Hello everybody. What started out as a request for guidance ended up with me solving my own problem. Thought I may as well pass on my findings anyway just in case it helps somebody else in the same situation.
So over the weekend, through a series of upgrades, I successfully hopped from Vista to Windows 10 Professional 64-bit. But, as is not unusual, I again managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. With my new SSD loaded with Win 10 goodness, I realised I was still operating it in IDE mode. A confident dip into the BIOS to enable AHCI mode resulted in Windows then failing to start because it no longer recognised the boot drive! I'm guessing the AHCI driver wasn't loaded during installation since the mode wasn't in use. So back to IDE mode and a surf around for solutions. Plenty around pertaining to Vista, Win 7 and Win 8 involving changing registry values but nothing tangible for Win 10. However I found this alternative Win 8 workaround which I can confirm works equally well in Windows 10. I realise I'm probably teaching my Grandmother to suck eggs with this post here but perhaps somebody as equally technophobic as me, may find it useful. This is what I did:
1. Run Command Prompt as Admin
2. Invoke a Safe Mode boot with the command: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
3. Restart the PC and enter your BIOS during bootup.
4. Change from IDE to AHCI mode then Save & Exit.
5. Windows 10 will launch in Safe Mode.
6. Right click the Window icon and select to run the Command Prompt in Admin mode from among the various options.
7. Cancel Safe Mode booting with the command: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
8. Restart your PC once more and this time it will boot up normally but with AHCI mode activated.
9. Bask in the reflected glory of being a total Windows 10 GodTipHow to Enable AHCI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 after Installation
Was it brand new SSD you replaced ...or old one just upgrading to wds 10...?
Because i have SSD with wds8.1 ..upgraded to wds10 .. did not see any problems ...!
My SSD was brand new and in my excitement to get the upgrading process underway, I forgot that AHCI mode should be enabled BEFORE the OS is loaded on the drive. I guess this is so the OS can install the appropriate driver after doing its hardware check. The SSD worked in IDE mode but to release the full potential of the drive, it needs to operate in AHCI mode. A straightforward upgrade would not be a problem providing the SSD was already working in AHCI mode.
Attn. SSD owners - Enabling AHCI mode AFTER Windows 10 installation.
Yesss.... It work
Many thanks to have published the solution
Martin
Montreal, Canada
Toolbad: Thanks for the info.
TooBad, great info. Was gong to try this on my puter and under bios I have 2 options. Don't know if I need to do both or just one?? My options are:
OnChip SATA type IDE or ACHI
OnBoard SATAII Ctrl Mode IDE or ACHI
Tx...
I'd guess you would want to enable AHCI mode in the SATA II controller on the motherboard and use that. The transfer rate for SATA is only 1.5Gb/s whilst SATA II whizzes along at 3Gb/s. Hopefully somebody more knowledgeable will pop by with a definitive answer for you. Hope it all works out.
I tried it....it works. Tx againI'd guess you would want to enable AHCI mode in the SATA II controller on the motherboard and use that. The transfer rate for SATA is only 1.5Gb/s whilst SATA II whizzes along at 3Gb/s. Hopefully somebody more knowledgeable will pop by with a definitive answer for you. Hope it all works out.
I tried this and now it says Inaccessible Boot Device and it just keeps rebooting in this endless loop. Not sure what to do
I can confirm that this method works in Windows 10 64-bit. Thanks to the OP for all the research and hard work.
Safe mode must have some sort of script to fix a "false" IDE flag, when really you're just switching to AHCI.
Running 850 EVO 500 GB SSD boot drive and 840 EVO 120 GB SSD.
