AHCI : Enable in Windows 7 / Vista

Night Hawk · 16 Jun 2012

Here I simply went by the guide since I still had Native ide set after a full clean install of 7 back in 2010 when new and another clean install went on last week. Not one issue. After the reg edit 3 settings were changed to AHCI and one other to "Sata type" in the bios. Other then the prompt by auto play once the two storage/backup drives were redetected and installed the only other thing is now seeing the two OS drives listed for a second on a black screen right before the 7 logo appears while booting up.

Originally the factory defaults wouldn't allow the system to boot explaining why it had been left set to Native ide all that time. On your system you installed Windows on the second drive while set in the Raid enabled mode and would now need another clean install. I had to wipe two drives on the last build to split up a Raid array there at one point to wipe each drive separately in order to make each independent.

Demonzero0 · 02 Jul 2012

So i'm having a few different problems. I am trying to get my SSD optimized to do a clean install of windows 7 64-bit on it. It is an OCZ-VERTEX3. I try to update it to the latest firmware using their utility and get firmware download failed. I double checked that i do not have the most recent version. So I figured I need to get the ACHI set up first. I followed this post to edit the option in the registry. I made the change in the registry, re-booted and made the change in the bios. After making the change in the bios, windows will not post.

Synaptic Sam · 04 Jul 2012

Quick question: there is extra instructions "For those with nForce boards..."

The mobo I am dealing with is GigaByte's GA-M750SLI-DS4 with NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI Chipset

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket AM2+ - GA-M750SLI-DS4 (rev. 1.0)

does that make this mobo an "nForce board" and therefore making it imperative to follow the extra instructions worked out by Everlong?

Thank you

ps Happy 4th of July Everyone!!

Night Hawk · 04 Jul 2012

The information explains the need to first remove the NVidia ide controller driver and allow Windows to install it's own before making the setting change in the bios setup. Your board is an NForce model having a NVidia chipset to start with.

One thing to note here having an AM3 model by Gigabyte with an AMD 790 chipset I was able to simply reboot and go into the bios setup to make the setting change there from the Native IDE to AHCI and booted up to see 7 go to work on the spot requiring a second restart to finish things up without issue. Never even touched the system registry or anything in the Device Manager. This is on the GA-790TA-UD4 model board.

psychotron · 05 Jul 2012

If original poster or anyone else can help please reply.

Performed this exact procedure on my Asus Crosshair VI Formula(you can see the rest of my specs in my profile) and all I get is a black screen with some text telling me to "insert boot cd or choose correct drive" or something of that nature. My mobo does support AHCI, and I can find it in BIOS after I perform the reg changes. I have two SSDs and three HDDs and I can only choose either IDE or AHCI for all. I can do this and reboot and the black screen will appear. I have went into boot screen and made sure it's booting on my SSD OS drive but nothing.

I have 6 SATA connections on my mobo, should I disconnect all but my main SSD and keep that one at the 1 of 6 position or should I give up and just do a fresh install. And if so, how can I make sure that I have the AHCI drivers installed and set in BIOS?

Thanks.

psychotron · 05 Jul 2012

Never mind. I tried every config possible and on the crosshair IV formula mobo there is no possible way to change the IDE to AHCI without having to re-install windows 7, which is what I did. Thankfully I hadn't installed too may programs or games on it so it wasn't such a big deal. Updates took the longest.

I have 5 total HDs. Two SSD's and three HDD's. I left them all plugged into the sata cluster during install. I went into BIOs again to make sure all drives were set to AHCI, I went into boot screen to make sure my main SSD was the boot drive. Then when the black screen came up asking me to reboot with correct drive or media I threw in the Win 7 install disc and away it went. All drives are now set at AHCI with ZERO install problems.
Even though I haven't installed or played any games as of right now, after the updates the restart and power up from off is much faster then without AHCI enabled. I can imagine I will see a huge improvement in load speeds among other things. Peace

Night Hawk · 05 Jul 2012

That would be the first thing to look at before going ahead and making any changes in any event first seeing what options for drive modes are present in the bios setup.

Here it was simply 1-2-3 and done once I restarted from switching the setting on the board here from Native IDE to AHCI. W7 recognised and prompted for a restart to finish installing the two OS drives while the W8 Release Preview install became unbootable showing the next version will have to have a totally different method.

OvenMaster · 11 Jul 2012

I just tried this with my ASRock 880GM-LE board, two SATA II HDs, two SATA DVD burners, and one IDE hard drive.
I'm a bit curious why the AHCI drivers used are from Microsoft rather than AMD, since those were installed already, but since even IDE performance is noticeably faster, I'm a happy camper. :)

Night Hawk · 11 Jul 2012

AMD wouldn't be providing Sata controller drivers to begin with. They manufacturer cpus and chipsets as well as the ATI lineup. MS would simply roll manufacturer's updates through the Windows Updates as optional for hardwares.

I set a new sata dvd burner I had to add to the ide setting in the bios rather then the Sata Type setting and so far that hasn't seen any problem. It wouldn't be automatically added to the list of SCSI devices like the two OS drives were. So far not one issue with the fresh 7 install seen to before making the setting change.

OvenMaster · 12 Jul 2012

Night Hawk said:

AMD wouldn't be providing Sata controller drivers to begin with. They manufacturer cpus and chipsets as well as the ATI lineup. MS would simply roll manufacturer's updates through the Windows Updates as optional for hardwares.

AMD Chipset Drivers
An AHCI driver is included in the package with drivers for USB 3.0 and Chipset. I installed the AMD package yet a generic Microsoft driver is what shows up in Device Manager.
EDIT: Fixed. Opened Device Manager, right-clicked on the generic Microsoft AHCI driver. Clicked Update Driver, navigated to the driver in the latest download package from AMD, rebooted twice, mission accomplished.

AHCI : Enable in Windows 7 / Vista

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