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

Thank you so much to the people on this thread (especially to MiB and ecoDex)
Using ecoDex procedure (with MiBs Intel GM45 AHCI.zip registry on page 1) worked brilliant
on my E4300 with EasyBCD bootmanager (SSD internal) and the normal HD in a DVD adapter 
GREAT !!!!
btw. IRRT was already really fast, but AHCI was like .... 12 seconds to boot to login and 4 seconds to login to Windows 8 - YES !!!!

best regards
Norrin

 

For anyone trying to do this after installing Windows 8, the following instructions worked for me:
How to Enable AHCI in Windows 8 After Installation
Tom

 

I know it's almost three years later, but I found the above quote, today. Thank you so much for this post, and thank you all for this thread! I made a video putting this thread in the video description link. It's just as relevant today for the upgrade problems with Win8 (which needs AHCI), as it was back when y'all were first posting this info re Vista. Thank you again!

EDIT: Do any of you know of RAID-change-to-AHCI problems for the Latitude 6530? I ordered it and asked they not ship if they don't change the default to AHCI, but they shipped anyway. I was on the phone for about an hour with Dell trying to determine if I'd have to make reg edits, and one of the reps was dead certain all I need to do is change to AHCI in Bios. I searched for problems with RAID on this model here in the forum and in Google proper, finding no reported problems. So if you're in the mood to tell me if you've had problems, I'd be very grateful. Windows 8 requires AHCI setting to install. I will install it to a separate partition, because I don't like Win8, but need to test it.

FYI, I got the 6530 at Dell Outlet (many of them are on sale) for half the price ($600) versus last April. But last April, I couldn't get the configuration I wanted: 8 GB RAM but only 32-bit Win7 OS. So yesterday I also found the 8GB/32-bit Win7 in a 6510 i7 2nd-gen quad at Dell Off-Lease. So now have two laptops on their way. The 6510 has an AHCI default, per its manual. Page 63 of service manual on the 6530 is Raid On default. Again, Dell insists I merely change to AHCI in Bios, no regedit needed nor reinstallation. I couldn't get any further info, the reps didn't know more and wouldn't comment until I actually have the machine ON. So that means unboxing to find out. What a hassle. Thank you for your time!

 

Hello,

I recently bought a 2nd HDD caddy for my E6500 and added an Intel 520 SSD for my primary. I installed Win8 Pro with no problems in AHCI, but when I insert the caddy with a 500gb WD in the optical bay it doesn't show up. I know the caddy is fine because I had it installed before I did the clean install. Previously I was running Win7 on the 500gb as my primary in IRRT, with a 320gb in the caddy as an extra storage drive. No problems at all. Now that I've re-installed the OS in AHCI, I can't seem to use my caddy?

Can I only use the caddy in IRRT on the E6500, or am I missing something?

Any help appreciated!

Thanks and regards.

 

Thank you so much! I was having problems with the hard drive freezing randomly, tried this, now my e6400 feels so much faster and awesome.

 

thanks to all, I wanted to downgrade an existing harddrive from IRRT to ACHI (to facilitate swapping a hard drive image to another laptop which could not do IRRT) and this thread helped

 

I have the same PC. Can you please explain exactly what you did?

 

Yes! Yes! Yes! Brilliant! It has been four years since your initial post, but thanks for sharing; this worked for my E6500. I tried several other solutions to no avail. Good luck MiB! :thumbsup: