SSD alignment

essenbe · 06 Mar 2013

So, I assume you're in IDE mode in bios? Click the start button, type device manager in the search box and open device manager. Go to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, click the arrow next to it to expand it, and at the bottom see if you see MSAHCI or something else with AHCI in it. There is no reason your SSD should not appear by putting the sata mode to AHCI. AHCI is simply another SATA mode. The only reason to make the registry change is to force windows to install AHCI drivers to the OS, so the OS can boot. What happens in bios has nothing to do with the OS. You are not in the OS yet. The BIOS is the board recognizing the hardware and setting values for the hardware.

Datman · 07 Mar 2013

Yes I also assume its IDE, the choices are SATA, RAID or AHCI. It may be the older mobo. I didn't see anything like MSAHCI.

essenbe · 07 Mar 2013

I'm at a loss as to what to tell you to do. In IDE mode, the drive will still out perform a mechanical hard drive, by far. But, you will not get maximum performance from the SSD. But, whether the board is old or not, if it has AHCI as an option, it should run in AHCI mode. That's why that option is there. If the board wouldn't run in AHCI mode, they wouldn't have listed it as an option. Under no circumstances should the SSD disappear, that I am aware of. I'm no expert by a long shot, but I would think you have a bad board, corrupted bios or a bad SSD. Those are the only reasons I can think of that an SSD would disappear from bios when put in AHCI mode. I would echo what Indianacarney suggested and see if there is updated firmware for the SSD.

whs · 07 Mar 2013

I would make 2 suggestions:

1. Stop worrying about AHCI for the moment. Try to make it work in IDE. The performance impact is minimal anyhow.

2. The image you have with your wife's stuff - mount this image on your system (Macrium must be installed on your system) by double clicking on the image file. Then it will show up as a VHD in Computer. From there copy all importand files of your wife to a safe place. That way you have an additional backup of her stuff.

You could also just make a copy of the image to a safe place (normal copy operation). But that will require a lot more space.

Report back how you are doing in IDE mode.