Although the IDE mode is quite old, without it it will not work, for example, Windows XP, or you need to test HDD by using various programs. Users still ask the question of how to switch AHCI to IDE in the BIOS.

What are AHCI and IDE?

Still, I decided to give a little terminology so that some users understand what's what.

IDE– as I said above, this is an outdated mode, physically it has a 40-pin connector and is intended to connect hard drives, drives and more. Most laptops and modern PCs no longer have an IDE, as well as switching properties in the BIOS. If your device has an IDE connector, then you need to switch to it only in the most extreme cases -.

AHCI – modern standard, which according to bandwidth exceeds IDE several times. Works with SATA devices. If you need to choose between these two modes, then AHCI is definitely much better suited for this role. On a note, I want to say that if you purchase it, it will only work with AHCI, otherwise you can even forget about such a drive.

How to switch AHCI to IDE in Bios

First, you need to go into the BIOS; I won’t describe how to do this here, because each laptop model is different. Read what to find out about entering the BIOS on your laptop or motherboard model.

When you get into the BIOS, you need to use the arrows to go to the tab "Advanced". Find there an option called Secure Boot and move it to position Disable(Turned off).

There must be something like "Sata Controller Mode". If it is AHCI, then change it to IDE or vice versa. If this section is not there, then try switching UEFI Boot to position CSM Boot.

On some laptops (in particular TOSHIBA), instead of IDE there may be an item Compatibility, which is a similar IDE.

In other laptops, like Acer, in the BIOS you can go to the tab "Main" and there is already a point there "Sata Mode", which you can switch to the desired position.

Configuring and enabling special AHCI mode is desirable for every user who would like to significantly expand and at the same time improve the capabilities of their PC for working with SATA hard drives, as well as SSDs.
This mode makes it possible to significantly speed up your PC due to its improved data access speed, and to activate this mode, you just need to perform a few basic steps.

1. AHCI is

A special interface of modern SATA hard drives, which support data transfer rates from one and a half to six gigabits, and its operation is possible in two modes:
IDE and AHCI.

IDE– will ensure compatibility with older drives that were produced in the 2000s. AHCI– provides the user with the opportunity to fully use the entire SATA interface. For example, this will help to disconnect or connect the drive to the “motherboard” directly during operation, without even turning off the PC, or with the possibility minimal movement disk heads, thereby increasing its speed.

After activating the mode, the user will significantly speed up working with files, writing them and reading information on the hard drive, which will significantly increase the performance of the PC as a whole. The increase will be approximately 20 percent, but nevertheless, for some demanding tasks, this twenty percent will be quite enough.

If you are working with SSD drives and the SATA form factor, then the option of enabling AHCI is the only correct and possible one.

2. Check AHCI mode. Enabled or not.

Before enabling AHCI Mode, you should make sure that it is not already in use. If you often work with heavy applications, your PC is equipped with powerful modern processor and a sufficient amount of memory, then you simply will not notice in which this moment mode your PC is working.

Checking AHCI mode:
1. Go to “Computer” properties;
2. Open the device manager;
3. Find IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers;
4. If some name contains AHCI, then the mode is active. If there is no such mode, then it needs to be enabled.

There is another way to check for the presence of AHCI - reboot the PC and view this parameter through the BIOS. You probably already know how to enter BIOS.
Going to BIOS, UEFI– look in what mode SATA operates, this can be done in the SATA Mode or SATA Configuration section.

3. How to enable AHCI mode

Enabling the mode AHCI, most often, is performed through .
But, if you are on Windows 7, then after loading the system, an error may appear on your screen indicating incompatibility with the hard drive. A similar situation can happen with other, newer operating systems, but with less probability. In case of an error, the computer will reboot or restart.

If you select AHCI-mode before installation new system- the situation will change. This will allow the software from the disk to adapt, which ultimately will not lead to any problems.

Typically, difficulties arise when the system is already on the hard drive, and the user changes the SATA settings to IDE, or vice versa, and tries to turn on NCQ– protocol SATA, which will significantly speed up work with information due to improved command optimization. In this case, interaction with various registry editors will be required. If nothing has achieved the desired result, then AHCI mode can be installed only after reinstalling the system.

AHCI for Windows 7
Windows 7 – also most often requires switching the mode to AHCI. To do this, try the following:
1. Enter Registry Editor. This is done through the “Run” menu by entering next command:regedit.

2. Find and go to the section HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci;
3. Click on “Start”, while changing the standard value 3 to 0.

4. In the same subsection, change msahci to lastorV, and look for Start parameter;
5. " 3 " change to " 0 »;
6. We finish working with the editor.

Reboot the computer and enable the required mode via BIOS. After loading Windows 7, drivers for drives connected to the motherboard will begin to be automatically installed on the PC. After installed drivers And changes made you will need to restart your PC again. The final stage in editing mode – check the recording “caching” mode. This is done in the disk properties. If caching is not activated - it needs to be launched.

Microsoft Fix it – additional option getting rid of errors after installing a new mode. After the new mode has been launched and enabled. After selecting the necessary actions and eliminating all problems, the software will automatically make all changes, and subsequent errors will not appear.

AHCI for Windows 8 and 8.1
If you have eight on your PC, to enable AHCI mode, you need to go to safe mode. And in case of errors, is it necessary?
1. Change the IDE mode in the BIOS;
2. Restart the PC;
3. Go to launch the command line;
4. Enter the following command: bcdedit /set (current) safeboot minimal;

5. Confirm the action;
6. Reboot the PC and enter the BIOS again;
7. Activate the required AHCI mode;
8. Launch the command line again;
9. Enter bcdedit /deletevalue (current) safeboot;
10. Reboot the system again, after which Windows will display an error.

If the system is on an Intel processor, then AHCI can be enabled using additional utilities from the manufacturer itself. AMD does not have this method.

To use it, you need to do the following:
1. Download the file from the official Intel website f6flpy;
2. Download here SetupRST.exe
3. Go to the device manager and install the special f6 AHCI driver manually in the hard drive properties, instead of the specified SATA one;
4. Restart the PC, go to BIOS and enable AHCI;

AHCI for Windows 10
To correct errors or switch modes, you can also use the program of the same name for Intel processors, this can be done using reinstalling windows, and through safe mode. But the best option will use the registry editor, which is slightly different from standard method, which was specified in Windows 7.

You will need:
1. Log in as “Administrator”;
2. Launch Registry Editor in an accessible way(for example, using the “Run” utility, entering regedit into it;
3. Go to a special section HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV, where you will need to find “Start”, and change the parameter value to “ 0 »;

4. Find in another subsection Services\iaStorAV\StartOverride parameter called 0, and set its value to “0”;
5. Now choose Services\storahci, completely reset the “Start” parameter;
6. In the next subsection Services\storahci\StartOverride, setting the parameter value to “0”;
7. Close the editor and restart the computer;
8. Enter the BIOS and also enable the required mode AHCI.

Advice: The first one is best Windows startup 10 run in safe mode, and to do this, turn it on using the “Run” menu by entering the msconfig command into it in order to display all system settings. Select the “Boot” tab and check the “safe mode” box, selecting the “Minimal” option.

If instead of BIOS you have UEFI– you need to troubleshoot through the system menu.
1. Enter the menu (Win+l);
2. Enter “update and security”;
3. We enter “recovery”, and then move on to special options downloads;
4. Go to a special menu located in the “” tab Extra options", and as a result, go to the section " UEFI Settings».

To go to the BIOS settings, you can press a specific key to go to the BIOS - this could be the F2, F12 or other buttons.

4. Other AHCI Features

For Windows XP there is no option to install AHCI. At the time of its development, this option was not intended or planned. If you want to do this, then find a special driver and implement it into the system. But I strongly do not recommend doing this; such a possibility can have a bad effect on the operation of the system.

Winodws vista included an identical switching mode AHCI, as in Windows 7, that is, using a utility or registry.

5. Results

Most often, after completing the steps to set the mode AHCI, the system will work stably, plus accelerated. If nothing works, then you can reinstall the system again after the mode change has occurred - this may take quite a bit of time, but the result is most often guaranteed.

Almost all modern HDDs operate via the SATA (Serial ATA) interface. This controller present in most relatively new motherboards and allows operation in several modes, each of which has own characteristics. The most innovative at the moment is AHCI. We will tell you more about it further.

Potential SATA interface are fully revealed when using AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface). It interacts correctly only in latest versions OS, for example, in Windows XP the technology is not supported. The main advantage of the add-on in question is the increase in the speed of reading and writing files. Let's dwell on the advantages and talk about them in more detail.

Benefits of AHCI mode

There are factors that make AHCI better than that same as IDE or RAID. We would like to highlight several main points:

1. As mentioned above, the speed of reading and writing files increases. This improves the overall performance of your computer. Sometimes the increase is not very noticeable, but for certain processes even minor changes increase the speed of completing tasks.
2. Best work with new HDD models. The IDE mode does not allow you to fully unleash the potential of modern drives, since the technology is quite old and you may not even feel the difference when using a low-end and a top-end hard drive. AHCI is developed specifically to interact with recent models.
3. Efficient SSD operation with the SATA form factor is only achieved with the AHCI add-on activated. However, it is worth noting that solid state drives with another interface are not associated with the technology in question, so activating it will have no effect at all.
4. In addition, the Advanced Host Controller Interface allows you to connect and disconnect hard disks or SSD on system board without first turning off the PC.

Other AHCI Features

In addition to the advantages, the technology in question has its own characteristics, which sometimes cause problems for some users. Among all, the following can be highlighted:

1. We have already mentioned that AHCI is not compatible with operating system Windows XP, however, they are often found on the Internet third party drivers, allowing you to activate the technology. Even if the switch is successful after installation, you are unlikely to notice an increase in disk speed. In addition, errors often occur that lead to the deletion of information from storage devices.
2. Switch add-ons in others Windows versions It’s also not an easy task, especially if the OS is already installed on the PC. Then you need to launch special utility, activate the driver or manually edit the registry. We will talk about this in more detail below.

Today we will find out simple thing- how to change SATA mode from IDE to AHCI in the BIOS with Windows 7 already running. After all, those who have already tried to change this mode were able to see blue screen death at the first attempt to boot Windows. And the solution would be to make changes to Windows registry, which is what we will do now.

A very brief note: Widely used in the Windows XP era and earlier IDE interface or PATA, which is left in modern motherboards only for compatibility with older devices and systems. Today the standard is SATA, different revisions of which differ in bandwidth.

Yesterday I visited one of my clients and on one of the computers I had the opportunity to put this method into practice. I just stood there and was sad at the ide Windows mode 7. I decided to transfer it to AHCI without reinstalling it, and at the same time improve performance.

So let's get started.

Press Win+R and write regedit, click OK, the Registry Editor opens.

If you have, for example, RAID mode, then you may need this address in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV

You should see something similar to the one in the screenshot. We need the Start parameter, for me it has a value of 3. Double click on the parameter name.

When you double-click on the name, an editing window will open. Here you need to change the number to 0 (zero).

To look like this. Click OK and save.

After our manipulations, the final value looks like this:

The finishing touches remain. Now you need to restart Windows and go into the BIOS, change the mode there to the desired one.

When the computer starts to restart, do not miss entering the BIOS. This is usually the Del key. Laptops may have F2, F10, or F12 keys.

On motherboard For my client, the item looks like Storage configuration, with a SATA configuration (compatible or enhanced) subitem inside.

Select the sub-item Configure SATA as, which is in the value and press Enter. Select the AHCI value

Ultimately, the item now looks like Configure SATA as. Press F10 to save the BIOS settings, then Enter and the computer reboots again.

And now comes the moment of truth!)

Windows 7 should boot normally and upon boot it will detect new devices for which it will begin vigorously searching and installing drivers. It may then ask you to reboot. Reboot, make Windows pleasant.

This method worked in my case and even visually the computer began to run faster.

This new mode SATA to work with devices memory type. Only in it can a computer fully use all SATA capabilities, or rather:

1. Quick replacement hard drive. And in more detail, this means that it can be changed without turning off the computer. When working with servers it is very comfortable.
2. NCQ– thanks to this technology, the number of movements of the heads that perform reading is reduced significantly. Thereby speed hard drive usage increases when it is used by several programs at once.

If activate Achi, then you will quickly access files stored on ROM, and the computer will also work much better faster. Of course, the increase will not be noticeable on a regular home PC. However, if support this option is available, it will be better if you turn it on.

IDE mode - what is it

This is too much outdated technology that was popular in the nineties and early two thousand. It was introduced in the IBM PC - the first computers. In it, data transfer took place on speed 150 Mbit per second. Many popular technologies didn't support. For example, it was impossible to remove the hard drive or CD drive without rebooting the PC. Then these features were added, but not every computer could use them. However, it is still in use today.

How to enable ACHI/IDE mode

Switching between ACHI and IDE occurs through BIOS. Done before Windows installation, in the following way:

In Windows 10 you can instantly switch on Achi, for this:

Which mode is better

Of course, it's best to choose ACHI. And this can be understood by comparing the two modes. IDE should be chosen if on your system no drivers to SATA. All modern PCs support SATA, that is, if you select IDE, it will occur emulation, and this will not give any increase in performance, which is not what we need.