MSI 880gm-E41 BUOS backup and upgrade procedures AHCI SATA RAID driver  

Hi,

1. My SSD is listed as ATA. Is that all
No, It is not all. ATA may stand for PATA ( IDE ) or SATA! But believing that you have switched well to AHCI in BIOS & its reflection in Device Manager thereafter, ensures it.
It seems at least one device is still using IDE!
So, to make it pretty sure, I again ask you to go to Disk Management Window, Navigate VIEW>TOP>DISK LIST & share the snap.
BIOS can also tell about it.

2. It has a notation about identifying as AHCI which is reassuring but still not sure if that is the performance advantage
Actually, An SSD should run better under AHCI, Still, you have to decide/compare whether there is any improvement in the performance at all! You should observe the system stability as well.
(a) Run the SSD under IDE in the same installation on the same machine & run different tests.
Then run SSD under AHCI in the same installation on the same machine & run different tests.
Compare the test results & get your truth.
(b) It is also possible that you get some good/exciting numbers in the results but the system is less stable. So, along with the good results, you have to also take in account the stability of the overall system. You can only find that by observation for some days.

3. A New Thought : We thought ATI Catalyst Install Manager is problematic but i doubt one can run/install RAID driver on IDE/AHCI but I am not sure about the locking!

Thanks & Regards. ...

Hi,
Thanks, Your snapshots made the things clearer.

1. I have edited point 1 in my last post.

2. We see some things here that look incomplete
What are those ?

3. what you meant at 'a device using IDE'
Its now clear that a device is using IDE & that is your CD/DVD drive. It is plugged in a IDE port itself ( Two IDE devices can be attached to your MB in all & one is already connected : CD/DVD Drive )
Its clear that SATA II ports ( 6 ports ) are set to AHCI now.

4. I think you totally missed one point. When you changed BIOS to use SATA II ports as AHCI, you had to reinstall the OS. If you follow the links, you won't need to reinstall OS & you will be switched to AHCI without any problem with the same installation.

( Additionally, I think you are planning to switch to SSDs on mass level, You can migrate OS from HDDs to SSDs easily with Macrium Reflect Free. But first you have to switch to AHCI with HDDs & then migrate OS from HDDs to SSDs with Macrium.
If you are ready/easy to make a fresh install on SSDs, just switch to AHCI in BIOS & then make a fresh install on SSDs itself. )

Anything else ? Please let me know.

Thanks & Regards. ...

Hi,
Just to mention :
IDE & SATA Hard Disks are much different. For eg. Max Data Transfer Rate for an IDE hard disk may be up to 133 mb/sec where a SATA hard disk can support up to 6gb/sec. Yours SATA II supports 3gb/sec with hard disks.
your situation is much different than above. Both of your disks are SATA disks which are connected to SATA ports. It is only that you were using them as IDE devices with IDE drivers in the OS. So, I can't tell what exactly would be the difference!
Your BIOS allows to use SATA disks as IDE, SATA AHCI or SATA RAID.
The traditional IDE disks which are connected to IDE ports can't be used as AHCI/RAID (SATA )
You have 6 SATA II ports which can entertain 6 SATA drives while you have 1 IDE port which can entertain 2 IDE devices. One IDE device is already there as CD/DVD Drive.

Thanks & Regards. ...

Hi,

1) What is the exact model & make of problematic pc & its motherboard ?

2) What is/are the hardware ID(s) of the unknown device(s) in the device manager ?

Device Manager - Finding Unknown Devices

3) What is the Installed BIOS version ?
Run this .bat file & let it load the information. Look for installed BIOS driver version.

SystemInfo.bat

Let me know.

Thanks & Regards. ...