Windows 10 Pro set up on Dell Precision M6800

Hello,
I recently purchased a refurbished Dell Precision M6800 laptop that currently has one drive installed, a 256GB mSATA SSD. The default set up that Dell uses on this laptop is UEIF Raid, there are other options as well the other one is AHCI as well as a Legacy setting that would allow the installation of I think Windows 7. If I leave this Raid setting and install additional HDs do I actually have to configure them as a Raid? At the moment with the current Raid setting and only the one SSD the boot time is greatly delayed while the Bios is looking for HDs that are already a Raid or that can be configure as a Raid. This laptop along with the mSATA SSD has two additional HD bays and if you buy a HD cady to replace the optical drive will give you the ability of having 3 internal HDs. I am not interested in setting up a Raid array and was wondering if switching to AHCI mode is possible without needing a reinstall of Windows 10 Pro. I know that for earlier versions of Windows if the HD was set up for ATA mode you could edit the registry to enable the switch to AHCI mode without having to reinstalling the OS. If this is possible what do I need to do to accomplish this? I also want to set up this laptop to dual boot with Linux, would switching to AHCI allow this or would I have to switch to Legacy mode?
Thanks for your help
Robert

topgundcp said:

If I remember correctly. You can switch to AHCI without re-install Windows. Switch to AHCI and try, the worst case is to switch back to RAID.

Normally, Linux works better using MBR disk type. To install Linux with GPT, you need special instruction on how to in Linux Forum.
Some UEFI firmware will allow you to boot with either UEFI or Legacy without re-setting BIOS.
My MB allows to Boot Windows using GPT (UEFI) and Linux installed with MBR disk type, just using the boot menu instead of dual boot.

Always advisable to keep Windows and Linux separate from each other so future upgrade/update with either one will not interfere with each other since each has its own Boot Manager, otherwise, Linux Grub will take over the dual boot process. You would need to physically disconnect Windows disk, install Linux then reconnect.

hank

Thanks for your reply, I have already tried setting to AHCI and the system cannot find an OS. The version of Linux I use works well with GPT UEFI and the safest way and easiest way I have found to use Linux in a dual boot system is to install it to an external USB or eSATA hard drive. Many distros installers ask where you want the boot loader to be installed (the default is in the root of the C drive) when installing Linux to an external HD I have GRUB installed to that drive. When the HD is plugged in and the BIOS is set to look at USB drives for an OS before looking at the internal HDs GRUB is quickly displayed and if I do not select Windows manually in GRUB Linux will boot normally. If the Linux HD is not plugged in Windows boots normally because nothing has been changed on the Windows install HD. The only issue that I am happy to deal with is the way Linux and Windows handles the system time is different. After using Linux and I reboot into Windows the time is out of wack and I simply have Windows change the time from my default on line time source.
I think that it may just be easier to do a fresh install of Windows since I haven't been able to find anything about going from Raid to AHCI.