How do I enable SATA after Vista is installed?

I reinstalled Vista on my new 1720, but to get Vista to install, I had to drop back to ATA mode in the BIOS. Now it only works in ATA mode! Is there any way I can install the ACHI drivers after Vista is installed? I have the Intel drivers, but I am not sure how to install them without enabling ACHI (They only extract files), and when I enable ACHI, Vista will not boot up. How can I install them?

Thanks,
-CompFreak247

 

*BUMP* C'mon, anyone?

 

Make sure you have the Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver (AHCI).

Cold reboot.
Install driver once it goes into Vista
Reboot again and go into BIOS
Enable AHCI in bios and cache management 2 below that.
Save and exit and reboot.

Tadaa.

 

When I run that, it gives "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing this software. Setup will exit."

 

Ok then... reset AHCI before you install the ahci driver. On reset it will bsod. Turn it off and cold boot and then install the driver once the cold boot brings you into Vista.

 

Removed post.

 

i want to ask
what the importance of AHCI
i have instaling os and if it didnt to important iam not going to install it again
thanks

 

AHCI enables Native Command Queuing (NCQ)... it also enables "hot plugging" which means if you have an eSATA (external) drive it will be recognized by the OS soon after you plug it in.

With regards to the Original Post, yes you can install AHCI after you have installed Vista. I have done this on my desktop and on my 2nd laptop. Check out the 5th post on this thread:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240304-30-switch-ahci-mobo

or the 11th post on this thread:

http://forums.legitreviews.com/about10253.html

Word of caution though, do this at your own risk... backup your files before even attempting the procedure.

 

And it has been done several times here. My guess is the poster did it and just hasnt replied yet. Actually, I would say that probably a majority have installed AHCI after realizing that they were getting BSODS on the reinstall. there are several panick threads as such, all fixed as far as I know.

 

My computer is currently downloading and installing all the updates (Dial up connection, will take an hour or two more), so I can't try anything right now. However, I think I will try the method on the Toms Hardware thread of installing Microsoft's AHCI first, then Intel's. Flamenko, are you saying that the first time I boot up with the drive changed to AHCI mode it will BSOD, but after a hard shutdown it will boot up fine? This seems unlikely; am I missing something?

 

When you finish the installation and AHCI is enabled or reenabled, many restart as the system requires and get the BSOD BECAUSE OF THE HOT REBOOT. If you turn it off completely and then restart it, it will enter Vista fine in most cases. Install the driver then and all should go well.

I will warn you that different drivers make this touchy. I tried the driver that came on my driver disk and Intels which caused me problems. I had success only with the driver that was downloaded from the Dell support page.

I have done this probably about 20 times now because of my SSD and hard drive testing. It all works out in the end.

I suggest not to follow Toms method.

 

Ok, thanks. I'll try that method instead in a bit.

 

Just tried that, and it didn't work. I enabled AHCI, and it bluescreened on the hot reboot. I did a cold reboot, and another bluescreen. Tried it 3 times in all, and it BSOD'd on them all. Any other suggestions?

 

*Bump* Anyone?

 

Im really stuck here. You may have to try the complete reinstall.

 

I faced same problem for 64-bit Vista installation...

Trebuin's steps worked for me.....

***New: ATA/AHCI fix***************************************
There have been a few who have seen this when reinstalling:
1) In some random install, you receive a blue screen of death, go into Bios and under installed deviced, look at SATA. If it says it is set as AHCI, change it to ATA. You'll have to disable one other device...it tells you...and then come back to this and disable it. Save and exit.
2) If you can boot now, you are running in ATA mode which is slower than AHCI (25 sec boot as opposed to 15 secs). This is fixable.
3) hit start, enter in the search/run "regedit" without the quotes.
4) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci
5) Double click on "start" and change the setting from 4 to 0
6) reboot, go back into bios and reverse your settings. Windows should continue to boot correctly now.
7) INSTALL Serial ATA: Intel Matrix Storage Manager

Flamenko can u comment on this ?
[Btw Flamenko did u get A05 ?]

 

try to reinstall vista and INSTALL AHCI DRIVER BEFORE starting vista installation.this method won't get any BSOD.

 

Shoot yes...Trebs may work. It was a long night and no I never got A05 as of yet. Work gets n the way with my toying here at the best of times.

The one constant that I have noticed....is that it works in diferent ways for diff people, the installation procedure for AHCI that is.

 

I had this same problem and I managed to fix it.

Here is a link for the solution:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/10/23/stop-0x0000007b-inaccessable_boot_device-error-after-enable-ahci-mode-on-sata-drive-in-vista/

I hope it works for you!

 

Reset the BIOS to factory settings and boot!

 

I posted this in another thread earlier today before searching to see if it was posted before:

You CAN switch a Vista machine installed with ATA set in the bios to AHCI. Alternatively you CAN install with ATA set (so as not to have to worry about drivers during install) then switch to AHCI.

Once installed (or if its been up and running) do the following:

1. Open Regedit and browse to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci

2. Loot at the Start Value it is a DWORD and is probably 4. Set that to 0 (ZERO) that tells it its a boot time driver.

3. Now you can reboot the machine and before OS boot you will need to enter the BIOS and set AHCI mode.

4. Exit saving changes and reboot to windows. Your Controller and drive will be redetected and you can install you own AHCI controller driver at that point.

I apologize if this has been posted elsewhere or is common knowledge I just have seen the comment about blue screen after re-installing due to AHCI mode stuff and thought this would add food for thought to the discussion.

 

This may sound like a dumb question, but if I did a clean install on my system should be installing the AHCI driver? I am not sure if the installation process did this by default or not. I can see that AHCI is enabled in the BIOS and I didn't have a problem hot-swapping my eSATA HD (connected via expresscard).

Thanks!

 

It most likely did not install your boards specific AHCI driver. IE... it doesnt install the Intel Matrix driver it just enabled the msahci. You can run the device driver installer for your controller and it will replace msahci

 

Sparky 1720,

Will it really make a difference (in terms of performance) if my system is using the generic driver vs. the Intel Matrix Storage driver?

 

Probably not. In fact running ATA or AHCI is questionable as to performance gains. SOme say yes, some say no. I have run both ways and don't really see something that stands out and makes me say "Oh... thats why I ran AHCI" It is certainly insignificant when you compare benchmark scores.