Can boot from DVD when AHCI is enabled

Corbula

Corbula

Corbula

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I've just received a new Crucial m4 ssd. I disconnected my current boot drive (a normal hdd) and set the sata to AHCI in the BIOS. When i try and boot from the DVD it says 'no emulation' and then says windows failed please insert windows disc.

Is this because the DVD drive doesn't work with AHCI? It's a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-215D

Are there any disadvantages to using IDE instead of AHCI?

Thanks
 
Hi

I'm assuming you set your DVD drive as the first boot device? and that you only have your new (unformatted) SSD connected (IE. no other drives)?

"Is this because the DVD drive doesn't work with AHCI? It's a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-215D" ... would not have thought it should make any difference.

"Are there any disadvantages to using IDE instead of AHCI?" ... yes... your SSD probably wont perform as well.
 
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I'm assuming your DVD drive is connected to the IDE port, so changing the SATA controller to AHCI definitely wont have an effect (IE, cause any problem).

Question. Do you have another DVD drive that you can try. I'm sort of old fashioned and always build my PC's with both a DVD ROM drive and a DVD RW drive. And I always boot / install Windows using the DVD ROM drive.
 
Just a couple of thoughts.

1) I'm assuming this was a "self build". If so, when you originally installed W7, was it using your current optical drive?

2) Not sure if it would make any difference, but you could try setting the Sata controller to IDE (IE. legacy mode) and seeing if this makes any difference. If you manage to successfully install W7, you can always change this setting later. Though there is a registry change that you would need to make first (see http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...82-Change-from-IDE-to-AHCI-after-Installation). Can't see can loose anything by trying.
 
1) It was pre built from Overclockers. It came with Vista but i'm trying to install W7.

2) If the reason the DVD drive isn't working is because of the sata controller, then changing it after it's been installed would leave me with a working DVD drive.
 
Hi

Point 2) was only a guess (should not really make a difference I would have thought). But as I said, worth a try I would think.

Just another thought. SSD connected to the first SATA port I assume?

Good luck.
 
I've managed to boot from the disc and install windows. I think it was the boot order. I selected sata cdrom as the first boot and it wasn't working. I then noticed there was another option called p1 pioneer. That's seems to have worked.
 
Corbula said:
I've managed to boot from the disc and install windows. I think it was the boot order. I selected sata cdrom as the first boot and it wasn't working. I then noticed there was another option called p1 pioneer. That's seems to have worked.
Click to expand...

Good show :D
 
Any guides anywhere for what to do after its installed? In other words optimization like turning off system restore and stuff to save space and turning off indexing and things?

Edit: two other things.

1. Looking under device manager at the hardware ids for the drive it says IDE\ although in the bios under sata controller it is ahci. So what is my drive actually using?

2. Under disk management it says that it's partitioned into 2 parts. one is C: the other is system reserved which is a 100mb. Is this right?
 
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No real need to do anything to be totally honest. Though others may have a different opinion.

Though I would run WEI once after install.

This ones as good as anything if you want to have a look/go:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-performance-tweak,2911.html

Points from it (my personal opinion and that's all it is):
2) enable AHCI. Agreed. But I'm assuming you have anyway.
3) Disable system restore. Madness in my opinion. If anyone's that short of space, then they should have bought a bigger drive!
Disable Drive Indexing. Up to individual.
4) Page file. I'd leave as is. Even deleting it does not prevent Windows creating a temporary page file if it requires it. If you don't use hibernate, then you might as well disable this (saves around the equivalent of 3/4 of the memory your are running. IE. if running 8GB of memory, releases 6GB of space on your SSD.
5)&6) Wouldn't bother if it was me.
7) Power setting. Fair enough. Though this could cause Intel speed step to be disabled (depends if you want this to happen).

To be totally honest, Windows 7 and SSD's run just fine without a lot (any!?) tweaking really. Up to individuals though.

Have fun.

PS. I'm sure you will be aware about not going "speed-test mad" (no insult intended) once things are up and running. As these sorts of tests write/erase HUGE amounts of data to your SSD (one run of Crystal Disk Mark at standard setting writes in the region of 20GB). No problem to run the odd test but repeated testing (as some have done) is not recommended. Have a GOOGLE re issue pertaining to the finite life of NAND (IE. flash memory) and Write Amplification.
 
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Hi..

In answer to your two point:

1) Yes... that's OK.
Device Manager should also tell you what controller is being used.
IE. Look at: IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
You can also get this info from a utility like AS SSD

2) Yes this is correct. Assuming this drive contains your OS.
 
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