Gigabyte EP35-DS3R & eSATA question

[animosity]

crap submitted to soon, editing brb.

Currently I have a Gigabyte ep35-ds3r and Windows XP installed on the intel sata controller set to ide.

Is it possible to enable the jmicron controller to ahci and use hot swappable esata without having windows install on achi?

 

[farfromhome]

Yes, it is very possible. I have XP, Vista, and Linux on the ICH9R ports of my very similar board (P35C-DS3R), and used the included adapter to eSata on the JMicron. I have both set to AHCI, but there's no reason that you have to.

By the way, if you want to use AHCI for an already-installed Windows partition, the easiest way to set the JMicron to IDE and the ICH9R to AHCI, and put the Windows drive on the JMicron controller temporarily. Then install the AHCI driver within Windows, put the drive back onto the ICH9R controller, and you're all set.

 

[animosity]

I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed as achi on the intel controller. I had some major issues with random 5 second lock ups. Using dpc latency tool it would constantly spike like crazy. I switched over to XP on without achi and I haven't had any problems at all.

 

[farfromhome]

Very odd. Anyway, there shouldn't be any problems turning on the AHCI on the JMicron only.