Changing from RAID to AHCI

Anonymous

Hi,

on my Dell E6510 I have my disk drive set to RAID mode. I have issues using the eSata port so I want to switch to AHCI. I followed the instructions here:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976. However when I boot my system after setting the disk mode to AHCI in the BIOS I see the Windows logo (using Win7 x64) and some seconds later I get a bluescreen with a message I can't read because the system is rebooting. Changing the BIOS back to RAID brings up the system again...

Anything I can do to make AHCI working?

Thanks,

Thomas Pagel

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Anonymous

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for your post.

I believe I have the solution to your problem and I verified it against a Dell machine that has similar controller with your machine. Changing from AHCI to RAID,http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976 fix will work.

Changing from RAID to AHCI, you need one more step. Msahci driver requires Atapi.sys miniport to be loaded during boot as well. So you need to change theStart value to 0 for both of the following entries in your registry. You can use regedit.exe utility.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi

Or you can also simply run the below command lines in an elevated window.

REG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci /v Start /d 0 /f /t REG_DWORDREG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi /v Start /d 0 /f /t REG_DWORD

Regards

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54 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-10-29T22:16:24+00:00

Usually when using sata mode, the win installation procedure installs the sata controler drivers, sometimes you have to load these drivers from eg memory stick during the win installation.

If you subsequently change your controller the win boot may fail because its using the incorect driver, and it is neccessary to reinstall win.

The fact you are using a single drive on the raid controller doesnt neccessarily mean you are not using JBOD. (just a bunch of disks) some raid controllers require you to configure as JBOD when using single drives. So did you try removing the other drive, then booting?

Its also the case, on a desktop PC, that the sata raid controler generally uses different ports to the AHCI controller, in that scenario I recently changed the config on a desktop from sata 0 raid, to a single AHCI connection without issues. Obviously a Laptop is different as I would imagine the drive is connected to a single port.
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Anonymous

2010-11-01T10:28:18+00:00

Hi,

sorry for being not so precise... I have the latest Intel Rapid Store drivers installed, the Dell E6510 is utilizing Intel hardware for the RAID interface. So I thought the KB article shoud fit 100% for my situation.

I guess you were talking about the iastorv hive in the registry, I don't have any iastor here and the Intel drivers don't seem to create them.

Somewhere (don't remember where) I saw a hint that you shouldn't enable the MS AHCI and Intel Storage Driver at the same time but I'm a bit careful because I guess if I make a mistake there I can't boot my system anymore.

Thanks,

Thomas Pagel
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Anonymous

2010-11-01T10:29:13+00:00

I can remove the second drive, no problem.

Yes, it's only one controller, I see both drives listed there...

Thanks,

Thomas Pagel
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Anonymous

2010-11-01T15:03:23+00:00

Where did you read they should not both be enabled?

The article suggests they are turned off just for boot up speed, which indicates they can both get loaded. For example during windows setup, many, many drivers are loaded, just to make sure that accessing the appropriate drivers is possible.
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