The atapi.sys process is also known as the IDE/ATAPI Port Driver or Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller and it is owned by the Microsoft operating system. This file is a Windows driver which enables the small software program to let the user’s computer be able to communicate with connected devices and other hardware. This allows the driver to directly access to the internals of hardware, operating systems and the like. However, there can be occurrences when the atapi.sys process is camouflaged as a virus and this can cause the user’s computer system into crashing in a blue screen (which is also known as the Blue Screen of Death or BSOD). This happens whenever a hardware or software driver error has been emphasized and the operating system cannot cope, which will result with the operating system shutting down completely making the BSOD appear. This process is considered safe provided it is executed properly and is also essential for the operation of the computer system.

Most non-system processes that are running can be stopped because they are not involved in running your operating system. atapi.sys. is used by IDE/ATAPI Port Driver, If you shut down atapi.sys, it will likely start again at a later time either after you restart your computer or after an application start. To stop atapi.sys, permanently you need to uninstall the application that runs this process which in this case is IDE/ATAPI Port Driver, from your system.

After uninstalling applications it is a good idea to scan you Windows registry for any left over traces of applications. Registry Reviver by ReviverSoft is a great tool for doing this.

The ReviverSoft experts have not yet reviewed atapi.sys

A process usually a part of an installed application such as IDE/ATAPI Port Driver, or your operating system that is responsible for running in functions of that application. Some application require that they have processes running all the time so they can do things such as check for updates or notify you when you get an instant message. Some poorly written applications have many processes that run that may not be required and take up valuable processing power within your computer.

We have not received any complaint about this process having higher than normal impact on PC performance. If you have had bad experiences with it please let us know in a comment below and we will investigate it further.

The first thing you should do if atapi.sys. is causing errors on your computer is to run a Windows registry scan with Registry Reviver If you are still seeing errors after this you should uninstall the program that atapi.sys, belongs to, in this case IDE/ATAPI Port Driver