[SOLVED] ACHI on laptop, want to do a factory restore to Windows, will a restore work with ACHI?

[solutions2020]

I have ACHI on my laptop. I had Linux Mint on it and I'm removing Mint and doing a factory restore with Windows so I can sell the laptop. I'm not a techie, a friend changed the laptop to ACHI as it's a SS drive and needed ACHI for Mint. So the gist is how to have a clean new Windows 10 to sell it. I've already deleted the partitions on the drive for Mint. I want to make sure if I do the factory reset with with Windows 10 the new Windows will function with ACHI.

Or perhaps I can more easily restore the bios/SATA settings to default and not use ACHI. I may not have the terms right with bios and SATA. But whatever would undo what my tech friend did switching to ACHI in a very easy way, e.g. restore defaults, so I can safely do a restore for Windows 10. I want to keep it as simple as possible.

Here's a post I found on the net, ""System Repair and Recovery or the Repair CD doesn't support AHCI... " (and see another good description in my comment below.)

Thank you.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I think you mean AHCI which is how the SATA controller talks to the drive. It was actually originally designed for Hard Drives to increase their performance over IDE. SSDs actually benefit from NVMe which was designed with SSDs in mind.

That said and out of the way, no you do not have to change anything as Windows 10 fully supports AHCI. All you have to do is start the install, wipe the drive and Windows should install without issue.

 

[solutions2020]

Thank you. I appreciate your response. And yes, I definitely might not have the terms right. And to clarify, when we installed Mint and changed to achi, my laptop could no longer boot from Windows at first. my tech friend needed to do a bunch of tweaks so Windows could still "talk to achi or the bios" Something like that. If I do the Windows 10 install I think I'm hearing you say there won't be any more tweaks needed. I just do the install and am good to go.

 

[solutions2020]

I want to make sure this doesn't happen (Here are from other threads. And he's using Windows 7 and I have 10):

"System Repair and Recovery or the Repair CD doesn't support AHCI... "

"My experience is that ACHI is not supported by System Repair and Recovery either from the Windows 7 Install DVD or from a Repair CD created from within the installed Windows 7 OS. I use Windows 7 Pro x64.
Unless I change SATA from AHCI to IDE in BIOS prior to booting either to a Recovery CD or the Install DVD Repair and Recovery options I get an error that basically says repair can not work with this version. The error message makes no sense because the problem is the lack of an AHCI driver not the OS version. The only option at that point is to reboot. Unlike installation, there is no option to load drivers so that Repair and Recovery can see the SATA drives. If SATA is set to IDE in BIOS then Windows Repair and Recovery functions as it should.
AHCI works fine in the installed OS. I use the latest Intel 9.6 RST driver. Repair and recovery is the only problem.
Apparently the MS SATA AHCI driver is not included in the recovery environment. At least that is the case with my Windows 7 Pro x64 DVD. If so, this seems to be a serious omission by MS. Can someone please confirm this or tell me how to get AHCI to work in the Windows 7 Recovery Environment? What am I missing? I have a GA-EX58-UD5P motherboard (Intel ICH10R SATA Controller) with the latest firmware. Thanks in advance."

 

[jimmysmitty]

If Windows was originally installed with it set to IDE and then you changed to AHCI, Windows will not boot. However you can get it to boot by changing a registry entry.

If you are doing a clean install with it set to AHCI mode Windows 10 will set it accordingly and will work without issue.

I have done well over a 1000 Windows installations in my lifetime and except for Windows XP that required a driver Windows has installed and booted from AHCI mode without issue.

 

[solutions2020]

I reset windows to clear all data and go back to original defaults, and now it says:
GNU GRUB version 2.02
Miniamal Bash like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB...
grub>_
I'd love some help. I'd like a clean install.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Did you load Windows 10 to a bootable USB?

 

[solutions2020]

Yes I have a windows 10 USB.

I'm doing the best I can with this, I have some stressors right now.

I missed a big piece, "If Windows was originally installed with it set to IDE and then you changed to AHCI, Windows will not boot. " It's a basic laptop from Office Depot and was orignally installed with IDE and we changed it to ACHI for Linux.

 

[jimmysmitty]

That was the original install. What I mean by it is that if you install in IDE or AHCI mode it will work for that mode but not the other mode So if you went and bought that same laptop, changed it to AHCI and then installed Windows it will install and load in AHCI mode. If you install it in IDE mode it will install and load in IDE mode.. It can be changed after the fact.

So in your case you would leave it in AHCI mode, load the 1o USB installer, clear all partitions on the drive and install Windows 10. It should then load without any issues.