How can I enable AHCI on a SATA drive after installing Windows?

Question

Can I enable AHCI after installing Windows 7 in a SATA drive that was on IDE mode?

Answer 1

You need to make the msahci and/or IastorV drivers be loaded early.

(Note: For Windows 10, the built-in driver is called storahci.)

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According to Microsoft KB 922976, run Fix it 50470 or open regedit, navigate to one of these keys:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV

and set the value of the Start dword to 0.

Reboot and enable AHCI in BIOS, now it should work.

Remember to create a restore point before any changes, just in case.

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The same registry changes can be done via Cmd, using reg add or sc config:

• Check current parameters (and make sure the service exists):

  sc qc msahci
  

• Change the boot mode:

  sc config msahci start= boot
  

  (Note that start= is a single parameter, but boot is separate.)