Samsung SSD 850 Evo, says AHCI mode deactivated, BIOS selected to RAID.

[Josh_177]

I just got the Samsung 850 Evo (250gb). It's still clean. I installed it in my desktop (Win 10 Pro) and hooked it into a spare SATA port. The HDD is still plugged into the original port. I'm trying to use the Samsung Magician to get the drive set up, but it's saying that AHCI is deactivated. I checked the BIOS and the SATA controlled is in RAID mode. I thought from things I read on line that RAID should be fine as it encompasses the AHCI protocol. I was going to swap the BIOS, but it gave me a warning that it could render my drive non bootable (or something like that). Not sure what I should do. I just got this computer setup and restored all my backup stuff, I really don't feel like killing it by accident.

 

[CountMike]

If your OS installation is still fresh you'd be better off setting SATA to AHCI mode in BIOS and install OS again because it may be pretty complicated to make windows work. AHCI and RAID are not same thing but Trim may work in both or may not in RAID. RAID also needs drivers and may slow down boot process so AHCI is way better option.

 

[KruseLudington]

I went from a HDD Raid to a single SSD. It took me forever after copying the data to the SSD because through trial and error I discovered it wouldn't boot into windows on the SSD unless I left the BIOS as RAID (rather than the preferred AHCI for SSD). Much later I learned RAID supports AHCI. However, the bootup portion where windows is starting - after the bios and memory check etc. - took 1.5 minutes. It always used to take that long so I didn't complain - I just assumed it was my 7 year old motherboard. That was about a year ago, everything has been working fine, the PC still is much faster - but only once it was booted up. Then I read some articles about how to make a few registry changes to allow you to boot as AHCI. Do a search on google for updating the "StartOverride" registry settings to enable AHCI. I made two changes to the registry StartOverride key values in 2 places, then rebooted and during the bootup updated the BIOS to have the SATA storage all on AHCI. Saved the BIOS change and rebooted again and OMG! I had to shut down and turn the PC back on a few times to prove to myself I wasn't dreaming. From a cold dead start (hardware completely turned OFF) - pushing the power button to logging into windows, is now a TOTAL OF 28 SECONDS! of that 28 seconds, 22 seconds is my bios and memory checks - so now when the windows logo first appears - to when I am at the logon screen - is 6 SECONDS! Prior to this, also I kept trying to get install the Windows 10 Creators Update which is now available - and that would always fail. I tried this again when running as AHCI - and the update was successful (although it did take about a half an hour with many reboots (FAST REBOOTS NOW MAY I ADD!) - the update makes major changes to the OS). Now I have to say this is the fastest, most stable I have ever seen ANY PC running Windows. (And I work in IT.) So going from RAID in the BIOS with only one SSD - and a 2 minute boot time from a cold start to windows login - to AHCI in BIOS and a 28 second boot time from a cold start to windows login - ON A 7 YEAR OLD PC - magnificent!