ACHI and Windows XP

kona786

kona786

kona786

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I'll be installing my ssd and windows tommorrow so will be switch my sata ports to use ACHI.

I was unsure whether my XP (sp3) os on my other hardrive will still work on when switching from IDE to ACHI?
 
Enabling AHCI on xp may be a problem , for some reason the latest intel drivers will not load the ahci drvers during the F6 procedure raid seems to be ok but not AHCI, it will seem to have loaded but just as windows loads you will encounter a BSOD. I tried earlier this year on a ICH 10R and gave up and stayed IDE. This problem is well documented, search on the internet there are ways to enable AHCI within XP (Vista and 7 do not hve this problem) but these are not easy or always sucessful.
So unless you load the drivers in xp for ahci the OS will blue screen.
 
I read somewhere that XP SP2 and onward had capability to run on ACHI. - Iis that right?

Should i try to get XP working on ACHI before installing W7 on my ssd?

Also is there another way to run mY ssd on achi but still keep my XP working on the other HDD?
 
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XP supports AHCI the problem is getting the drivers to work, there ways on the internet to do it but it is not easy, explained here. try it see how you get on :-http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=106575.0

Yes it would be advisable because if you enable ahci in bios without the necessry drivers on your xp drive it will not boot.

Depends on your motherboard if you have 2 differnt controllers it may work setting 1 to ide and the other for the ssd to ahci, other wise you can only normally set your controller to 1 or the other not both.

REMEMBER to have ALL your important stuff backed up first though.
 
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ASUS P5Q-E - motherboard
Intel P45 Express / Intel ICH10R

I have 2 Drive Xpert sata ports using an onboard Silicon Image SIL5723 controller and the rest standard ICH10 SATA ports.

do you thing i can set these ports independently?
 
i read the ide to achi link and it just seems too hit and miss - and i don't want to corrupt my xp install. I only want to run xp and w7 side by side for about a month.

If worst comes to worst i will just install my ssd and w7 on IDE temporarily - then when i see i dont needs xp any more i'll do a clean install and just run W7 + SSD ON ACHI.

Does that sound ok, will my ssd still run fairly fast on IDE?
 
cheers Lynndinky,

one more thing - if i was to install W7 ON ACHI and leave XP on IDE, could i switch between them by changing the sata ports from ide to achi each time?

as a side note data is compatible on either mode right, so i can access files on either ide or achi (just matters for the OS Yes?)
 
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kona786 said:
cheers Lynndinky,

one more thing - if i was to install W7 ON ACHI and leave XP on IDE, could i switch between them by changing the sata ports from ide to achi each time?

as a side note data is compatible on either mode right, so i can access files on either ide or achi (just matters for the OS Yes?)
Click to expand...

Yes and Yes.

Ditch XP and use 7 x64.
 
windows, XP and 7 included, dont install the different drivers ide/achi, etc

they only install and use what it finds during the installation process, so if you install windows as ide, then it'll only work in IDE mode.

changing to ACHI will cause BSOD and wont get into windows.

there are ways to get around it.
u can make some registry changes to force the new drivers to take, 7 its a simply edit, althou XP is slightly more involved, look it up in google, should be able to find it.

u make the change in windows, reboot then switch to ACHI, then when windows loads again, it should sort it self out
 
I did it a year ago

I installed AHCI on a 3-year-old copy of XP by following the guides on the various SSD forums. Wasn't a big deal at all... DID make a significant difference.
 
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