Images & switching AHCI to IDE

I'd like to know how to switch from AHCI to IDE in Windows 8.1 Professional x64. I know there's countless threads on this but they all (all I've seen/found) are directed towards Windows 7 I actually switched from IDE to AHCI with the registry value changes and BIOS change but if I just change...

While dealing with another issue, I've been told that I should switch my SATA mode from RAID to AHCI. I do not have a RAID array and don't plan to. However, I've been told that I would need drivers for this, and I'm not sure if my Windows installation has them or not. I don't want to switch modes...

I have an older win7 media server (WMC with 4 cable card tuners) that I want to add a 3TB drive. However when I first installed sata controller was set to ide mode. The 3tb drive only works with AHCI mode and of course my WIN7 will not boot if I only switch mode in bios. I was going to save...

I reinstalled windows, and went with AHCI for eSata hot swap. 2 of my 6 drives did not appear in my computer. 1 of them I just assigned a drive letter in DM and it is fine. the other, which was previously working, says it requires initialization, which I did, and assigned a drive letter.......

I recently put together a custom computer (first time building one) I set it up in IDE mode, but now I'd like to switch it to AHCI because the SSD is running really slow. It boots up slow, windows takes quite a while to load up. I've got a Western Digital 1 TB in addition to my Mushkin Chronos...