HOWTO: enable AHCI mode after installing Windows

[mr_raider]

I think that's an nvidia chipset thing. On my K9N platinum, all SATA drives showed up in the "remove safely" icon on the taskbar, along with USB drives. That doesn't happen on the ATI chipset board. Anyway, I'll try as is when I get the external SATA drive, and then activate AHCI if needed.

[Electric Bill]

I think that's an nvidia chipset thing. On my K9N platinum, all SATA drives showed up in the "remove safely" icon on the taskbar, along with USB drives. That doesn't happen on the ATI chipset board.

Yeah you're probably right.
I thought that this was an interesting statement in the MA790FX-DS5 manual.

OnChip SATA Type (AMD SB600 chip)
Configures the operating mode of the integrated SATA controller.
>> Native IDEAllows the SATA controller to operate in Native IDE mode. (Default)
Enable Native IDE mode if you wish to install operating systems that support
Native mode, e.g. Windows XP/2000.
>> RAID Enables RAID for the SATA controller.
>> Legacy IDEAllows the SATA controller to operate in Legacy IDE mode. In Legacy mode the
SATA controller uses dedicated IRQs that cannot be shared with other device.
Set this option to Legacy IDE if you wish to install operating systems that do not
support Native mode, e.g. Windows 9X/ME
>> SATA ->AHCI Configures the SATA controller to AHCI mode. Advanced Host Controller
Interface (AHCI) is an interface specification that allows the storage driver to
enable advanced Serial ATA features such as Native Command Queuing and
hot plug. For more information about AHCI, please visit Intel's website.

AMD SB600 chip and please visit Intel's website all in the same paragraph - that's a hoot .

[hudson80]

Add my thanks,
Had AHCi enabled on my Gigabyte P35 ds 4 rev2 , XPpro. Some how it blinked and I was back to IDE Checked the program files, Windows 32, and The drivers were in the Intel folder Ran the AHCI.reg file rebooted and reset the bios , back in business. saved a copy of the reg file to an outside drive

[zinfandel]

I don't know what caused this but disabling AHCI in Bios allowed me to restart my son's Sager 2090 (7300 core 2)
The notebook kept shutting down and restarting (safe mode no help)
Instinctively I disabled AHCI and it was able to start normally.

His Vista disks are back at college and he will not be able to mess with things anyway (good, smart kid on an Ipod, not PC tech savy)

I should mention it's an SATA 7200 rpm HDD in notebook and he has a WD 500gb external, which I think is also sata, but not sure. Could the problem have been caused when he removed it at school (he didn't bring it home) and the notebook tried to do a restore? Is n't AHCI having to do with hot swapping? Is that what corrupted it?

I am clueless, tried Sager tech support, waiting for a call ( on Christmas Eve, good luck to me!)

I posted here because you all seem to have a handle on AHCI. I am comfortable installing drivers by using device manager but registry editing scares me. And I've learned to not go where I am scared!

Any harm leaving AHCI disabled?

[zinfandel]

Sager Tech Support sends this:

Please try update the driver from this site, see will solved the problem.


http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?

strTypes=all&ProductID=816&OSFullName=Windows+Vista*+64&lang=eng&strOSs=150&submit=Go%21


The download they point to says it's no longer available. Any idea which download the could be refering to in order to fix AHCI boot problem?
Would it be a chipset/matrix storage, or should I just let them rply in a few days?

[box4m]

Hello, Im not sure if this article is old or not but, i tried this on my WinXP pro 32bit comp.

Running Gigabyte DS-4 motherboard and E6750 CPU (if that matters)...

I did as the manual said, but after i changed mode in BIOS to AHCI, it boots fine, but when i entered windows, it found new drives just as mentioned.

Im not sure if i did something wrong though, cause i got a screen asking me if i would like to install Gigabyte GBB36X Controller, and i did.

After that i tried running the installer which i downloaded earlier from intel, and it says my machine does not meet the requirements to install it.

Annyone have any clue ?

[graffixx]

I was able to successfully enabled AHCI mode with the Vista registry fix.

However, I am unable to hot swap my external SATA drives.

Here are the specs:

OS - Vista Ultimate 32-bit
CPU - Intel® Core™2 Duo Desktop Processor E6400 (http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SL9T9)
MOBO -Intel® Desktop Board DG965WH (http://www.intel.com/products/mother...65WH/index.htm)

The OS boots to the WD Caviar® SE16 SATA Hard Drives 500 GB, 3 Gb/s, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/produ...01&language=en)

I use these EZ-Rack 3.5" internal SATA drive trays (http://www.meritline.com/197-130-001.html) with two Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 400-GB Hard Drive (http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...eqPage=Support)

After the Vista registry fix, I rebooted, went into the BIOS and enabled AHCI. When login back into Windows, it detected the drives and installed the drivers.

However, I am not able to hot swap these drives. It would not detect even if I have one of the drives out and then inserted into the tray.

Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

-----

Edit: An apparently enabling AHCI mode was a major hardware change that I had to call MS to reactivate Vista!

[Ned Slider]

Welcome to the forums

Edit: An apparently enabling AHCI mode was a major hardware change that I had to call MS to reactivate Vista!

LOL - I wonder if hot swapping a drive will require reactivation too

[Mjölnir]

Welcome to the forums



LOL - I wonder if hot swapping a drive will require reactivation too

On several occasions I've had XP request reactivation after a software install/remove. They're getting a bit overzealous about the whole thing...

[Nightowl224]

I did the registry edit on Microsoft's page to enable the AHCI driver for Vista.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

Then I rebooted, went in to the bios for my P5N32-E SLI motherboard, which uses the Nvidia 680i chipset, turned on RAID mode, which also turns on I believe AHCI for the Nvidia SATA Controller, rebooted and noticed that my system was faster, and it works perfect.

The Vista registry edit, works on Vista 32 and Vista 64.

[zinfandel]

My issue turned out to be a Robson issue. The Robson drivers somehow got corrupted ( or were flakey from the beginning).
Disabling AHCI disabled Robson and masked the real issue. An update to the Robson software and all is OK. AHCI is nbow enabled again. This is on a laptop.

[Peter Shilkin]

Great simple!
But for my Aspire 9920 I added more DEV's:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_2922&CC_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_282A&CC_0104]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_2829&CC_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_2822&CC_0104]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_2821&CC_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_2682&CC_0104]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_2681&CC_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_0104]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_27C6&CC_0104]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_27C1&CC_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_27C5&CC_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#VEN_8086&DEV_2653&CC_0106]
"Service"="iaStor"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Group"="SCSI miniport"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\iaStor.sys"
"tag"=dword:00000019
"DisplayName"="Intel AHCI Controller"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters]
"queuePriorityEnable"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum]
"0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2821&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_02\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA"
"Count"=dword:00000001
"NextInstance"=dword:00000001

I just don't know what controller type used in my system, so this .reg makes a deal with all types!

[Dexter07]

Found this thread when googling for a way to enable AHCI mode after I installed windows XP on my Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H motherboard (nforce 630i / Geforce 7100).

I have found the necessary AHCI driver for my motherboard and so on, BUT...
my problem is that I have tried for almost a day now to understand what entries to add to the registry from the .inf file...so I wanted to ask if it would be possible for anyone to help me with this. I have tried looking for programs to convert the .inf file to a .reg file, but this sort of programs seems to be very rare indeed.
Also, there is no floppy drive in the computer.

The contents of the .inf file looks like this:

; Copyright (C) 2002-2007  NVIDIA Corporation
; Unauthorized copying or use without explicit permission of NVIDIA
; is prohibited
;
[Version] 
Signature = "$Windows NT$" 
Class=HDC
ClassGUID={4d36e96a-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} 
Provider=%NVIDIA% 
CatalogFile=nvata.cat
DriverVer=11/30/2007,10.1.0.28

[DestinationDirs] 
Crush11.Files.x86_12 = 12 
Crush11.CoInstFiles = 11

[SourceDisksNames.x86]
0=%Desc_x860%

[SourceDisksFiles.x86]
nvgts.sys=0
idecoi.dll=0

[Manufacturer] 
%NVIDIA%=NVIDIA

[NVIDIA]


%NVSTOR_DESC%=Crush11_Inst,PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0554&CC_0106
%NVSTOR_DESC%=Crush11_Inst,PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_07F4&CC_0106
                                           
[Crush11_Inst.ntx86] 
CopyFiles = Crush11.Files.x86_12

[Crush11_Inst.ntx86.HW] 
AddReg=Crush11_Inst.ntx86.AddReg.HW

[Crush11_Inst.ntx86.AddReg.HW]
; allow access from system and administrator only
HKR,,"Security",,"D:P(A;;GA;;;SY)(A;;GA;;;BA)"

[Crush11_Inst.ntx86.CoInstallers]
CopyFiles = Crush11.CoInstFiles
AddReg = Crush11_Inst.CoInst_AddReg

[Crush11_Inst.CoInst_AddReg]
HKR,,CoInstallers32,0x00010000,		\
	"idecoiins.dll, NvIdeCoInstaller"


HKR, Uninstall, Script,0,"nvide.nvu"
HKR, Uninstall, Name,0,"NVIDIA IDE Driver"
HKR, Uninstall, INFSrcDir, 0, %01% 
HKR, Uninstall, Uninstaller,0,"nvuide.exe"

[Crush11_Inst.ntx86.Services] 
AddService = nvgts,0x00000002,Crush11_Service_Instx86,Crush11_EventLog_Instx86

[Crush11_Service_Instx86] 
ServiceType = %SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER% 
StartType = %SERVICE_BOOT_START% 
ErrorControl = %SERVICE_ERROR_CRITICAL% 
ServiceBinary = %12%\nvgts.sys
LoadOrderGroup = "SCSI Miniport"
AddReg = Crush11_DisableFltCache_AddReg
AddReg = pnpsafe_pci_addreg

[Crush11_EventLog_Instx86]
AddReg = Crush11_EventLog_AddReg

[Crush11_EventLog_AddReg]
HKR,,EventMessageFile,0x00020000,"%%SystemRoot%%\System32\IoLogMsg.dll;%%SystemRoot%%\System32\drivers\nvgts.sys"
HKR,,TypesSupported,0x00010001,7 

[Crush11_DisableFltCache_AddReg]
HKR,,DisableFilterCache,0x00010001,1

[pnpsafe_pci_addreg]
HKR, "Parameters\PnpInterface", "5", %REG_DWORD%, 0x00000001


[Crush11.Files.x86_12] 
nvgts.sys

[Crush11.CoInstFiles]
idecoi.dll
idecoiins.dll,idecoi.dll



[Strings] 

;  *******Localizable Strings******* 
NVIDIA= "NVIDIA Corporation" 
Desc_x860= "SRCDATA" 
NVSTOR_DESC= "NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller"

;  *******Non Localizable Strings******* 

SERVICE_BOOT_START = 0x0 
SERVICE_SYSTEM_START = 0x1 
SERVICE_AUTO_START = 0x2 
SERVICE_DEMAND_START = 0x3 
SERVICE_DISABLED = 0x4 

SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER = 0x1 
SERVICE_ERROR_IGNORE = 0x0 
SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL = 0x1 
SERVICE_ERROR_SEVERE = 0x2 
SERVICE_ERROR_CRITICAL = 0x3 

REG_EXPAND_SZ = 0x00020000 
REG_DWORD = 0x00010001

Thank you to everyone for any help.

[zimbiez]

Ok I did everything that to enable AHCI installed the .reg file rebooted and now AHCI works but I have a PCI device that has a ? in device manager. It says Other Devices: PCI Device? How do I install a driver for it? What should I choose? Should i change something in my registry?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[chrispycrunch]

I will give this installation a try. In the mean time, some additional links for installation and benefits of ncq:
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/...m/379005733831
http://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2318
http://www.techtalkz.com/guides/7232...alling-os.html