New
#580
One more bump in the hope that someone may answer.
Hello,
I have already applied the AHCI in windows registry. Does it matters that in my registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services
the value msahci was initially set to 0 (zero). Actually, I only changed the iaStorV from 3 to 0.
When I went to the BIOS, I was unable to find the setting to implement the change. I was unable to find AHCI in my BIOS settings.
I have to mention that I have just finished migrating my win7 o/s to the new SSD using Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 Premium.
My BIOS are (copied from SIW 2015):
My Storage Devices are:Code:Property Value BIOS Properties BIOS Vendor American Megatrends Inc. Serial Number BIOS Version 0606 Firmware Version [unknown] BIOS Date 06/27/2011 BIOS Size 8192 KB BIOS Starting Segment F000h BIOS Release Version 4.6 DMI Version 2.6 Characteristics supports ISA No supports MCA No supports EISA No supports PCI Yes supports PC Card (PCMCIA) No supports Plug-and-Play No supports APM No upgradeable (Flash) BIOS Yes allows BIOS shadowing Yes supports VL-VESA No ESCD support is available No supports booting from CD-ROM Yes supports selectable boot Yes BIOS ROM is socketed Yes supports booting from PC Card (PCMCIA) No supports Enhanced Disk Drive specification Yes supports INT 13 for Japanese NEC 9800 1.2M floppy (3.5-inch, 1024-byte sectors, 360rpm) No supports INT 13 for Japanese Toshiba 1.2M floppy (3.5-inch, 360rpm) No supports INT 13 5.25-inch/360K floppy services No supports INT 13 5.25-inch/1.2M floppy services Yes supports INT 13 3.5-inch/720K floppy services Yes supports INT 13 3.5-inch/2.88M floppy services Yes supports INT 05 print-screen Yes supports INT 09 and 8042 keyboard services Yes supports INT 14 serial services Yes supports INT 17 printer services Yes supports INT 10 CGA/Mono video services No NEC PC-98 No supports ACPI Yes supports legacy USB Yes supports AGP No supports booting from I2O device No supports booting from LS-120 No supports booting from ATAPI ZIP drive No supports booting from IEEE 1394 device No Smart Battery supported No BIOS Boot Specification supported Yes Function key-initiated Network Service boot supported No Enable Targeted Content Distribution Yes ACPI APIC ALASKA A M I FACP ALASKA A M I HPET ALASKA A M I MCFG ALASKA A M I SSDT AMICPU PROC
How could I verify if AHCI is enable/disable on my PC?Code:Property Value Disk 0 Manufacturer Samsung Model Samsung SSD 850 PRO 128GB Size 127 GB Firmware Version EXM02B6Q Serial Number S1SMNSAG105231H Rotational Speed Solid State Device (SSD) Form Factor Not Available Interface Serial ATA Standard ACS-2 | ATA8-ACS version 4c Advanced Format Supported No Transfer Mode (Current / Max) SATA-600 / SATA-600 Features S.M.A.R.T., 48bit LBA, NCQ, TRIM Power Cycle Count 199 Temperature 39 C (102 F) Drive Letter(s) C: Queue Depth 32 Removable No Cache Enabled (Read / Write) Yes / Yes SMART Support Yes Disk 1 Manufacturer Seagate Model ST1000DM003-1ER162 Size 1000 GB Firmware Version CC45 Serial Number Z4Y53JW7 Rotational Speed 7200 RPM Form Factor 3.5 inch Interface Serial ATA Standard ACS-2 | ACS-3 Revision 3b Advanced Format Supported 512 emulation (512e) Transfer Mode (Current / Max) SATA-600 / SATA-600 Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ Power Cycle Count 202 Temperature 33 C (91 F) Queue Depth 32 Removable No Cache Enabled (Read / Write) Yes / Yes SMART Support Yes Disk 2 Manufacturer Seagate Model ST3300622AS Size 300 GB Firmware Version 3.AAE Serial Number 5NF1RAD6 Rotational Speed Not Available Form Factor Not Available Interface Serial ATA Standard ATA/ATAPI-7 | ---- Advanced Format Supported No Transfer Mode (Current / Max) SATA-300 / SATA-300 Features S.M.A.R.T., 48bit LBA, NCQ Power Cycle Count 5771 Temperature 42 C (107 F) Drive Letter(s) D: E: F: H: I: Controller Buffer Size on Drive 16384 KB Queue Depth 32 Removable No Cache Enabled (Read / Write) Yes / Yes SMART Support Yes DVD Writer 0 Manufacturer [unknown] Model ASUS DRW-24B1ST Size 0 Bytes Firmware Version 1.01 Serial Number Rotational Speed Not Available Form Factor Not Available Interface Serial ATA Standard ATA8-ACS | ---- Advanced Format Supported Not Available Transfer Mode (Current / Max) SATA-150 / SATA-150 Power Cycle Count [unknown] Drive Letter(s) G: Removable Yes Supported CD Formats CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW or CD+RW Supported DVD Formats DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-R DL, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL Supported Blu-ray Formats None Supported HD-DVD Formats None Supported MO Formats None Capabilities CD Reader CD ROM, CD R, CD RW CD Writer CD R, CD RW DVD Reader DVD ROM, DVD R, DVD RW DVD Writer DVD R, DVD RW SMART Support No [/QUOTE] My Logical Disks are: [QUOTE]Property Value C:\ Type Local Disk Description Not Available Bus Type SATA Total Size 105 GB Used Space 37 GB Free Space 68 GB % Free 65 % Characteristics MS-DOS Device Name \Device\HarddiskVolume2 Location Disk 0 Bytes Per Sector 512 Sectors Per Cluster 8 Cluster Size 4096 Bytes (4 KBytes) File System NTFS 3.1 Volume Label Volume Serial 0040-F860 Maximum Filename Length 255 chars The file system preserves the case of file names when it places a name on disk Yes The file system supports case-sensitive file names Yes The file system supports file-based compression Yes The file system supports named streams Yes The file system preserves and enforces access control lists (ACL) Yes The specified volume is read-only No The volume supports a single sequential write No The file system supports the Encrypted File System (EFS) Yes The file system supports object identifiers Yes The file system supports re-parse points Yes The file system supports sparse files Yes The volume supports transactions Yes The file system supports Unicode in file names as they appear on disk Yes The specified volume is a compressed volume No The file system supports disk quotas Yes Device ID \\?\Volume{ee116683-99b5-11e2-8e97-806e6f6e6963}\ Automount Yes Boot Volume Yes Dirty Bit Set No Indexing Enabled Yes PageFile Present Yes Quotas Disabled System Volume No D:\ Type Local Disk Description Not Available Bus Type SATA Total Size 122 GB Used Space 53 GB Free Space 69 GB % Free 57 % Characteristics MS-DOS Device Name \Device\HarddiskVolume4 Location Disk 2 Bytes Per Sector 512 Sectors Per Cluster 8 Cluster Size 4096 Bytes (4 KBytes) File System NTFS 3.1 Volume Label Volume Serial 2722-CD90 Maximum Filename Length 255 chars The file system preserves the case of file names when it places a name on disk Yes The file system supports case-sensitive file names Yes The file system supports file-based compression Yes The file system supports named streams Yes The file system preserves and enforces access control lists (ACL) Yes The specified volume is read-only No The volume supports a single sequential write No The file system supports the Encrypted File System (EFS) Yes The file system supports object identifiers Yes The file system supports re-parse points Yes The file system supports sparse files Yes The volume supports transactions Yes The file system supports Unicode in file names as they appear on disk Yes The specified volume is a compressed volume No The file system supports disk quotas Yes Device ID \\?\Volume{ff85f9ae-b8d0-11e4-aeda-0026832fd4c8}\ Automount Yes Boot Volume No Dirty Bit Set No Indexing Enabled Yes PageFile Present No Quotas Disabled System Volume No E:\ Type Local Disk Description Not Available Bus Type SATA Total Size 20 GB Used Space 6285 MB Free Space 14 GB % Free 70 % Characteristics MS-DOS Device Name \Device\HarddiskVolume5 Location Disk 2 Bytes Per Sector 512 Sectors Per Cluster 8 Cluster Size 4096 Bytes (4 KBytes) File System NTFS 3.1 Volume Label Volume Serial 5F22-C7C0 Maximum Filename Length 255 chars The file system preserves the case of file names when it places a name on disk Yes The file system supports case-sensitive file names Yes The file system supports file-based compression Yes The file system supports named streams Yes The file system preserves and enforces access control lists (ACL) Yes The specified volume is read-only No The volume supports a single sequential write No The file system supports the Encrypted File System (EFS) Yes The file system supports object identifiers Yes The file system supports re-parse points Yes The file system supports sparse files Yes The volume supports transactions Yes The file system supports Unicode in file names as they appear on disk Yes The specified volume is a compressed volume No The file system supports disk quotas Yes Device ID \\?\Volume{b82b51d6-0e1c-11e5-b6a5-806e6f6e6963}\ Automount Yes Boot Volume No Dirty Bit Set No Indexing Enabled Yes PageFile Present No Quotas Disabled System Volume No F:\ Type Local Disk Description Not Available Bus Type SATA Total Size 64 GB Used Space 15 GB Free Space 48 GB % Free 76 % Characteristics MS-DOS Device Name \Device\HarddiskVolume6 Location Disk 2 Bytes Per Sector 512 Sectors Per Cluster 8 Cluster Size 4096 Bytes (4 KBytes) File System NTFS 3.1 Volume Label Volume Serial 9203-A430 Maximum Filename Length 255 chars The file system preserves the case of file names when it places a name on disk Yes The file system supports case-sensitive file names Yes The file system supports file-based compression Yes The file system supports named streams Yes The file system preserves and enforces access control lists (ACL) Yes The specified volume is read-only No The volume supports a single sequential write No The file system supports the Encrypted File System (EFS) Yes The file system supports object identifiers Yes The file system supports re-parse points Yes The file system supports sparse files Yes The volume supports transactions Yes The file system supports Unicode in file names as they appear on disk Yes The specified volume is a compressed volume No The file system supports disk quotas Yes Device ID \\?\Volume{b82b51d3-0e1c-11e5-b6a5-806e6f6e6963}\ Automount Yes Boot Volume No Dirty Bit Set No Indexing Enabled Yes PageFile Present No Quotas Disabled System Volume No G:\ (Jan 01 2005) Type DVD Description Not Available Bus Type ATAPI Total Size 4488 MB Used Space 1360 MB Free Space 3127 MB % Free 70 % Characteristics MS-DOS Device Name \Device\CdRom0 Bytes Per Sector 2048 Sectors Per Cluster 1 Cluster Size 2048 Bytes (2 KBytes) File System UDF Volume Label Jan 01 2005 Volume Serial 8AB4-B816 Maximum Filename Length 254 chars The file system preserves the case of file names when it places a name on disk Yes The file system supports case-sensitive file names Yes The file system supports file-based compression No The file system supports named streams Yes The file system preserves and enforces access control lists (ACL) No The specified volume is read-only No The volume supports a single sequential write Yes The file system supports the Encrypted File System (EFS) No The file system supports object identifiers No The file system supports re-parse points No The file system supports sparse files No The volume supports transactions No The file system supports Unicode in file names as they appear on disk Yes The specified volume is a compressed volume No The file system supports disk quotas No Device ID \\?\Volume{ee152f06-0772-11e5-ad8f-806e6f6e6963}\ Automount Yes Boot Volume No Dirty Bit Set No PageFile Present No System Volume No H:\ (WinXP) Type Local Disk Description Not Available Bus Type SATA Total Size 13 GB Used Space 4899 MB Free Space 9430 MB % Free 66 % Characteristics MS-DOS Device Name \Device\HarddiskVolume3 Location Disk 2 Bytes Per Sector 512 Sectors Per Cluster 8 Cluster Size 4096 Bytes (4 KBytes) File System NTFS 3.1 Volume Label WinXP Volume Serial E56E-82B0 Maximum Filename Length 255 chars The file system preserves the case of file names when it places a name on disk Yes The file system supports case-sensitive file names Yes The file system supports file-based compression Yes The file system supports named streams Yes The file system preserves and enforces access control lists (ACL) Yes The specified volume is read-only No The volume supports a single sequential write No The file system supports the Encrypted File System (EFS) Yes The file system supports object identifiers Yes The file system supports re-parse points Yes The file system supports sparse files Yes The volume supports transactions Yes The file system supports Unicode in file names as they appear on disk Yes The specified volume is a compressed volume No The file system supports disk quotas Yes Device ID \\?\Volume{b82b51d9-0e1c-11e5-b6a5-806e6f6e6963}\ Automount Yes Boot Volume No Dirty Bit Set No Indexing Enabled Yes PageFile Present No Quotas Disabled System Volume No I:\ Type Local Disk Description Not Available Bus Type SATA Total Size 58 GB Used Space 38 GB Free Space 19 GB % Free 34 % Characteristics MS-DOS Device Name \Device\HarddiskVolume7 Location Disk 2 Bytes Per Sector 512 Sectors Per Cluster 8 Cluster Size 4096 Bytes (4 KBytes) File System NTFS 3.1 Volume Label Volume Serial 0040-F860 Maximum Filename Length 255 chars The file system preserves the case of file names when it places a name on disk Yes The file system supports case-sensitive file names Yes The file system supports file-based compression Yes The file system supports named streams Yes The file system preserves and enforces access control lists (ACL) Yes The specified volume is read-only No The volume supports a single sequential write No The file system supports the Encrypted File System (EFS) Yes The file system supports object identifiers Yes The file system supports re-parse points Yes The file system supports sparse files Yes The volume supports transactions Yes The file system supports Unicode in file names as they appear on disk Yes The specified volume is a compressed volume No The file system supports disk quotas Yes Device ID \\?\Volume{3b9574bf-0e16-11e5-b538-806e6f6e6963}\ Automount Yes Boot Volume No Dirty Bit Set No Indexing Enabled Yes PageFile Present No Quotas Disabled System Volume No \\?\Volume{3b9574bd-0e16-11e5-b538-806e6f6e6963}\ (WinXP) Type Local Disk Description Not Available Bus Type [unknown] Total Size 13 GB Used Space 4897 MB Free Space 9433 MB % Free 66 % Characteristics Volume Label WinXP Device ID \\?\Volume{3b9574bd-0e16-11e5-b538-806e6f6e6963}\ Automount Yes Boot Volume No Cluster Size 4096 Bytes (4 KBytes) Dirty Bit Set No File System NTFS Indexing Enabled Yes PageFile Present No Volume Serial 331B-2470 The specified volume is a compressed volume No The file system supports disk quotas Yes The file system supports file-based compression Yes Quotas Disabled System Volume Yes
Last edited by Brink; 03 Jul 2015 at 08:41. Reason: code box
thanks for this
the regedit/bios fix was easy and fast and easy guide to understand
thx again :)
Some background: Recently something caused my Windows Vista PC to not be bootable (Windows would not start). No hardware changes were made, and the only updates were routine MS Windows Updates. I had a Complete PC Backup, which I used to restore the system, but it remained unbootable. The Dell Recovery partition was still available, so I restored from that, but the system remained unbootable. I ran some hardware tests and could find nothing wrong the HDD or memory. I then reinstalled Vista, and the system was then bootable.
Before this problem occurred, I was able to start up an external drive which was connected via esata (after Vista was already running), and Vista would recognize it. After reinstalling Vista, the only way to get Vista to recognize the external drive was to have it turned on before starting the system. Apparently AHCI was working before, but it's definitely not now - now when I start up, there is a message about AHCI not being enabled in the BIOS. There is nothing in the BIOS configuration related to AHCI. I never paid much attention to the BIOS before, but I ASSUME there was something in the BIOS config about AHCI, even though I never noticed it.
My questions: if I follow the instructions in "AHCI: Enable in Windows 7 after OS install", it appears that I must on the next startup go into the BIOS and enable AHCI. Is that correct?
If for some reason there is no BIOS option to configure/enable AHCI, I may then have a mismatch between Vista (registry) and the BIOS. Is this possible? If so, I may not be able to start windows to put the registry back to the non-AHCI settings, and in the end I may need to reinstall Windows if for whatever reason I get into a persistent non-bootable state again (as in the previous failure). Is this something to be concerned about?
One last note - when the non-bootable problem noted at the beginning began, I was not able to even use the USB keyboard to get into the recovery options. Somehow the USB controller in the BIOS was set to not enabled! I have no idea how that could occur; I did not make such a change. I was able to use the keyboard to the extent that I could enable USB in the BIOS, and the keyboard worked normally after that.
Your guess is correct. In the registry, set AHCI on using either of the methods (my system had 2 so I turned it on for both (since I didn't know which controller would be used). Then I rebooted my system and did NOT turn on AHCI in the BIOS, just to be sure my system was still OK. Then I booted AGAIN and set AHCI on in BIOS.
The AHCI setting is in a sub setting for disk access method (where you tell it SATA or IDE or RAID) and on some BIOS'es it's a subset of the SATA or RAID subset.
If you don't properly set the AHCI setting on the OS BEFORE doing it in BIOS, it won't boot, so just go back to the BIOS, turn AHCI off again and re-boot.
I have since upgraded to Windows 10 and my AHCI settings are still working OK with my Apricorn SSD adapter and my 2 SSD's.
DocDJ,
Thanks for the reply. Here's the latest in this saga:
I updated the registry as instructed then restarted and got into the BIOS config. Unfortunately there is no AHCI option anywhere (same as before), just two options: (1) RAID autodetect/ATA and (2) RAID. Strangely, neither one is selected (neither is highlighted). I selected the RAID autodetect/ATA option and allowed Windows to start. This results in the eSATA drive not being recognized, even if it's turned on before startup. Then I tried changing to RAID. When it got into Windows it showed RAID controller and RAID drivers were being installed. The RAID controller completed successfully, the RAID driver for the 2nd internal drive was successful, but the install of the RAID driver for the 1st internal drive (with C:, the OS) hung the system for a very long time - had to power off to get out. On restart, Windows would not start. I had to change back to RAID autodetect/ATA, and then Windows would start, but the eSATA drive is still not detected.
There was an error message in one of the above steps saying the eSATA will not work with ATA (apparently the BIOS setting RAID autodetect/ATA results in ATA), and that either AHCI or RAID must be specified. So I'm stuck - there is no AHCI option and RAID hangs the system.
I suppose I could try to change BIOS to RAID again and see if all the drivers are installed, but I'd rather not since I expect the problems noted above will recur (and Windows won't start).
The basic problem is that there are actually 3 relevant BIOS configs: (1) RAID autodetect/ATA specified (highlighted), (2) RAID specified(highlighted), and (3)"Neither of those selected" (my terminology, for when neither (1) nor (2) are highlighted). I am quite sure that at the beginning it was (3) "Neither of those selected", but I don't know how to get back to that state. Right now it's either (1) or (2), nothing else. I notice that there is a Maintenance group in the BIOS config, and inside there is an option to reset to the way it came "from the factory". I tried that, but that resulted in BIOS config (2) RAID, which is NOT the way it came from the factory (I remember this distinctly), and this results in Windows not starting. After some Googling, I found some Dell info about CMOS reset, to clear NVRAM (the BIOS data). Aside from CMOS reset, are there any alternatives for possibly getting back to where I was at the beginning, at least to where I could get the eSATA drive to be recognized by Windows?
By the way - if that message was correct - that eSATA won't be recognized at all unless there is AHCI or RAID, then it means AHCI was working to some extent previously, because the eSATA drive would be recognized if it was turned on before booting. It's just that it was not hot swapable - it would not be recognized if it was turned on after Windows started. Earlier (before the original mess that I described previously occurred), the eSATA drive WAS hot swapable.
Your feedback will be much appreciated.
As far as I know, AHCI is NOT needed for an eSATA (external SATA) drive. I was using 2, without AHCI, before I reconfigured my whole system for SSD's on the PCIe bus. Doing a CMOS reset WILL put your BIOS back to factory original, so if you have any settings, you'll have to re-do them. If your C: is plugged into a RAID port and is not really a RAID drive, move it to a non-RAID port. If your C: IS a RAID drive (2 or more drives in striped or mirrored config) then you MUST use the RAID option in BIOS. How old is that PC?
DocDJ - thanks very much for the feedback!
I get your point about AHCI not being needed for eSATA, so that message (from the BIOS, about requiring AHCI or RAID for eSATA to work) was very misleading, especially when AHCI is not an option.
I have not used any variations of RAID at all. One internal drive has the OS and the other has my own data. I've never had any problems with the second internal drive. The external drive does work (slowly) with USB(2.0) but is not recognized if connected via eSATA.
It's unfortunate that the BIOS in this PC is very poorly implemented, specifically AHCI can not be configured, but it must have been implemented behind the scenes "from the factory" since the eSATA drive was hot swapable when I first got it. And selecting RAID, which apparently also activates AHCI, causes it to be unbootable, at least in my recent attempt.
I may try configuring RAID in the BIOS again, and maybe this time all the necessary drivers will be installed, and AHCI will work. It is strange that on the first attempt with BIOS set to RAID, most of the drivers (ID'd as coming from Hitachi) were successfully installed, but the one for the "C;" drive wasn't (hung the PC). All these drives, including the external, are Hitachi. Worst case I'll have to go back to Auto RAID/ATA, and then open the box and reset CMOS.
This PC was purchased in 2008 - pretty old, two cores, but still reasonably good performance for routine tasks, Photoshop may be the heaviest load. I'm looking to buy a new PC soon, with Windows 10. It looks most of them have USB3.0 and not eSATA.
My eSATA drive is also an Hitachi and performs well. Never tried hot-swapping. Remember that you MUST set the registry keys for AHCI BEFORE you set AHCI in the BIOS. Then reboot the system once more BEFORE setting AHCI in the BIOS, just to be sure all is OK. I hope it works this time.