Native IDE vs. AHCI vs. Legacy IDE

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xappie

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 13, 2000
Messages
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Hi all

I am going to be adding a new SATA 3.0 drive to my system as the OS boot drive. Can anyone tell me which setting for the SATA controller in the bios would be the best?

The choices are:
- Native IDE
- AHCI
- Legacy IDE

When I install my new drive, I will have one SATA II 3.0 drive, and 3 SATA 1.5 drives installed. When I first got this mobo, I chose Native IDE but it wouldn't boot with my 1.5 drives, so I switched to AHCI. Now I am unsure which setting to use for a combination of drive types.

Any advice is appreciated!
 
native IDE would be your best bet....it should boot up w/o a hitch

your problem might be related to your bios and the HDD boot order when you added your sata 1.5 drives....go to the bios and select the correct hdd to boot from...your bios should be able to see all 4 of your hdds, just select the right one
 
Well now I'm really confsused because I just found this on another site:

"ATI SB600 SATA controller supports 4 modes: Legacy IDE, Native IDE, AHCI and RAID. Legacy/Native IDE mode is designed for compatibility with some old OS without AHCI driver but looses SATAII/AHCI features such as NCQ."

(My mobo uses the ATI SB600 controller)
 
thats fine, you don't need AHCI enabled, NCQ is more useful in a multi-user environment/server type

just select Native IDE and select the proper HDD to boot from in your bios
 
I am having a similar problem.

I have 1 internal sata samsung disc, 1 internal dvd-rom, and recently bought 2 external discs, using eSata connection via a bracket that is connectet to the mobo`s sata 3 and 4 port.

But my problem is that when I have the 2 external discs connected, the computer (using winxp pro) doesnt turn itself on. It either restarts, or the xp bootscreen just keep rolling. I`ve installed the "ATI RAID/ AHCI installation disk" from Abit`s homesite, and I`ve tryed IDE, Legacy IDE, AHCI and RAID, but the same result. I`ve also flashed my BIOS to newest version.

What can be the problem here?
 
Next time, make a new thread and don't revive old threads.

Anyway, when you first installed the OS, what setting did you have it at? IDE, AHCI, etc?

If it wasn't AHCI, you might have to reinstall the OS and install the AHCI drivers via F6 IIRC.
 
I thought Windows XP does not like ACHI? Perhaps I am thinking of something else.
 
DTN107 said:
I thought Windows XP does not like ACHI? Perhaps I am thinking of something else.
Click to expand...

Windows XP doesn't have driver to recognize AHCI. That's why most motherboard manufacturer provide a floppy disk or a way to make a floppy disk with the correct drivers to get XP's setup program to recognize the AHCI controller.

In Native IDE mode, the AHCI controller looks and acts like a standard ATA controller that the basic driver will recognize, but you lose the AHCI features.
 
Danny Bui said:
When you first installed the OS, what setting did you have it at? IDE, AHCI, etc?

If it wasn't AHCI, you might have to reinstall the OS and install the AHCI drivers via F6 IIRC.
Click to expand...

When I first installed I left it to default, so that would be IDE.

When I reinstall and press the F6 for the drivers, are the drivers installed from the xp cd, or do I need another cd / usb stick with them on? (I dont have floppy).

Making it straight: I set my system to AHCI in Bios, pop in the installation cd, hit F6 to get the drivers, hopefully my drives are recognized and its all good?
 
MrHaugland said:
When I first installed I left it to default, so that would be IDE.

When I reinstall and press the F6 for the drivers, are the drivers installed from the xp cd, or do I need another cd / usb stick with them on? (I dont have floppy).

Making it straight: I set my system to AHCI in Bios, pop in the installation cd, hit F6 to get the drivers, hopefully my drives are recognized and its all good?
Click to expand...

You have to have the drivers from the manufacturer and they have to be on a floppy disk. XP will not recognize any other media. A USB floppy drive might work.
 
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