ACHI Mode XP & 7

[toostrike]

Backround Info

Specs.

Antec Dark Fleet DF85
Asus 23" Monitor
Gigabyte 970A-UD3
AMD 955 @ 3.8 w/1.376v on cpu-vcore
Hyper 212 Plus W/2fans Idle:22C-42C
Corsair Vengence 8 gigs
Evga 560TI
2 - Lite On DVD Burners
2 - 750G WD Black
Corsair 750W PSU
Roswell Low Profile NIC card
Logitech 540 5.1 surround w/sub
SIIG 7.1 Sound Card
Windows 7 64 bit and XP 32 bit

Main Hard Drive( connected on sata port "0" ) I am using XP Pro.I have this partitioned into 3 parts.50 gigs for os and 650 gigs for storage,and 8 gigs for a page file.I have alot of my programs on this drive.This drives runs 24/7,and is used for browsing,downloading,encoding ect...I use XP because its lighter on resources than 7,and runs fine for my purpose

Second Hard drive(connected on sata port "1") I have this drive partitioned into 3 parts(50-80-550).I plan on running a dual boot on this drive.Xp and W7.I will have  50 gigs for XP,80 gigs for W7,and 550 gigs for games.I will use the 550 gigs as a big game folder for both OS.I also plan on using stripped versions of xp and 7 using n-light on both OS.This drive is dedicated only for gaming.Since I will have a dual boot on this drive.I will install xp first then 7.I plan on disconnecting my other drive and then set up a dual boot with this drive.I figure the only way to access this drive will be to go in the bios and boot from sata port "1" when needed,so I get the option for dual boot.

SSD Drive- Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s -I am planing on ordering this drive soon.I will be running Windows 7 64bit.I will be using this for surfing & gaming .Not sure what channel I should connect this drive.Does it matter? I also have 2 dvd drives .Again I will install this OS separately.I will go in bios and boot drive when needed.


I have been doing alot aof research on AHCI mode.I will need to use this mode when I add the ssd drive.It seems this has 3 main advantages

Supports NCQ (Native Command Queuing) allowing SATA drives to accept more than one command at a time and dynamically reorder the commands for maximum efficiency.
Supports hot plugging of devices
Supports staggered spin ups of multiple hard drives at boot time


From what I read I will only need to follow a few steps to get this to work

1) Make sure PC is off. Unplug all drives except the optical drive and connect up the SSD.
2) Boot into BIOS, change SATA mode to AHCI. Change boot priority to boot onto optical first.
3) Restart, and insert Windows 7 install disk. Follow the instructions on screen to install Windows 7 onto the SSD.
4) Once that's done, restart PC and change boot priority to SSD first. You may replug back your other drives now.
5) Install drivers and updates.

There are a few tweaks you can do to Windows to optimize the SSD if you wish but with these current SSDs Windows does a pretty good job on looking after the SSD. Most common tweaks however is disable hibernation and shrink the size of the page file on it, so less files are written onto the drive and ensuring it has a nice long lifespan.
 

Thanks to absic for the driver information below

"With Windows7 you do not usually need to pre-install the AMD AHCI drivers as the native Microsoft AHCI drivers will install and work fine. If you want to use the AMD Drivers then you can install them once you have Windows7 up and running.The latest AMD AHCI and Southbridge drivers can be downloaded from here: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx and are the 11.12 version which are much newer than those available on the Gigabyte site."

Since I will be adding a ssd drive and using windows 7 I will need to use AHCI mode.The question I'm asking is "Once AHCI is enabled in the BIOS and the hard drive is formatted in Win7 and is installed (clean) do ALL drives come under AHCI?

My current bios settings are- The onboard SATA controller is set to enabled,and onboard SATA controller to Native IDE.Both of my hard drives are Sata II.I really don't see any advantage using AHCI mode for Windows XP,which is my main drive,except maybe," Native Command Queuing."My second drive is only for gaming,so no advantage for my purpose,but the ssd drive I don't have a clue.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

The question I'm asking is "Once AHCI is enabled in the BIOS and the hard drive is formatted in Win7 and is installed (clean) do ALL drives come under AHCI?

If you select AHCI on a controller then all drives on the ports connected to that controller will be running in AHCI mode.

[toostrike]

Hi

The question I'm asking is "Once AHCI is enabled in the BIOS and the hard drive is formatted in Win7 and is installed (clean) do ALL drives come under AHCI?

If you select AHCI on a controller then all drives on the ports connected to that controller will be running in AHCI mode.

I need some more clarification.The board I have has 6 sata ports.Are you saying all of my sata ports will be using AHCI mode.I'm not sure I understand.If I dont use AHCI mode for a ssd drive It wont read/write as fast,but I dont care about that so much.I don't need to boot into windows in 10 seconds.My only concern is gaming.Will it still be better than a traditional drive as far as game performance.  


I have a saved image file of my main drive,and I have not used my second drive yet.Its partitioned,but thats it.Would I get better performance by switching xp to ACHI mode?Then when I added the ssd it would not make a difference.I'm a little hesitant.I thought I read that Native Ide mode gets better performance.This is all new ,so I'm at a real loss on what to do...

[absic]

Hi again,

Yes, getting the settings right in BIOS can be a bit tricky, especially with some of the terminology that is used.

In BIOS under the heading Integrated Peripherals you need to set OnChip SATA Type to AHCI Mode. This will set the SATA ports 0-3 as AHCI.
When you have done that the OnChip SATA Port 4/5 Type will unlock and these can be set independently to either IDE Mode or to AHCI Mode. Usually, it is better to set these two ports to IDE Mode and attach your DVD/CD drive(s) to these.

If you have already installed the OS in IDE Mode you can not just change the controller to AHCI Mode as the system will not BOOT. With Windows Vista and Windows 7 there s a registry tweak that you can use but this has to be applied BEFORE you make any changes in BIOS. Check here: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,6721.0.html for how to do this

With Windows XP things are a bit harder and I have to admit that it is probably easier to set the controller to AHCI and then re-install the OS and programmes again.

[toostrike]

Hi again,

Yes, getting the settings right in BIOS can be a bit tricky, especially with some of the terminology that is used.

In BIOS under the heading Integrated Peripherals you need to set OnChip SATA Type to AHCI Mode. This will set the SATA ports 0-3 as AHCI.
When you have done that the OnChip SATA Port 4/5 Type will unlock and these can be set independently to either IDE Mode or to AHCI Mode. Usually, it is better to set these two ports to IDE Mode and attach your DVD/CD drive(s) to these.

If you have already installed the OS in IDE Mode you can not just change the controller to AHCI Mode as the system will not BOOT. With Windows Vista and Windows 7 there s a registry tweak that you can use but this has to be applied BEFORE you make any changes in BIOS. Check here: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,6721.0.html for how to do this

With Windows XP things are a bit harder and I have to admit that it is probably easier to set the controller to AHCI and then re-install the OS and programmes again.

I understand in theory,but applying this is another story.Now my head is spinning  This bios stuff is confusing.This is my second build,but I'm a real noob when it comes to the bios...I have a saved image file of my main drive,but I can always start from scratch again.What would be the easiest way to start over from scratch.I have my main drive partitioned ,so my games,documents ect.. are not on the same partition.The second drive is blank except it is partitioned,so that wont be a problem.The ssd drive I just ordered.

Will I get better performance?

[absic]

I have to say that I'm not really sure of the best way forward for you as your set-up is, to say the least, a little unorthodox.

Usually, you would have only one drive being used for the Operating System(s) but, from your description you want to use three separate drives. As the old song goes: "There maybe trouble ahead." It might be a better idea to reconsider the way you are planning to go about things.

How large is the SSD you are getting?
Why do you feel the need to have so many different installs of the various OS's?
Could you get away with using just one version of XP and 7 in dual BOOT?

[Dark Mantis]

If you are planning to add a SSD and change the drive setup then your image won't work anyway.

[toostrike]

I agree.I need to have a better game plan.I will just make another image file when I get this together.Thats why I keep my main drive partitioned ,so I only worry about os stuff.I back up often,so if I do lose the whole drive I'm not at a total loss.

Drive 1 - I will use xp for main drive,but will keep  it partitioned so all my documents are not combined with OS.This is my workhorse drive,so I dont game on this drive.I have defrag programs,anti virus ect,so its easier and less problems to use this drive for that purpose.

Drive 2 - 750 gig drive.Open to any suggestions

SSD Drive - open to any suggestions.i was thinking of getting this drive -Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s .I might be better off getting the 128 gig version if I can keep it at around 150 USD or under..I just canceled my order atm,until I figure this out.


I want to game on xp and 7.Windows 7 64 bit dont play nice with some games,so that is my reasoning there.As far as page file and gaming I'm open to all suggestions.

[absic]

If it were my system I would do the following.

SSD (largest I could afford) use as BOOT drive for XP and 7. Clean install for both OS's in AHCI Mode.

1st HDD create two partitions one XP and one for 7 and use this for all of the programmes that you would usually install onto the main drive. There are some programmes that will only instlal onto the C: drive but the vast majority can be installed from this drive saving space on the SSD

2nd HDD use for general storage, pagefiles etc.

Doing this you maximise the speed potential from using the SSD as your Primary drive and will have ample space for everything else you want to run and store.

Here is an image of My Computer. The drives C, D & E are SSD's used for the OS (C:), Programmes (D:), and one very large program (E:). The other drives in my system are HDD's and are used for everyday use and storage.

[toostrike]

If it were my system I would do the following.

SSD (largest I could afford) use as BOOT drive for XP and 7. Clean install for both OS's in AHCI Mode.

1st HDD create two partitions one XP and one for 7 and use this for all of the programmes that you would usually install onto the main drive. There are some programmes that will only instlal onto the C: drive but the vast majority can be installed from this drive saving space on the SSD

2nd HDD use for general storage, pagefiles etc.

Doing this you maximise the speed potential from using the SSD as your Primary drive and will have ample space for everything else you want to run and store.

Here is an image of My Computer. The drives C, D & E are SSD's used for the OS (C:), Programmes (D:), and one very large program (E:). The other drives in my system are HDD's and are used for everyday use and storage.

Now that I have my head out of my ass   I understand.I will get great performance using the SSD drive as a boot drive for both os,and still have space to game on the ssd drive. The other drives,as far as set up, is self explanatory.One question.If I'm using 1 drive for programs,I would need to have the ssd and 1 hard drive connected for set up.Will that cause problems?I thought it was less problems using 1 drive for initial set up. Could you tell me how to set this up .I dont have the ssd drive yet,but I would like to know the steps.What sata ports for ssd,hhd,and dvd drives?And the basic steps in setting up AHCI mode

Dude,Thank you so much for the great idea.

[absic]

When installing the OS I would agree that you only want the primary drive attached and, of course, the DVD/CD drive for installation media.

Assuming you are using the SSD for your primary C: Drive then attach this to port SATA3_0 on the motherboard. I would only use one of the DVD/CD Drives at this stage and attach it to port SATA3_4

In BIOS set OnChip SATA Type to AHCI and OnChip SATA Port 4/5 type to IDE

Create your partitions on the SSD and install the first OS. With Windows XP you will need to make sure that the AHCI Drivers are either slip-streamed into the installation media or install them using the F6 method.
Install drivers for this OS then I would install the second OS and install the drivers for that.

I usually use disk manager in Windows to reassign the drive letters for the DVD/CD drives to the back-end of the alphabet X,Y,Z before I attach the HDD(s). This will then make the SSD your C: Drive (default) and the subsequent HDD's follow on so they will become D:, E:, etc. This just makes things easier when it comes to installing other programs and keeps everything neat and tidy.

Once both operating systems are up and running I would then attach the first HDD to port SATA3_1 Reboot into each of the OS's to make sure the drive is recognised and assigned properly. Once you are happy that things are OK shutdown and attach the second harddrive to SATA3_2. Go through the reboot process for both OS's again. After this go through the same process but attaching the final DVD/CD drive to SATA3_5. If everything goes to plan you should now have your three main drives running as C:, D:, & E: drives with the DVD/CD drives being Y & Z.

After completing the above process you can then begin to install your other programs. Some of them will only install onto the C: drive this is normal and you don't need to worry about that. But, for most of your other programs you can use the Custom or Advanced install option to direct where the program is loaded.

If you have created different partitions on your D: Drive for XP & 7 then create a folder in each of these partitions called "Programs" and using the custom installation direct the program to install here. If you haven't created separate partitions ( I wouldn't bother personally) then create two folders labelled "Programs XP" and the other "Programs 7" and install your software into these folders, making sure the right program version is installed into the correct folder.

Hopefully you can understand all of this but, if not, just ask and I will try and clarify further for you.

[toostrike]

You did a good job in your explanation.I'm starting to see it more clearly.I need to soak in this information.

I do have one question about the bios though.This is based on how I have my current system set up presentley. Is this correct?

Drive 1 connected to sata port 0

Drive 2 connected to sata port 1

DVD Drives connected to sata ports 4 and 5

Bios Settings:

on chip sata controller= Enable

sata type= Native  IDE

sata port 4/5 = IDE

sata raid 5 = disable


Those are my connections and settings with my 2 platter drives and 2 dvd drives.When I look in the bios though, port 0 and 1 and 2 have master and slave. Are All these sata ports independent?Lets say I connected another platter drive to sata 3.It would actually show up in the bios under port 0 as the slave.That seems weird.That would mean those connections are on the same channel if I'm saying that correct.I dont plan on hooking up another platter drive,just using an example.

[absic]

Hi again,

I'm assuming that you have currently installed the OS in IDE mode so your current BIOS settings are what I would expect.

The SATA ports are independently controlled but, for some reason, Gigabyte has opted to stay with the more traditional method and naming conventions, used with IDE mode for the SATA controller. This is very confusing and has raised many questions before, so don't feel bad, it even caught me out in the beginning.

[toostrike]

Hi again,

I'm assuming that you have currently installed the OS in IDE mode so your current BIOS settings are what I would expect.

The SATA ports are independently controlled but, for some reason, Gigabyte has opted to stay with the more traditional method and naming conventions, used with IDE mode for the SATA controller. This is very confusing and has raised many questions before, so don't feel bad, it even caught me out in the beginning.

Correct.Installed in IDE mode

Thanks for the expert advice.I only feel half has dumb as I did an hour ago

[absic]

Only half as dumb... wow! 

I have to say that trying to keep up with all of the hardware changes, possible BIOS variations and software releases can be a real challenge and I often feel as if I am just groping in the dark.

Thankfully, there are a lot of people on the internet willing to share their experiences and to offer help &  guidance and I, for one, really appreciate the time and effort put in by all these people, who have saved my bacon on more than a few occasions.