Stuck during boot after AHCI change

So I just reinstalled Windows. I had it set to AHCI, and I had some issues with the boot DVD not being recognised.

I connected the DVD drive to the Jmicron SATA port and selected it via the F12 boot menu. Installed fine.
I checked the device manager, and the AHCI drivers are installed and up to date. I shut down, and plugged in the other hard drives.


Same. Goddamn. Problem.


I've attached a screenshot of where it hangs. I'm unable to access the BIOS at this stage.

I've unplugged all the drives except the SSD with windows, and I'm able to start up as normal.

Mega sad face

I'm also certain this isn't normal (picture).

I opened Regedit and msahci was already set to 0. Iastorv was at 3, and I set it to 0. Upon reboot, with only the ssd, I didn't get the lovely screen stating my device driver software was updated.


Frustrated!

OK, 2 different problems.

Problem 1: Internal hard drive shows up as a removable device.
This problem occurs because the AHCI driver that installs during the Windows installation is a generic one-size-fits-all driver, just to give functionality for installation.
The solution is to install the correct AHCI driver from your motherboard manufacturer's website. This could be a specific AHCI driver, the Intel Matrix Storage System driver, or the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver, whichever one the manufacturer offers. Once the proper driver is installed the incorrect notice will disappear.
There is no need to change regisry values, and, this could mess up the new AHCI driver install.

Problem 2: The system will not BOOT with additional hard drives connected.
This problem can occur because:

• One of the hard drives is defective
• One of the SATA ports is defective
• One of the hard drives contains an ACTIVE partition or second System Reserved partition
• One of the hard drives contains a second GPT format System partition.

You did not by any chance take a screenshot of the Disk Management window from the old IDE installation? I could quickly see if #3 or #4 is going on looking at that.


To test for defective drives/ports:
Check to be sure that the SSD is installed in SATA Port#1 on the motherboard, if you need to switch ports check to be sure it boots again.


(Shut down PC between each test)
Take one of the additional hard drives and install it in SATA Port #2, start up and check. If no boot then try SATA Port #3, and so on. If it does boot, on all ports, mark it good and remove it.


Then do the same with the next drive, and so on, checking all 4 drives.


If all drives check good then start adding them one at a time and testing, until all 4 are installed or the system does not boot. Mark the drive that causes the system not to boot, or report any other condition you notice.

It is also probably a good time to let us know your system specs so we know what hardware we are dealing with here.

Gigabyte XD58-UD3R, i7-920 on 1366 chipset, 8gb 2-channel Patriot G2 RAM, Windows Home Premium 64bit.

Okay. So, I rebooted into IDE model and it popped up the driver notification. The SSD no longer appears as a removable device.

I changed the SSD from Port 00 to 01, and booted several times with each HDD. None of them have a partition.
There is an unallocated 100mb partition on the SSD. The only option through disk management is to create a new simple volume. This was in IDE.

When I returned to AHCI and attempted to boot with SSD + 1 HDD, I had the same error with one hard drive. The second tried to go into disk check, but rebooted when I stopped it. It was hanging at the windows splash screen but eventually worked. The third HDD went into Disk Check as well. The computer was slow to boot, the reason I'm trying to use AHCI to overcome. I had all three drives in Port 02. I'll try again on 03 shortly.

Port 03 yieled the same result for HDD 1, however the AHCI hang screen only displayed Ports 00-03. It did display that there was two devices. HDD 2 went into Disk Check again, no issues. It rebooted and took about 5 minutes to get past the splash screen so I could enter my password.
The last HDD booted fine, then hung at the splash screen for a couple of minutes. It eventually started.

I booted with HDD 2 & 3 in ports 04 and 05 respectively. This worked fine.
I attempted with the same configuration, and HDD 1 in port 02. That caused the system to hang at the pre-bios AHCI screen. I replaced the cable, still in 02. Same result. I tried again with the new cable in 03, same result. Same result in 00, only the AHCI screen recognised nothing.


So that hard drive is knackered? It's a little older, but it's my main storage drive.

It is starting to look so. Can you test that hard drive in another PC? If it gums up a different system too then you will have your answer.

Unfortunately I don't. It worked just fine in IDE however. I was considering attempting to run it through SATA 6 or 7, the Jmicron port. Will that have an effect?

When I'm dealing with problems I tend to try everything, no matter how effective I think it might be.

Because the JMicron ports are on a separate controller, testing the drive there will tell you whether there may be a problem with the motherboard's Intel controller.
I would set the JMicron controller to AHCI mode in BIOS and then test it.

There is no reason that I can think of (other than those I have already mentioned) why a standard hard drive would have any problem running on a functioning SATA port in AHCI mode. It is bizarre that it will work in IDE mode but not in AHCI.

I just feel there has got to be a missing piece to this puzzle. Some information or condition that has not been mentioned. The clue that breaks the case.

But in any event, you want the Intel SATA controller to be in AHCI mode to run an SSD. Do not compromise on that, and don't play around with the registry settings after a clean reinstall in AHCI mode.
The problem of additional hard drives causing the system to fail to boot in AHCI mode is the problem to focus on.

Note: Port 00 is the first port on your motherboard. I know I said Port 1, but I meant to say: "use the first port". This is just for information. Which port the SSD is in has nothing to do with your problem. But it does make testing the other drives and ports easier.

It's definitely a confusing problem. Luckily, the hard drive worked in Jmicron. SATA cables all over the place, but it's running well so I'm not going to touch anything anymore.

Thank you so much for your help. Now I just have to work out why my new GTX650OC gives me a lower framerate/performance in BF4 than my previous GTX550ti. Nothing is ever simple with computers, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy a challenge.

Solved the same problem by upgrading the bios.

My motherboard is gigabyte ga-ex58-ud5. I was having the exact same problem with hard drives and the bios stopping at the same bios screen.

My old install was getting very slow both in bios startup and windows running so decided to a fresh install with new ssd drive. When attempting to install win 7, it would crash at various stages the eventually after a dozen attempts eventually hanged in bios at posters screen of bios controller. Tried all sata ports but same result. Tried resetting bios via clr cmos button, optimized and failsafe settings but no joy.

Then decided to update the bios as it had never been done. After updating to the latest f13 bios, install went smoothly and no problems! No more bios hangs or lengthy startups.

It looked like something in the bios went corrupt so rewriting (or upgrading in my case) sorted it out.