Did my SATA drivers get installed properly?

[OzzieGT]

I just installed a new 785G motherboard on WinXP, but I'm not sure if my SATA drivers got installed properly. Under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, this is what I am seeing:

- Primary IDE Channel
- Primary IDE Channel
- Secondary IDE Channel
- Secondary IDE Channel
- Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
- Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller

I don't see any SATA controllers like I did with my old nForce motherboard. Everything seems to be working fine so I don't know if I should mess with it. I have Win7 on preorder so maybe I should just leave it alone until I install win7 next weekend?

 

[Fox5]

You have to change the settings in the bios from IDE to AHCI.

 

[OzzieGT]

Thanks for the tip. WinXP wouldn't boot once I turned it on though. I think I'll just wait until I get Win7 next week.

That is so unintuitive though; how is someone supposed to know that?

 

[tcsenter]

You can't easily change the SATA mode from IDE to ACHI once the OS is installed.

Originally posted by: OzzieGT
That is so unintuitive though; how is someone supposed to know that?

There is nothing intuitive about assembling and configuring computer hardware or systems, except maybe the connectors and ports should mirror the cabling ends. You're supposed to know what you are doing before you start mucking around with computer components.

 

[OzzieGT]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
You can't easily change the SATA mode from IDE to ACHI once the OS is installed.

Actually, after some research, no it's not that simple in WinXP.

There is nothing intuitive about assembling and configuring computer hardware or systems, except maybe the connectors and ports should mirror the cabling ends. You're supposed to know what you are doing before you start mucking around with computer components.

No, really? I would never have thunk it...after building systems for myself and friends for over 10 years I didn't realize that.

It just seems odd that it's not even mentioned in the manual. Of course, motherboard manuals are pretty useless anyway. I don't remember having to do that when building my last system. Maybe I did and I don't remember? Anyway, now I know.

 

[Fox5]

It's possible to convert to AHCI after the bios is installed, but far easier just to do it on the OS install.

If you get lucky, sometimes all that's required is to install the SATA drivers in Windows and you're good to go. The worst case can be pretty freaking annoying though.

Also, you'll often need to load the SATA drivers on the OS install (press F6 to install RAID drivers prompt).

 

[OzzieGT]

It seems like the performance benefits are negligible for what I am doing. I bet Win7 supports it out of the box, but if not I will just keep it in IDE mode.

 

[JimmiG]

Win7 (and Vista) come with generic AHCI drivers out of the box. Just make sure the SATA controllers are set to AHCI when you first install it and it will be fine. Then you can install vendor-specific AHCI drivers if you want.

AHCI on WinXP is a pain in the rear unless you still have one of those antique "floppy drives" (and manage to find a working "floppy disk").
That's what you get for trying to use an ancient OS with modern hardware. Running WinXP on a modern system today is like running Windows 3.1 on a Pentium III system. In both cases, the hardware is about 8 years newer than the OS.