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05-27-2008, 07:04 PM
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#1 |
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Member (8 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Dayton, Ohio
Posts: 185
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SATA questions
Just got my new build together, going through the BIOS settings, and notice a couple of SATA features I'm not familiar with. One setting is to enable/disable AHCI mode, and another is to enable/disable Native IDE mode. Right now they're both disabled (default). What do these settings do, and what would be the advantage of enabling them? Just curious.
Thanks
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05-27-2008, 11:11 PM
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#2 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Toronto
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If you install the right drivers, you can enable AHCI mode to make your sata drive run faster.
Edit: you should also read your motherboard manual about AHCI as well.
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05-28-2008, 10:57 AM
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#3 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Maryland
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ACHI or RAID mode enables all the features of SATA drives (hot swapping, NCQ, etc.). However, you are required to do a ridiculously unfriendly floppy drive installation of the necessary drivers during Windows installation to enable one of those modes.
IDE emulation works fine, I'd say 90% of people use it simply because they have no idea that they need to install the ACHI drivers to get "full" SATA performance out of the drive.
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05-28-2008, 11:05 AM
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#4 |
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The floppy installation is easy. My new build on a P5K Pro has all SATA drives (both hard and optical) and SATA is set to AHCI. The motherboard DVD has a floppy maker, and it's a simple press F6 and put the floppy in at the beginning of XP setup.
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05-28-2008, 11:49 AM
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#5 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Maryland
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GLC, it's not hard, it's just that if you don't read or research it first, there's no indication that you have to do it. The BIOS defaults to IDE emulation.
I just don't get why these drivers aren't on the Windows install CD. |
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05-29-2008, 10:41 AM
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#6 |
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Because AHCI did not exist when XP came out. I believe Vista has native AHCI drivers.
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05-29-2008, 04:02 PM
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#7 |
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Member (8 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Dayton, Ohio
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I have already installed XP, can I still install the drivers or does that have to be done first? The manual gives a brief description of how to enable/disable the AHCI and Native IDE modes, but mentions nothing about floppies or drivers.
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05-29-2008, 10:54 PM
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#8 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 529
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you will have to do a repair install, during the repair install you can install the drivers for AHCI mode.
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05-30-2008, 01:21 PM
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#9 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Maryland
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I tried a repair install my first time round with this issue (Build 1 with XP). It didn't work.
You can try it, but don't be surprised if it blue-screens or goes into a boot-reboot loop when you switch the drive mode in BIOS. That's what happened to me. I just bore down and reinstalled WinXp, but there wasn't much to reinstall at the time. |
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Linear Mode
