IDE vs AHCI modes


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I noticed that my current system is not set to AHCI mode in the SATA control, my previous motherboard did have it enabled. What is the difference and can I change the mode without affecting windows?

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It is supported on Windows Vista onward out of the box, for below that you need RAID driver. Although changing mode before installing OS is recommend or else it triggers error leading to OS not booting up.

 

If you wanna know what does AHCI offer: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-hardware/what-does-ahci-mode-ide-mode-raid-mode-sata-mean/d622d5cd-41c4-4b84-90ef-cea69aa47089

 

From above link:

 

 

AHCI - Advanced Host Controller Interface - this is a hardware mechanism that allows the software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices. It offers features such as hot-plugging and native command queuing (NCQ).
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It is supported on Windows Vista onward out of the box, for below that you need RAID driver. Although changing mode before installing OS is recommend or else it triggers error leading to OS not booting up.

 

If you wanna know what does AHCI offer: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-hardware/what-does-ahci-mode-ide-mode-raid-mode-sata-mean/d622d5cd-41c4-4b84-90ef-cea69aa47089

 

From above link:

Actually, Windows XP + Service Pack 1 supported AHCI out of the box, while XP itself (no service packs) supported SATA out of the box.

The bigger problem is that not all chipsets for motherboards - even from Intel - support AHCI directly.

The *gotcha* in Intel's case lay with the southbridge - while all the southbridges since ICH3 support SATA, not all support AHCI - ICH6 (common with the G31 (Bear Lake) and G41 (Eagle Lake) CSM chipsets, and in laptops AND notebooks) does not support AHCI, for example, while the preceding ICH5R and succeeding ICH7 both do.

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