Share via

What does AHCI Mode, IDE Mode, RAID Mode, & SATA Mean in the BIOS settings

Anonymous
2013-12-16T21:12:54+00:00

What does AHCI Mode, IDE Mode, RAID Mode, & SATA Mean in the BIOS settings

My Computer had problems when I first purchased it was from another provider which came as an overclocked PC set up unit all it needed was to be put into my case & add the existing hard drives & DVD players etc added onto the set-up. I used same shop for well over 10 years before that I always built them myself I can build a good setup computer I match different parts inside to each other then it's tested & sent out.

Unfortunately, the shop has closed down & the owner is ill cannot get hold of him any more & I needed to get some add on stuff like new S.S.D. Drives & few other bit's built into my system & the young lad said he would & could do this work, but it all went wrong & I lost everything again so I decided to Retrain myself as I used to do before windows 7-64 came out I was going through a rough patch with me being paraplegic anyway it's awkward to build a new PC up, So I chose this shop & trusted them which has gone wrong now & i have been looking & learning to catch up with the new technology I must do this I am like that any way.

Thing is my system is never one you can buy off a manufacturer & I left this with the lad & he took all the memory out & there was no need but the this of course upset Ruined the overclocked setting completely so I have done this myself & I have got the PC working quieter & faster that ever, I just have reached the score it had before now so I am happy with it But the names I came across whilst overclocking I came across which I don't know what the mean or really stand for especially as were dealing with Fast CrossfireX RAM DDR 1600 MHz.

Please don't tell me I should not be messing around with this I done so since 1989 & made big strides into how everything works I am not up to speed on this sort of thing I know SATA what it is & does, but these load of setting were from part of the overclocking in the BIOS I have set then correctly, but I wanted to know what they stand for in more depth. Thank You to anyone who can put me wise on these 3 items only. Malcolm.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

  1. Anonymous
    2013-12-16T22:08:30+00:00

    I'm fairly sure you're on the wrong "forum" for this type of topic. This forum is meant as a support for Surface-type tablet and Surface Pro-type ultrabook/tablets.

    That said,

    AHCI - Advanced Host Controller Interface - this is a hardware mechanism that allows the software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices. It offers features such as hot-plugging and native command queuing (NCQ).

    IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics - IDE is basically the "old" version of AHCI without hot-plugging and NCQ. (This is usually used during the Parallel ATA (PATA) era hard disks)

    Now. AHCI mode and IDE mode -- what is it? IDE mode is to give you the greatest compatibility with older operating systems. While AHCI is as I mentioned above, modern version of the IDE -- use AHCI mode if you are running recent operating systems  (Windows Vista+ and Linux kernel from 2.6.19+). IDE mode will allow you to connect older operating systems to SATA drives.

    As I mentioned above, SATA is Serial ATA, and is the replacement for Parallel ATA (PATA) hard drives.

    RAID - This is a storage technology where you combine multiple disks into a "single" unit, depending on the mode, there can be RAID-0 through RAID-6, and each with different configurations of the hard drive. I'll just explain the simple examples: RAID-0 which is striping but no parity or mirroring, this means there is no redundancy for data, If there is a failure on one disk, it will cause the data loss of the entire RAID array. Ex: You have 0110 as data to be written, 01 will go on Disk 1, and 10 will go on Disk 2, allowing for faster read/write access to the data.

    RAID-1 -This is the opposite of RAID-0, which is mirroring without striping (no parity either). This basically means you have an exact clone of Disk 1 on Disk 2, in case Disk 1 fails.

    RAID0+1 does both what RAID 1 and 0 does, that is to say striping (writing data simultaneously to two [or more] drives. plus mirroring in case of failure) the minimum amount of drives required for this type of setup is 4 IDENTICAL drives.

    There are also RAID 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6. Which is just more implementation of different configurations of striping/parity/mirroring across drives.

    That being said, your RAID mode will allow you for some type of RAID configuration, should you choose to do so.

    Supplemental: Many SATA controllers can enable AHCI separately or in conjunction with RAID support. Intel recommends choosing RAID mode on their motherboards, which also enables AHCI, rather than AHCI/SATA mode for maximum flexibility (in case you ever want to build a RAID array), since there are some issues that occurs, usually BSOD, when you choose a different mode once an operating system has already been installed.

    300+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments

6 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2016-09-30T00:48:04+00:00

    dear sir,

    I have sony vaio T series laptop with holding 22 SSD drive. i was happened format my laptop, with windows 8. while installing windows, i just selected partition on HDD, without using SSD(Because i did not know how to use both SSD + HDD to install OS). 

    problem is, the system is showing "Rapid wake cannot be enabled" message after installing windows and vaio drivers too. i have attached that message picture also here. some of the articles are telling that i need to  Set SATA mode in BIOS to RAID mode. I do not know how to enable RAID mode.

    Please help me to solve this problem and use my SSD as useful.

    (Sorry for my english)

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2015-07-06T08:02:22+00:00

    Thank you very much sir ,

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments