AHCI mode no boot from sata optical drives

[Lee K]

A strange problem, nothing critical, but I found it annoying that my optical sata drives will not boot from a bootable disk when in AHCI mode in Bios. If I switch the drive mode to native IDE then I can boot just fine from either of the Opitcal Sata drives.

I have done some searching and found this has been a problem out for some builds/MB in the past but you would think with a new MB and Sata controller and such this would no longer be a problem.

If you look at my specs you will see the Gigabyte MB. The documentation is fuzzy on the sata ports. There is a setting to put SATA port 4/5 into some kind of IDE support mode. I currently have the slots 0 - 3, used for all the drives. 0 & 1 for HDD, and 2 & 3 for the optical drives, wondering if I use the 4/5 slots for the SATA and set the bios to the 4/5 ide support if this might solve my little problem.

Has anyone else out there run into a similar problem?

 

[Sardonicus]

Optical drives to my knowledge don't benefit from AHCI.
You have 2 controllers, Intel and Gigabyte.

1. Install SATA hard drives on the Intel controller and set it to AHCI.
2. Install Optical drives to the Gigabyte controller and set it to IDE.

Even if you did set all controllers to AHCI, double check the boot option and make sure that the optical drives are set as the first boot device.

Ideally, the hard drives take advantage of AHCI, so it doesn't matter whether the optical drive is set to AHCI or IDE.

 

[Lee K]

In looking at the bios again, this is starting to make sense. Its actually an AMD controller, the 890, has native 6Gb/s support, ports 0 - 5 (6 ports high speed). The Gigabyte controller is Sata2 and on the 6 & 7 ports and yes it can be turned to IDE mode for these two ports, which should allow the optical drives to be bootable. This MB has so many ports, it gets a tad bit confusing. I will make the switch in the coming days as I have to do some network wiring, which means down time, and time to open up the case.

Still doesn't make complete sense, but the way AHCI works, like you said optical drives do not achieve any benefit from AHCI mode and in fact I imagine there is no comunication with these older SATA optical drives, not like SSD or platter type SATA storage.

I will post the results but thinking this should be it...

 

[whest]

In looking at the bios again, this is starting to make sense. Its actually an AMD controller, the 890, has native 6Gb/s support, ports 0 - 5 (6 ports high speed). The Gigabyte controller is Sata2 and on the 6 & 7 ports and yes it can be turned to IDE mode for these two ports, which should allow the optical drives to be bootable. This MB has so many ports, it gets a tad bit confusing. I will make the switch in the coming days as I have to do some network wiring, which means down time, and time to open up the case.

Still doesn't make complete sense, but the way AHCI work,s like you said optical drives do not achieve any benefit from AHCI mode and in fact I imagine there is no comunication with these older SATA optical drives, not like SSD or platter type SATA storage.

I will post the results but thinking this should be it...

Im sorry i was thinking sata drives when i read the problem but i found this which may help you understand or even fix the problem -
SATA optical drives are not available after you start a Windows Vista-based computer

 

[Mark Phelps]

Has anyone else out there run into a similar problem?

Yes ... also have a Gigabyte Mobo with SATA optical drives, and have the same problem ... but slightly different.

I switched the optical drives to the two SATA connectors that are NOT set to AHCI -- and that allowed them to be bootable again. But Win7 Pro kept "losing" the second drive. It would drop from the device list.

So, I reconnected the second optical drive back to an AHCI connector. Works fine, just can't boot from it.

Also, tried the MS KB article -- says "no public hotfixes available".

 

[Hacker101]

Try this Error message when you start a Windows 7 or Windows Vista-based computer after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive: "STOP 0x0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE". Worked for me.

 

[Hacker101]

Has anyone else out there run into a similar problem?

Yes ... also have a Gigabyte Mobo with SATA optical drives, and have the same problem ... but slightly different.

I switched the optical drives to the two SATA connectors that are NOT set to AHCI -- and that allowed them to be bootable again. But Win7 Pro kept "losing" the second drive. It would drop from the device list.

So, I reconnected the second optical drive back to an AHCI connector. Works fine, just can't boot from it.

Also, tried the MS KB article -- says "no public hotfixes available".

As for your problem I think you should check your jumper settings and make sure one (doesn't matter which one) is set to master and the other is set to slave. Your drives should have a diagram for jumper settings on the back if not refere to your user manual or manufacture's website

 

[Mark Phelps]

As for your problem I think you should check your jumper settings and make sure one (doesn't matter which one) is set to master and the other is set to slave. Your drives should have a diagram for jumper settings on the back if not refere to your user manual or manufacture's website

SATA drives do not have jumpers for Master/Slave -- read the OP's details before offering such a suggestion.

 

[Lee K]

Just to make things a bit clearer, my SATA optical drives are detected and run perfectly in Windows 7 64 bit, never had a problem in the OS and the bios detects them perfectly, but if you put a Windows install disc in the optical drive and have the board in native AHCI mode, you cannot boot from that disc in the optical drive.

Still seems strange to me that I have to set some ports to IDE mode for the optical drives to be bootable, but I haven't made the switch yet to see if it is going to work... we shall see

 

[Lee K]

Finally got around to changing the optical drives to GSATA 6 & 7 and bios setting for this to IDE, made no difference, on boot up it skips right past the drives. Only way to boot from an optical disk, is to switch from Native AHCI mode to Native IDE. Interesting thing about making the switch to the GSATA ports is that now the bios shows them both on SATA channel 5 operating as master and slave. Go figure. I have a number of other issues with this motherboard as well so looks like I will have to be contacting GIGABYTE for an explanation.

 

[Wishmaster]

My Gigabyte board will not boot from a Bootable CD if in AHCI mode either. (Well, not without a bit of intervention that is)
It just skips right to the 1st HD, and boots Windows, even if 1st boot device is set to CD.


How I get around it is F12 at the bios splash screen for a boot menu, & Choose CD-ROM.
It boots from the CD then, without switching from AHCI mode.

 

[Lee K]

F12 works like a charm! I was aware of it, but like a fool I ignored it, I wanted or thought it should recognize a boot disk if you have the bios set to scan the optical drives for one... :sarc:

 

[Wishmaster]

Yea. Im not sure why it does that TBH.

As I mentioned mine does it as well, even with the 1st boot device set to CD-ROM, and the only way to boot from CD is the F12 option.
(Without switching out of AHCI mode that is)

 

[Lee K]

Actually my older computer (BIOSTAR MB) is nice, in that, if you set it up that way, it will scan all your drives and always boot from the last bootable device. You can quickly boot off a disk by inserting, and then crt-alt-del.

 

[Cableaddict]

Found this thread after struggling with the same problem. I use an SSD boot drive, so "must" enable AHCI in the BIOS before installing my OS. The Rampage Gene BIOS drive settings cannot be set individually.

The "F12" solution doesn't work for me. I still get a prompt 1/2 way through the OS install that a driver is missing.

I downloaded the ITE ATA driver mentioned on several threads, but this makes no sense to me, as it's a SCSI driver.

Optical drives to my knowledge don't benefit from AHCI.
You have 2 controllers, Intel and Gigabyte.

1. Install SATA hard drives on the Intel controller and set it to AHCI.
2. Install Optical drives to the Gigabyte controller and set it to IDE.

This sounds like a great idea. I will try it tomorrow. The jMicron sata bus can definitely be set individually. I just don't know if it can be used for an optical. We shall see.