Clean Install of XP - SATA Can't Boot in AHCI Mode!

I had to install XP cleanly on my T61 using the SATA Compatability mode in the BIOS. I have installed all of the System Update drivers but I cannot return the SATA mode back to "AHCI" in the BIOS without blue screening XP.

How do I get XP to boot my SATA drive in AHCI mode again?

 

this is what you need to do:

Install Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver, explicitly follow the installation instructions on the page to install it. Remember the package unpacks itself to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\IMSM\PREPARE, you would need to go there in order to install it manually and look for the file to run "install.cmd" once in the above directory. Once that is done reboot your machine go into the bios and put AHCI back on and then reboot into windows, this should work for you as I just did this yesterday on my brand new t61p.

 

You'll have to down-load the Intel AHCI driver and do a F6 installation while installing Window XP. But this requires a USB floppy drive I think.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&OSFullName=Windows* XP Professional&lang=eng

Or you can try to slip-stream the AHCI driver into your XP installation disc.

There may be a third option of trying to update the driver directly through the device manager. I think I did that once for my desktop running Win XP, but I've never tried that on a T61.

EDIT: Please ignore my comment, CSHawkeye81 is correct.

 

Hawkeye - that worked. Thanks! Glad I didn't have to reinstall Windows

 

I got this solved with one Acer Aspire 5315-2153 sold by Walmart with preinstalled lame Vista. I forced install AHCI driver after completing XP Pro SP2 install.

See http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=185975

 

^^ i tried that as well but it didn't work. the other drive solutions did not work either. i think this stuff is usually YMMV. im going to keep experimenting and see what happens but so far i end up with the BSOD if it doesnt work

 

I had the exact same problem as you. Follow the steps I used in my guide. It works perfect. The link is in my signature.

 

Hmm I tried to boot in AHCI mode on my bosses new comp and could not boot in this mode when its a dual boot machine with XP SP2 and Vista SP1.

The Vista bootloader is what comes up, so should it not have worked? I am wondering if its a hardware thing more than a driver thing in my case. Is the performance loss in IDE mode vs AHCI big? I still was getting over 100mb/s average when I tested his velciraptor drive.

 

It isn't noticable. It may shave a half a second if you are writing 5 different files at the same time that are each 400MB in size. Otherwise, AHCI is highly overrated.