Hello alltogether,
I want to add a SSD to my WIN XP Home Edition (SP3) system and therefore I searched how to change from IDE to AHCI-Mode.
I found in the manual of my motherboard (ASUS P5Q-VM) at page 1-11, chapter "1.5.2 Layout contents", that the board is equipped with a "ICH10 Serial ATA connector",
And on page 1-10, chapter "1.5 Motherboard overview" there is a "Intel(R) ICH10" chip visible at the left side of the six SATA connectors. There was no more info about the "Intel ICH10" chip.
But in the BIOS chapter "2.3.5 Storage Configuration" on page 2-15 is written that: "AHCI mode is not supported in Windows XP". This statement of course turned out as not true!
So, I was searching a lot for an "ICH10" driver but as I could not find anyone, I just installed a driver for an "Intel ICH10R" although I was in doubt whether this would work - it worked!
How I did it:
- First I downloaded the "Intel_Matrix_Storage_Driver_(SATA in AHCI Mode)_8.2.0.1001",
- I extracted the ZIP-File and then right-clicked at the "iaAHCI.inf" file and selected "install,"
- The driver was installed within seconds with no visible action,
- Then I opened the device manager and expanded the point "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller",
- I right clicked on the first entry named "Primary IDE-channel", and selected "update driver…"
- The window for the hardware-assistant opened and I clicked at the point "No, not this time", then clicked "next"
- Then the next windows opened and I selected "Install software from a certain source", then clicked "next",
- Next, click at "don´t search, instead select the driver manually",
- A next window opened with "Show compatible hardware", click on "storage device", the window "Installation from data carrier" opened ,
- click on "search" and then navigate to the unzipped folder, where the "iaAHCI.inf" file was extracted to.
- Click on "open" (window closes, new window opens), then klick on "ok" an then a new list of all "Intel(R) ICHxxx" Models appears, select the "Intel(R) ICH10R SATA/AHCI Controller", klick on "next",
- A window opens with the warning "It is not recommended to install this driver because it cannot be confirmed, that this driver fits to the present hardware". Want to continue? Click on "yes"!
- Windows rebooted and I immediately opened with the "Del" key the BIOS, where I changed the SATA mode from "IDE" to "AHCI",
- I exited the BIOS with "safe and exit" and Windows XP booted normally,
- WIN XP re-installed all HDD-drives and requested for a reboot,
- After this reboot my system runs with AHCI as stable as before!
Hint: no registry change or patch was necessary !!!
Hope this helps you to change your SATA mode to AHCI!
Bye,
Hilarion
My system configuration:
OS ____ : WIN XP Home Edition (SP3)
CPU ___ : Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00 GHz
RAM ___ : 4 x 1 GB DDR2 800 KINGSTON
Board __ : ASUS P5Q-VM Rev 1.xx
Graphics : Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD (integrated)
HDD ___ : 400 GB Seagate ST3400320AS
SSD ___ : 500 GB Samsung 850 EVO (since 26.02.16).
P.S. What I can say about the SSD: I will never run a PC system without a SSD - amazing speed!