Intel AHCI Drivers

madindehead

madindehead

madindehead

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Hey guys,

After installing my new SSD, and enabling AHCI in the BIOS, and also installing Intel RST, I noticed that my drives are still using the old Windows AHCI drivers:

Capture.PNG


Is there anyway to force my drives to use the much newer (and I presume, better) Intel drivers?

Thanks :)

Update: Just reading through the Intel RST Read Me file...

The following steps describe the installation process of
the Windows 7* INF files. You may need to repeat these
steps to update all Intel(R) chipset devices not supported
by Windows 7*.

Code: 
1.  Copy the contents of the 
        <INF Extract Directory>\XXXX\Win7
        directory to the root directory A removable media, 
	such as a USB flash drive (UFD) or floppy disk (A:\).
        
        NOTE: 
            XXXX is the directory name for the chipset 
            of interest. Refer to Section 8 for more details.
              
    2.  Close all programs currently running on the system.
    3.  Click on Start.
    4.  Select Settings.
    5.  Select the Control Panel.
    6.  Double-click on the System icon.
    7.  Click on the Hardware tab.
    8.  Click on the Device Manager button.
    9.  Select "Devices by connection" under the View menu.
    10. Click on MPS Uniprocessor PC -OR- MPS 
            Multiprocessor PC.
            
        NOTE: 
            Only one of the above items will be 
            displayed for a given system.
            
    11. Click on PCI bus.
    12. Right-click on the line containing the description
            PCI standard host CPU bridge
            -or-
            PCI standard ISA bridge
            -or-
            PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
            -or- 
            PCI System Management Bus
            -or- 
            Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller
            -or-
            Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
            (This line will be selected.)
    13. Select Properties from the pull-down menu.
    14. Click on the Driver tab.
    15. Click on the Update Driver button.
    16. Windows 7* will launch the Upgrade Device 
            Driver Wizard. Select Browse my computer for the driver software.
    17. Enter "A:\" in the Combo Box
    18. Ensure that the Include Subfolders checkbox is checked
    19. Select Next
    20. The window Will Display the Device that was installed
    21. Select Close
    22. Reboot the system if prompted to do so.

Does that sound like a good idea? I have the F6 install floppy drivers on my PC, sitting in my downloads folder. Surely, if I put those on a USB drive, and then use the above process, that will work? :)
 
Last edited:
Maybe I am confusing myself here:

I checked the Intel ICH10R SATA AHCI Controller in my Device Manager. The driver is correct:

Capture2.PNG


So, given that my hard drives are all connected to the Intel SATA controller and not the Gigabyte controller, they should be using that Intel driver? Just confusing, as the drive driver is different to the controller driver.

Sorry if I'm getting confused, but the drive drivers have always confused me a bit, and I just want to make sure I'm running the best possible drivers :)
 
I tried enabling AHCI in my BIOS the other day but it then refused to boot. I presume you have to boot in IDE mode, install the AHCI drivers in windows (XP in this example), then reboot, enable AHCI, and reboot again?
 
NathanE said:
That's 100% fine. It's the controller that matters.
Click to expand...

Ace, thanks mate. Thought it was something like that, but just wanted to check :)

Phoen1x said:
I tried enabling AHCI in my BIOS the other day but it then refused to boot. I presume you have to boot in IDE mode, install the AHCI drivers in windows (XP in this example), then reboot, enable AHCI, and reboot again?
Click to expand...

If it refuses to boot, it's because the drivers aren't installed. To boot in AHCI mode, you need to enable AHCI before OS install, or, at least for Windows 7, there is a registry hack to enable AHCI, then you can reboot. Otherwise it just does a BSOD.
 
madindehead said:
If it refuses to boot, it's because the drivers aren't installed. To boot in AHCI mode, you need to enable AHCI before OS install, or, at least for Windows 7, there is a registry hack to enable AHCI, then you can reboot. Otherwise it just does a BSOD.
Click to expand...
Ah ok, so if I want to put Win 7 on with AHCI enabled, then I need to blank the OS HD, enable AHCI, then Win 7 will install from DVD with AHCI enabled? No need to mess around with pre-OS drivier instalations?
 
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