Internal SATA ports don't work as hot-swappable with Intel RST 12.9 drivers on DQ77MK usign latest 0064 BIOS. I have the same problem with both Windows 8.1 x64 (AHCI mode) and Windows 7 x64 (RAID mode). I initially had the same problem with eSATA port, but after updating to RST 12.9 eSATA port works correctly. I could reproduce the problem with older versions of RST and BIOS as well. What is interesting if i don't install Intel RST drivers but use default Windows drivers that comes with Windows 8.1 x64 (i haven't tried with Windows 7 x64) everything works as expected. Enabling SATA port as hot-pluggable in BIOS makes it a removable device and i can eject it using standard Windows functionality. And using Windows driver is not an option if a need to enable RAID configuration.
I'm not sure why first post about this issue was deleted. And i've seen other people companing about the same problem.
https://communities.intel.com/message/179015DZ77RE-75K -- SATA hot swappable not functioning correctly
https://communities.intel.com/thread/48180
DQ77MK with 0064 BIOS, version G39642-500
Windows 8.1 x64 (UEFI enabled), AHCI mode, RST 12.9
Windows 7 x64, RAID mode, RST 12.9
Thanks