Warning About Installing Windows on AHCI-enabled Controllers

[Jesse2200]

No as I said in my post it is only valuable if you need hot swap, RAID or NCQ, none of which you need. Run your drive in native IDE mode, it's easier and has the same performance as AHCI, which apparently no one understands.

Really? Doesnt it enable UDMA6? Cause my brothers computer has UDMA6 enabled and mines only 5, his just feels faster. Even though i have a Core 2 @ 3.0ghz.

I thought it increased the speed of the drive?

 

[antas]

Wow, nice threads, a lot of useful information . .

Currently I'm thinking to do RAID 0 just for experiment, but it seems the article on Toms already cover my questions ...

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/11/27/raid_scaling_charts/page11.html

One thing that still not yet answered tho, what is the actual performance difference between single HDD (IDE) and dual HDD (on RAID 0)?

 

[Insane Tech Guy]

And just think, there are people who still want PATA drives....... I wonder why?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Some folks just love that sharp pain between the eyes after hours of installing something that took less B4.....

Yes, I know speed, HD size Bla bla bla, and other things sometimes requires a new interface and stuff, but I have been in this game back when the 80286 was just a idea on paper (I started on computers at a young age)..

It just seems to me problems like this on sata has been here over and over again....

I am not saying we should stick with old tech.. In fact what I have seen on paper looks great!!!!!!!, I just would like the people who makes these things to take a second and think something through a little more before adding it to the list of "NEXT THING TO BLOW THE SOCKS OFF THE WORLD" hardware.......

As the speed of new inovations have developed so has firmware upgrades, Bugs, Patches we must deal with......

It would be nice to have a easy, true plug&play world once in a while rather than a constant "work in progress".......

I know, This is off the subject, Its just after dealing with so many issues over the years I just wanted others to reflect on this......

well, I have said my mind, Now I'll go loose it on the next computer I am Fixing here at work (yes I am a certified or is that certifiable computer tech)

Ps, my spelling stinks, Its been 36 hours with no sleep working on this stupid network this guy crashed (witch has sata drives so a search just poped this thread up.) .... Unlike computers, Humans have to power down every once in a while.. .....................

I feel more relaxed now, thanks for letting me unload so I can be sane once again, well back to work......

 

[fatsauce]

If this sets you off in the wrong way, i have a gigabyte hard drive and my BIOS has this Native IDE setting which is set by default for using a sata hardrive, vista would not detect the HD at install. I e-mailed gigabyte and they told me i had to have the BIOS settings on ACHI in order to install vista and roncgonize the hard drive. very weird.

 

[bilbat]

For what it's worth:
I've done it both ways and benchmarked - all OSs (Xpx86&64, VUx86&64, W7βRC1x86&64) installed both ways, and AHCI vs non-AHCI showed no real world difference... I use my boot manager (BootItNG) to create and manage my partitions - which may be the difference. I always do the 'F6" driver load, for both the ICH and the jMicron, because it doesn't require you to use RAID or AHCI, but allows you the option, later, without a lot of grief...

On top of that, you had your drives connected to the JMicron controller, a controller that I've seen nothing but problems with on a number of different SATA drives. The JMicron controller isn't AHCI compatible or capable anyway. AHCI is Intel-chipset specific.

I am running a Seagate 1.5 on the jMicron, using AHCI and SMART, and it works...

I run my OSs and swaps on RAID0; I get ~200 M/S reads. I have my first partition on both pairs (4 WD VelociRaptor 150s) set to extended, and have three swap partitions in each (either 6 or 12 G, respectively, for x86 or x64 OSs), right at the 'nose' of the drive, as they don't take up a lot of real-estate, and are as fast a swap as I can get; then, on Pair0, I have three partitions - W7x64, Xpx86, & Xpx64 - W7 first, as it's become my 'main squeeze, and I want it closest to the front; then the two Xps, as, even with the boot manager's 'drive swap' capability, Xp isn't 'happy' anywhere but logical drive_0 - I can get it elsewhere, but I can't keep the drive letters identical from OS to OS - Xp on logical drive_1 will always assign itself "D:", and "D:" is, to all OSs, my RAID1 data pair of RE3s; then, on Pair1, I have W7x32, followed by VUx64, and VUx86, again, keeping the seven closest to the front, and it just flies! Both pairs have about 30% free (unpartitioned) at the 'tail end'. I treat the RAID0s as 'volatile' storage; I count on them disappearing at any time - so, when I've done some installs, and am smug about their operation, I do image backups of the OS partitions to the Seagate 1.5 ("E:" on all systems). Knock on wood, I have never needed a back-up - my RAID0s have been 'stable as a table'... My RAID1 pair has rebuilt itself a couple of times, and I'm impressed with Intel's implementation.

When I last wiped the machine, and did fresh installs (when TechNet released W7βRC1), I spent nearly a week trying to get Ubuntu to live with my mishmosh of RAIDs - it simply and plainly refused, and I got really sick of rebuilds, so I gave up. Now, inside 7/64, I run the 'native' MS' virtual Xpx86 (mostly for ill-behaved Rockwell industrial software), a VMware Ubuntu32 virtual machine, and a Sun xVM Ubuntu64 - for the occasional wacking together of comm programs to Linux or Unix servers. After several installs of each, and a lot of swearing, each appears to be running superbly!

Machine, in case you'd like a peek, is at:
http://www.sevenforums.com/68978-post410.html

 

[brucemc777]

So it looks like forever (At least in terms of technological evolution) since the last post to this. I came across it as I just got a motherboard that supports AHCI and up until now have been clueless as to it.

Can you good folks tell me:

1) What advantages, if any, are to be had in enabling it?
2) What problems will I have to watch out for?

The mb is a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P running two WD 200GB hard drives - black caviar, I believe. The new CPU is an Intel Duo Quad Q9400, and the OS is W7 Ultimate. I do intend to get a 1TB drive or greater when I can, but this economy has not been polite to me and I blew more than I should have replacing the mb and CPU when I recently heat-fried one or both of the previous, bought "way back" in 2006 (again, in terms of obsolescence ). I presently have no intention to implement RAID, for though I would love to, I just don't have the extra $ to spend on duplicated storage. Anyway, that was a good thing, for when I installed W7 about two weeks ago, the second drive, though recognized, would not be read by W7. For some reason that I remain clueless (I have a lot of clueless events), I had to reassign ownership to me before W7 would let me read it, even though I reinstalled WXP Pro (multiple times) and every time I reinstalled WXP, the drive would be read without problem! OK, I am off on a tangent. What about AHCI?

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[bilbat]

http://www.behardware.com/art/imprimer/624/

 

[forax]

I have the same problem on GA-EP43 series and 1TB Samsung. Previously I used Windows 7 Enterprise 32bit 90day trial but it expire. After installing Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on AHCI enabled controller on next boot BIOS cannot detect HDD. Hangs on 23 error post code. Cursor blinks. On IDE mode detects correctly and Windows starting.
Before install new system I maually remove both 100MB system reserved partition and 100GB system primary partiton and install Ultimate on free disk space. New 100MB and 100GB system partition was automaticaly created during instalation.
I think that problem is in MBR, because everything was ok before new instalation. Today I'll check this issue.

Solution found at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproinstall/thread/0185fced-0564-412f-8e10-bec37d020c81

 

[HayRaker]

Everyone wants AHCI and I can't figure out why. Unless you want RAID, NCQ or hot swap, then there is no reason to set AHCI. Maybe people just want to make things more complicated and aggravating.
Am I missing something here?

AHCI is required for SSD drives to run at maximum and utilize TRIM...Without TRIM you will get a slower and slower SSD over time.

 

[Scotteq]

AHCI is required for SSD drives to run at maximum and utilize TRIM...Without TRIM you will get a slower and slower SSD over time.

You realize you are responding to a 3 year old thread?

 

[Guest]

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