raid on or AHCI

[worriedshrimp]

greetings,

i am in a dilemma. i'm trying to mount via esata cable a new 5t fantom external hd. my dell precision T3500 has an esata port but the drive is not recognized when i mount it via the red esata cable... i plugged in the drive with the supplied usb 3 cable and it booted right up so i know the drive is working... however i would like to use the esata option as i understand it's faster than usb 3.

note: i would be doing none of this if i hadn't bought that dang gopro hero 4!!!

anyway much consulting has not supplied a suitable answer. dell is standing by and they recommend me going into my bios and switching from

RAID ON = sata is configured for raid on every boot. (this is the default)

too....

RAID AUTODETECT/AHCI

if i go there i get this msg:

ATTENTION, changing this setting may prevent your operating system from booting or require a reinstall.

ARE YOU SURE YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE?

no... i'm not sure at all... since i've seen comments like this in similar threads on this issue.

"When using SATA drives, you should set the mode to AHCI BEFORE you install windows. Once windows is installed, if you change from IDE legacy mode to AHCI, you will experience the problems you are having. System will turn on and all looks fine until the windows loading screen. Then no boot or immediate blue screen."

of course windows 7 pro 64 bit is already running on this system... it came installed.

can someone who has the knowledge pls advise me as what i could, should and can do?

i would be very grateful

mforresf

 

[gregbattis]

Raid should not be the default option. AHCI is the way you want to go unless you have a raid. Also just making sure I understand you are booting from external drive? You could also try a driver update inside windows or a bios update if there seems to be an issue with the bios. But AHCI or auto should work fine unless you have a raid installed.

 

[worriedshrimp]

to be clearer... this system was built and configured by dell. i don't know what a raid is and am pretty sure i don't have one.. i am booting from the C:/ drive i am sure. since all (2) external HD's were added later by me.. .they are usb drives.. the new drive is a fantom 5 t with usb 3 AND esata ports... anyway nothing happens when i mount it with the esata cable to my esata port. however dell has advised that i switch from the default raid on setting to raid autodetect/AHCI. they further add...

"actually the AHCI is an option to boot the system without any RAID configuration but it will not downgrade to IDE if you use the AHCI."

pls understand this is meaningless to me... i'm not tech savvy at all. i presume dell means it's OK to make the switch in bios. but i've been reading (probably shouldn't have) some pretty bad horror stories about systems not booting up after doing this bios switch... my bios is up to date. i'm ready to make the change i just want to confirm that i won't ah heck the system. and or that i can switch back if i do.

that's all... just need some assurance.

thanks gregbattis, i appreciate your feedback.

 

[gregbattis]

AHCI and IDE are two totally different interfaces what is your system specs? AHCI is the only way to go without using raid. If you do not know what raid is you dont have it.

 

[worriedshrimp]

dell said to switch to ahci... so i'm doing if you don't hear from me you'll know my system went black... wish me luck.

 

[gregbattis]

Yes. AHCI will be the working option. Good luck with it.

 

[worriedshrimp]

i'm on my wifes computer...

meanwhile on mine...

startup repair is checking system for problems... attempting repairs... this is repeating itself...this is why i wanted some kind of assurance that changing the bios was rational.

i guess i wait...

any suggestions?

 

[worriedshrimp]

system reports

startup repair can not repair this computer automatically...

so i finished it and turned off computer. restarted and hit F2 and entered bios. changed back to raid on and computer booted up.

seems ok.

now i notice that the new harddrive is staying lit up (power on and blue light displayed)

i'm going to disk management to see if it is available for initialization...

drive not available under disk management...

is there another way to find the disk? some kind of diagnostic

 

[gregbattis]

You may be able to look in the bios? Just making sure this is NOT a internal hdd?

 

[worriedshrimp]

well i've lost a day and feel no more knowledgeable about esata... so much conflicting online information. for example i'm not sure if the esata port is powered or needs to be in my case. my new HD is powered from a wall socket so i assume my dell tower esata port need not be powered... but what do i know? i guess it could be a defective drive. but i've since switched back to the usb 3 cable and it's running fine... i'm calling this esata bios change episode a lost cause.

this stuff is not ready for commercial use if it requires an IT degree to get it going... i was hoping i'd have faster read write speeds for the graphics work i do. maybe it wouldn't have made that much difference.

thanks for all the input and help. this is a very valuable forum.

mforrest