AHCI and Swap Files

[NoDuff]

I've looked, honest I have (Google, here, etc), and I have not been able to find the answer to my questions:

Can you run AHCI and not have it span disks?

I was using a RAID-0 config with my EP45-UD3P and decided to try out the idea of having my OS (XP sp3) on one drive and my swap files on the other. I also thought I may as well enable AHCI and SATA Native mode on the Intel chipset while I was at it as. Setup is:

2x320 SATA HDD on Intel w/AHCI + Native mode enabled
1xSATA Optical on Giga-byte controller running as IDE

Booted into XP setup with F6 option and installed:
Intel ICH10R SATA AHCI Controller
RAID/AHCI Driver for Giga-byte GBB36X Controller
(I didn't realize that you had to scroll up to find the Intel driver at first but that's another story!)

This is when I realized that AHCI shows all my HDD as one spanned disk...not what I wanted...

The thing is I was certain I had read about people using AHCI and placing the swap file on another hard drive. So am I out to lunch completely or is it possible to do?

[gampamu]

Re: AHCI and Swap Files

That is strange. Your 2 hard disks should be running as independent disks with the SATA RAID/AHCI Mode in the BIOS set to [AHCI]. Sounds as if somehow they are running as a RAID volume.

Check the disks and their configuation using the Intel Matrix Storage Manager. If you don't have it installed, you can do so using the Gigabyte CD that came with the mobo.

[NoDuff]

Re: AHCI and Swap Files

So would you recommend unplugging one drive, install, and then plug in the second? Right now I don't have anything running as I deleted all partitions...hmm I'm looking at my old RAID settings...MTF.

[NoDuff]

Re: AHCI and Swap Files

Gampamu you are my hero of the month!

So this issue was as you said an issue with my old RAID setup. I guess even with RAID "off" it still held onto the drives as an array and thus showed up as one drive. To fix it I enabled RAID, deleted the array, and then switched over to AHCI...problem solved!

Now I guess the question is would the AHCI or RAID (with no array setup) best handle the two drives?

[gampamu]

Re: AHCI and Swap Files

Edit: Deleted since you've got it sorted.

Edit2: Doesn't matter. AHCI or RAID should both work since RAID setting enables AHCI as well. From what you have experienced above, perhaps there is no difference at all between AHCI and RAID settings.