What is AHCI ?

Dolby

Dolby

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I bought an SSD a few months back and did a clean install on Windows 7 64 bit.

I noticed everyone said Windows 7 will recognise it change the 'Defrag' option to an Optimise option - but when I checked mine it still said defrag which I'm told NOT to do. I thought it was a setting and Googled changing to AHCI from IDE in BIOS ...

It just hung the PC on the boot screen :/ So I've changed it back and was wondering what I actually did?
What is AHCI?
 
Oh - according to this I should have done it before installing Windows http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/235211-ahci-necessary-ssd.html

If you just built a machine, that would have been the time to enable AHCI before installing Windows. AHCI allows Windows 7 to detect and configure the SSD properly, such as disabling defrag, etc. You also should check to see if your drive has it's own garbage collection function, because I believe TRIM needs AHCI to work.
 
So you have probably ruined your SSD.

There is a registry tweak that you could try to make Windows 7 work when you switch to AHCI, but I have never tried it.

Best course of action would be to reinstall, but before you do that do a secure erase on the SSD, also make sure it's set to AHCI before you reinstall.
 
Thanks.

I changed it back and it works - so not damaged
 
Yea I had to.

Froze on AHCI ... so changed it back to what I found it and it booted. Was wondering what or why though.

I'm going to start afresh with the installation and change to AHCI before installation
 
Dolby said:
Yea I had to.

Froze on AHCI ... so changed it back to what I found it and it booted. Was wondering what or why though.

I'm going to start afresh with the installation and change to AHCI before installation
Click to expand...

And you know why not to defrag an SSD, right?
 
The registry tweak will work.

I cloned an existing Windows 7 install to an SSD with the BIOS setting still on IDE and the registry hack sorted me out. I can confirm it works. No need for a fresh install if you don't want to.
 
feo said:
The registry tweak will work.

I cloned an existing Windows 7 install to an SSD with the BIOS setting still on IDE and the registry hack sorted me out. I can confirm it works. No need for a fresh install if you don't want to.
Click to expand...

Did you check that trim is running?
 
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