Where in BIOS to switch the ahci mode. Should AHCI be enabled for SSDs? How to check if the TRIM command is enabled

Introduction

SSD drives are generally faster than magnetic drives hard drives... Sure, some flash drives have mediocre write speeds, but overall, it is solid state drives that are setting the pace right now, overshadowing the evolution of traditional hard drives.

True, SSD drives are not only faster, but also much more expensive than conventional HDDs. Every gigabyte of SSD storage is expensive. And if there is an option to free up several gigabytes by disabling unnecessary Windows services and features, then this cannot be neglected.

It is also worth noting that on the forums of computer enthusiasts there are many personalities who claim that a few simple Windows optimizations help to increase productivity. But is it really so?

In this article, we decided to take a closer look at the most popular SSD tweaks and determine, using a test, how they affect system performance. Basically, we only have to answer two simple questions- is it possible, using certain system tweaks, to free up space on the system disk and increase the performance of the computer?

In addition, we plan to test two different solid state drives to see if the effect depends on the specific SSD model, or if these tweaks will work for any drive. It is possible that these tweaks are completely useless and there is no way to make an SSD run faster.

We'll be testing nine of the most popular SSD tweaks for operating system Windows 7:

1. Disable System Restore.
2. Disable data indexing.
3. Disable paging file.
4. Disable hibernation.
5. Disable prefetching (read ahead).
6. Disable flushing the Windows entries cache.
7. Disable SuperFetch and Windows Search.
8. Disable ClearPageFileAtShutdown and LargeSystemCache.
9. Setting up a power plan.

AHCI Mode and TRIM Command

Before proceeding with subtle system tweaks, you need to make sure that the SATA controller is set to AHCI mode, and the TRIM command is supported by Windows 7. Both of these settings, strictly speaking, cannot be classified as optimizations for SSDs - rather, this is a requirement for the computer configuration that uses a solid state drive.

AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) mode is a specific SATA controller mode that allows hot swapping of SATA drives and Native Command Queuing (NCQ) technology. Using NCQ provides higher performance of the disk subsystem.

This is especially true for flash drives where a multichannel controller is used: an SSD is much better suited to the simultaneous execution of multiple commands. That is why solid-state drives provide maximum performance at high queue depths, and the benefits from using NCQ can be quite noticeable.

Do not forget about one more important argument in favor of AHCI: only in this mode of controller operation, you can take advantage of the TRIM command support provided by the Windows 7 operating system. TRIM support is necessary for SSD drives, since it helps to maintain high drive performance in over a long period of time.

According to Wikipedia, TRIM- a command that allows the operating system to notify the solid-state drive about which data blocks are no longer used and can be cleared by the drive itself. Using TRIM allows the SSD to reduce the impact garbage collection(garbage collection), which would otherwise result in a decrease in the write speed to the affected sectors. TRIM support provides more stable write speed and also reduces wear and tear on free memory cells.

How to check if a SATA controller is operating in AHCI mode

SATA controller AHCI mode can be set to BIOS settings or the UEFI of your motherboard. Most modern motherboards have it installed by default, but be sure to correct setting The BIOS follows exactly before installing Windows, not after. If Windows is already installed, you need to check if AHCI mode is enabled:

• In the "Start" menu select "Control Panel".
• On the "View" tab, select the "Small icons" display mode.
• Select "Device Manager".
• In the "Device Manager" we find the branch "IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers", expand it and look for AHCI controllers.
• If the AHCI controller is on the list, then the system operates in AHCI mode.
• If there are no AHCI controllers in the list, then the system is started without AHCI support.

• If Legacy IDE mode is used instead of AHCI, it is recommended to switch to ACHI mode. However, with the OS installed, this will be a little more difficult. This is described in more detail in Support article on the Microsoft website .

How to check if the TRIM command is enabled

If TRIM support is enabled in Windows 7, the operating system sends appropriate commands to the SSD. Checking if TRIM is working is also pretty straightforward:

• In the "Start" menu in the search field, enter cmd.
• Click right click mouse on executable file cmd.exe and select "Run as administrator".
• V command line enter "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify" (without quotes).
• If the computer issues DisableDeleteNotify = 0, TRIM support is enabled.
• If DisableDeleteNotify = 1 is displayed, TRIM support is disabled.

Disabling System Restore

Let's move on to describing more subtle system optimizations. The first of these in line is to disable System Restore, the built-in Windows system rollback (recovery) system that uses the principle of "checkpoints".

Disabling System Restore serves two purposes. First, you reduce the number of writes to the SSD, which increases its durability. Today there are different opinions as to whether or not to worry about unnecessary write operations on an SSD. The number of write cycles is the main parameter that tells us about the longevity of the memory cells, on the basis of which solid state drives are created. Some users believe that there is no need to worry: you are unlikely to see the day when the memory cells of your SSD-drive will stop storing data. Other users, on the other hand, do their best to minimize the number of rewrite cycles. There is no definite answer yet which of them is right. But if you do not rely on chance and consider yourself to be someone who does not want to take risks, then disabling System Restore is a good option to reduce the load on memory cells. Let's add that System Restore "checkpoints" are not available for the TRIM command and regular use of this Windows functions has the potential to degrade drive performance over time.

The second reason to skip System Restore is to save money free space on the system drive. Control points created by System Restore are stored on the system disk itself and "eat off" expensive disk space on the SSD. At the same time, they do not always provide a full-fledged system rollback. As a rule, it is safer to have a complete system image created using a specialized utility (Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image). You can "deploy" such an image to disk in a matter of minutes and you will be confident that you will be able to return to the working system. In addition, you do not need to store such an image on the system disk itself - for these purposes, you can use a regular hard drive or an external disk.

How to disable System Restore

• Right-click on the "Computer" icon in the "Start" menu and select "Properties".
• Select the "System Protection" tab.
• Click on the "Configure" button.
• Check the box next to the "Disable system protection" item.

CONTENT

Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) technology is a standard proposed by Intel to increase the read / write speed of hard drives connected to a computer via a SATA interface. If your computer has a modern hard drive (ssd, for example, or a regular hdd sata), and the motherboard supports AHCI mode - you may have thought about how you can increase the performance of your PC.

Windows Vista / 7/8 / 8.1 operating systems already have built-in support for the AHCI standard, so if during installation Windows detects that the computer supports AHCI, the AHCI driver will be installed automatically. Windows XP does not have built-in support for this standard, but it is possible to make friends with them, look for material on this topic separately.

Older motherboards with AHCI support at the chipset level have AHCI disabled at the BIOS level. But what about the situation when the Windows 7 operating system is already installed? I think many who have encountered this problem know that changing the IDE mode to AHCI in the BIOS, windows simply will not start. And you will most likely get BSOD ( blue screen of death). The option that suggests itself is to change the mode in the BIOS from IDE to AHCI, then reinstall Windows. BUT! In this case, you lose all data on the C drive, which can be painful if there are many applications installed and valuable information is stored there.

I suggest a way to switch to AHCI mode without reinstalling the system and losing data on Windows 7. For users. Remember, you perform all actions at your own peril and risk, and no one except you is responsible for them.

Attention! The following sequence of actions must be performed BEFORE enabling the AHCI mode in the BIOS settings. Otherwise, the system will stop loading!

1. Press the key combination Win + R, and in the window that opens, type the command regedit to open Registry Editor. For those who find it difficult, you can type regedit right in the Start menu bar.

2. UAC prompts "Do you want the following program to make changes on this computer?" we answer "Yes".

3. In the registry editor, navigate to the desired branch: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ services \ msahci

4. In the right pane, find the option Start and edit it ( Change)

5. Set the “Start” parameter to0 , and click OK.

Default value (AHCI support disabled): 3 .

6. Close the registry editor.

7. Restart your computer.

8. While the computer restarts, enter the Bios menu and enable AHCI support. Press the F10 key, save your changes and restart your computer again.

9. After downloading, Windows 7 will automatically install the AHCI device drivers. After finishing their installation, Windows will restart one more time.

10.That's all! After Windows boot hard drives will support the AHCI standard, and therefore work faster. The visual increase in performance is very subjective! Yes, your computer will get faster, but apart from hard disk there is still a lot in the computer that can cause it to slow down, so it is possible that you will not see an obvious increase in speed.

P.S The performance index of my SSD, after switching to AHCI mode, increased from 7.0 to 7.6. Thank you all for your attention! If you have any questions or comments, I will be glad to read them in the comments.

Competent work of a computer is possible only with well-coordinated interaction between hardware and the operating system. Technology is evolving, and more recently it has been in the field of storage devices. Modern hard drives and SSD-drives are many times faster than those that were used in computers 5-10 years ago. For data transfer, the SATA interface is used, through which the drive is connected to a computer. The SATA interface is capable of working in two modes: IDE and AHCI, and if you have a modern hard drive or SSD installed, you can speed up your computer by enabling AHCI mode.

What is AHCI Mode

As noted above, AHCI is one of the data transfer modes over the SATA interface. As you know, through the SATA interface, you can transfer information at a speed of 1.5 to 6 Gigabytes per second. Maximum speed it is supported in the AHCI mode, which should be used with all modern drives. As for the IDE mode, it is supported in the SATA interface for compatibility with old hard drives.

By default, AHCI mode is not always enabled in the Windows operating system, even if the drives are connected to the motherboard via SATA. Because of this, the user loses in computer performance, since the speed of the disk is limited by software. By setting the AHCI mode, you can increase the speed of the drive by 20-30%, which will affect the overall feeling of the computer.

How to find out if AHCI mode is enabled in Windows

Most often, users do not even suspect that it is necessary to enable AHCI mode in order to improve the performance of the computer. At the same time, Windows by default does not always work with HDD and SSD, even the most modern ones, in AHCI mode. To check if AHCI mode is enabled in Windows, you need to do the following:

Note: Also, the absence of devices operating in the AHCI mode in the list may be due to the fact that old drives are connected to the motherboard, which are not able to work in the new mode.

You can also check if the SATA interface is working in AHCI or IDE mode through the BIOS. To do this, you need to restart your computer and press "Del" or F2 during the boot process. The BIOS will start, where you need to find the SATA Mode item and see if the AHCI or IDE option is installed.

Important: If you notice in the BIOS that the SATA interface is set to work in IDE mode, you do not need to switch to AHCI mode, since this will not be of any use.

How to enable AHCI mode on Windows

Microsoft operating systems Windows started support AHCI mode with Windows 7. At the same time, you can enable it in Windows XP if you load required drivers on the internet made by enthusiasts and install them. However, it should be noted that this way does not always give a performance gain, and it is better to abandon the idea of ​​using the AHCI mode on Windows XP and work with drives through the standard IDE.

To enable the AHCI mode itself, it is enough to set the appropriate setting for SATA in the BIOS. But this must be done before installing the Windows operating system, otherwise the computer will display an error 0x0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE at startup or go into a state of constant reboot. Therefore, to switch the IDE mode to AHCI with Windows installed, you need to make some changes to the registry, below we will consider what actions to perform for each version of the operating system.

How to enable AHCI mode in Windows 10

In the modern Windows 10 operating system, Microsoft did not offer a setting that would enable on-the-fly AHCI support if the SATA interface was previously operated via IDE. To correctly switch to AHCI mode, you will need to do the following:

After booting the computer, the Windows operating system will offer to install the necessary drivers to work with the AHCI mode, be sure to do this.

How to enable AHCI mode in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

To switch the Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 operating system to work with AHCI mode, you need to do some work in the command line. You will need to do the following:

It should be noted that if the computer runs on a CPU from Intel, then you can use the company's standard utility that allows you to required settings for switch windows to work with AHCI. This is done as follows:

Note: The above way will fit only for computers on Intel processors, for AMD a similar solution in this moment no.

How to enable AHCI mode in Windows 7

In Windows 7, the way to enable AHCI mode is close to that used in Windows 10. Here you will also need to make some changes to the registry as follows:

Note: When you boot your computer for the first time, install all the drivers offered by the operating system.

It is worth noting that if errors occur after switching to AHCI mode, you can try to fix them using the free Microsoft Fix it utility, which should be downloaded from the official Microsoft website. The program has Russian localization, and it will not be difficult to understand it.

Before starting to search and thoroughly study the information on how to enable AHCI in Windows 10, it is important to understand what AHCI is, why you need to connect such technology, whether all users, regardless of any other circumstances, need to subject their PC to such manipulations.

AHCI allows you to reorganize disk space to improve performance

Do not be lazy and read a little theoretical information regarding the appearance in the computer environment of such a new regime as AHCI.

The indicated theoretical knowledge will make it possible to correctly make a responsible decision related to the inclusion this regime on your personal computer.

The focus of new technologies

If you are a prominent representative of PC users who cannot imagine performing work tasks without computer equipment, if you strive to find time in the evening to "wander" around world wide web and read the hot news, play cool games, you certainly have heard that over the past few years developers have been focusing their efforts on modernizing disk space.

AHCI mode allows you to increase hardware performance

Over time, the hard disk grew in size, so it was very important to find ways to increase the performance of the disk subsystem.

Only after the new interface and SATA standard appeared, the user was offered three unique technologies.

The first "Hot Plug" technology allows the PC user to instantly perform actions with the drive, including turning it off without turning off the computer itself.

Yes, this technology is only useful for those who have multiple hard drives installed on their computer. New technology significantly saves time on performing these tasks.

The second technology "NCQ" is responsible for the order of execution of service tasks. It is she who contributes to increasing the performance of hard drives. This technology is also accelerating the SSD, which also favors quickly resolving the problems associated with the incredibly huge queue of incoming commands.

The third technology "TRIM" is focused only on modern SSD drives. It contributes to significant acceleration as well as extending the lifespan of the SSD.

But specifically, AHCI is aimed at harnessing the capabilities of SSD, SATA and HDD. To experience the incredible speed boost, it is important that the SATA controller operates in AHCI mode.

Checking for AHCI

Having plunged headlong into a theoretical vacuum, convinced that AHCI mode is important for Windows 10, many will express a desire to turn it on as soon as possible.

It is important to understand that new computer equipment, on which Windows 7 or 10 is installed, is already accompanied not only by automatic connection of the mode, but also by automatic installation of drivers. If you already have doubts about whether the specified mode is supported, whether it is installed on your PC or not, you can use useful tips and find your own answer to this question.

Mode check algorithm

Checking AHCI mode in Windows 7 or 10 is easy. Initially, you need to open the "Device Manager", you can do this in two ways.

First of all, click on the "Start" menu, go to the "Control Panel" menu. In the window that opens, in the first rows of the general list, there will be such an important "Device Manager" for you.

You can also open it by typing the phrase "Device Manager" in the search bar.

In the opened "Device Manager" you can easily find the line IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers. Click on it to open this section and show its contents.

If AHCI mode is installed in Windows 7 or 10, and at the same time the corresponding drivers are installed, in the sublist that opens, you can find something that resembles one of the entries:

• Standard AHCI1.0 Serial ATA Controller;
• Intel (R) 5 Series6 Port SATA AHCI Controller.

Note that the key in both of these entries is the presence of the word "AHCI" itself. Unfortunately, the absence of the specified word indicates that this mode is disabled for you, not installed.

In particular, if the word "IDE" flashes in this line, it means that you can assert that the desired mode is not installed, you will have to work hard to remove the "IDE" and install AHCI.

If you really want to change everything, then focus on learning how to enable AHCI mode in Windows 7 or 10.

Enabling the mode

If Windows is already installed on your smart machine, you will have to make important changes to the registry of the system itself. Following the recommendations of experienced users, you will definitely succeed and be crowned with great success.

The main thing is not to make your own fantasy adjustments, especially in cases where you are not familiar with this kind of manipulation.

Mode connection algorithm

First of all, you must learn that the AHCI mode must be enabled before installing the operating system, otherwise the operating system will simply not boot upon the next reboot.

Start the registry editor, for this you can also type the command "regedit" in the search bar.

In the opened registry, you will have to carefully review all the available branches to find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ services \ msahci".

On the right side open window you will be able to find the key "Start", which you will have to edit, respectively, click on the parameter "Modify".

A new window will open again in front of you, in which you will need to set a numerical parameter. Most often, by default, when the mode is disabled, you can find the number 3 there, and you should change it to 0.

This completes the work with the registry, close all windows and restart your PC.

When the operating system starts up, call up the BIOS. This needs to be done in order to make some changes to enable AHCI on the motherboard.

It's easy to figure out how to change the IDE to AHCI in the BIOS. Right after BIOS boot go to the "Advanced" tab, and then in the list that opens, find the line "SATA Configuration", click on it. A small window will immediately pop up, in which there will be only two options: IDE and AHCI. Select the second item.

If you have done everything as prescribed by the algorithm, then at startup the operating system will detect new hardware and carry out automatic installation drivers.

There are times when the user has to do the opposite, look for ways to disable AHCI in the BIOS.

It is easy to guess that in order to implement your plan, you will have to do the same path as described above, only in reverse order. It is advisable to start with what to switch in the BIOS new regime to the IDE, and then make all the changes to the registry. So, how to disable AHCI, you can figure it out simply even on your own.

So, the desire to connect the AHCI mode is justified by the emergence of new successful opportunities and technologies. It is not difficult to perform these actions if you have patience, attention and an appropriate algorithm for how to do it all.

AHCI, how to start and configure it

Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)- a mechanism used to connect storage devices using the Serial ATA protocol, allowing you to use advanced features such as built-in command sequence (NCQ) and hot swapping. Most importantly, when ANCI mode is enabled, TRIM mode is activated in the SSD. In addition, without ANCI mode enabled, it is sometimes impossible to update the firmware in the SSD (for example, KINGSTON).

The ACHI operating mode allows you to use it to clean up garbage on an SSD.

AHCI is built into Intel chipsets starting from some ICH6 versions and all chipsets for Core i3 / i5 / i7 platforms. For Core platforms, AHCI has been implemented in the following controllers:

PCHM Intel RAID / AHCI Controller Hub
Intel PCH SATA RAID / AHCI Controller Hub
Intel ICH10R / DO SATA RAID / AHCI Controller Hub
Intel ICH10D SATA AHCI Controller Hub
Intel ICH9M -E SATA RAID / AHCI Controller Hub
Intel ICH9M AHCI Controller Hub
Intel 82801IR / IO Controller Hub (ICH9R / DO) - RAID and AHCI
Intel 82801HEM I / O Controller Hub (ICH8M -E) - RAID and AHCI
Intel 82801HBM I / O Controller Hub (ICH8M) - AHCI only
Intel 82801HR / HH / HO I / O Controller Hub (ICH8R / DH / DO) - RAID and AHCI
Intel 631xESB / 632xESB I / O Controller Hub - RAID and AHCI
Intel 82801GHM I / O Controller Hub (ICH7MDH) - RAID only
Intel 82801GBM I / O Controller Hub (ICH7M) - AHCI only
Intel 82801GR / GH I / O Controller Hub (ICH7R / DH) - RAID and AHCI
Intel 82801FR I / O Controller Hub (ICH6R) - RAID and AHCI
Intel 82801FBM I / O Controller Hub (ICH6M) - AHCI only

How to enable AHCI mode for an already installed operating system.

Windows XP

To install a driver from installed system Windows XP needs:

This is done as follows.
We go to the device manager and find the IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers in the list.
We update the drivers for the controllers (by default there are 2 of them).
To do this, select the item Update driver => Do not search. I will choose the driver I need.
We indicate the path to the folder on installation disk to the motherboard.
Uncheck the box "Compatible devices only" and select Intel (R) ICH8R / D0 / DH SATA AHCI Controller from the list. (so for both controllers !!!). If you have ICH10R, then set accordingly for 10R.

Reboot and enter the BIOS.

In the BIOS, enable the AHCI mode for the SATA controller and save (or dancing with a tambourine with the BIOS hack).

During system startup after POST, you will see the SATA AHCI BIOS initialization screen, a list of channels and devices connected to them will be displayed.

A new device is found and Windows will offer to install the drivers automatically - we refuse.

Download the updated driver, run and observe the driver installation.

In Device Manager under IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers now only: ICH9R / DO / DH SATA AHCI Controller, Secondary and Primary IDE, Standard PCI IDE Dual Channel Controller.

Installation complete - Windows XP is now running in AHCI mode.

If Windows XP did not pick up the AHCI driver, you will see BSOD with code 0x0000007b after rebooting.
Disable AHCI mode in BIOS, then the system will boot into working mode and try again.

In fact, for already installed Windows XP connection of AHCI drivers takes place in two stages. The problem is that the Intel driver installer will not work without AHCI mode enabled, and with AHCI mode enabled, Windows XP will not boot.

Therefore, there are two stages:

- manually install the drivers for the controllers, this allows you to load Windows XP after enabling AHCI

- and after downloading we install the full set of drivers through the installer

IMPORTANT for Windows XP

After switching Windows XP to ACHI mode, it is almost impossible to return to IDE mode; there are a large number of forums on this topic on the network.
Why go back from AHCI to IDE at all? In AHCI mode, it is impossible to fix Windows XP in recovery mode ( Windows installation XP over configured system, launch installation file from Windows environment XP).

What to do? Everything is lost? Reinstall again (and lose all settings) in case of serious problems?

We carefully read what is written in foreign letters for the controller driver = Intel (R) ICH8R / D0 / DH SATA AHCI Controller. See keyword? No it is not a word AHCI, that's another word - Intel.
Bingo - remember (or read the description for the motherboard) that we have another controller on the board, usually JMicron / Marvell, which only works in IDE mode.

We switch the system disk there and Windows XP boots perfectly in IDE mode (accordingly, in the BIOS we choose to boot from this disk), because we did not install any AHCI drivers for this controller. Then we fix Windows XP in recovery mode, return the SATA wire to the main ICH controller and work calmly on.

Windows 7

There is no need to install drivers before switching to the BIOS (as in Windows XP) - otherwise the system will "brighten up" with a blue screen.

In a nutshell - or run special utility from MS or in the registry, independently zero the corresponding keys. After starting Windows 7, it will understand itself that the controller mode has changed and will install the correct drivers (or default drivers).

To fix the problem yourself, enable the AHCI driver in the registry before changing the SATA mode boot disk... To do this, follow these steps:

1. Close all Windows programs.
2. Open the menu Start, in the window To start searching type regedit and press Enter.
3. If a window opens Accounts users, press the button Proceed.
4. Find and select one of the following registry subkeys (both you need to change there and there):

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Msahci

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ IastorV

5. In the right pane, right-click on Start in column Name and select the command Change.
6. In field Meaning enter 0 and click the button OK.
7. On the menu File select team Output to close Registry Editor.

Summary table for two operating systems (Windows XP and Windows 7)

Windows XP	Windows 7
We set the corresponding standard Intel drivers for the controller	We make changes to the registry (independently or using a utility from MicroSoft)
	After booting, the OS will install the standard Intel drivers
	Installing the necessary drivers from the motherboard
It is impossible to return to IDE mode in almost all cases; we will get BSOD when installing IDE in BIOS. Option - boot through another SATA controller, for example JMicron (only works in IDE mode)	Return to IDE mode - just switch back in BIOS and everything will boot normally

Experiments.

We look at the hardware configuration in the Device Manager.

We see the ICH8 controller (there are two of them), but without the letter index, it is not yet clear whether there is support for AHCI, we will check.

If there was ICH8E or ICH8R, then there is definitely ACHI.

Drivers can be downloaded from the Intel website (we are looking for Intel Matrix Storage Manager), and from the official website of the motherboard manufacturer. For example, the budget MSI P965 Neo-F V2. The spec and tech support states that the board does not support AHCI mode. Indeed, the BIOS only has IDE mode and no AHCI selection. We will continue to experiment, see below about the BIOS hack.

SATAII controller integrated in ICH8- SATA controller has AHCI support

and on the drivers page we see - On-Board SATA AHCI / RAID Drivers(even there are drivers)

We carry out all experiments:

- budget motherboard MSI P965 neo-f V2, SATA 2 (4 Intel ICH8 connectors and 1 MARVELL 88SE6111 connector)

- SSD Kingston 140 GB SATA 3

Experiment 1... The ability to enable AHCI is in the BIOS (we don't)

AHCI mode must be enabled before installing the operating system (for Windows systems 7 and higher, everything will be by itself, for Windows XP you need a diskette with drivers for F6. If there is no floppy drive at all, you need to set it in IDE mode or search Windows assembly with already installed drivers ACHI). If you enable it after installing the OS, then there will be a blue BSOD screen. The system does not know that the controller is now operating in a different mode.

What needs to be done for an already installed system.

Return the IDE mode to the BIOS and make adjustments in Windows, then reboot and re-enable AHCI mode in the BIOS.

Experiment 2... Intel controllers support AHCI mode (our controller is on the list), but there is no way to switch to AHCI in the BIOS.

What to do? Let's do a (light) BIOS hack. ...

We go into the BIOS. To make the controller work in AHCI mode, you need to do Load Setup Defaults after flashing in the BIOS - otherwise everything will be loaded in the same IDE mode. And the main thing is not to go to the Configure SATA as menu - it gets lost on the IDE - if you go in ... Which by the way is useful for returning to IDE mode.

Attention!

First, let's carry out the last experiment on the presence of the AHCI mode in the controllers! We do not touch Windows (drivers for AHCI) yet. The folder with AMI BIOS files must be saved on the C: drive: (it may happen after experimentation that only this disk will be available)

If, after restarting the BIOS, all the disks disappear from it (i.e., the BIOS sees only the floppy drive), then you are out of luck, the board really does not support AHCI. If you cannot switch back to IDE mode through BIOS, you need a prepared floppy disk with MS DOS, AFUDOS and the original ROM file. Then we boot from the floppy disk into MS DOS and fill in the original firmware into the BIOS (and then also do Load Setup Defaults). Anyone who has an additional SATA MARVELL controller on the board can switch the Windows disk there and boot. And already from under Windows, fill in the original firmware.

If all the disks are available - return the IDE - make all changes in Windows by drivers (as indicated above) - once again fill in the firmware with AHCI - reboot.

Experiment 3: What else is on the motherboard?

Remember the scary message

Adapter 1.

Disks Information: No hard disk is detected!

It is the Marvell controller that reports its work and that the disk is not connected to it. The controller is activated from the common AMI BIOS, parameter OnBoard IDE Controller, you have to guess that this is Marvell. Nothing, you guessed it, they named it correctly through the ROM Marvell IDE Controller... Yes, if you turn it off, the message No hard disk is detected! will no longer appear.

In our case, this is Marvell 88SE6111, here it is on the motherboard (1 SATA port and 1 IDE port)

He's in the device manager

We try to turn on our SSD there (the message changes at startup) and boot, see what is in speed.

Marvell 88SE61xx Adapter. BIOS Version 1.1.0.L64

Adapter 1.

Disks Information:

Disk name Size Speed

Kingston SV300S37A240G 240 Gb SATA II

Yes, not very good. The read speed is higher than the HDD, and the write speed is even lower than the HDD.

HDD via SATA Intel ICH8	SSD over SATA Intel ICH8	SSD over SATA Marvell 88SE61111 on standard driver

In general, the Marvell controller can only be used for an optical drive.

By the way, this information can be used to select a motherboard. We can increase the frequency, voltage, change the processor and memory, but we cannot do anything with the built-in SATA-AHCI controller. For example, for SATA II and the same SSD:

Intel ICH10 - 350 MB / s

Intel Z87 - 530 MB / s

those. you need to look at the current tests of the controllers and then look for motherboard on the chipset that gave the maximum performance of the SSD.

Experiment 4 PCI-e

Yes, we also have PCI-e v1.0a connectors on the board, let's try to use them

One / both sides, Gbit / s

	Connections
	x1	x2	x4	x8	x12	x16	x32
PCIe 1.0	2/4	4/8	8/16	16/32	24/48	32/64	64/128
PCIe 2.0	4/8	8/16	16/32	32/64	48/96	64/128	128/256
PCIe 3.0	8/16	16/32	32/64	64/128	96/192	128/256	256/512

PCI-e x16 for a video card, google, for the PCI-e x4 option (there you need a second PCI-e version) there is an option