How do I change Windows XP to use AHCI disk mode rather than IDE mode for Dual boot?

Anonymous
2012-11-24T16:14:09+00:00

Original Title: How do I change Widows XP from IDE  mode to AHCI mode so that I can dual boot to Widows 8

I have XP is installed in IDE mode on one SSD, and Win 8 is installed in AHCI mode on a second SSD . How do I  switch my  XP install to boot in AHCI mode so that I can dual boot?  My motherboard is an ASRock 990FX Extreme4.  The bios can be swiched from one mode to the other, but can't be set for each drive individually. I've found plenty of guides on switching the device driver in the XP device manager, but none have worked for me. I have AHCI SATA drivers from ASRock and from AMD, but I always get the message to the effect that the driver applicable to my hardware.  Can't find any info on this here (in these forums).  In the XP device manager there are 9 devices listed. Three primary channel, three secondary channel and three dual channel. 

Regards,

Kelly

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-11-27T18:30:03+00:00

    Good luck for later. The drivers in that folder have AHCI in their names so they may install.

    Because Windows XP was designed to provide the F6 option for non-embedded drivers, it was not encumbent upon hardware manufacturers to do anything other than provide a means of installing drivers by this mechanism, so you may not be correct in your assertion...

    there must be a fix for this problem

    It is not even encumbent upon anyone to work out what a possible solution/workaround might be.

    I have researched manual installation of drivers and I found these...

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproinstall/thread/a7f77561-9fda-4cc5-ad45-edaf77484ae7

    http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=11729

    ...though at a glance I suspect that at least parts of one may have been cribbed from the other.

    Another possibility would be to slipstream a Windows installation CD using, for example, nLite, with AHCI drivers (and maybe SP3 too if the original CD was pre SP3), then use this CD to do a repair installation of Windows. Never having done this I am unsure it will do the job, but maybe someone else watching/viewing this might know.

    I'm out of ideas now.

    Tricky

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-11-27T17:33:19+00:00

    Hi Tricky,

    I'm at work. I'll try that one later. My work computer is also AMD. Its a Biostar 880G+.

    I've download Biostars AHCI/Raid drivers and I get exactly the same messages when running them.

    Also in regedit, there is also no msahci -- only pcide.

    Software engineers here: I'm a hardware guy! As my handle implies, I service consumer electronics for a living -- mainly audio. I know nothing about software. But, certainly there must be a fix for this problem. How do we get Windows XP, installed on an AMD pc in IDE mode, to accept the AHCI driver and register it?

    I'm feeling like Joe Walsh!

    "Welcome to cyberspace, I'm lost in the fog

    everything's digital I'm still analog

    when something goes wrong

    I don't have a clue

    some 10-year-old smart **** has to show me what to do

    I'm an Analog Man!"

    Regards,

    Kelly

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-11-27T15:48:51+00:00

    Try the msi installer in...

    <whatever>\Allin1_XP64_XP(8.70a_WHQL)\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\SB7xx\RAID\XP

    Tricky

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-11-27T15:03:55+00:00

    Re: the msahci not showing in the registry:

    One more point, I'm not sure I have mentioned. I have the ASRock driver floppy I created from the driver CD as per ASRock's directions. This driver does work if I run the XP setup CD while in AHCI mode and I was able to run the repair console. Is there a way to use this floppy to get these drivers installed in the current XP install (install while in ide mode)?

    Regards,

    Kelly

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  5. Anonymous
    2012-11-27T14:45:24+00:00

    Hello Kelly,

    I have just downloaded and looked at the all in 1 driver for your mainboard (from the link already posted). I suspect that, when BIOS is set to IDE, the standard installer does not install AHCI drivers, however, it looks like the AHCI drivers are part of the downloaded zip file...

    <whatever>\Allin1_XP64_XP(8.70a_WHQL)\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\SB7xx\AHCI\LH

    ...run the amdsata.msi installer from the above location, reboot to BIOS, change to AHCI and reboot to Windows.

    Tricky

    Hi Tricky,

    Just tried that. I get the message "This package is not compatible with the platform of Microsoft Widows you are operating! This application will now abort. Just for grins, I tried it with all the amdsata.msi's in that package and in the ASRock driver package.Al gave the same message.

    Thanks very much!

    Regards,

    Kelly

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