Computer Guys

[03CVLX]

Would anyone be willing to help me do a clean install of Vista on my Dell Laptop. I did a reformat awhile ago, and it wouldn't let me reinstall Vista without changing the SATA settings from the Dell default of AHCI to ATA. I honestly don't know what the difference is but it sure seems like the computer runs slower. I also want to correctly reinstall the Dell Diagnotics utility back onto the hard drive for Dell's stupid warranty purposes. :rolf

Anyone willing to give me a hand? I'll pay with cash or Dinner or both to anyone willing to help me out to get this laptop working the way it should.

Or If I reset the Bios to the factory Defaults which is the AHCI setting for SATA. Whats the trick to getting Vista to finish installing.

Thanks,

Tom

[wikked]

How to enable AHCI if you already installed Windows Vista using IDE interface.

1. Exit all Windows-based programs.
2. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
3. If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
4. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Msahci
5. In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
7. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor

Reboot your notebook, enter bios (F2, del etc), change your hard disk interface to AHCI.


So basically, install Vista and let it use IDE, then do the above to switch it back after it's done installing.

[Irish]

How to enable AHCI if you already installed Windows Vista using IDE interface.

1. Exit all Windows-based programs.
2. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
3. If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
4. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Msahci
5. In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
7. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor

Reboot your notebook, enter bios (F2, del etc), change your hard disk interface to AHCI.


So basically, install Vista and let it use IDE, then do the above to switch it back after it's done installing.

:headbang

[03CVLX]

Wow, thank you very much.

[Car Guy]

You so smart Mr. Obrut.....:thumbsup

[03CVLX]

Well, I got brave, and just tried this without reinstalling Vista. It worked perfectly as a matter of fact the weird issues I was having seem to have vanished. It starts up faster too. Guess I will keep an eye on it and hold off on the reformat for now.

On a side note... What is the difference between ATA and AHCI anyway?


Thanks again!!!! :)

[wikked]

On the differences, I had to look it up...

The difference between AHCI and ATA mode is the support of hot-swappable drives (irrelevant in notebooks), native command queuing (NCQ - only helpful for servers), and the use of a flash module as a hard drive cache. You'll probably notice a small performance boost by turning it on.

Apparently that's it.

[03CVLX]

Hmm, ok. Thanks for looking it up for me. I do notice it starting up alot quicker now. Seems alot smoother also and the little buggy issues I was having are gone.