Tutorial : How to switch from IRRT to AHCI mode - E6400/E6500 (Vista)

hi guys,

I have an E4300.

So I went the long way and :-
(1) changed the bios to AHCL, (2) re-installed the Windows 7 64bit, (installed all the dell drivers

My Question is do I still need to install the Intel Matrix storage Manager?.

Whats the advantage of installing it ?


cheers

 

Just get the "Intel Rapid Restore Technology" from the Dell site instead of IMSM. IRRT has the latest drivers.

 

not sure I understand, the sticky relates to moving away from IRRT to AHCL, but you saying I should then Install IRRT drivers (which was on the notebook factory image to start with)?

Is it that the IRRT drivers also include AHCL drivers as well ?..... Sorry i beign clueless



css_jay99

 

Perhaps you mean the Intel Rapid Storage Technology? This is the name of IMSM replacement.

John

 

Ok Cheers, i'll install that

 

Oops...yup...small mistake, bigger difference

 

For those wondering about doing the IRRT to AHCI switch on the E6x10 series, here's a thread with instructions.

John

 

So for the past two days I have been trying to switch my windows 7 system from irrt to ahci. Following the procedure outline on the first page, I would always get a bsod when I switch my sata mode setting to ahci. After a few tries I finally got it to work.


1. create a restore point, edit registry ( change the start value of msachi to 0 ), download the provided registry edit and merge. "found in the first post."

2. reboot your computer

3. Now install the latest Intel rapid storage software from dell or intel website.

3. reboot your computer and then change from irrt to ahci. You should not get a bsod.

4. After reboot, windows should install default driver. at this point you could keep the default driver and uninstall the intel rapid storage driver you installed earlier or go to device manager and update the driver.


On a sidenote, I could not update my driver using the update feature. What I did was uninstall the intel rapid storage driver I installed earlier and reinstall after a reboot. I now have an intel ahci driver.

I know there may be a few steps that could have be skipped ,but it worked for me. So I hope this helps anybody who was having an issue booting into ahci under windows 7.

 

So, what's the verdict on this? Is TRIM really enabled on the AHCI or should I go with the IRRT setting (since in the latest IRRT drivers Intel claims to have TRIM working).

p.s.: Using an E4200 with a high speed Samsung SSD and Win7x64.

 

I don't know for sure whether IRRT and TRIM can co-exist, but IRRT is a sort of RAID technology and TRIM doesn't work with RAID. Unless you are planning to use the facilities that IRRT offers (see Intel's description) then I recommend AHCI.

John