IDE vs. AHCI performance differences

[amecily]

Hi there,

I was attempting to do a custom installation of Windows 8 on a friend's PC, which I have done countless times before. It was the first time that I've ever encountered any errors. The first one was that
"We couldn't find a new partition or locate an existing one." After reading many threads, I deleted all of the partitions and formatted the hard drive.

Once I had done that, I still couldn't install Windows. The new error message was:
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu."

Again, after perusing the forums, I changed the hard drive from AHCI mode to IDE mode and the installation worked. So what I'd like to know is, what are the downsides of this? What aspects of my computer's performance, if any, are going to be hindered by this change?

Also, why did I have to change to IDE mode, when the computer was working fine with Windows 7 in AHCI mode?

Thanks a lot,
Amy

 

[TechCIDLC]

This article might help you:

http://www.diffen.com/difference/AHCI_vs_IDE

 

[tianniulei]

"AHCI supports some important new features that IDE does not, such as native command queuing and hot-plugging hard drives. It also offers an improvement performance (speed) over IDE." - from the link above

Also try taking a look at these two threads if you ever encounter the same problem:

http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/14106-ahci-mode-windows-8-pro.html
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/9573-sata-driver-load-windows-8-setup.html

 

[Paul NZ]

Similar error here

It may have been the SATA port you plugged the hdd into that caused that error

 

[Outlander_04]

You can change back to AHCI without reinstalling windows

http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-8-after-installation/

 

[PsyKhiqZero]

How big was the drive? UEFI is required to boot to 3GB drvies and larger.

 

[amecily]

Thanks so much for all the help! I managed to change it back to AHCI using the solution in Outlander_04's link above