IDE and ACHI setting in BIOS...
 

Working on a new build!

I have all my old drives partitioned and formatted with the BIOS set to IDE.

Question, if I change to ACHI, should it recognise both types (IDE and ACHI)? I assume if set to IDE, it will not recognise and ACHI partitioned drive...

AHCI/IDE settings in bios affect only bootable drive (drive with OS). Partitioning and formatting of all other drives got nothing to do with that (if they don't have OS sitting on them). As long as your primary drive with OS is AHCI and bios is set to AHCI all is fine.

Another thing is if you set to IDE and install then change to AHCI it will not boot. AHCI will effect your other drives in that it supports hot swapping on SATA

Also XP does not have drivers for AHCI

I think that only applies to hardware like a HDD that doesn't directly support ACHI ...???

They never included AHCI in the XP driver packs. You have to hit F6 and install third party drivers at installation

1.RAID
2.AHCI
3.IDE

In that order when running SATA. AHCI will see the data on the drives, not sure if it will boot tho if the OS was installed with it set to IDE.

Yea that's what I was wondering.

Just tried it, you would need to perform a repair install to get windows to boot. However the data is accessible no matter what setting you choose. Tested on Win 7

Nope, but there is a reg fix to get around this but I have never tried it. I always just do a clean install

So you tried to boot an IDE drive (Win 7) after setting the BIOS to AHCI?

if you have ide drives- use ide, if you dont use ahci

Partitions dont matter just the drivers when Windows Installs will change though.

Installed win7 on a clean drive with SATA set to IDE, got to desktop, switched to AHCI in bios and system would appear to start windows then instantly reboot.

IDE should never be used because NCQ doesn't function in IDE mode and SATA/RAID controllers are faster then IDE controllers. If you can, set it to RAID mode for best performance even with a single drive.

My problem is this... I'm building a new system.

All of my data drives (which will be swapped from the old system) are setup as IDE.

I really don't care how the OS drive is setup, but I'd prefer AHCI.

Can I do that?

See above... recommendations?

If you set it to AHCI, boot to your OS disk and choose startup repair.

if you are on win7 there is a registry edit you can do so if they are IDE it will swap over to ACHI without a fresh install or losing data

i seem to have lost the page but a lil google could find it

Ive never seen that regedit, the repair install moves all the data to a folder on the root of C: called windows.old. All he has to reinstall is his programs.

@bbmarley: here is one of several

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=313676

I used this to install AHCI after I installed Windows 7

Also Win 7 forums (with pics) http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...s-7-vista.html

Official M$ KB article http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...c-406153e04faa

yup looks like what i did

I guess I'm not articulating what I'm trying to accomplish.

The OS drive can be whatever is best (IDE, RAID, AHCI), but I am going with a single drive, either 500GB or 640GB Caviar black. I have not installed any OS right now, starting with a blank slate/HDD

I have a total of 3 data drives setup as IDE, which I will be putting into the new computer - that is my concern... I really don't want to change those over, unless there is a really good reason to. I have 3 separate backups of my data, 2 of which are on those drives.

I have nothing in RAID (currently).

Given that, what would be the best choice for the OS drive?

The best choice will be either RAID or AHCI.

I have two standalone drives in my PC. Both are WD Blacks 250gb which is C: and a 500GB which is D:

Raid is enabled, but there isn't an actual array configured.

In order of performance

RAID
AHCI
IDE

Yes, you can.
When you build your new system set the bios to ahci; or, RAID. if you plan on using Raid. Just AHCI if not.
Install the OS.
If you are installing windows xp you will need to get the drivers for ahci/raid installation and install them when given the option to do so in the install process.
The drivers will be the ones for your chipset and you can use a cd or USB drive (if your system supports this) to install them.
Then connect your data drives.
You might or might have to go into the disk management to make them active and designate a letter.

AHCI or IDE has nothing to do with the disk's data or partitions. Only, the way the controllers communicate with OS... that is why you have to have the correct drivers.

Trying to switch from IDE to AHCI after the OS is installed is another beast. Because, you are trying to change the drivers in mid-stream... so to say. So you have to get the OS and the bios to be on the same page (ICH Chipset to OS ICH driver).

EDIT:
You can use these drivers: STOR_allXX_f6flpy_9.6.0.1014_PV.zip (The XX is either 32 or 64) from here --> RAID: Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Driver for Intel Desktop Boards

If you intend on installing the OS on a SATA drive Use AHCI in the bios before any format or Software install occurs (Drivers are whats dependent) Rest of drives windows will compensate for.

So, mixing and matching the IDE secondary drives are no problem if I setup the OS as RAID or AHCI?

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how the settings affect the drive itself... I assume it's information that is stored on the boot block of the drive that tells the host controller (and OS) how to talk to the drive?

The settings determine what controller the drive interfaces with. Choosing raid places you on the RAID controller which 9 times out of 10 will get you the best performance on the drive, even when not running a real raid array. AHCI/IDE places you on the SATA controller but IDE gives you IDE functionality. IDE should never be selected as its purely for compatibility with older SATA drives. An issue you will not encounter unless you have a drive that is one of the very first SATA drives.

In my experience RAID has always given me the best results 10-20MB more throughput then AHCI. Even with a single drive.

I should note that I'm using Win7 Pro 64bit.

So, if I pop the blank drive in, set the BIOS to RAID (and make sure I have the right drivers if needed), install Win 7 ... and wipe/partition/format the drive on install, that should do it?

Next, I plug in my IDE drives already containing data... should be no problems???