Samsung SSD settings and Dell Latitude (Windows 7)

[jensen]

Just got a Samsung SSD 840EVO to help speed up my dell laptop (E6410) which was on harddisk.

The Samsung migration software was excellent in that it moved all my data from my harddisk to my new SSD. No issues. (Yes I had removed old files, taken away data files, chkdsk and also defragment the harddisk before the move)

My question is - to activate or not to activate the AHCI to support the SSD?

Read the article below that suggested not to activate the AHCI as it was cloned (and not installed as a new Windows 7 OS on it.)

"Ideally, AHCI mode should be enabled via the BIOS BEFORE installing the Operating System (OS). On newer systems, this is generally the case. If it is not, and AHCI is enabled via the BIOS for a Windows Installation that was not originally configured for AHCI, it is not uncommon for stability problems to arise. Windows XP does not include native AHCI drivers, making it more complicated to enable AHCI mode because it is the user’s responsibility to locate and install the correct AHCI drivers for the OS. In general, PC chipset vendors (e.g. Intel, AMD, nVIDIA) maintain their own AHCI drivers for Windows XP users. It is best to consult the website of your motherboard vendor or PC manufacturer to be sure."​

Source article: http://www.samsung.com/global/busin.../SSD/global/html/whitepaper/whitepaper02.html

 

[essellar]

Leave it off for a Windows boot (it will error otherwise because Windows won't be able to complete loading itself). Then carry out the actions on this Microsoft Support document: https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/kb/922976

Once that's done, you will be able to enable AHCI and leave it enabled.

 

[Sharky]

I've done it before, without having read the article just now it's something simple like installing a driver and rebooting with AHCI enabled.

 

[essellar]

That's the gist of it, but I prefer that people brick their gear following (or not following) official instructions from a primary source. Less "but you said" that way

 

[jensen]

Am too scared to brick my precious
Will leave it for now and do more reading. The samsung magic software keeps prompting me to switch to AHCI but when I tried to change it in the BIOS, the warning said that if I changed from RAID to AHCI, I must understand that I may end up with a system that would not boot at all. So I'd rather have a working system than a perfect one on theory.

 

[essellar]

As long as Windows is aware of it, you'll be able to boot (and run) just fine. It's only if you don't set the AHCI-enabled in the Windows registry (and have a driver) that you'll run into problems. That's why you'll need to boot once without it set; so you can enable Windows to use AHCI. After that, you can enable it in BIOS and it'll work just fine.

 

[jensen]

Thank you essellar for the detailed replies.
The problem at the moment without switching to ACHI is that a warning keeps popping up every now and then to remind me I don't have enough memory. Should have gone for the 256 instead of the 128 GB SSD.

 

[essellar]

These days? Probably. It wasn't long ago it would have been an $800-versus-$1400 sort of decision. (I remember a time, not too long ago, when buying a 1GB compact flash card for a camera was like the De Beers marketing for engagement diamonds: you should pay at least three months' salary.) The percentages are still about the same, but the dollars are a lot fewer now; it's probably not worth the trade-offs you have to make anymore. At least it's not like spinning rust yet, where if you want the smaller one you need to pay more