Windows 10: Enable AHCI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 after Installation

Thanks Shawn and a Merry Christmas. I tried it and could see no difference except an extra item on the final boot screen - CD/DVD Rom no media or something similar.

 

You're welcome, and Merry Christmas Peter. *Smile

 

The instructions were concise, well illustrated and best of all...spot on. This was driving me crazy and after searching the Net came across this tutorial. The only difference I saw with Windows 10 build 10586 is that the drivers were installed so quickly that it went straight into Windows without a delay. I never did see an installing drivers window. But..AHCI is active and normal and a lesson learned about BIOS settings before doing a clean install of Windows 10. Thanks so much for the excellent information.

A Merry Christmas to you and all of the users visiting!

 

I'm glad that it could help JJO, and welcome to Ten Forums.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas as well. *Smile

 

You know I did this in 7 and completely forgot to do the regedits in my 2 10 systems before altering the BIOS. Fortunately, after gingerly booting into Safe Mode w/Networking in each I found they were already set as indicated.....miracles do occur.

 

It was a Christmas miracle. *Wink

 

Obviously as I was expecting a failed boot or BSOD's at worst....LOL
BTW Shawn there is an error in step 6...you talk about iAStorv but show iAStorAV in the illustration.. Does that step apply to both?

 

Thank you Peter. Corrected. *Smile

 

Just registered to say this process worked on an older (2011) Acer 8172T TravelMate laptop I just upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10. This was given to me used, and I noticed after installing Win 10 that it was ACHI-capable but in IDE mode post-install. This procedure worked well. Tks.

 

I'm glad it could help Rick, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

 

It's worth clarifying that StartOverride is special. It's not the case, like the other values, that 0=AHCI and 3=IDE. Windows actually resets StartOverride to 3 on every boot regardless of AHCI or IDE.

Changing it to 0 gives Windows the "load driver" signal for the next boot, which is important when changing disk modes. A value of 3 means "do nothing," essentially, which is not what you want for this particular boot.

It resets to 3 after booting because it would be pointless for Windows to take this action with every boot.

 

Hello. I've used several methods to activate AHCI in Windows 10 including the instructions posted here. In all cases, after a few days or a week, my system comes to a grinding halt after booting into W10. After waiting many minutes for the system to reboot, and changing my BIOS back to IDE does the system run as expected.

But even in those situations, I'm starting to see a slow down.

Is there any reason to believe that if I do a clean W10 install and make sure AHCI is selected in BIOS that I my system might be more stable vs. trying to switch to AHCI when BIOS was originally set to IDE? Should W10 run any smoother after AHCI drivers are installed during a clean install vs switching after the fact?

Might there be other BIOS changes I need to look at in addition to AHCI?

Thank you

 

Hello wwsras, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

Usually a clean install while set to use SATA/AHCI will sort this.

 

Thanks. I'll give that a try and see if my issues are resolved.

 

What is it about? I've never heard of a system, once switched successfully, suddenly become resistant to it and want to switch back.