SSD prep prior to converting from IDE to AHCI?

[klatch]

My boss's nephew accidentally installed Win7 on my boss' new Sandy Bridge H67 computer with the sata mode set to IDE. He is using an SSD (OCZ Vertex 2) and so I told him it should be in AHCI mode instead. He is willing to format but I was wondering if he (or I if he brings it into the office for me to take care of for him) needs to do something to the drive prior to formatting to clean it up, or if switching it to AHCI and quick-formatting is good enough.

Yes, I see the sticky in the forum about changing over without formatting but he's having freezing issues (which may have been cleaned up with a bios update) that I'd rather just format for him anyways.

Thanks!

[richardd43]

If you do not want to reformat there is a handy tool to allow you to convert to AHCI

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

[CMB]

I wouldn't think a format would be necessary but if you do...

Q. If I need to format my SSD, which format should I use, quick or full?
A. Quick format only, never full format an SSD.
A. Vista/Win 7 quick format automatically during install.

from ocz
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...l=1#post567557

good luck with that drive, mine died after 3 months (not recognized in bios) and now in rma process.

[klatch]

Thank you both of you. I knew to only do the quick format but because my understanding is that TRIM doesn't work with IDE I wanted to know if I was going to have to do anything to the drive to clean it so that it would be good to go for AHCI. Thanks for your comments. I'll download the tool and use it and if he has freezing issues from other things then I can format. I wonder though if Win7 will automatically make all the normal changes it does when a ssd is the OS drive if you convert to AHCI after the fact rather than on install.

[CMB]

I was using earlier version of this . IIRC you can see the trim status
http://elpamsoft.com/Downloads.aspx?Name=SSD%20Tweaker

some other info here:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...RIM-in-W7-AHCI