SATA IDE Combined Mode with AHCI SSD

[BaboonGuy]

So I previously did not run AHCI, before I got my SSD. I had two HDs at the time, one 500GB system drive and a terabyte storage drive.

When I got my SSD I uninstalled my 500GB system drive and made the change to AHCI in my bios, then installed my SSD. At this time the SATA IDE Combined Mode option was enabled in my bios.

Everything went well, except I noticed in my bios that both drives are listed as IDE:INTELXXSSD and IDE:HITACHIXX71010 or whatever. This is odd as they are plugged in with SATA.

Now I've reconnected my old 500GB system drive and it showed up in the bios as SATA:HITACHIXX75050. I went into Windows 7 Disk Management and deleted and formatted it. This is all still running AHCI.

On the next boot, it still showed as SATA in the bios, different from the IDE that the SSD and 1TB show. I went into the AHCI utility and the 500GB drive wasn't showing up. Then I noticed this SATA IDE Combined Mode option and disabled it. After reformatting again, the 500GB drive now shows up as IDE:HITACHIXX75050 and is listed in the AHCI utility.

When it was showing up as SATA, Windows took a considerably longer time to load.

So I have a few questions:

-Did I reinstall my 500GB drive correctly seeing as how it went from a non-AHCI system drive to an AHCI back up drive?

-What is SATA IDE Combined Mode and should I leave it on or off?

-Why are my SATA drives showing in my bios with the IDE: prefix? Is this hurting performance? How can I fix this?

Muchas gracias as always guys.

edit: I just turned SATA IDE Combined Mode back on and the 500GB drive went back to SATA and the other two stayed IDE. I then turned it back off and they were all IDE again and Windows took a long time to load.

 

[VirtualLarry]

What chipset is on your motherboard? Is there an additional SATA controller besides the native southbridge?

 

[BaboonGuy]

Biostar TA790GXB A2+ is my MB.

It's a 790GX board and the southbridge is AMD SB750.

I don't have any other SATA controllers installed and I am pretty sure that the native southbridge is the only SATA controller on the board.

 

[reiver99]

I have the identical problem with a similar chipset.

And I too want to know the reason for "Ide Combined Mode" when you have the option of selecting SATA/AHCI/RAID separately and only have SATA drives. I believe it just makes sata drives more compatible in AHCI mode.

But Intel chipeset people seem to have a different name for it in their bios, the AMD people don't know or aren't talking.

Since Windows 7 is said to supports AHCI, when I upgrade in two weeks I plan on enabling AHCI then, and disabling Ide combined mode.

The proper settings for XP? After Oct 22 I guess it won't matter.

 

[Ozymandyaz]

I have the same issue on a Biostar TA870+ (AMD870/SB850)

I see the same question posed a few other places and have contacted support for an answer. Here is what I can find so far based on an ASRock manual with similar chip-set and bios:

ASRock870 Extreme3

Onboard SATA Controller
Use this item to enable or disable the “Onboard SATA Controller” feature.
SATA Operation Mode
Use this item to adjust SATA Operation Mode. The default value of this
option is [IDE]. Configuration options: [AHCI], [RAID] and [IDE].
SATA IDE Combined Mode
This item is for SATA3_5 and eSATA ports only. Use this item to enable or
disable SATA IDE combined mode. The default value is [Enabled].
If you want to build RAID on SATA3_5 and eSATA ports, please
disable this item.

So it looks to me like the "SATA IDE Combined Mode" option allows you to set SATA port 4 and or 5 along with the eSATA to a different configuration then the other ports. I.e., SATA 1, SAT2 and SATA3 are AHCI and SATA4, SATA5 and eSATA are IDE. This could be useful if you wanted only the first few ports in a RAID array or needed to install Windows from a CD drive that could not be part of an AHCI configuration...

Either way... I still cannot see how to make all my SATA ports AHCI.

Also - I have an additional option in my BIOS for something called "IDE -> AHCI" that also sets all drives to SATA, but I do not think it has enabled AHCI...