Changing from RAID to AHCI

Anonymous
2010-10-28T12:24:52+00:00

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

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2010-11-03T18:05:23+00:00

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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  1. 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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  2. Anonymous
    2010-10-29T22:07:19+00:00

    Hi Thomas,

    You are right that the link you provided is to help solve this problem but will not necessarily solve it for every possible hardware. The KB article essentially enables 2 storage drivers (MS AHCI and Intel Storage Driver (iastorV)) to be loaded during boot time. If your hardware is infact compatible with these drivers then it will solve your problem by loading the right one when you switch.

    But let say for the sake of argument your storage controller needs AMD AHCI driver (i.e. amdsata)  instead of MSAHCI then you will need to change Start registry parameter under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\amdsata to 0 as well. This is the harder way of solving your problem without OS reinstall since you need to know your hardware compatibility or enable all possible ahci inbox storage controller binaries. Even after that if your hardwares' driver is not shipped with Windows 7, you will then need to find it from the hardware vendor's website install and then enable the registry key.

    Try enabling for the below drivers as well, and let's see if it solves for your hardware.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\nvstor

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\nvraid

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\amdsata 

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor //this one might not be there for every machine. If it is missing for yours download theIntel(R) Storage Drivers and check again.

    Thanks

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-10-29T20:14:55+00:00

    hmm... so what does the KB article I referenced at the beginning of this thread then tell me??? I think this was exactly to fix this isse...

    Thanks,

    Thomas Pagel

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-10-28T20:13:59+00:00

    Probably the only way to fix it would be to reinstall Windows in AHCI mode. The boot drive no longer has the proper drivers when you change the drive mode in BIOS after Windows is installed.  You could try a startup repair as well but I don't know that it would succeed since it may not even see the drive(s) at startup.

    "Thomas Pagel" wrote in message news:*** Email address is removed for privacy ***...

    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

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments