How to Enable AHCI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 after Installation
AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) makes NCQ (Native Command Queuing) along with hot-plugging or hot swapping through SATA Serial-ATA host controllers possible
Usually today's motherboards will have AHCI enabled in UEFI or BIOS by default. Some older motherboards may have IDE enabled by default instead.
If you wanted to install Windows using AHCI instead of IDE, then you would normally need to have AHCI enabled in BIOS/UEFI first.
This tutorial will show you how to enable AHCI in Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 after you have already installed the OS (operating system) with IDE by mistake.
You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to enable AHCI after installing Windows.
This tutorial is an updated version for Windows 8/8.1/10 from the Windows 7 version our dear late member Ted (aka: Bare Foot Kid) created at our sister site www.SevenForums.com below.
AHCI : Enable in Windows 7 / Vista
It is recommended to create a restore point before doing this tutorial. This way if you make a mistake, you will be able to easily undo it by doing a system restore with the restore point.
You will only be able to sign in to your account with a PIN or password while in Safe Mode.
1 Enable Safe Mode with Safe boot (Minimal), and restart the computer when prompted. (see screenshot below)
2 Boot the computer to your BIOS or UEFI firmware settings.
- How to Boot to UEFI Firmware Settings from inside Windows 8 and 8.1
- How to Boot to UEFI Firmware Settings from inside Windows 10
3 In your BIOS or UEFI firmware settings, enable AHCI, and save & exit to apply and restart the computer. (see screenshot below)
These settings will vary per brand and model number of motherboard. Please read your motherboard manual for more specific details about how to change SATA settings for it.
4 When the computer restarts into Safe Mode, disable Safe Mode, and restart the computer when prompted. (see screenshots below)
5 When Windows starts, it'll automatically install AHCI drivers. (see screenshot below)
6 When finished, you'll need to click/tap on Restart Now to restart the computer one last time.
1 While in Windows, press the Win + R keys to open Run, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.
2 If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.
3 In the left pane of Registry Editor, browse to the key location below. (see screenshot below)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV
4 In the right pane of the iaStorV key, double click/tap on the Start DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot above)
5 Type 0 (zero) for AHCI, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
6 In the left pane of Registry Editor, browse to the key location below. (see screenshot below)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorAVC\StartOverride
7 In the right pane of the StartOverride key, double click/tap on the 0 DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot above)
8 Type 0 (zero), and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
This value will return back to 3 after you restart the computer later.
9 In the left pane of Registry Editor, browse to the key location below. (see screenshot below)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci
10 In the right pane of the storahci key, double click/tap on the Start DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot above)
11 Type 0 (zero) for AHCI, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
12 In the left pane of Registry Editor, browse to the key location below to see if you have the StartOverride here. If you don't, then go to step 15 below. (see screenshot below)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\StartOverride
13 If you do, then, in the right pane of the StartOverride key, double click/tap on the 0 DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot above)
14 Type 0 (zero), and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
15 When finished, close Registry Editor.
16 Boot the computer to your BIOS or UEFI firmware settings.
- How to Boot to UEFI Firmware Settings from inside Windows 8 and 8.1
- How to Boot to UEFI Firmware Settings from inside Windows 10
17 In your BIOS or UEFI firmware settings, enable AHCI, and save & exit to apply and restart the computer. (see screenshot below)
These settings will vary per brand and model number of motherboard. Please read your motherboard manual for more specific details about how to change SATA settings for it.
18 When Windows starts, it'll automatically install AHCI drivers. (see screenshot below)
19 When finished, you'll need to click/tap on Restart Now to restart the computer one last time.
That's it,
Shawn
Related Tutorials
- How to Enable AHCI in Vista and Windows 7 after Installation
- How to Enable HIPM and DIPM for your SSD and HDD in Windows
- How to Add 'AHCI Link Power Management - HIPM/DIPM' to Power Options in Windows
Enable AHCI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 after Installation
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New #1
Hi Shawn
I would like to go from IDE to AHCI using your instructions above.
As you can see from the attached photo of my BIOS, there's a "SATA Mode Selection" setting and a "Marvell SATA3 Operation Mode" setting. My SSD (on SATA3_1) has the OS installed on it. My two other hard drives are on the Marvell connections.
My mobo is an Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3.
After following your instructions above, should I set BOTH the "SATA Mode Selection" setting and the "Marvell SATA3 Operation Mode" to AHCI or just the "SATA Mode Selection" setting ?
Thanks
Last edited by Brink; 15 Oct 2015 at 11:26. Reason: attached your uploaded image
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New #2
Hello Rob, :)
I'd set both to AHCI, but the Marvel option wouldn't matter unless you had a SATA drive connected to one of it's separate ports.
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New #3
Thanks brink. However, I think I have the two hdds connected to the Marvell ports, don't I?
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New #5
ok, so this is weird ...
both the START dwords for those registry entries were already set to 0.
(remember that I have SATA mode set as IDE in BIOS!)
So then I went to the BIOS and changed SATA modes to AHCI and rebooted and got the INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE BSOD.
Went back to BIOS and changed back to IDE and all is ok again.
So Windows thinks I'm in AHCI? But BIOS says IDE.
I'm totally confused
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New #6
I ended up using these instructions:
Solved Attn. SSD owners - Enabling AHCI mode AFTER Windows 10 installation. - Windows 10 Forums
and now I'm in AHCI .
In your tutorial above I think you should mention the startoverride subkeys. They need to have 0 dwords too.
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New #8
Today I visited a customer on Win 10 x64 who's SSD was in IDE mode which I changed to AHCI by changing the StartOverride keys from 3 to 0 in the registry.
All good. My question is I also see forums suggesting a safemode then nornal boot will also work after changing to AHCI. Does anyone experience with this ? Does anyone know if and which registry entries the safemode method changes ?
If the safemode method works then it has to be better than a registry edit ?Last edited by colsearle; 24 Dec 2015 at 15:05.
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New #9
Hello colsearle, :)
Sure you could do this in safe mode or normal mode. It doesn't matter.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2...dows-10-a.html
Enable AHCI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 after Installation
How to Enable AHCI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 after InstallationPublished by Shawn BrinkCategory: Installation & Upgrade
04 May 2021
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