AHCI or IDE mode ?

karlos103 · 17 Jul 2009 at 20:17

Hi
i have installed an SSD and now running windows 7 .
I installed windows onto the drive with it set in bios to IDE mode .
Can it be switched to AHCI mode ? i have tried it but won't boot up .....

Also what difference would it make using AHCI mode

Any help most appreciated
karl

Trunks9486 · 17 Jul 2009 at 20:21

it requires drivers, you can change it after initial installation

karlos103 · 17 Jul 2009 at 20:25

does it help with performance using ahci ?

miniyazz · 17 Jul 2009 at 20:52

Depends on the hard drive and the load. Not with an SSD, that I am aware of, but it has more features.. for example hot plug & play.
Changing after initial installation needs no drivers, but it does require a registry change, you should Google it.

miniyazz · 17 Jul 2009 at 20:53

Depends on the hard drive and the load. Not with an SSD, that I am aware of, but it has more features.. for example hot plug & play.
Changing after initial installation needs no drivers, but it does require a registry change, you should Google it.

karlos103 · 17 Jul 2009 at 21:10

ok thanks will google it

jbloggs · 17 Jul 2009 at 21:54

Running a HDD in AHCI mode simply adds a couple of features, NCQ (Native Command Queuing) and Hot Swapping, however running a HDD in AHCI mode gives no performance gain over running it in IDE mode and certainly not on a desktop, so I would simply run your HDD(s) in IDE mode.

karlos103 · 17 Jul 2009 at 23:33

ok tried ahci mode , got it running but you loose the optical drives...dunno why ..so switched back ..all well now

miniyazz · 18 Jul 2009 at 00:19

AbsenceJam · 18 Jul 2009 at 01:41

karlos103 said:
ok tried ahci mode , got it running but you loose the optical drives...dunno why ..so switched back ..all well now

A lot of ODD's don't function properly udner AHCI, dunno about them not showing. It's why most boards let you set a couple of prots to IDE still or have two controllers.

Fire Wizard · 18 Jul 2009 at 08:01

The solid state drive that I know off that takes advantage of Native Command Queuing is the Intel X25-M. Take a look at this article here and on page 3 to see the results.

miniyazz · 18 Jul 2009 at 09:17

Hmm.. apparently NCQ is not just about minimising seek times. I stand corrected.

Fahim · 21 Jul 2009 at 01:51

karlos103 said:
ok tried ahci mode , got it running but you loose the optical drives...dunno why ..so switched back ..all well now

with AHCI enabled, some motherboards disables any SATA ports after the first four ports. Like in my old mobo, MSI K9N2 Diamond, in IDE mode, you could only use four sata ports, and all six in AHCI mode.

Stuarts · 21 Jul 2009 at 08:10

I am running with AHCI.

I did what you did. ie Installed Windows 7 - 64 Bit on my SSD (Corsair P256) with IDE. Then a couple of weeks later heard about ahci, and thought to change.

The advice in this post worked for me:

http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-7-rc-after-installation/

My two optical drives also work fine (Optiarc AD-7201S)

And I have a Perc 5i card running 7 x 1TB Samsung F1 drives, that also work fine.

Everything works fine apart from one niggle that I would be curious if someone could resolve.

Namely, that when I go into device manager, that under:

IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers

I have

ATA Channel 0 (This has a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark)
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 1(This has a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark)
ATA Channel 1
Intel(R) ICH10R SATA AHCI Controller
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Standard Dual Channel PCI ICE Controller

Anyone know what the yellow triangles are all about?

When I right click on properties it has 'This device cannot start (code 10))'

But as far as I can tell, everything is working fine?

I know it didn't have this when IDE was enabled. So I am curious.

Is something up that I am not aware of?

Stuarts · 27 Jul 2009 at 23:36

Anyone?