Change From Raid To AHCI

Hi. I would be grateful for advice on how to change the SATA configuration from Raid to AHCI in BIOS.

My son has an i5 12th Generation All In One desktop and is configured in Raid mode in the BIOS. It has only 1 SSD Drive.

When changing from Raid to AHCI, many online articles say to boot in to Safe Mode first (either using Command Prompt or msconfig) then change from Raid to AHCI in the BIOS. He called tech support and was told that it was not necessary to boot to safe mode before changing.

He wants to do a clean install of Windows 11 Home, which he is familiar with, however to view the drive to install windows requires the Intel Rapid Storage Driver to be installed first - a procedure he is unsure of. (Due to distance, he will be doing this himself). Tech support told him that by changing from Raid to AHCI the drive would be visible without having the extra step of installing the IRST Driver on the Media Creation Tool.

Would he be able to change from Raid to AHCI without doing a clean install of Windows 11 Home immediately after, and would that require booting to Safe Mode first?
Also, is there any difference in booting to Safe Mode using the Command Prompt (bcdedit......safeboot minimal) and using msconfig/boot/safeboot minimal which may be easier for him?

Apologies if these are fairly basic questions and thanks in advance for your help.
Mitch.

To change from RAID to AHCI and not do a clean install, it is required to do it while booted in safe mode. It does not matter how safe mode is enabled.

If you are going to do a clean install, safe mode is not required. Just change RAID to AHCI and boot the computer from the Windows 11 USB flash drive.

Hello,
Thanks very much for taking the time to reply and for your advice.

I assume from Intel 11th Generation onwards the IRST driver would have to be loaded separately if in RAID, unless Microsoft includes it the Media Creation Tool to allow the drive to be visible which seems unlikely.
Thanks again.

Mitch.

Speaking from experience with the AHCI/RAID, I had to make the change to AHCI in the BIOS and re-install Windows.

Just to add a word of caution here, if the machine in question has an Optane drive or module then the RST driver would be required for that functionality as it has the Optane driver bundled in now.
This should only be an issue if not clean installing Windows, Optane modules work just like small SSDs without the driver, however if the system drive is of the SSD + Optane type (H series and above) then it is possible the RST driver needs to be installed during Windows install using the F6 add driver method.
Of course non of this may apply to the machine in question, but worth mentioning for others browsing this thread.

My son is intending to do a clean install of Windows 11 Home after changing from RAID to AHCI - I wasn't sure if this would be done immediately, but if there is a problem he may have to.

I have checked the specs he sent me and there is no mention of an Optane Drive. It is a 512GB, M.2, PCLe NVMe SSD. I'm not sure if the Optane Drive, if there is one, would be listed separately? If there was an Optane Drive present and Windows 11 was installed in AHCI mode, would the SSD still function without the IRST Driver but perhaps lose some functionality?
Thanks.

To be safe for the new install go here:

Download the f6vmdflpy-x64.zip file. Exctact the zip file to the Windows 10/11 installation USB flash drive. If during Windows 10/11 setup you get to the screen which is supposed to list drives and partitions and it is empty, loading the driver you saved on the flash drive will likely solve the problem. And if you don't need it, it won't do any harm being on the flash drive.

Mitch said:

My son is intending to do a clean install of Windows 11 Home after changing from RAID to AHCI - I wasn't sure if this would be done immediately, but if there is a problem he may have to.

I have checked the specs he sent me and there is no mention of an Optane Drive. It is a 512GB, M.2, PCLe NVMe SSD. I'm not sure if the Optane Drive, if there is one, would be listed separately? If there was an Optane Drive present and Windows 11 was installed in AHCI mode, would the SSD still function without the IRST Driver but perhaps lose some functionality?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

I have a friend with an HP laptop that has an NVME SSD as its primary storage, but with an additional small (32GB?) Optane drive as a nonvolatile cache. I don't know why HP included that. My ignorance is substantial, but I'd think that an NVME SSD wouldn't get much benefit from such a cache.

Intel has recently (July 2022) discontinued Optane drives.

I'm not sure what would happen if the RST drivers were uninstalled, and an Optane cache drive was present. As far as I know, the Optane drive will be in an M.2 socket, so it could be removed if necessary.

My Dell Vostro 5890 from April has Optane in Storage controllers.

I think the best option is, as NavyLCDR says, is to install the IRST Driver on the Media Creation Tool just in case. We will check online how to load the driver if it is required to avoid having to abandon the Windows installation process. Hopefully, if we change from RAID to AHCI the drive will be shown. Thanks again .

I did this way. just follow the guide.

Switch RAID to AHCI without reinstalling Windows 11​

or

Switch Windows 10 from RAID/IDE to AHCI​

If an Optane cache drive (16 - 32GB size) is present and set up for use as the machine was supplied then there is most likely an option in the BIOS for disk access method such as 'RST Premium with Optane' or similar wording, this is in fact a form of RAID and would be changed to AHCI if the Optane cache drive function was not required.
Changing this setting would relegate any Optane module to a standard, albeit small, SSD.
On a working Windows install this could cause a non boot situation if the Optane function was not disabled with the Windows utility first.
On a clean install where the Optane function was no longer required it would be a good idea to change/ disable this BIOS setting first.

An SSD can still benefit from an Optane cache as the module has much, much lower latency than even a high end NAND based SSD.

With the SSD + Optane type of drive (H10 for example) the Optane cache is physically on the SSD, this type of drive might require the RST driver to function regardless of any BIOS option, so the suggestion to put the f6vmdflpy-x64 install time driver on a USB would be a good idea, just in case.
The problem here is that pre builts, especially from HP, Dell etc. have non standard BIOS customised by the manufacturer for each version of the hardware used and may require drivers that a self built machine could do without through user choice.

My other post was for my Desktop, this is from my Vostro 14-3400 Notebook and I don't think there's more than the one drive in it but looks like there's a place to put in another.

Thanks. When I did a Windows 11 clean install I backed up the drivers first to a USB drive. After installation Windows Update installed basic drivers automatically which is OK. Would the next step be to open device manager and start at the top and update the drivers from the USB drive? I would also use the manufacturers driver update utility for any new updates from them.
Thanks again.

Hi,
It is necessary to boot in safe mode in order to switch from RAID to AHCI without performing a clean installation. It makes no difference how safe mode is turned on.
Safe mode is not necessary if you plan to install something completely new. To boot the machine from the Windows 11 USB flash drive, simply switch the RAID setting to AHCI.
Follow these are the steps to switch to AHCI on Windows 10:

• Open a Command Prompt with administrative rights.
• Type the following command: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
  • In the unlikely scenario that this command doesn't work, use this instead: bcdedit /set safeboot minimal
• Restart the computer.
• Enter the BIOS Setup by pressing F1, F2 or the DEL key (depending on your computer settings).
• Change the SATA Operation mode from RAID (or IDE, or RAID/IDE) to AHCI.
• Save changes and exit.
• Make Windows 10 boot and load in Safe Mode.
• Open a Command Prompt with administrative rights.
• Type the following command: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
  • Again, if this command doesn't work, use this instead: bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot
• Reboot your system.
• Windows 10 should now start with AHCI enabled.

Thanks. I think I will advise my son to change from Raid to AHCI using safe mode without doing a clean install immediately after.
At present, when doing a custom clean install, the drive is not displayed without the Intel RST driver loaded in Raid mode, but it should show when changed to AHCI. If there is a problem he can go ahead and clean install.
Thanks again.

I would have the IRST drivers saved in the Windows USB flash drive just in case.

I don't believe anyone mentioned this. The RST RAID drivers are just fine for non-raided configurations. In fact, in most cases, they perform better than the AHCI drivers in such configurations. The only downside I can think of is if you want to keep updated on the drivers, you would need to do it from Intel download site.