jmke

Not sure if this has been posted before, but I managed to successfully enable AHCI mode after installing Windows. Here's how...

AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) is present on newer Intel chipsets such as 975X (ICH7), P965 (ICH8), and P35 (ICH9). AHCI mode is enabled in the BIOS and 3 settings are commonly available: IDE, AHCI, and RAID. The last two (AHCI and RAID) require a driver floppy and the F6 method when installing Windows XP otherwise the hard disks won't be detected.The problem is that if you installed Windows in IDE mode (ie you didn't use F6 and supply a driver disk), then simply changing the BIOS setting to AHCI mode and rebooting will cause Windows to fail and will require a repair install. Most people have been advising to reinstall Windows if you want AHCI enabled.

I managed to enable AHCI on Windows XP Professional for a Gigabyte P35-DS4 (ICH9R) without needing to reinstall. This should work on any P35 ICH9 based board

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831

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