HDD Disappears when AHCI is disabled!

[pobri19]

Hi there, so at the moment I've got 2 hard disks:

#1 WDC WD2500AAKS-00VSA0 (250GB Western Digital)
#2 WDC WD1600AAJS-00PSA0 (160GB Western Digitial)

Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-DS3L

Ok so, #1 hard disk is about 1 year old, where as #2 hard disk is about 2-3 years old... The problem is my computer doesn't detect the second disk as a bootable disk unless I boot with SATA AHCI enabled.

If I'm booted into Windows XP it will detect it as a storage device/drive, but if I don't enable SATA AHCI, it doesn't come up in BIOS under boot order, and it won't boot an operating system if one is installed on it because it will say something like "Hard drive not found".

Now, does anyone have any idea why this is? Is this a problem with the hard drive or the motherboard? If I was to get a new hard drive (one that isn't like 3 years old) would it work like it's supposed to and I can leave SATA AHCI disabled?

Turning SATA AHCI off causes the drive to disappear from standard CMOS features. I'm finding it hard to believe it is a problem with my BIOS/motherboard though because it's basically brand new, and it detects my newer hard disk with no problem what so ever.

I tried to install SATA AHCI with this windows install but it wouldn't work... It didn't like my drivers that I had on the floppy. I tried the Intel ones and I also tried the JMicron ones with no luck.

Oh and if I enable SATA AHCI in the BIOS then my second disk is listed (my first disk is always listed... Even if AHCI is on/off) and I can boot off it into operating systems such as Linux (not Windows though because it doesn't like the floppy drivers I tried to install with it to get it to work with AHCI).

Thanks!

[mv2devnull]

Re: HDD Disappears when AHCI is disabled!

The ICH10 in IDE mode is essentially a different beast than in AHCI mode. Strange though.

But,
It is no floppy you need (HOWTO: enable AHCI mode after installing Windows - PC Perspective Forums), padawan. ;-)

[siemens_wolf]

Re: HDD Disappears when AHCI is disabled!

try ENABLE sata native mode, and then install the XP...

it is also said that if you put SATA RAID/AHCI in RAID mode, even you don't want RAID, you can also successfully install the XP

[pobri19]

Re: HDD Disappears when AHCI is disabled!

The ICH10 in IDE mode is essentially a different beast than in AHCI mode. Strange though.

But,
It is no floppy you need (HOWTO: enable AHCI mode after installing Windows - PC Perspective Forums), padawan. ;-)

I've tried that twice with no luck. Anyway the problem isn't getting Windows XP installed with SATA AHCI enabled, it's getting my computer to detect my second disk without it enabled. I would prefer AHCI off if possible, due to the fact that it requires all this stupid driver nonsense.

[pobri19]

Re: HDD Disappears when AHCI is disabled!

try ENABLE sata native mode, and then install the XP...

it is also said that if you put SATA RAID/AHCI in RAID mode, even you don't want RAID, you can also successfully install the XP

I would prefer not to do that, due to the fact that I've already tried reinstalling Windows soo many times now it's ridiculous. Also, I tried having it in RAID mode to install windows XP, but that didn't work. Anyways I would prefer to skip getting Windows XP to work with SATA AHCI enabled and focus on getting my computer to somehow detect my disk without it enabled (or atleast what is wrong with it... I personally think theres a problem with the disk but hey).

[soldier]

Re: HDD Disappears when AHCI is disabled!

Seeing that your other hdd is detected no matter what mode it is in, I too, believe it's a problem with the disk.

[VorLonUK]

Re: HDD Disappears when AHCI is disabled!

Obviously in Non AHCI/Raid mode all drives should appear in the bios. I've just checked and both your drives are SATA II.

If though both drives are detected under AHCI (and work) then there has to be a bug with either drive or interface under standard "Ide" mode.

Personally I would try:-

1) WDC Diagnostics or Seagate Seatools or Hitachi Drive Fitness tools (Bootable Dos/Linux types) to see if they detect the drive in IDE mode. Although I have my doubts if the bios doesn't see it.

2) Obviously try a different port and cable.
3) Load up the optimised bios defaults and save..
4) Clear the Cmos and/or update the bios.
5) Try the drive on another system