EVGA 750i SLI, adding on storage SSD, Win7 BSOD, NO AHCI supported

[knowngni]

I have been struggling with this on my own for the past day before deciding to come here about it.

I currently have a 30GB OCZ Vertex SSD and I have an existing Windows 7 64-bit setup.
Now the main point here is I am trying to add the SSD as a storage drive so that I can move my games into it to improve my loading speed.

I am not trying to install an OS as the 99% of other people out there but add on a SSD as a storage drive.


The issue I am having is Windows 7 BSOD's on the loading screen. After googling around the typical response is to reinstall windows from scratch and enable AHCI. However this is advice for someone trying to move their OS onto their SSD which is not what I am doing. I don't care about the load times for my windows 7 as my desktop is rarely shut down and usually in standby.

Thing is the EVGA Nvidia nForce 750i SLI board doesnt support/allow the option to change into this anywhere in the bios.

I read around that if AHCI doesn't work that you can resort to IDE mode. I've tried uninstalling the NVIDIA nforce SATA controller and switched it to Microsoft's "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE controller" to see if this would allow my windows to boot correctly but to no avail.

I'd greatly appreciate it if I could get this problem resolved so that I could just use the SSD that has been lying around the house for the past year. If possible I do not want to bother reinstalling my windows just to get a 30gb ssd working just to install a single game. I've been told a couple times over already to reinstall windows and enable AHCI from people who don't seem to pay attention to my post in other places or rather copy pasting from other solved threads of installing windows onto a SSD

 

[rolli59]

Have you checked if the ACHI mode is under your Raid settings? Sort of pointless of having SATA connectors if you can not enable ACHI!

 

[knowngni]

Yeah positively sure its not in the bios, already checked the raid settings.. Many other posts on google also support this and that the Nvidia nForce 7 series doesn't support AHCI.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

A lack of AHCI support and other BIOS features is not unusual for the older 750 motherboards. In fact it is quite common. Best advice is to upgrade the motherboard.

Come to think of it I don't even have 750 motherboards listed in the Intel motherboard database.

 

[knowngni]

My current setup is a Core 2 Quad Q9400. Thing is if I spend $40-60 bucks on a new motherboard, I might as well switch over to ddr3 ram and switch to a 1155 socket with a new processor. But the specs aren't that outdated yet and honestly its quite a stretch to spend $60 for a motherboard to get a 30gb ssd working, even more so to replace cpu, mobo, and memory just for a 30gb ssd.

 

[sreggy]

Hi Knowngni,
I've the same problem, my configuration is based on an NVIDIA GeForce 8300 Chipset (ASUS M3N78-EM) and a 60GB OCZ-Agility3 SSD.

So I'm considering to buy an external SATA 3 controller, I'm looking ASUS S3U6 and ASRock SATA3 ... have you considered this solution?

Let me know your opinion.

Regards
Stefano

 

[JohnnyLucky]

sreggy - I just posted about the problems with those two adapter cards in the thread you started.

 

[knowngni]

Sorry I should have mentioned, I'd like to try and get this solved without spending money. The SSD works in IDE mode if I have use it as a boot drive with a fresh install of windows but again its not my goal to run windows off the SSD.

Rather store my games to reduce the stupid 15~20 second loading time I have when I play games and switch maps or teleport anywhere.

If I'm going to spend $20 on a SATA controller, I might as well spend $30-40 on a mobo, and if I'm going to do that I might as well spend more and more. And this is all for a 30GB OCZ Vertex SSD. So really I'd like to not spend money if I could. I'm pretty sure its a Window's configuration as I have already tested if the motherboard likes the SSD with a boot OS on it so that is fine.