Solved trying to switch from IDE to AHCI but I followed instructions to modify registry and enter safe mode, and it fails to work

sdowney717 · Feb 24, 2024

Started with following this, it failed to work gave me a stop code after changing the bios to AHCI

How to enable AHCI in Windows 11/10 after Installation

This post shows you how you can enable AHCI after you installed Windows 11/10 with IDE. You need to modify some keys in the Registry.

www.thewindowsclub.com

Then followed this which included one modify to registry and turn on safe mode boot

https://bytebitebit.com/tips-tricks/how-to-enable-ahci-on-windows-11/

bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal

Which also fails. Windows wont boot and goes to start up repair for 30 minutes, then says it could not start.

I set it back to IDE in bios, windows boots in safe mode.

So what can I do to make it work with AHCI?

Berton · Feb 24, 2024

IDE usually refers to the older HDDs which were PATA/Parallel ATA connections, 2 drives on the same ribbon cable and end was Master and middle was Slave. SATA is the newer Serial ATA connection, only 1 drive per cable.

AHCI/Advanced Host Controller Interface is the type selectable in the BIOS, could also be RAID if using 2 same-size drives. Downside of versions of RAID can be if one drive is removed the other won't boot.

ahci at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

sdowney717 · Feb 24, 2024

All the drives in the PC are SATA

glasskuter · Feb 24, 2024

To answer your question save yourself some grief and do a clean install
May I ask WHY you want to do this? What is your objective.

discussion here Change From Raid To AHCI

sdowney717 · Feb 24, 2024

So what do I do with this? Don't bother? Won't be better set AHCI?

Look, if it is not an improvement, then I will leave it set to IDE

Here is the board

Specification 760GM-E51

As a world leading gaming brand, MSI is the most trusted name in gaming and eSports. We stand by our principles of breakthroughs in design, and roll out the amazing gaming gear like motherboards, graphics cards, laptops and desktops.

www.msi.com

sdowney717 · Feb 24, 2024

Here says AHCI is an improvement verse IDE setting in bios for SATA drives.

Must-Know Guide: Know the Difference of AHCI vs IDE

You may find the AHCI mode in the BIOS settings of the newer PC. AHCI vs IDE which one is better? The post will discuss the differences between AHCI and IDE.

www.partitionwizard.com

Now can I download win 11, set to AHCI the bios, and reinstall win 11 from usb drive keeping files, folders and my online activation intact?

Berton · Feb 24, 2024

sdowney717 said:
So what do I do with this? Don't bother? Won't be better set AHCI?

Look, if it is not an improvement, then I will leave it set to IDE

Here is the board

Specification 760GM-E51

As a world leading gaming brand, MSI is the most trusted name in gaming and eSports. We stand by our principles of breakthroughs in design, and roll out the amazing gaming gear like motherboards, graphics cards, laptops and desktops.

www.msi.com

All the computers I've worked with in the last 10 years or older have been set for AHCI and used only SATA drives.

Berton · Feb 24, 2024

sdowney717 said:
Here says AHCI is an improvement verse IDE setting in bios for SATA drives.

Must-Know Guide: Know the Difference of AHCI vs IDE

You may find the AHCI mode in the BIOS settings of the newer PC. AHCI vs IDE which one is better? The post will discuss the differences between AHCI and IDE.

www.partitionwizard.com

Now can I download win 11, set to AHCI the bios, and reinstall win 11 from usb drive keeping files, folders and my online activation intact?

I don't think it will be a simple reinstall or upgrade but a clean install which will lose everything on the drive. But that's just what I've ran into some time back. The only choice in the last build I did was AHCI/RAID, with 2 drives already in the case Windows automatically chose RAID, lost booting when I removed one drive necessitated a reinstall.

sdowney717 · Feb 24, 2024

Berton said:
All the computers I've worked with in the last 10 years or older have been set for AHCI and used only SATA drives.

This is an old system of my dead Father in law. When I set it up long time ago, apparently I left it set to IDE which is the defualt setting when in the bios you load optimal defaults. So just recently when looking at it again, I saw it set to IDE not AHCI. I had just couple days earlier upgraded it to win 11. So originally it was windows 7

Berton · Feb 24, 2024

IDE HDD data cable versus SATA HDD or SSD data cable

SIW2 · Feb 24, 2024

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\sys\ControlSet001\Services\pciide]
"Start"=dword:00000000

glasskuter · Feb 24, 2024

sdowney717 said:
Now can I download win 11, set to AHCI the bios, and reinstall win 11 from usb

YES

sdowney717 said:
keeping files, folders

NO!

sdowney717 said:
my online activation intact

sdowney717 said:

upgraded it to win 11. So originally it was windows 7

Click to expand...

Your activation is tied to your hardware and and it should remain activated. No guarantees though since MS has stopped accepting 7-8 keys for activation. Some have reported they do lose activation. Others do not. Either way, you WILL have to reinstall using the workaround for incompatible hardware. As old as that machine is, if it's working, I would leave it alone. But that's just me.

antspants · Feb 24, 2024

I’m shocked this board would even run W11 with a release date of 2011. Pretty good effort.

Wynona · Feb 24, 2024

sdowney717 said:
This is an old system of my dead Father in law. When I set it up long time ago, apparently I left it set to IDE which is the defualt setting when in the bios you load optimal defaults. So just recently when looking at it again, I saw it set to IDE not AHCI. I had just couple days earlier upgfre.raded it to win 11. So originally it was windows 7

Can you still get a Windows 10 upgrade for free in 2025? Short answer: Maybe

Microsoft kept giving away free upgrades to Windows 10 on old hardware for more than eight years. The upgrades officially ended in 2023, but I've seen scattered reports that it still works for some people. But should you even bother?

www.zdnet.com

According to this article, you can no longer upgrade to Windows 10 or 11 from Windows 7 for free. Ed Bott is one of our better known tech writers and ZDNet is one of our more accurate publications.

sdowney717 · Feb 25, 2024

long ago was win7.
few years qgo I upgrade to 10
couple days ago I upgrade to 11

sdowney717 · Feb 25, 2024

some thing weird.

I wake up,
pc is showing could not start page, selected startup options
selected safe boot with networking.
restarted, and it boots into safe mode.
but looks like win 10
check and it is win 10!

ran bcdedit command to delete value safemode, said value not found
went to msconfig and set to regular startup
ran shutdown /r

it said was updating etc... do not turn off pc
rebooted,
then said 'we couldn't complete the update undoing updates cleaning up

came up safe mode win 10 pro

! can not get it to exit safe mode

it booted safe mode with bios set to AHCI

how to get out of safe mode?

sdowney717 · Feb 25, 2024

ok, think I know what happened a little.

PC has 4 or 5 drives in it
One of the drives has win10 pro
few years ago, I put in an SSD.

I think me being in the bios changed the boot drive from ssd with win 11 to the older SATA drive.
I redid msconfig under boot unselected safemode, rebooted and it is using AHCI and running windows 10 ok.

sdowney717 · Feb 25, 2024

ok, on this SATA drive win 10 it now works with AHCI

the win 11 install I think is on the samsung 970 evo drive, whic may be hosed, who knows
years ago had cloned the wdc onto the samsung.

will windows switch the boot order on it's own if one drive can not boot?

you can see all the drives in this pc, some are linux distos

sdowney717 · Feb 25, 2024

If i cant figure out the ssd install, i could re image the drive, then upgrade to win 11 again
It is using AHCI now, so the image will boot win 10 on samsung ssd with bios set to AHCI

sdowney717 · Feb 25, 2024

weird!
Went into bios, set the SSD as first boot drive
Booted PC, win 11 safe mode came up fine.
Went into msconfig, set boot unchecked safe mode
restarted
it boots up, but is back on win10 drive!

Windows swapped back to the win10 drive as the boot drive.

is there a way to force it to boot the ssd samsung drive, it does boot it only in safe mode.

I could yank off the drive connections for all drives except the ssd samsung drive.

Solved trying to switch from IDE to AHCI but I followed instructions to modify registry and enter safe mode, and it fails to work

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