ga-970a-ud3 v3, windows xp pro sp2 switching to AHCI

[timmib]

Greetings,

Doing a new build: ga-970-uds v3, phenonII x4 965 3.4Ghz, 16 gig Kingston memory, gigabyte geforce 210 1g memory.  Cloned my windows xp pro sp2 os disk and booted from it correctly in mb IDE mode from sataIII 0.  I do it this way in order to check out and clean up the various drivers before installing any other hard drives, and in my case moving to win7 when everything is settled.  One of the boards I intend to use requires ahci active in order to properly handled a four bay esata external enclosure.  The ahci function is one of the reasons I'm moving from my old m55plus-s3g board.  Everything is going as expected ... so ... now it's time to activate the ahci ....  I have searched rather extensively here and elsewhere but support of xp is thin.

I presume it is because I'm in ide mode, the amd installer refuses to install a sata/scsi controller or the ahci system.  I can read the inf file but the install fails [actually it does nothing].  There are no sata controller items in device manager; no ahci files on the system, and neither are in the registry.  My searching is only finding solutions that appear to work for intel systems.  I can fiddle some more with variations on a theme: rundll styles, booting from sata 4 or 5 in ide mode while 0-3 are in ahci mode, and (groan) writing my own inf file.

The reason I'm writing is because I'm reading comments about folk not being able to clean install win7 in ahci mode.  If I have to hack stuff I'd rather do it with the xp I know than the 7 I'm none to keen on.  I'll be installing win7 pro sp1 64b.  I am expecting that when I'm ready to install win7 I would put sataIII 0-3 in ahci mode and let the dvid installer do its thing.

So, which would folk suggest: sticking with xp until I can get ahci working, or will win7 install correctly in ahci mode?  Or any other suggestions that come to mind.

TIA

Kim

[AgentFXA]

I am still not sure what you're on about but 2 things:

1) AHCI is bound to sata - no active sata device, no ahci!
2) Win7 should clean install fine in ahci mode but you may need the ahci driver for setup (on stick/floppy)  - personally I never needed to do that.

[timmib]

Greetings AgentFXA,

Thanks for your reply.  I was looking for clarification.  First, thanks for confirming that in all probability a fresh install of win7 should be fine in ahci. 

The other business with ahci I think is being muddled by the inability for me to install the ahci drivers [os is on a sata drive] while the controller is in ide mode.  I am guessing this has to do with efi and the installer interacting incorrectly.  There are too many decisions being made by software that forestall human control! 

It's morning here and I'm somewhat refreshed.  I'm going to try a couple of easy 'fixes' on the xp setup before giving up and installing win7.

Thanks again.  Be well,

Kim

[AgentFXA]

Yes, when the controller is in ide mode there is no sata hence no ahci install possible.

When installing Win7 make sure the boot device (dvd?) is NOT set to efi - F12 (boot manager) change to a standard boot/legacy device and Win7 will install no problems

[Vezina]

You will be able to use AHCI with the 970-UD3 only with RAID drivers under XP.The AHCI provided drivers never worked for me version 1.0 board.The inf files are wrong.

On the other hand W7 will install in AHCI mode ,as it has it s own and you can also update using the Gigabyte provided drivers or AMD ones if they detect the SB controller which for the 970A-UD3 seems to not happen ,at least for version 1.0.

To install in XP you may need to play with the 2+4 option ports ,some to be in AHCI some in IDE.Place the HDD on the IDE ones and after the installation add the driver for the ports that are in AHCI ,then switch the HDD-s to the AHCI ports ,it should work.

[timmib]

Greetings,

Thank you both for confirming that win7 should install with ahci enabled.  I was getting frustrated last night with all the posts about it not.

Regarding the amd drivers - they are using an ati installer now.  It is the cause of most of these problems, imho.  I agree with you Vezina that the inf files look nothing like those I've worked with before.  I have no idea what format is being used unless it's proprietary to the ati installer.  For instance, the ahci subdir of the raid installer shows no relocation of the ahci sys file to win\system32.  Very strange.

So, if I take the os drive and dvd drive and put them on the 4-5 ports which are bios set for ide and set the 0-3 ports to ahci I should have a setup which might allow the installer to install the raid drivers if not the ahci drivers from Gig?

Be well,

Kim

[Vezina]

Under Windows 7 you will have the build in driver that in most occasions is good performance wise.

The AMD chipset drivers from AMD website have an installer that will let you choose what you need to install.
The RAID driver for Windows 7  has it s own

Yes ,if you set the last SATA ports to IDE and install the HDD and the optical drive into them , when you will install Windows XP the other 4 ports will be ready to receive a AHCI driver.
To this ones the Gigabyte RAID driver should work updating from Device Manager.
In spite of being a RAID it will run one HDD no problems.

I have to also tell you that the XP installation that i did in AHCI mode was over one year ago ,when i ve bought the board and since then i ve switched to IDE ,so the drivers Gigabyte is offering might have changed as well as the AHCI BIOS.

But Windows 7 should just install nice and tidy no matter what you set in BIOS .

[timmib]

Greetings,

Actually the whole process was simpler than most all the various places I read.  Working with xp and a new board with only sata ports.  If you're coming from ide, clone your os drive to a sata drive.  Follow the clone directions absolutely.

For new builders or just upgraders ... if you have a mb southbridge that supports ahci and the bios allows you to split the sata port such that one or two can be in ide mode .

Put the main ports in ahci mode and put your os drive in one of the ide mode ports.
Put a sata device in one of the ahci ports.
In bios make sure the cloned drive is the boot drive.
Boot.

If the boot went ok then you followed the cloning procedure correctly.

Install new chipsets etc.  Because there is a sata drive attached to an ahci port it will allow the installers to set up your sata/scsi controller.  In the case of my board and bios, the sata and raid controller are one in the same.  Reboot a couple of time to let xp settle down.

Now, simply hook your os drive to sata3 port 0 and the other sata drive to any other port.  In bios you could change the ide ports to same as sata or whatever your bios says.  Make sure the os drive is the first boot drive.  save and reboot.  this time use the boot manager just to confirm that P0 is the first boot.  Go for it!

In my case it took xp a couple of boots with 'go get some coffee' time for it to rumble through its housekeeping.

It all very straight forward.  What is not is the behavior of windows when it boots into ide mode.  The sata/scsi controller I had on the old rig was removed, replaced by gigabyte's/amd's ide controller.  With the 970a board there are three things interacting which I can not see clearly: bios, efi and xp.  I think of it as machine paternalism!

Anyway, thanks to Vezina and agentfxa for throwing some odds and ends into the pot to help clarify all the misleading information I was getting from the web.

Now, I have to find out how to disable the built in audio ... <grump>

Be well,

Kim