Doh! Forgot to enable AHCI when installing an OS AGAIN!

Streeteh · 30 May 2009 at 21:56

As you can see from the title, this happens to me often. In fact i've never successfully got AHCI working on any of my computers as i always forget to enable it in BIOS before i install a fresh OS. Now, i've followed that guide in the windows support section where you modify the registry but it still doesn't boot; I get a message saying 'BOOTMGR is missing'.

What on earth am i doing wrong? I've followed the windows guide to the letter and every result on google is just people linking to the windows guide followed by the guy having the problem relying 'Oh wow! It worked, awesome, only an idiot wouldn't be able to fix it with that guide at his fingertips!'.

Feeling rather silly right now, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Streeteh · 30 May 2009 at 22:18

Running windows 7. I want AHCI running as i do have a esata drive, from what i've read it does also bring some other minor benefits too, but its mainly for the hotswapping.

I don't really know how to tell if the mobo is 'losing its settings'. The boot priority remains as i set it and all four of my sata drives are still detected.

Streeteh · 30 May 2009 at 22:56

Aye that's the one, checked again and the registry value is set to 0

Streeteh · 31 May 2009 at 10:23

Tis a strange one indeed, after googling for nearly an hour today i haven't found a single person who has the same problem as me. I've read the AHCI section in my mobo manual several times and it just says i can enable or disable AHCI there, but doesn't mention any problems that might occur by doing so.

Basically i'm stumped.

Streeteh · 31 May 2009 at 11:17

optitech-uk said:
This is what happenes when you follow the book like acedemics.

What am i supposed to do? Pray to the gods of the internet? Become the maverick of BIOS settings? 'I may not do things by the books, but by god i get results!'. I don't exactly think it's a bad thing to refer to the instruction manual when you're well and truly stumped on something.

I will reinstall windows if no one else is able to give any solutions.

Streeteh · 31 May 2009 at 11:28

wombraider said:
Do you actually hot un-plug your hard drives a lot ( requiring ahci) ?

I tried both on and off , and could see no performance benefit from it on ( tho
I dont run a server on my PC , so the ncq was a none issue)

As i say i've got a e-sata harddrive (well it's actually that icybox dock where the drive slots into a front drive bay) that i switch between my PC and my PS3 quite often. I'm in no rush to get it working but i will probably reinstall windows if no solution can be found in the next week or two.

Streeteh · 31 May 2009 at 11:33

optitech-uk said:
No no no no don't bite at me please. I never ment it like the way you took it. I ment it as in lately people at our workplace have no experience but they have qualifications and they say to me it's best to follow out the book. In your scenario your having trouble following the book. Ignore me I just laughed when I saw the post about reading from the book brings me back memories of people at my workplace trying to be all god like cos they have degrees no experience.

Ah sorry, having a grouchy morning it seems.