Replace (disable) BIOS HDA to use PCIe HBA w/out reinstall?

BostonDriver · 21 Jan 2013

Hi,

I'm using a Dell Precision 690 (Intel 5000X chipset) which does not support SATA 3 or greater than 2TB drives.

I plan on buying a PCIe HBA to solve this problem, either the High Point RocketRaid 640, 640L or 620 (but will take suggestions.)

If I go with the 640, I'd prefer to disable the on board SAS/SATA BIOS and put all 4 internal disks on the new PCIe HBA. If I do this, will it cause Win7 Pro 64bit to need to be re-activated (i.e. reinstalled) due to HW change? This has happened when I change the motherboard, but what about just the HBA?

Thanks

BostonDriver · 15 Feb 2013

So far, changing the SATA controller has not resulted in any problem. The product key is still valid. Windows Update doesn't turn up any new updates since this HW was installed. I typically have "something" at least once a week.

essenbe · 15 Feb 2013

Installing a hard disk should cause no problems at all, unless you reinstall.

BostonDriver · 17 Feb 2013

essenbe said:

Installing a hard disk should cause no problems at all, unless you reinstall.

I didn't install a hard disk. I replaced the HBA.

I was able to get Win 7 updates this weekend. My product seems activated. In my case, the driver was the same as that used by the prior HBA. I don't know if that matters or not.

essenbe · 17 Feb 2013

Normally, the only time you have trouble is when changing motherboards. A lot of us here change hard drives, ram or graphics cards quite often and never have problems.

BostonDriver · 17 Feb 2013

essenbe said:

Normally, the only time you have trouble is when changing motherboards. A lot of us here change hard drives, ram or graphics cards quite often and never have problems.

Same here... I've done all 3 of the above w/out issue. The HBA was built into the MB, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I disabled it and used a PCIe card. The HD was also > 2TB, and uses GPT, so it's different enough to be worried.

Thanks