hi all,

over the years i've come to rely on a number of different software tools to deal with data recovery issues. as i've started seeing more and more computers being sold with ahci enabled by default i've begun to wonder if my old toolset is about to become obsolete.

the little tinkering i've done with ahci has seemingly been rife with problems (wrt the various software tools i use). as such, my default behavior up until now has been to wipe any ahci system i get my hands on and switch the system back to "ata/compatibility" (what's the correct term?) mode--voila, my tools again work without glitches.

can someone speak generally about the topic of pre-ahci hard drive software tools and whether or not they will either need to be updated or replaced in order to function properly in an ahci world?

thanks,
david

I couldn't imagine the world without AHCI. What tools are you talking about? I'm guessing low level dos based tools?

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correct.

mbrwork and ghost are staples. over the years though many others have come in quite handy. i once got personal help with findpart from Svend Olaf Mikkelsen--a total life saver.

i did start doing some more playing around with ahci today. it seems as though to some extent i can switch between ahci and ata-compatible mode at will. and not suffer any nasty consequences--assuming that i don't perform any write operations.


-- david

can i get confirmation that this is true. that simply switching between ahci and ata mode in the bios is always non-destructive?

also, one of the more common current scenarios that i encounter is cleaning up brand new dell desktops. desktops that are set to ahci by default and that have windows xp pro installed. in the past i would quickly shrink (and typically convert from ntfs to fat32) the single large partition that dell setup and then go on to create additional logical partitions. does anyone know if there is(are) any tool(s) that will perform these functions non-destructively? all the partition shrinking/converting tools i've tried so far seem to choke on the ahci setting.


thanks,
david

ping

Pong.

This is the last time I'll post to this thread if there is no response (I don't want folks to be annoyed).

If anyone knows the answers to the questions in my previous post (quoted below) I would very appreciative of the answers. If this is the wrong forum for these questions please let me know. It originally seemed to me to be the perfect place for the questions I asked.

Lastly, if the reason I did not receive more replies to my questions was due to the lack of capitalization in my writing I apologize. I just read the FORUM RULES post and noticed the rule about using capitalization. It's been years since I stopped capitalizing and I never receive any complaints about it. In case this is the issue I've went ahead and added the proper capitalization below to my previous post.

Thanks,
david


--


Can I get confirmation that this is true. That simply switching between AHCI and ATA mode in the bios is always non-destructive?

Also, one of the more common current scenarios that I encounter is cleaning up brand new Dell desktops. Desktops that are set to AHCI by default and that have Windows XP Pro installed. In the past I would quickly shrink (and typically convert from NTFS to FAT32) the single large partition that Dell setup and then go on to create additional logical partitions. Does anyone know if there is(are) any tool(s) that will perform these functions non-destructively? All the partition shrinking/converting tools I've tried so far seem to choke on the AHCI setting.


Thanks,
david
--

I don't have confirmation on your question about switching being non-destructive ... I have normally found that switching causes boot issues. However I do have a question for you.

Why would you convert NTFS volumes to FAT32?

Just curious, seems like a step in the wrong direction to me.

Its a bit late, but just in case your paying attention:

In theory switching between AHCI and "IDE" mode is non-destructive.

However there is a catch. AHCI typically requires a hardware-specific driver that is installed by pressing F6 at the start of the Windows Installation process.

If the driver is not installed at that time, and you later switch to AHCI mode, windows may not be able to boot.

The "fix" is to switch back to IDE mode so you can:
- Put the driver .sys file in the System32\Drivers folder
- Create the REG entry for the driver
- Create the REG entry marking the driver as a "load early" driver

Using Google I found a web site that explained this and provided templates for the Registry entries. I say templates because they have to be customized to match your specific hardware's PC ID value. Not very hard to do.

After doing that, I rebooted - switched back to AHCI mode and Windows XP Pro loaded normally. Then I installed the Windows part of the driver - which I think is just a monitoring utility. And all is fine.

Well, except when I want to use MHDD I have to switch back to IDE mode. And if I forgot to switch back and start windows in IDE mode that Intel utility is NOT happy. So if your leaving AHCI mode forever, you should un-install it first.

_________________
Thanks in Advance!
Rich.