New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

IDE to AHCI without a reinstall....

post #1 of 6
9/21/11 at 1:04pm
Thread Starter 
You know how you install XP, Vista or win7 in IDE mode by mistake and then wonder why your spanking new system runs like a dog on three legs. Well here's how to switch it from IDE mode to AHCI without, yes without having to reinstall (yes I have just found out today and halved my boot times in windows 7)....
Quote:
To resolve this issue, enable the AHCI driver in the registry before you change the SATA mode of the boot drive. To do this, follow these steps:

Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

Then REBOOT and enter the BIOS.
Go into ADVANCED options (usual), but it also may be under the first screen if it is an older BIOS and look for the SATA options.
Change from IDE to AHCI, save and exit...
Voila windows boots quicker...
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 6
9/21/11 at 1:21pm
Would XP take advantage of the AHCI handling? And would it create a problem in the long run (on XP) where there is some system failure causing XP not be able to see the disk?

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 6
9/21/11 at 1:30pm
Thread Starter 
At the moment I have no idea, but I will research it tomorrow with a fresh brain. I rarely use XP now, most of my machines are running win7 or Ubuntu (with the odd Mac OSX), but I will try it on my trusty old XP machine.. With XP, you would have to do the F6 thing anyway, but on the later SP3 based discs it didn't seem so prevalent. In the shop now it is all win7 64bit, with the odd reinstall of XP on old IDE systems, most SATA is limited to Vista and win7.. XP has dribbled away, much like win98se did (good grief, nearly 10 years ago)...
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 6
9/21/11 at 1:37pm
Must be the key here - SP3. Cool and simple tip Mr T headbang.gif

And I have been quite happy with Windows 8 lately laugh4.gif missing my Solitaire game though winknudge.gif

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 6
9/22/11 at 10:55pm
Thread Starter 
Well been messing around on my XP system testing the above theory out.. Unfortunately there is no entry in the registry for Msahci and the board I am using has two options in the BIOS for SATA - 'IDE' or 'RAID', so I will have too look into it further... It so far has worked on all the Vista and 7 machines....
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 6
9/23/11 at 2:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr T View Post

Well been messing around on my XP system testing the above theory out.. Unfortunately there is no entry in the registry for Msahci and the board I am using has two options in the BIOS for SATA - 'IDE' or 'RAID', so I will have too look into it further... It so far has worked on all the Vista and 7 machines....

Congree on this smile.gif

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home