Asus formula cant find sata drives when AHCI enabled in bios

You have to use whichever setting was on during windows installation. You can't switch back and forth from ide to sata or vice versa.

Basically, what the last guy said, when you set up Windows with AHCI disabled for all the controllers, Windows doesn't load its default AHCI driver. The result is that the system reboots when it tries to load the IDE controller driver after you enable AHCI. But I have a solution:

1.) Enable the add-in controller and set it to AHCI mode
2.) Leave the drive you have connected to the Intel controller, leave the Intel controller in IDE mode, and reboot.

Now that you're booted up with one controller in IDE mode and another controller in AHCI mode, Windows will load drivers for that other controller. The default AHCI driver it installs should be MSAHCI.SYS

3.) Reboot, and switch the Intel controller to AHCI mode in BIOS.
4.) Try loading windows and see if it works.
5.) If everything is OK now, you can disable the add-in controller.

This Microsoft KB article is for you: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

I recommend the easiest method...first.

> You have to use whichever setting was on during windows installation.


That was not entirely true with XP.


With XP, many moons ago, we were able to force a driver change
before re-booting, using Device Manager.

You need to know exactly which SATA device driver to replace,
and the OS complains when you attempt to "force" the change,
but the OS error message is not fatal.

Then, it's very important to re-boot immediately into the BIOS
and change the BIOS setting to AHCI for those same ports.

After saving the new setting and exiting the BIOS,
Windows should load the updated device driver --
the one you "forced" using Device Manager.


I'm not sure if this will work with your OS, however,
because I have no experience with VISTA.


Also, sometimes ASUS adds a third-party controller
to handle eSATA ports: you should confirm this in your
motherboard's User Manual.


MRFS

Thanks all of you for the info.
I tried but sill couldn't get it to run in AHCI mode. Same thing happens
in Ubuntu.
Oh well no problem, when I get a new mainboard
everything should be good. On this board it won't recognize
anything as AHCI but they do show up on all SATA ports This
happens in the bios. I read that they are having problems with the
Intel chips and will not address this problem with this board.
I hope this makes sence to you. because when it comes to
controllers I'm lost. I tried it all but couldn't get it to work
Thanks a lot for the effort on my behalf. I think I'm going to give up for now.

Nope, it's not an Intel problem, it's a Windows problem. You enable AHCI and it's treated different by BIOS but it's still there, you're having software issues that go right back to the way that it's installed.

I'm using AHCI right now...and hey, all the Tom's Hardware motherboard shootouts use AHCI as well.

Hi Crashman
to make a long or a long story short.
I have been at this for three days.
I've tried loading XP pro Vista ubuntu with IDE plus AHCI
on different drives. (that's why the three days)
I get the same effect, except now my 1.5 t drive
doesn't even show up. But in vista it says the drive
needs to be formatted. I used a demo partition fixer
all the info is there but no partitions. To make things worse
I formatted a drive that I thought I had vista on and ended up
formatting my backup drive. Was two in the morning.
I guess I've messed thing up pretty bad. I've tried every
combo I can think of.
Other than drives disappearing or corrupting I've had
no luck. every-time I try to load a system with AHCI it
can't find a boot drive.

Have you tried maxblast 5.0, a free download? It will set up and partition your drives and allow you to do a fresh install or clone your old drive. Works everytime for me; designed for seagate or maxtor drives, but may work with other brands.

Ah yes, XP...you need a floppy for that.

Really, it's a PITA. And XP can't read certain partition types made in Vista or Ubuntu. And while Vista reads nearly anything made in XP, it still can't read certain partitions made in Ubuntu. As for Ubuntu and AHCI...it should work, I think you're hexed.

I haven't tried the raid yet.
I have tried the one drive though. Was no good though.
I'll keep trying
again thanks

Best answer selected by fleshhopw1.

This topic has been closed by Maziar