AHCI Drivers - Do i need them?

Hi All,

I have a quick Q about AHCI drivers for both a T61 and the M1330... When i get my laptops i normally just format them and slap Vista Ultimate on... When i install windows i dont install ANY drivers, no AHCI, no power drivers, only drivers for the hardware Windows doesnt find... e.g. Wireless card.... I let Windows Update do all this for me... And for me, personally, it works very well...

I was talking to my friend about this and he was supprised that i didnt at least install the AHCI drivers at "install time". So my question is.... "Are these drivers needed?" and "whats the benefit of installing them"?

Many thanks
Will

 

I did not install them, I let Vista do it and had no problems. Now, I did do this when I installed 64-bit on a Dell 1720, but not my FZ 32-bit.

 

Wikipedia says you don't need to install the driver in Vista.

 

Is there anyway to know for sure if you have AHCI drivers installed?

 

Go to Device Manager, then click the + next to IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, and look for something that says AHCI Controller.

To the original poster, try a reformat normally without installing the driver during and see if it proceeds without error. If you receive a BSOD or it just locks up during the Completing Installation phase, then try it again, this time loading the AHCI driver right after the partitioning phase of vista installation.

 

If AHCI is enabled in the BIOS the default windows vista installtion will install the drivers already included from the DVD.
By default the Intel driver is ready form the box.
For windows XP you need to install driver by hand from diskette or disable the option in the BIOS.

 

If I don't install the AHCI drivers prior to installing Vista then I don't see the AHCI controller in device manager. That's why I always install them.

 

Vista usually installs them right out of the box. While I have heard of Vista not detecting the controller on some systems, I have yet to experience this myself.

 

When I reformatted my laptop and the option came to install the AHCI drivers it wouldn't for some reason. Maybe due to Vista 64-bit already having it built-in? Anyways I never installed the driver and it's there in device manager.

 

Will, if your method of installing drivers works fine for you, your laptop works as expected, you can access all devices, just forget about AHCI and stop worrying. Vista fully supports AHCI (it's for SATA devices, afair), and installs the drivers automatically when needed anyway.

Before you go and tamper with AHCI in your BIOS however, think twice, and read this page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976, or you can get a BSOD under certain circumstances.

 

AHCI is needed to communicate with your ATA/SATA drives.