffeelake chipset which is why there is the Intel Chipset INF as that will only work on system with a actual Intel chipset so we are talking two different things. There are Intel CPU systems that use Intel chipsets and there are Intel CPU using non-Intel chipsets. So when someone says Intel Rapid Storage Drivers, that implies it will only use Intel drivers as it requires the Intel chipset which contains the RAID controller:

It would help when one does the Devices by driver view that it has the Details, Events tabs so atleast it's easier to trace down...

Almighty1 · Nov 2, 2024

antspants said:
This is how I look at it.

Raid drivers are like a defibrillator, which sits on a wall and may never get used.

As seen in the comment right above this one, my RAID drivers are used and they are Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) drivers which are made by Intel and does not use Areca as seen in the driver details. The system will either use AHCI or Intel RAID Drivers depending on the setting in the BIOS itself which is by default Intel Rapid Storage Technology/RAID and those would use Raid drivers.

antspants · Nov 2, 2024

Well, there is Hardware Raid & there is software Raid. Who knows.

Almighty1 · Nov 2, 2024

antspants said:
Well, there is Hardware Raid & there is software Raid. Who knows.

Yes, that's true. What is interesting is shouldn't there be older versions of drivers on the system for the same device but there doesn't appear to be?

How do I find the actual Device that uses this driver?

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