SATA 3 setup question.

[Whishaw]

Hi All,

I attempted to move my Kingston SSD from a SATA 2 port to a SATA 3 port on my motherboard.

It was not recognised when plugged into SATA 3.

I checked my bios and discovered SATA 3 mode was switched off. To switch it on I either have to select “IDE Mode” or “AHCI Mode”

Which one should I select?
Also, will changing this in the bios have any impact on the rest of my PC?

My motherboard is an Asrock H61M U3S3.

Many thanks.

[Omega]

AHCI

Windows will get BSODs on startup if it was not installed in AHCI mode.

You will have to enable AHCI in the Windows registry before switching to AHCI mode in BIOS.

https://support.microsoft.com/help/922976/error-message-occurs-after-you-change-the-sata-mode-of-the-boot-drive

-> Be very careful when editing the registry, if you do something wrong you could brick your OS.

[Whishaw]

Ok thanks.

Will going from SATA 2 to SATA 3 make much difference for gaming on my SSD? It has both a read and write speed of 450MB/S

[Omega]

Originally posted by Whishaw:

Ok thanks.

Will going from SATA 2 to SATA 3 make much difference for gaming on my SSD? It has both a read and write speed of 450MB/S

Both switching to SATA 3 and switching to AHCI will make the SSD perform better.

[Whishaw]

How much of a performance increase in real terms would I be likely to get if switching over?

[Omega]

You will jump from 210mb/s to 240mb/s

Source: http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Crucial-SSDs/Why-do-i-need-AHCI-with-a-SSD-Drive-Guide-Here-Crucial-AHCI-vs/td-p/57078

[Whishaw]

Will simply choosing IDE mode when enabling my SATA 3 ports allow me to use them without having to change the registry or reinstall Windows?

[Omega]

AHCI will deliver better performance.

You should have AHCI enabled by default anyway.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

AHCI = Native drive performance

So yea that should've always been used from the very start.
Enable IDE Mode, go into your OS and enable ACHI Mode.
Then reboot and enable that mode for your SATA Ports in the BIOS, save and exit.
Then once back into your OS, download and install latest Motherboard Chipset / SATA / AHCI Drivers. Reboot when done.


Drivers:

Intel Chipset INF Driver
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20775

Intel Management Engine Driver
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26136

[Whishaw]

Right I think I’m going to take the risk and have a crack at this later when I get spare hour or so.

If I brick my OS I’ll just reinstall everything again. My PC is purely used for gaming anyway.

Thanks for the advice you’ve all given me.

I just have two final questions.

If I end up having to do a complete Windows reinstall, is there a point where it explicitly asks you to select either IDE or AHCI mode?

Also, will my SATA 3s work in IDE mode? If so, what will the speed difference be?

Many thanks.

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

plugging into different sata ports will not have an impact as all are master under sata (in contrast to old IDE where there is master and slave drives). changing ahci to ide mode and vice versa, on the other hand, will result in a lot of problem with windows needing activation again.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You won't brick the OS, cause you won't lose access to Safe Mode, which doesn't use drivers to load.

[Omega]

Originally posted by Whishaw:

final questions.
If I end up having to do a complete Windows reinstall, is there a point where it explicitly asks you to select either IDE or AHCI mode?

Windows will never ask you to choose between AHCI and IDE it will detect if the PC is running in AHCI or IDE mode on it's own.

Originally posted by Whishaw:

Also, will my SATA 3s work in IDE mode? If so, what will the speed difference be?

Then why bother switching to SATA 3 if you are not going to enable AHCI? AHCI is the thing that is going to make your SSD perform better not SATA 3. It will take 5 minutes at most to edit the registy and switch to AHCI.

[Whishaw]

I’m gonna give this a go later tonight.

My boot drive is also an SSD. Will it matter if I move this over to a SATA 3 port after editing the registry and enabling AHCI?

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

if i were you, i'd backup importan files and folders to external drive and start with fresh windows installation on your preferred mode (ahci).

this way, you will have no problem arising from 'switching ide to ahci or ahci to ide' from windows registry corruption.

[Omega]

Originally posted by chiefputsi✖✖✖ 上 没什么 老挝:

if i were you, i'd backup importan files and folders to external drive and start with fresh windows installation on your preferred mode (ahci).

this way, you will have no problem arising from 'switching ide to ahci or ahci to ide' from windows registry corruption.

Switching from IDE to AHCI will not break Windows.. All you have to do is change a couple of ones to a zeros in the registry.

I do it all the time and I have never experienced any issues after editing the registry.