Windows 7 64 bit and AHCI support on DC7800 convertible minitower?

[ststiffy]

Hi guys.

I have an old HP DC7800 (it actually says DC7900 on the box, but several firmwares says it is a dc7800 for some odd reason...) convertible minitower that I use at home, running Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit.

I put an SSD in this PC and when I went into the BIOS to look for AHCI settings it only displays RAID and IDE.

Now, I've read about this in this forum and that guy got it working with Intel Matrix Storage Manager (RAID drivers), but he was on Windows Vista. I however am on Windows 7.

From what I can find there simply are no drivers for this on Windows 7.

Anyone got any experience with this?

Would be sweet to get this working...

Thank you in advance.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Someone probably put a dc7800 motherboard in a dc7900 case because they use the same case.

The fact that the BIOS in your PC only has settings for RAID and IDE, that confirms you have a dc7800.

The dc7900 has all 3 settings.

You can't use the old matrix storage Manager to provide trim support for your SSD--at least not that I know of.

You need to use the new Intel RST driver which you can get at the link below.

That software and driver supposedly provides support for SSD's.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Intel-RST-SSD-TRIM-RAID,14048.html

Download and install the first file on the list.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=22767&ProdId=2101&lang=eng&OSVersion...=

[ststiffy]

Thanks for the help, Paul, but unfortunately I get an error that says that my platform is not supported.

I downloaded the first file as you specified.

Any more good ideas?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Try just updating the driver.

Use this download instead. Select the first file on the list (64 bit).

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=2101&DwnldID=22676&keyword=Intel+Rapi...

Extract the files to a folder.

Go to the device manager and click to expand the storage controllers section.

There you see your Intel RAID controller listed.

Click on that. Click on the driver tab.

Click on update driver. Select the Browse My Computer for Software and browse to the folder you extracted those drivers to.

Make sure the Include subfolders box is checked and see if the driver installs that way.

A successful install will have changed the name of your RAID controller from the Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO/5 Series/3400 Series SATA RAID Controller to the Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller.

[ststiffy]

Hi again, Paul.

I'm following your instructions to the letter, but when I expand the Storage controllers section in Device Manager it doesn't say anything like RAID. It only lists my "MagicISO SCSI Host Controller". Sooooo.... I'm stuck again.  🙂

Does this mean that I don't have the RAID driver installed or simply that I don't have RAID capabilities on this machine or similar?

Appreciate the help.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Your PC has an add on SCSI controller card and I don't know what you need to do with that.

I would remove the SCSI controller and connect the HDD to the SATA port on the motherboard (unless there was a specific reason the PC had a SCSI controller card installed, and you need it).

My dc7800 does not have a SCSI controller card and my HDD is connected directly to the SATA 0 connector on the motherboard, is set to RAID, and after installing the latest RST driver manually, my controller is listed as I posted above.

I do not have a SSD in mine, so I am unable to report the RST driver's ability to support TRIM.

[ststiffy]

Hi again, Paul.

To my great shame I must admit that the two labels actually DID say dc7800, not dc7900.

The one of them was worn down so I misread.  🙂

Anyways; from what I know the MagicISO SCSI is simply a driver that was installed when I installed MagicISO DVDrom emulator. As far as I know I do not have an actual SCSI card in my computer...

My SSD is connected directly to my SATA plug on my motherboard, so I'm uncertain why this doesn't say RAID.

Allthough the BIOS is NOT set to RAID, but to IDE in my case... Should I set it to RAID? Will the RAID Host Controller appear under Storage Controllers then?

Or maybe I misunderstood you...?

I will try this after I've put my youngest to bed.  🙂

Thanks!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

OK...To get what you are looking for out of your SSD, yes, you have to go into the BIOS and change the controller setting from IDE to RAID.

However, if you do this you will need to reinstall the operating system as it won't boot into Windows after you change the setting.

So, what you have now is:  in the Device Manager, when you click to expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers section is the ICH9 2 and 4 Port Serial ATA Controllers, I presume.

That is what you see in IDE mode.

In RAID mode, you will no longer see an IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers listing or if you do, you will no longer see those 2 controllers listed.

Instead, there will be a storage controllers listing and when you click to expand that, you will see the Intel RAID controller listed there and it will probably be the Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO/5 Series/3400 Series SATA RAID Controller.

Since the BIOS in your PC is not set to RAID, that is why the Intel RST driver didn't install, as it is not compatible with IDE mode.

So, if you want to change the setting in the BIOS you will need to reinstall the OS after you change the setting.

Then the newest RST auto install driver that I first posted should work.

[ststiffy]

You're spot on concerning the serial ATA controllers of course. 🙂

I was hoping to not have to reinstall the OS...

(On the other hand, that's probably not a bad idea every other year or so I guess)

Would you suppose that this would be worth it, in terms of response time / speed for my computer?

Or perhaps I am simply mistreating the SSD in IDE mode? (I read something about this in an article, that AHCI was necessary to not seriously shorten the life expectancy of the SSD... Any comments or thoughts, Paul?)

Just trying to weigh the pros vs the cons.

Thanks, bud.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

I have done some basic research on SSD's and the drive controller settings.

I installed my first (and only) SSD in an HP Elitebook 6930p which does have AHCI mode.

I toyed with the idea of putting one in my dc7800 as you did and of course I would have had my drive controller set to RAID, but I found some interesting links which I have posted for your reading pleasure.

Since you don't have a choice to choose AHCI, you probably would be OK in IDE mode if you absolutely would find changing the controller and reinstalling the OS a veritable pain.

http://archive.benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=505&Itemid=38

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Is-IDE-or-AHCI-mode-better-for-single-SSDs/td-p/9...

Do some more googling.  There is a pretty good amount of links out there regarding this matter.

To me it would be more important to have a mechanical drive set to RAID than a SSD because RAID supports native command queuing too, as far as I am aware.

A SSD does not rotate to find data like a mechanical drive does.

Here is an interesting link on NCQ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Command_Queuing

And here are articles on the differences between drive controller settings in general.

http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-ahci-and-ide/

http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-ahci-and-raid/