Windows 10: Had to Switch to AHCI to Do Clean Install/Re-partition, Switch Back?

I just got an alienware 13 r3 laptop w/ win 10 pro pre-installed. The hard drive is one 500gb ssd drive. I wanted to partition the drive so that my OS was on a 140gb partition, and then the remaining volume for a media drive.

I wasn't able to shrink the original install volume down enough so I had to do a clean install. I used the media creation tool to create a bootable usb drive. The usb drive was bootable and setup would load but at the media selection page there were no drives visible.

After some research and whatnot I was able to determine that disabling Secure Boot and switching the sata mode to AHCI from RAID did the trick. I was able to re-partition and install win 10 pro.

I have turned Secure Boot back on and I got a warning when I made the change do but the system still boots fine. I haven't changed the sata mode back to RAID because I get a similar warning message and I'm not sure if it will have any effect.

Do I need to? Does it matter? Will it cause a problem? It's a laptop with one drive, does raid even matter in that situation?


This is for UEFI boot systems not legacy BIOS but it may still apply. I don't know.

Thanks for your help.

:)

 

Error code 0x800704CF when i try to download app from windows 10 store..what is solution??

I'd like some feedback on the Windows Store reporting an error with the hex address 0x800704CF.

I've followed this thread and performed suggested operations save for the proxy fix as I'm not using a proxy.

My problem with the Windows store on this particular laptop still persists.

I'd appreciate some help.

Thank You!

 

Windows boot manager doesn't recognize AHCI/SATA SSD

Hi,

I have seen multiple instructions to do this, but can't find the ones I saved, but I did find this...

https://winaero.com/blog/how-to-switch-from-ide-to-ahci-in-windows-10/

There is a registry setting that needs to be switched to ACHI while booted in IDE... Then restart... enter Bios, and switch to AHCI...

The article in the link describes a different method involving Safe Mode that bypasses the registry tweak... Supposedly after booting to Safe Mode and restarting the machine... entering Bios... switching to AHCI... and then restarting... The switch should
be made to ACHI automatically...

Go by the article though... I have personally never had to try this..

 

I don't see any reason to use RAID if it has only one drive. Maybe I am missing something, though. I would leave it on AHCI.

The way you would change it, though, would be to boot into Windows in safe mode. Delete the device manager entry from the AHCI drive controller. Reboot the computer into UEFI settings and change the mode to RAID. Reboot the computer back into Windows safe mode. Turn off safe mode, reboot the computer back into normal Windows and hope for the best.

 

It is better to use AHCI for SSDs.

 

And you might want to look at the disk controller driver in Windows. Using the proper Intel or AMD drive controller for your chipset will improve performance, but you will have to load it manually.

 

Thanks. That's what I thought.

 

Okay. Dell has all those drivers available for download from their support site.

 

That's good to know.

 

I made a similar change to my Dell Precision M4800 (specs listed under second system in My System Specs). If anything Ive noticed a performance improvement (albeit slight) after changing to AHCI mode from RAID. With only one drive, RAID is rather pointless unless there is a reason for it that I am unaware of. So unless you have a real reason for wanting to use RAID, I would leave it as AHCI.

 

Dell uses RAID on systems with M.2 PCIe SSD drives so they can run them using the SATA controller. Basically, if the SATA is set to AHCI the system may, if able, boot to the PCIe device. If set to RAID it stays as SATA.

Installing Ubuntu requires those systems to be set as AHCI or it won't see a PCIe drive.