Sata controller IDE to AHCI

[A2Z]

I use a standard Sata 500GB WD HD as my main Win 7 drive.

I had a Gigabyte DS4 mobo and to be honest I didnt change the controller or anything but I guess it must have been on IDE because.......

I upgraded a few parts, one of them an Asus mobo. Kept getting BSOD on boot with automatic reboot in a loop. Turns out the problem was the Sata controller is set to AHCI by default on Asus mobos. Switched it to IDE in the BIOS setup and it all booted fine.

I understand there is no benefit to changing to AHCI unless I use a SSD.

When Windows 10 comes out, I want to install it on a SSD and use that as my main drive, using the 500gb for data.

Do I simply change it in the BIOS just before I am about to install the OS on the SSD and that's it? Will the 500gb drive work fine as long as it is not the main boot drive?

 

[ED209]

the HDD will be fine as a second drive.

as you said all you need to do is set the sata ports to achi before you do the OS install and also make sure the SSD is the only drive connected when you do the OS install as sometimes windows will store stuff on the HDD.

I had a 500GB HDD as a second drive and a SSD both using achi and had no issues. just make sure that the SSD is the first boot device once you connect back up the HDD