Win XP - ASmedia 1061 SATA - IDE to AHCI?

[Shaolin_K]

I have an XP system which runs on an ASUS P8H61-m Pro.

At the moment, it's in IDE mode, but I'd like to try to get to run on SATA 3 / SATA 600 in AHCI mode. I've tried installing the drivers from ASUS' website (pointing it to asahxp.inf?) - 32bit / x86, but when I restart and select AHCI mode for the ASmedia controller, the system reboots. At this point, I have left the main SATA in IDE mode (which I believe controls the 4 native Intel SATA 300 ports?

What am I doing wrong; are there any registry entries I need to modify?

Could the Intel ports be IDE and ASmedia use AHCi, or do they need to be the same?

If I leave everything on IDE, or even switch the main SATA setting (intel) in the BIOS to AHCI, Windows would load, but takes 15 minutes or so do fully load? If I restart, it goes throug the same process?

Any help or guidance would be appreciated!

Thanks

[Millennium]

Which Sata controller is the main boot device plugged in to? Is it the Intel? If so, I think the best method would be to install the appropriate SATA drivers from Windows, change the settings in the BIOS and restart.

However, it's notoriously difficult to change storage mode even up to Windows 8 (not sure about 10). Your best bet (depending on how much time you have to spend on this) may be to change the mode of the controller that hosts your system disk in BIOS, then reinstall windows, using the floppy or a USB stick for drivers if you find you have no system drive detected the first time around.

I haven't tried this myself though, so leaving the question open...

[Shaolin_K]

At the moment, the main boot drive (SSD) is on one of the four Intel SATA300 ports and a SATA HDD on another Intel SATA300 port. IDE mode in BIOS.

What I'd like to do is to keep the HDD (data storage) on the Intel port running in IDE mode and move the ssd boot onto the ASmedia SATA600 port in AHCI mode to get the benefits of higher speeds and NQC etc.

Is this possible?

[DanceswithUnix]

I presume the machine just won't boot if you are in AHCI mode?

If you can't find a registry hack to tell Windows that you are booting off AHCI, then the only way I know of is to reinstall Windows

[shaithis]

The following is what I have always used although I cannot remember if this works in XP, I haven't messed with XP in years now.

You start with step 1 while you are still in Windows in IDE mode.

Run the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
Navigate to Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
Set the "Start" value to 0 (zero)
Navigate to Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pciide
Set the "Start" value to 0 (zero)
Shut down
Start up again, but before Windows boots go into the BIOS configuration screens and change the disk mode to "AHCI". Save the new BIOS configuration and restart so that Windows boots.