SATA / AHCI and

[Ballatician]

Hi guys,

I recently started a semi-new build and had a few questions but first the components:

mobo: Gigabyte EP45-UD3LR
cpu: Intel C2D E7400
ram: Crucial 2x1 Gb DDR2 PC6400
psu: Corsair HX520w
gpu: XFX HD4850 (for now)
cd/dvd: Samsung something something (sata)
hdd: Maxtor (sata)

So anyway, the only new parts in this build are the mobo/cpu. The previous ones crapped out on me so I got these as a replacement. I didn't want to try plugging in my same hard drive because even though I have a backup from 2 months ago, it seemed risky. I decided I would use my backup hdd instead and then connect the primary hdd and make one last copy of its contents onto the backup hdd. I would then reformat the primary hdd and replace it into my system going through the whole windows/everything installation again. (prob XP or Vista this time).

Let me see if I can remember everything I did up to this point.

I got a post outside of the case. Woohoo.

I connected the cd/dvd drive to boot from the Win7 DVD but it didn't work so I changed
SATA RAID/AHCI mode from the default (disabled) to -> AHCI and booted up.

Installed my backup hdd with a 20gb Win7 partition.

Went back and changed SATA/AHCI mode to default (disabled).


So everything is working fine but I have some questions.

Is my HDD working in normal sata mode right now?
nvm - just answered this myself. In the mobo manual "default" is defined as - disables
RAID for the SATA controllers and configures the SATA controllers to PATA mode.

So now the question is even if I am not ready to set up a RAID array (I want to in the future, maybe a few months) do I leave this option in AHCI or in RAID mode? Will I run into trouble if I try to configure RAID later on?

Currently when I click on Programs -> Intel Matrix Storage Manager, I get an error about sata drivers not being installed correctly. Is this because I don't have it on AHCI or RAID mode?



Second - If you followed my backup/primary hdd scheme in that too long paragraph up there, do you have any suggestions? Should I just manually reinstall everything I need or is there anyway I can salvage some program settings (like for firefox) from my backup?


I know this is very long but I hope it makes sense!

 

[PurdueRy]

Yes you get that error from Intel Matrix Storage Manager because you're not running in native SATA mode.

Here's a question...why not? You seem like you're really trying to avoid it. Why turn it off in the first place?

 

[Ballatician]

I'm not trying to avoid it but rather trying to understand the different options. I want to know which option is best to run my single hard drive in SATA mode, RAID or AHCI.