How to install an AHCI SATA driver in Windows XP, Vista and Win7

[gugucom]

Just a bump but wondering if it would be possible to use windows xp ( whatever service pack revision you want ) in a virtual machine then do the following :

download and use nlite to slipstream the relevant drivers you want with the windows 7 installation disc and create a new windows 7 disc ( whether cd or dvd ) and then use the newly created disc to install windows 7

http://www.nliteos.com/

Both steps would not help you at all, I believe. And here is why:

The AHCI driver is for native running which means Windows runs with the own drivers. Virtual machines strip the drivers away and use OS X drivers.

There is no need to use nLite to pre load the Intel AHCI driver. You can use the existing pre load mechanisms (F6 in XP and CD or USB stick in Vista/Seven) to do that.

The problem of the Mac is not in the operating system but in the EFI Firmware. For the AHCI driver to run the firmware needs to consent to the configuration switch. On BIOS machines you can do that by a software switch. Macs have no adjustable firmware features. This is why the configuration command or consent has to be provided by patching the MBR with a terminal script.

 

[Subby32]

I tried this and patched to disk 1 where my windows installation is located
however i now get a bsod in windows and cant boot.
Is it because my windows is on a partition of the same drive as osx?
for example in the disk utility it is called disk1s3
should i have patched to that instead?

And how do i go about restoring windows to a working state? I set a system backup point before trying this out
Thanks

 

[gugucom]

From what you say /dev/disk1 should be your drive address.

If you got something wrong try to boot until you get a screen which asks you for advanced start up options or offers booting to last known good config. That is what you should select.You will then get the status back that applied befor the break point.

 

[Subby32]

even selecting last known config doesnt work. osx loads fine
im doing this to get a wd my book to show up in xp connected to the two spare sata ports
any other ideas?
i selected the esb2 driver on the intel serial ata connector in device mng, patched in osx, and now im stuck
...on a jan 08 octo btw

 

[gugucom]

I have no idea what went wrong. Sorry.

Do you have a Winclone backup?

 

[Subby32]

no...
worst case is ill backup all important files from the drive to the mybook through osx which im currently doing now

maybe this is a good reason to upgrade to Win 7
ill post the bsod error message maybe thatll help?
h/o

 

[gugucom]

You can do that, but Google usually is a better option for error messages.

 

[Infrared]

I tried this and patched to disk 1 where my windows installation is located
however i now get a bsod in windows and cant boot.

If you are using Windows 7 or Vista, did you set this value in the registry?

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci]
"Start"=dword:00000000

 

[Subby32]

alright well heres the error...
i'll be googling away at it but i'd like you guys to know as well

it goes bsod and says "device driver stuck in infinite loop"
"ati2dvag"

on one startup attempt it actually must have seen the drive, and it went into a checkdisk utility, got to 75% and hung until i powered off

and na, im on xp

 

[Infrared]

alright well heres the error...
i'll be googling away at it but i'd like you guys to know as well

it goes bsod and says "device driver stuck in infinite loop"
"ati2dvag"

on one startup attempt it actually must have seen the drive, and it went into a checkdisk utility, got to 75% and hung until i powered off

and na, im on xp

That error message relates to your video card.

 

[gugucom]

That error message relates to your video card.

Yes, I thought it may relate to a faulty driver installation as well. But then I wonder how it could have been triggered by the MBR patch. I wonder if the system received some tweaks like injectors in the first place.

 

[Subby32]

Ok i removed all traces of anything ATI from XP and i can finally get it to start.
The drive is still not detected, and my graphics look f'd up as i'm only using native VGA support.
If i try to install the ati driver or catalyst control panel i get the infinite loop bsod on startup again.
Are there any alternate drivers for a Radeon 2600HD that will fix this problem?
And also, now OSX wont see the MyBook through eSata wtf!

 

[Subby32]

*update*

got the drive working via eSata on both OSs
so thank you very much to the OP and all involved on the tutorial, much appreciated.

still the problem with the video card and unsure of how the patch caused such a problem, if anyone could help that'd be great

 

[ldstern]

I successfully installed AHCI driver on my 2006 Mac Pro running 64 bit Windows 7. I re-ran the Windows Performance Eval after the AHCI update. Interestingly, my disk score did not change: 5.9 prior to the update and the same after the update. My boot Win 7 drive is a 300gig Velociraptor drive (the drive is dedicated to Win 7).

Can someone tell me why the disk score did not improve. I thought that changing from IDE to AHCI would lead to a substantial improvement.

Thanks for a response.

 

[gugucom]

This got me curioius and I did some reading.

From the Intel 1.3 AHCI Spec:

http://download.intel.com/technology/serialata/pdf/rev1_3.pdf

1.8 Interaction with Legacy Software
AHCI is a self-contained specification that is intended to support all aspects of communicating with SATA devices, without having to utilize any legacy features such as shadow copies of the task file, snooping of bits in commands, etc.
HBAs that support legacy software mechanisms must do so in a fashion that is transparent to AHCI. Legacy registers are not allowed to affect any bits in AHCI registers, nor is AHCI software allowed to affect any bits in legacy registers. Software written for AHCI is not allowed to utilize any of the legacy mechanisms to program devices. In essence, an HBA that supports both mechanisms must isolate its legacy and AHCI engines, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Example of HBA Silicon Supporting Both Legacy and AHCI Interfaces
How an HBA running legacy software supports more than 4 ports is beyond the scope of this specification. How software transitions between legacy and AHCI modes of operation is beyond the scope of this specification.

I understand from this that the HBA used in the Mac Pro chip set (ESB2 or ICH10R) can run in legacy or AHCI mode for up to four SATA devices. If there are more than 4 four devices legacy may not be supported. AHCI mode does not limit the number of supported devices to four. So the benefit of the AHCI mode may be the use of more than four devices.

From Idstern's experiment I take the conclusion that for some devices the legacy mode may not be slower than the AHCI mode. It is unclear which devices can enjoy performance increases by AHCI mode.

 

[Webfeet]

Can't find the MS AHCI 1.0 Driver

Great job on this but I am stuck in Windows 7 looking for the Standard AHCI 1.0 Driver. I am trying to locate the IDE ATA controller category but can't locate it. Can you give me a hint?

1. What this is about

...In Windows device manager go to IDE/ATA devices. 2006, 2007 and 2008 . You have to tell Windows to look in the IDE ATA controller category for them. To find the MS AHCI 1.0 driver in Vista and Seven go to the manufacturer selection and look for Standard. You will have to scroll down to find it.

 

[gugucom]

Great job on this but I am stuck in Windows 7 looking for the Standard AHCI 1.0 Driver. I am trying to locate the IDE ATA controller category but can't locate it. Can you give me a hint?

The left pic shows how a 2006 MP looks in my German device manager after I have updated the driver. It should look very similar before. You need to select the lower of the two drivers. On the right picture I have allready opened the properties and I can now select updating the driver. You do get a couple of options how to find the driver and you need to do that manually. Eventually you will find such a selection window as the one for the printer drivers shown here. Of course for IDE/ATAPI it is showing different content. I only show it here for the principle. I'm not in Vista but in OS x and cannot make a better picture.

On the left side you see manufacturer. There you need to scroll down to S for Standard. On the right side you will find the AHCI driver.

 

[Webfeet]

Not the same in Windows 7

Thanks! It doesn't show anything like that unfortunately in Win 7. You have a browse window or automatic. The browse window is just a standard file open dialog and doesn't point you to anything like that. you have manually navagate the drive to find it. Without knowing the specific location and name of the driver I can't located it. :-( Stuck...arrrgh haha

 

[gugucom]

Thanks! It doesn't show anything like that unfortunately in Win 7. You have a browse window or automatic. The browse window is just a standard file open dialog and doesn't point you to anything like that. you have manually navagate the drive to find it. Without knowing the specific location and name of the driver I can't located it. :-( Stuck...arrrgh haha

Can you find the device manager?

 

[Webfeet]

Oh yes for sure I found all that, I am just at the stage where I have to replace the driver to enable ACHI. The dialog box to search for a new drive is different than XP. Its either automatic or a general browser, which like I said doesn't help if you don't know the name. Perhaps XP is better than Win 7? haha

Can you find the device manager?

 

[gugucom]

Oh yes for sure I found all that, I am just at the stage where I have to replace the driver to enable ACHI. The dialog box to search for a new drive is different than XP. Its either automatic or a general browser, which like I said doesn't help if you don't know the name. Perhaps XP is better than Win 7? haha

Try to use the lowest of the options and avoid automatic selection. When you are prsented with a list of possible devices you should selecet the IDE/ATA devices.

 

[Webfeet]

Success

Well strangely it worked out perfectly. It finally came up with that proper dialog. Odd. Well did the rest of the steps and now I have complete access to the ODD SATA ports! Fantastic! thanks

Try to use the lowest of the options and avoid automatic selection. When you are prsented with a list of possible devices you should selecet the IDE/ATA devices.

 

[gugucom]

.....changing the "Start" subkey value from 3 to 0
in this key allows the AHCI driver to be loaded on boot:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci

..........

This is a description of what the Start subkey values mean:

[ Quoted From: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/103000 ]

Start     REG_DWORD     Start constant
Specifies the starting values for the service as follows:

START TYPE     LOADER     MEANING

0x0            Kernel     Represents a part of the
(Boot)                    driver stack for the boot
                          (startup) volume and must
                          therefore be loaded by the
                          Boot Loader.

0x1            I/O        Represents a driver to be loaded
(System)       subsystem  at Kernel initialization.

0x2            Service    To be loaded or started
(Auto load)    Control    automatically for all startups,
               Manager    regardless of service type.

0x3            Service    Available, regardless of type,
(Load on       Control    but will not be started until
demand)        Manager    the user starts it (for example,
                          by using the Devices icon in
                          Control Panel).

0x4            Service    NOT TO BE STARTED UNDER ANY
(disabled)     Control    CONDITIONS.
               Manager

Actually if my memory serves me right we always change the subkey from 4 to 0. But changing it from 4 to 3 may be a good idea.

I currently have no unmodified Vista or Seven version for experimentation. So I would rely on other people to try it. If we can confirm this method it would save the hassle of patching the MBR.

 

[Infrared]

Actually if my memory serves me right we always change the subkey from 4 to 0. But changing it from 4 to 3 may be a good idea.

It's definitely 3 to 0 if you install Windows in IDE mode

A Start value of 3 will not allow the driver to load at boot
time, which is a requirement.

I currently have no unmodified Vista or Seven version for experimentation. So I would rely on other people to try it. If we can confirm this method it would save the hassle of patching the MBR.

The MBR patch will still be necessary. One must take care
to distinguish the capabilities of the kernel and the SATA
controller.

 

[ildondeigiocchi]

Ok guys here's the issue. I got an Intel X-25M to install Win7 on my Mac Pro. I'm planning on installing the AHCI driver in order for the drive to work at its maximum potential. However the link to Johnsock's shell script file seems to be broken. Gugucom can you provide another link or something. Would be greatly appreciated.