Quick AHCI question - possible problem?

jmp_78 · 16 Oct 2010 at 20:06

Evening all.

Have been thinking about upgrading to an SSD in the near future and have heard that when installing you must set your BIOS to AHCI.

Before I buy I just thought I'd try this with my system as it is - it's currently set to 'Enhanced IDE', and my motherboard is an 'Asus P7P55D'.

Problem is, when I set it to AHCI the system will post and try to load Win7-64, but then just restarts when you would usually see the desktop.

Is this a problem that should stop me buying an SSD? Is this just because the OS was installed under IDE (not a prob if buying SSD as will fresh install)..?

Ideas welcome

yashiro · 16 Oct 2010 at 20:21

You'll need to do a clean install or hack your registry to enable AHCI before you enable it in the bios.

Surveyor · 16 Oct 2010 at 20:22

I think you're supposed to set it to AHCI before installing the Operating System.

Changing it afterwards causes problems.

jmp_78 · 16 Oct 2010 at 20:41

So buying an SSD and doing a fresh install of my OS should be fine then.

Just to check here, sorry for the newb-ness!

1) Remove current HDD
2) Connect new SSD
3) Power up and set BIOS to AHCI
4) Install OS

Any other tips that you can think of, or is that about it?

bulldog147 · 16 Oct 2010 at 20:46

Surveyor said:
I think you're supposed to set it to AHCI before installing the Operating System.

Changing it afterwards causes problems.

Microsoft have a driver you can install if you dont have AHCI enabled when you install the OS (its not a hack) and it requires you to alter the registry before you change from IDE to AHCI in the bios - it doesnt require the Intel Matrix Storage Software to function correctly.

Click here to fix it from IDE to AHCI: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9741862 Download and install then reboot pc then it will load into windows to updated change in driver from IDE to AHCI and it will ask you to reboot pc to apply it and it all done!

It can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

sturmtruppe · 16 Oct 2010 at 22:04

^strange, I can alter it to enhanced ide & back again - vista will just install the new drivers. In theory, shouldnt Win7 do this as well?

bulldog147 · 16 Oct 2010 at 22:05

Yes it will work on both Vista and Windows 7 say Microsoft support (I done mine clone from my old HDD 80gb (IDE) to new 120gb SSD (IDE) then install microsoft fixit 50407 then reboot pc and change the bios from ide to ahci and windows will loads this time with no more BSD (work on both 32 and 64 bit)

Before on IDE SSD score just 7.1 and after microsoft fit it 50407 and change SSD to ahci and now score 7.8

That what my screenshot look like after microsoft fixit 50407 and surprise me it had the latest driver already: