Deleting Recovery partiton on Precision

How do I install this "ACHI" driver thing? Supposedly, it offers 10-15% better system performance?

 

Hi RAM

Not sure if it will...according to what i've read it only makes a difference when using RAID configurations or with the Turbo Memory.
I can't exactly tell you now how to do it with exact names of the devices to update because i don't have XP installed at this time and the devices show up with different names in XP and Vista.
I will probably be doing a new XP install this weekend and i'll write it all down.

You need to get the Intel Matrix Storage Controller driver file, not the application and manually (through device manager and "let me choose which driver to install") place the driver for the two IDE/ATA devices.
Install the second in the list first, don't know why but if you replace the top one you'll need to restart and the other will still be the old driver.
When updating and browsing to the driver file when manually selecting the driver you'll get a list of possible drivers too install.
Check in Vista for the name of your storage controller to see which one you need to get but it's probably the ICH8M-E/ICH9M-E SATA Raid Controller

When updated, restart and go straight into your bios to set SATA to ACHI

But again...read up on whether there's any use for this at all....not sure myself

 

Ello people!

Yesterday i formatted my whole HDD, installed XP updates, drivers everything. Worked fine. I did have to set SATA operation to ATA otherwise the XP setup wouldn't run. After installing the ACHI drivers for XP i swsitched the Bios to that.

Then continued to install Vista in the non-partitioned space after the C: partition where XP was. installed everything and all worked fine.

Both OS's run alongside eachother now but there are two weird things.
Both show to run in C:!! When running XP all the vista stuff is located in D: but when i run Vista it's located in C: and XP is in D:. Is this normal.

Also, it seems the system is performing less in XP!! It doesn't use up much resources but i noticed when i tried unraring a DVD-rar in XP it took me about 24min while in Vista it was 5min.
Could this be HDD related? Maybe in the setup somewhere?

 

Good job!!! Glad to hear you got it working. Still don't understand why you have to keep changing the SATA Operation options when installing.

The "weird" thing you mentioned about the C: drive is true for my system too. Presonally, I like it that way. I can always install to the C: Drive and don't have to mess around with remembering which partition is for which OS. Consider it a blessing

I don't recall how much RAM you have in your system. Remember, 32-bit XP can only support 3.25 GBs of RAM. 32-bit VISTA Business can support 23% more RAM at 4 GBs. That might be making a difference. I'll get back to you, but I don't think my M4400 is "slower" in XP then in Vista.

 

Think of C as the local disk for each OS you're on. I renamed my drives so theres no comfusion.

 

Yeah the whole C: drive thing is actually pretty good, especially with some installer that automatically install their stuff in C:
I had to run XP install again due to a nasty Vundo infection i picked up...guess i waited too long with installing Avast on the XP install. Now everything is pretty smooth...the slower performance was also because of the Vundo virus i think. Very happy with how it all works now.
Also found out that the cardbus issues i had don't exist under XP and Dell tech support was glad to hear this so they could go look for a fix under Vista for it.
And....making a good deal for the Dell 2709W monitor as "compensation" for my bad laptop screen

Thanks for all the help people!