How to identify MB SATA port to which system drive is connected

[prosthotoothist]

Joe C,

Good morning and thanks for your reply. I know that a fresh start is a good idea: however, I am rather paranoid about disturbing the huge number of programs and their configurations by doing a fresh install of Windows. I ordered and have received (next day) the SSD and have successfully cloned the system drive to it. This morning, I am going to replace the HDD system drive with the SSD and hope that all goes well when I boot up. I do have a question for anyone reading this post: does it matter to which SATA port the system drive is connected? I have discovered that the HDD system drive is connected to the SATA 3 port, so I plan to connect the SSD to the same port and then if booting is successful, I will go through the process of activating AHCI.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

Tom

 

[carnageX]

Joe C,

Good morning and thanks for your reply. I know that a fresh start is a good idea: however, I am rather paranoid about disturbing the huge number of programs and their configurations by doing a fresh install of Windows. I ordered and have received (next day) the SSD and have successfully cloned the system drive to it. This morning, I am going to replace the HDD system drive with the SSD and hope that all goes well when I boot up. I do have a question for anyone reading this post: does it matter to which SATA port the system drive is connected? I have discovered that the HDD system drive is connected to the SATA 3 port, so I plan to connect the SSD to the same port and then if booting is successful, I will go through the process of activating AHCI.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

Tom

No, it doesn't matter what port the drive is connected to since you can change the boot order in BIOS via the Boot Priority menu.

You should have had AHCI turned on already - if you're currently set to IDE or RAID for your SATA mode and you switch to AHCI, then you may possibly get a BSOD because it doesn't have the AHCI drivers.

There's ways to install the AHCI drivers after the fact and activate them, however.

This may not be the case though - it may boot right up, install the drivers, and work fine. But just be aware if you didn't have it set to AHCI on your initial install of Windows...you may have to set it back to IDE/Legacy and do some work arounds... or just fresh install Windows.

 

[prosthotoothist]

Hello all,

Here is a status report of my progress:
1. Got the system HDD cloned to the SSD (after 2 tries).
2. Got the changes made in the registry (to "0").
3. Replaced the system HDD with the SSD.
4. Booted and all went well!!
5. Went into the BIOS to change IDE to AHCI for the drives and saved the change.
6. Exited BIOS and hoped that all would go to a good booting.
7. Unfortunately, this did not happen!
8. Got the message that "windows root\system 32\hal.dll" was missing or corrupted and Windows would not go to completion.
9. Searched for answers to this problem and tried the many suggestions.
10. Tried booting from the Windows DVD to repair the install.
11. This did not work.
12. Reverted the BIOS to IDE for the drives.
13. Windows booted fine.
14. Tried going back to AHCI for the drives and the same error message appeared.
15. Went back to IDE and booting was successful.
16. Checked many of the programs cloned onto the SSD to see if they opened properly and they did.
17. Decided that I did not have an answer that would fix the problem, so here I am.

Any suggestions for what I should try next? I am open to almost anything except a fresh install of the OS. This computer is used for so many different things and has many programs that are very difficult and time consuming to set up and configure that I really cannot see me going down the "fresh install path".

I look forward to any additional help that anyone can provide.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Joe C]

2. Got the changes made in the registry (to "0").

What reg key did you change to 0?


Try this first:

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows
To resolve this issue yourself, enable the AHCI driver in the registry before you change the SATA mode of the boot drive. To do this, follow these steps:

Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
In the pane on the right side, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

Error message occurs after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive

And then switch your bios settings

 

[carnageX]

Make sure you have up to date chipset/AHCI drivers installed from your motherboard manufacturer's website.

GUIDE - Enabling AHCI mode AFTER Windows 7 Installation - Guru3D.com Forums