Config a solo booting-HDD : IDE or AHCI ?

[ClownWalker]

Hey guys! I've heard there's two kind of way to configurate a Hard Drive when you first boot your pc : IDE and AHCI. But it's the first time i've heard such terms and I'm wondering what it means and what it does.

FYI, i'm planning on using only one Hard Drive : Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB, 64 mb cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0 gps SATA 3.
It will be the only stockage drive i'll use. No SSD. Only this to boot everything.

1. So, is there any special configuration I need to make? Or is it going to config itself on the booting?
2. What is IDE and AHCI?
3. What is ''partitioning'' a HDD? Do i have to, if i'm planning on using all the 1TB of my HDD for everything (booting os, games, pictures, music, etc)

Thank you for your time!

 

[Dereck47]

SATA ports can have 3 settings (modes): IDE mode, AHCI mode, and RAID mode.
These modes are changed by going into your motherboard's BIOS.

SSDs need to be in AHCI mode for best performance.

HDDs will have better performance in AHCI mode, but you wouldn't notice any real-world difference if you had it in IDE mode.

Newer motherboard models have their SATA ports set at AHCI mode by default.

Read your motherboard manual for instructions on changing SATA modes.

 

[Dereck47]

3. What is ''partitioning'' a HDD? Do i have to, if i'm planning on using all the 1TB of my HDD for everything (booting os, games, pictures, music, etc)

Partitioning a drive will allow you to divide it into sections and assign each section a drive letter (D:, E:, etc.).
So you could create a 200MB partition, assign it a drive letter, and keep only pictures in it, for example.

Personally I would just create a new folder named C:\Pictures rather than creating a partition.

 

[ClownWalker]

Best answer selected by ClownWalker.