Windows 7 - AHCI Bios Setup for SSD?

I have a SSD drive & want to use the AHCI Mode & Native Command Quening from Windows 7 Pro X64.

I performed the Regedit by setting the START paramater in the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci
from "3" to "0" - and then making the switch in the BIOS from IDE to AHCI.

Windows still would not load! The Bios screen would not load Windows 7.

I have a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R Board that has a Intel P45 Chipset & I installed the latest Intel Sata drivers before I tried the change. I had to use my Acronis True Image program to get Windows 7 back up & running.

My Board has 6 Intel Sata ports & two Gigabyte ports on the board. I don't use the Gigabyte ports & they were left in the IDE mode in the Bios when it failed.

The Bios screen loaded differently but failed as I said to load Windows 7.

???? Can I fix it without doing a clean install? Did i do something wrong? I also saw a MS Fixit for this change.

If I perform a clean install will Windows 7 load & install in the AHCI/Native modes with the bios setting to AHCI & not IDE? I have the SSD for programs & a 1TB HDD for storage & backup.

Thanks!



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It is possible that the registry setting that you changed only supports the Microsoft AHCI drivers, not the Intel ones.

I don't know whether it'd be practical to uninstall the Intel drivers.

If all else fails, a re-install of Windows with the SATA controller set to AHCI in the BIOS should work fine. You should not need to install any third-party driver to install Windows on a drive that uses one of the Intel SATA ports.

It may be as simple as the order of your drives changed when you switched to AHCI so that the boot drive is no longer your system disk. Go in your BIOS boot order menu and make sure your system disk is still the boot drive, if not, make it so.

I have two sets of sata controllers on my board. The first six are the Intel ports & the second set has two Gigabytes that I never loaded the drivers because I never have used them at all. All of my devices are plugged into the Intel ports. I just enabled the Gigabyte controller in the bios & now the bios screen states no hard drive found at the top & then the rest of the bios screen loads then to Windows 7.

My owners manual bios info does not match the bios I have in the system, It matches the UD3 board. I don't have the first listing under Intergrated Peripherials as a choice Sata Raid/AHCI Mode for Intel. My firstl isted item is ICH Sata Control Mode with a choice of IDE, AHCI, Raid. After I changed the value with Rededit I changed this setting to AHCI. Second item is Sata Port 0-3 Native mode as it is either Enabled or Disabled. It was set to disabled. Several lines down, I have On Board Sata/IDE Device either Enabled or Disabled. This is for the two Gigabyte Sata Ports. The next line below is the On Board Sata /IDE Control Mode with a choice of IDE/AHCI/Raid-IDE to control the Gigabyte controller.

There is a new bios so I may flash it to see if it placed the missing first line from the manual. I ran a driver check & the only real major item that came up was the Gigabyte controller stating it is using MS & I need to update.

Hope this will help someone help me solve the problem.

I am not clear what you are trying to do or what the problem is now.

If your BIOS has the option for RAID in ICH Sata Control mode, then it is for the UD3R (ICH10R) board, the documentation must just be off. Otherwise, if it were UD3, the choice would be SATA AHCI mode: disabled or AHCI (no raid choice).

Though there are two lines in the manual, one is only present in the BIOS for the UD3, and the other only present in the BIOS for the UD3R

It sounds as though your MOBO has something similar to a jmicron sata controller on board, if so when you enabled it, it may have changed your default boot order. you would need to go into the bios and change the drive order so that the correct drive is your boot drive.
I had similar problems with my board and although i did manage to get Win 7 to run with my ssd as the OS drive it was never very stable. The best thing to do is set your bios to the correct settings(personally i have it set to Raid, but have all the discs as non member this prevents Win 7 from showing all the drives as dis-mountable), then do a fresh install as it will give your SSD all the correct settings with no confusion from any previous setups.

raz

Honestly, I've never gotten this to work without a reinstall. If it was me, I'd just spend the two hours with a clean install, if it is that important. If not, then just make a mental note to do it right as you do a clean install next time around.

Got it to work by moving O/S to Gigabyte controller on IDE with Intel controller set to AHCI. Moved the O/S back to Intel controller & ran startup repair & loaded Windows 7 fine. It changed the msahci value to 0.

Solved!