Windows 7 - Does Windows7 have AHCI issues?

I remember Vista could not install if the HDD was configured as SATA as the drivers were not inbuilt & it use to hang & give BSOD.

Is this problem over in windows7 RC1 or does it still require to integrate SATA drivers & make custom installation DVD?

I was able to install on both a machine with AHCI enabled and one still using SATA. Granted, the AHCI was on an x58 board which is fairly new so that might play a role but I doubt it.

Ah! but mine is 3yrs old P5B Dlx mobo so just need to be sure if this has been sorted out or not.
Found this post which discusses that build 7057 onwards its sorted out
Build 7057 Fixed AHCI DVD Install Problem

Aah, I gotcha. The first time I performed an AHCI install was on my new build... with 7057.

You could install Vista in AHCI mode out of the box withtout third party drivers with Intel based Chipsets. Not sure if it was the case with mb using chipsets or an external sata controler like the ones from Promise.

I saw you use a P5B-DLX-Wifi too and I always used it and installed Vista in AHCI mode without a BSOD under Vista.

With Windows 7 it's another story. I had to reinstall in IDE mode yesterday after having used it in AHCI mode since the beta as yesterday my system became unbootable for no reason and unrepairable. The system became unbootable before and I could repair it but this time things were too messed up to do something, so I decided that it wasn't worth it anymore and reinstalled everything with the bios set to IDE instead of AHCI.
Avoid the drivers from Intel, even the beta, they don't seem to work well with the ICH8R chipset (maybe just for my computer?). The drivers that come with Windows 7 worked better here.

I have an Asus Maximus Formula (x38) and had absolutely no issues with installing 7 on an AHCI setup.

Maybe it's just my setup or a problem with the ICH8R chipsets.

These are the issues I had since the Beta using AHCI mode with the AHCI drivers from Intel with a P5B-DLX-Wifi.
- Install would become unbootable for no reason (NTLDR missing). Like after a reboot or a shutdown when before everything worked perfectly fine.
- random freeze during normal activity or files transfer HDD to HDD, or same drive but different partition. Sometimes I even had to hard reboot the computer to get it to work again.
- SATA DVD-RW recognized as CD-Rom, or not recognized at all, and made the system hang.
(I know some SATA drive have a hard time dealing with the AHCI mode and installing the SATA ODD on the promise IDE/SATA controller set to IDE mode fixed that)

And these were the issues I encountered with the AHCI drivers that come with Windows 7, but were much rare than with the AHCI drivers from Intel.
- Install would become unbootable for no reason (NTLDR missing). Like after a reboot or a shutdown.
- random freeze that lasted a few seconds during normal disk activity, or same drive but different partition. I never had to hard reboot as with the AHCI drivers from Intel.

The probleme With Vista (even XP) was when you swith to AHCI after installation.
During installation: If Vista doesn't have the good driver you should give them to it with a CD/DVD/USBkey/D7 and it would be fine. If you don't have the driver, Vista will not see the Drive

Seven know more hardware, and as more drivers by default. So for most hardware you will not need any additionnal driver.
I use AHCI on a P45 chipset with Seven since Beta version, I never had any issue (HDD and DVD drive are all SATA)

Little article here you may be interested in

How to enable AHCI in Windows 7 RC after installation | ithinkdifferent

Thanks a bunch scaramonga for posting this as it worked perfectly!
I forgot about setting it up in the bios before I installed the RC 7100
& I wasn't going to do it all over again with all the programs I have installed & customizations I've done to the system to enable AHCI.

But after the registry modification I was able to install the latest Intel Matrix Storage drivers v8.8.0.1009 & I now have AHCI set in the bios with NCQ enabled!