RAID or IDE Mode

Personally, I'd disable RAID in the BIOS as then it will boot a bit faster. But I have a DFI MB, don't know about a Gigabyte.

I've also tried AHCI, but notice no real difference other than (again) a bit slower on boot.

There are 2 advantages to using the RAID mode:

1. You get the AHCI features of hot-swap (probably not useful), and NCQ (possibly useful). These features are not enabled in IDE mode.

2. If you want to upgrade to a real RAID setup later, the Intel controller has a migration mechanism that can migrate to a RAID setup from a single drive if you use RAID mode.

OK, I think I will just use IDE mode. You are right, it does boot way faster this way.

I was always told to stay clear of AHCI. I am not sure why. The Gigabyte board lets you select between RAID, AHCI, or IDE. So you are saying that using RAID mode actually allows the use of the AHCI functionality?

The RAID driver and AHCI driver are the same and implement the same functionality. The only difference between the two settings is that AHCI only allows the drives to be used singly. The RAID mode brings up the Ctrl-I RAID BIOS during post to allow you to define RAID arrays.

If you'd like the AHCI functionality but have no need for the RAID functions, choose AHCI. This will also improve the boot time because the Ctrl-I RAID BIOS will not be displayed. If you later want to migrate to RAID, change the BIOS to the RAID mode, install the Windows Intel Storage Manager, then perform the single drive->RAID migration.

I cannot agree with that.
I first installed XP SP3 using IDE mode, then updated the driver with the iastor.sys (the one that you can build the F6 floppy with), changed from IDE to AHCI in BIOS and now it boots fine.
Now though, if I change the bios setting back to IDE or to RAID, I get the blue-screen.

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey