AHCI : Enable in Windows 7 / Vista

DirtyElf said:

i dont need to do this tutorial to enable AHCI if i enabled it in my BIOS before i installed windows 7 correct? how can i be sure that it is activated?

If you enabled it in the BIOS before installing then it should already be set. If you want to double check go to device manager and click on storage controllers and it should say something like SATA RAID controller.

Appears so.

Here's some food for though (been a while since I did one of these posts... lol), I've seen a few posts on blogs and other forums in response to people asking "should I use IDE / AHCI / RAID...?" that suggest going straight for RAID, even if there's no RAID arrays.

Essentially, AHCI is RAID without the striping or mirroring features. Whether or not that is true across the board or only with the more modern controllers is beyond me, but considering the fact that both have been around for long enough to be a commonplace, I'd say that's a safe assumption.

So, based on that theory, to 'future proof' a build, wouldn't it actually make sense to select RAID even if there are no arrays? That way, if a PC owner descides to set up a RAID array later (as opposed to actually planning to), it'll be much easier and won't require any reinstalling or altering the OS...

Dave76 said:

The problem occurs when you try to switch from IDE to either RAID or AHCI.

I am quite aware of that, thanks Dave. I actually used this very tutorial to change my system a few months back.

Dave76 said:

Actually RAID is a function of AHCI, when you select RAID it uses AHCI and therefore has it's functions.

Maybe I'm nit-picking, but isn't RAID technology older than AHCI mode...? Although, I suppose if you look at what the acronyms stand for, that is actually correct. Damn the computer world... So confusing, yet so simple at the same time.

Dave76 said:

It's generally advised to use RAID settings before you install your OS, this will cover you for all scenarios, and will work with one or more HDDs and/or SSDs as separate drives. These can be set to RAID mode if the prerequisites are met.

In all honesty, I'd never really seen much about that until I specifically went looking for it.. Found a few very interesting reads on that topic though.