Enable AHCI non-boot drive

[Brian Hoyt]

I have an ASUS P5B Deluxe with LSI SAS controller. My boot drive is on the
SAS controller and then I have an additional drive on the Intel SATA
controller. I originally built machine with IDE mode enabled for controller
and want to switch to AHCI for it. I figured it wouldn't be a problem since
it isn't even my boot drive. I enabled the AHCI driver by following the
instructions in the the non-English versions of KB922976 (where is the
english one?). When I boot the machine I don't get any error messages it
simply doesn't do anything after the BIOS. If I CTRL-ALT-DEL the vista
repair wizard comes up and says to boot from CD due to problems. I can't
boot from vista install media either, after the loading windows bar it just
freezes as well. I am wondering if there is some conflict between SATA-AHCI
and SAS controllers? Any one have any ideas?

Brian Hoyt

 

[Guest]

Brian,

This may sound simple, but have you switched the BIOS setting on the
motherboard to AHCI mode, as it defaults to IDE.

Seb.

 

[Brian Hoyt]

Yes, when I do that I can no longer get either the installed Vista or RTM CD
to boot successfully.

 

[Guest]

Brian,

I can only assume, as you say, that the switch to AHCI is causing a conflict
with the SAS controller. When in AHCI mode, are the drives recognised in the
POST screen (or in the BIOS)? Also, is your CD drive IDE or SATA?

On the P5B the Intel ICH chip handles the six main SATA interfaces whilst
the JMicron chip handles the PATA IDE, the single internal SATA port at the
rear of the board and the eSATA port on the back plate. It might be worth
experimenting changing the location of the drives (try the secondary drive on
the JMicron controller) and the modes of each chip (the JMicron chip can swap
betweeen IDE and AHCI also) and you might eventually find a setup that works!

If you don't find a work-around, I would suggest investing in a SATA boot
disk, the Intel storage controller is SATAII (3Gbps) and RAID compatible, so
the SAS controller offers no real advantage over the on board controller,
especially if you only have one drive attached.

Seb.