Ssd and ahci settings (laptop, HDD, operating system, bios)

[georgexyd]

I have a laptop that already has an ssd and a hdd I want to replace the hdd with another ssd . I have read that I need to change bios settings to ahci. I want to ask since my pc has already from factory an ssd with the os on it does this mean that ahci is already chosen or should I change the setting for the second drive also?

[EscapeCalifornia]

It should already be selected, but you'll need to look in the BIOS to find out. Its a system-wide setting, not per device.

[TurcoLoco]

That is usually under "System Configuration" or "Advanced Settings" section.

You typically configure this setting before the drive has been partitioned/formatted.

Warning: For the main drive where Operating System was already installed, do NOT change this setting because it will likely not boot and give you a BSoD.

For the secondary drive, it shouldn't make a difference.

Unless a RAID configuration is in use, I always configure SATA/SSD drives as AHCI for better performance.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by TurcoLoco

Warning: For the main drive where Operating System was already installed, do NOT change this setting because it will likely not boot and give you a BSoD.

There's a hack for Win7 to let you switch to AHCI with an existing installation. It didn't work in Win8 though.

[NHDave]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

It should already be selected, but you'll need to look in the BIOS to find out. Its a system-wide setting, not per device.

Exactly, with a factory SSD it should be AHCI out of the box. And you can't have one drive AHCI and one not, it's all or nothing.

[NHDave]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

There's a hack for Win7 to let you switch to AHCI with an existing installation. It didn't work in Win8 though.

Found this a month or so ago when doing a transfer from an HDD to an SSD for a client and BIOS was not set to AHCI, worked like a charm.

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by NHDave

Found this a month or so ago when doing a transfer from an HDD to an SSD for a client and BIOS was not set to AHCI, worked like a charm.

Was this it?

I didn't even know about it. I wonder if it is a reliable hack. It should suck if it broke again sometime later.

I wonder if this would break a Linux OS too or just a stupid Windows bug?

[NHDave]

Error message occurs after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive no registry editing needed

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by NHDave

Error message occurs after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive no registry editing needed

You lost me with the "no registry editing needed" part as this solution also point to editing the registry keys?

Also, it seemed odd to me that the data for the Start value had to be changed to 0 to actually enable that driver which logically should be 1.

Anyhow, thank you both for sharing this info. I will probably not need it anytime soon but it is good to know nevertheless.

[NHDave]

Originally Posted by TurcoLoco

You lost me with the "no registry editing needed" part as this solution also point to editing the registry keys?

You can run the Fixit which will change the keys for you, thus no editing for you to do.