SATA HD as system disk

[Dirtnapper]

I have my system disk(WD Raptor) set to onboard Gigabyte SATA. What is the difference if I change it over  to the ICH8 Southbridge, if any?  Thanks.

[Dark Mantis]

It depends a lot on how it is set up. Is it in a RAID array or standalone and if so is it AHCI or IDE mode?
Anyway chances are that you will have to do a reinstall of your OS.

[Dirtnapper]

I have the Raptor set using AHCI.

[Lsdmeasap]

You will have to just try the move and see if it works.   I can't remember if GSATA ports load a driver or not, if it did/does then you may need to reinstall your OS to move to the other ports.   You can try it without causing any damage though, it will just fail to boot to windows is all.

If you are using Windows 7 or Vista I advise you make these changes in the registry before trying the move.

Enable switching between all IDE/AHCI/RAID modes by changing "Start" Values in these keys to 0

Code: [Select]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci\Start
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pciide\Start 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV\Start

And of course, be sure to set the Intel controller to AHCI in the BIOS as well before you try to load windows.