IDE, AHCI with SSD and HDD

[KillHak]

Hello,

I am going to buy a new PC and I am wondering.

Gonna get Crucial 256 GB SSD disc for system only and 3TB Baracuda from Seagate for data.

Before installation of Windows 7, I shall go into BIOS and change the SATA controller from IDE to AHCI since SSDs "like it". But my question is, will it change the controller to AHCI for that HDD aswell? Will it collide somehow or it's OK for HDD to work with AHCI even though it doesn't have NCQ. I know SSDs like AHCI cuz of TRIM.

Also after I change the controller to AHCI, my next step is put inside a DVD with Windows and install it, but should I disconnect my HDD and leave it as that during the installation and install the system on SSD? I read some stuff about GPT and that the things could go wrong if I won't disconnect the HDD during instalation (Cuz I want the system to get installed on SSD).

It sounds weird overall but I dunno, rather I am asking. Better safe than sorry.

Hope you'll answer all my questions and in advance, thanks a lot guys!

Bye

 

[KillHak]

By the way my motherboard is ASUS Z97 Pro Gamer Gaming if it's any important. Also I'd ask, do I have to allow UEFI before installation cuz this Mobo supports it.

 

[Cristi72]

Hello,

You must enable AHCI for best performance (HDDs like that option too). Also, pretty much all HDDs sports NCQ mode nowadays. After the OS installation, don't change the setting, your Windows will not boot properly.

Yes, it's best to have only the SSD/DVD connected when installing, but it's not mandatory. GPT supports storage capacity higher than 2 TB, so it should be activated at all time.

You cannot disable UEFI, it's the new BIOS interface. If you are talking of the UEFI feature from Storage menu, you must activate it if want to install Win 8/8.1/10, and disable it for Win 7.

 

[KillHak]

About that UEFI, I am gonna install Windows 7, is it disabled in default or do I have to do it manually? Is it that important?

And about disconnecting HDD during installation of "seven", I'll simply install the windows on SSD and then after it's all done I'll just connect the HDD and format the disc in windows right? Then I'll also have to edit disc volumes in "My Computer" cuz 3TB disc is gonna be divided into "2TB" and 756 GB or something which the system can't recognize if I am correct..

Anyways thanks a lot for your answers.

 

[Cristi72]

About that UEFI, I am gonna install Windows 7, is it disabled in default or do I have to do it manually? Is it that important?

And about disconnecting HDD during installation of "seven", I'll simply install the windows on SSD and then after it's all done I'll just connect the HDD and format the disc in windows right? Then I'll also have to edit disc volumes in "My Computer" cuz 3TB disc is gonna be divided into "2TB" and 756 GB or something which the system can't recognize if I am correct..

Anyways thanks a lot for your answers.

You must check in BIOS if the system will boot UEFI or Legacy/CSM; default should be UEFI, but it depends on the manufacturer.

Nowadays, all high capacity HDDs natively uses 4KB sectors. If you use Win7, then you will have the 2TB limit for a single partition and you must use an Advanced Format tool (it converts the native 4K - 4096 bytes- sectors in 512-byte sectors). Starting with Windows 8, one partition can have max. 18TB and the HDD's speed will be higher (it's much easier to read a single 4K sector than 8 x 512 sectors)..

 

[KillHak]

Ok, great I got it.

Regarding to 4k stuff, HDD I am going to get has Smart Align technology so I won't need any SW to change the sector size, it should work perfectly with Win 7.

Thanks man 😉

 

[Paperdoc]

Some of this you already got; some is FYI stuff so you can understand better.

ALL SATA devices - SSD's or HDD'S - should be operated as AHCI devices, so do NOT set your BIOS's SATA Port Mode to IDE Emulation. That option was ONLY for use in a specific situation: it WAS needed IF you were using a SATA drive to boot from into Win XP (which did not have its own built-in AHCI Device Driver) and you did NOT install the required driver using the F10 option. NONE of this applies to you so you have no need to use the IDE setting.

Given that you have a modern mobo and are going to use a 3TB HDD, certainly set your BIOS to use UEFI. That will allow you to Partition the HDD as one volume over 2 TB that uses ALL of the HDD unit's space. You will not have your drive split up into a larger and a smaller Partition.

When you do the Install of Win 7, you are right to have ONLY the SSD installed, and not the HDD. This has nothing to do with Partition sizes or UEFI. It is to defeat a Windows feature that causes problems in the future, as follows.

Win 7 and 8 have a feature designed to help you recover easily from a potential corruption of OS system files in future. At the time of first Installation of either OS, the process will place on a SECOND storage unit (if there is one) a semi-hidden small Partition that contains backup copies of important system files. The concept is that, each time the computer boots, if it finds that any OS file on the boot drive is corrupted, it will go to the backup copy on the second device and copy that over, thus replacing the corrupted file with a good copy. Then it will complete the boot and run. A very handy self-fixing system for possible future trouble! BUT also, EVERY time the computer boots up, it checks to be sure those files are there. If it cannot find them (for example, if you have removed or re-Formatted the second drive), the computer simply will NOT boot up! That has caused many people problems. There are ways to recover from that, but there's also a way to prevent it. If you do your first Install with ONLY the boot device connected, Windows will place its backup copies on the ONLY device available (your boot device) and not on the second drive. So it can ALWAYS find those backups (as long as the boot device is working) and always boot up. However, this PARTIALLY defeats the original intent because the safe backup copies are not on a separate storage device - they are on the same unit that is the boot device, and that's not quite as secure.

AFTER you have Win 7 installed and running on your SSD, you shut down and connect your new 3TB HDD. You boot into Windows normally and use its Disk Management utility to look at your storage devices. Find the 3 TB unit, RIGHT-click on its Unallocated Space and chose to Create a New Simple Volume. Make sure to specify that it should use the GPT system (not MBR) and use ALL of the HDD's space for this volume. You do NOT need this to be a BOOTABLE volume (since you only boot from the SSD), but the rest of the options should be set correctly. Let it do that job for you, then back out of Disk Management. Personally, at that point I would reboot to be sure that Windows has updated its Registry files, and you will find that 3 TB unit showing up in My Computer ready to use.