AHCI/IDE problem?

[maxamd]

I just got all of my new gear in the mail (listed below). My SSD has a previous install of Windows 8.1 on it.

I am unable to boot to the CD if I'm in AHCI mode for the SSD (bluray can be in either IDE or AHCI mode for this to happen). But when I get to the beginning of the install where windows asks me which HD I want to install it on, it tells me the HD is unable to accept that installation. It tells me, "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu."

After doing some research, I find it's because the SSD is in IDE mode and windows wants it to be in AHCI mode. BUT I can't get passed the "spinning" loading icon if the SSD is in IDE mode. The previous installation of windows is in AHCI mode, I double checked by putting the SSD back into my laptop and rightclick on mycomputer, properties, device manager, yes the SATA drive is AHCI.

So then I read that it's possible that the AHCI drivers need to be manually found in the 'hard drive select' screen, from a USB. But I did in fact try to select the AMD AHCI drivers from USB, and it acted like the flash drive was empty. So I'm officially out of ideas.

Rig:
CPU Fx-8350
MOBO Asus Sabertooth 990fx R2.0
RAM 8gb Corsair 1600 MHz (BIOS sees it as 1333 MHz!!)
COOLING Cooler master Evo 212
GFX GTX 260 OC

 

[johnb35]

Ok, i'm not getting what going on here. Check your bios to make sure its in ahci mode. Boot to the install dvd and delete all existing partitions and then repartition and install. No ahci setup drivers should have to be installed as windows 7 already had them built in.

 

[StrangleHold]

Think he is saying the DVD/CD drive wont boot the windows disk in AHCI mode. But it wont install to the harddrive in IDE mode. I think. If so look in the bios under your controllers and put the port the CD/DVD drive is on in IDE mode and the port the harddrive is on in AHCI mode.

 

[maxamd]

It wont get passed the spinner loading screen when the SSD is in AHCI mode. After a couple minutes, in IDE mode, it finishes the spinner loading screen. I've left it for over an hour in AHCI mode but it just stays at that loading screen.

 

[maxamd]

Think he is saying the DVD/CD drive wont boot the windows disk in AHCI mode. But it wont install to the harddrive in IDE mode. I think. If so look in the bios under your controllers and put the port the CD/DVD drive is on in IDE mode and the port the harddrive is on in AHCI mode.

It doesn't seem to matter if the bluray is in IDE or AHCI. It only gets to the Windows prompt screen if the SSD is in IDE mode!

 

[StrangleHold]

What happens when the Blu ray is in IDE and the SSD is in AHCI? All I'm saying is a lot of CD/DVD/Blu drives don't like to boot off of in AHCI mode.

 

[maxamd]

Stuck at the loading screen. It's such an unusual problem..

 

[StrangleHold]

It tells me, "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu."

Like johnb35 said, when you get here instead of picking the drive for the install, go to options and pick delete the partition.

Can you get this far?

 

[maxamd]

YES. the "delete" "extend" and "format" options are greyed out. I CAN click "new" but it stalls out for a couple minutes, then gives me the error, "We couldn't install Windows in the location you chose. Please check your ..... info about what happened: 0x80300002."

If I click "next", it says, "We couldn't create a new partition. [Error: 0x9bbebb50]."

 

[StrangleHold]

Sounds like your running the install from within windows and not booting to it.

 

[maxamd]

I'm pressing a key when it says "press any key to boot from CD...".

 

[StrangleHold]

The only time I have seen that is trying to running the windows disk while your in windows. Sure when your booting its from the install disk? Even if you press a key, if it skips it, it will go on to the next boot device which would be your harddrive.

 

[maxamd]

But it wouldn't boot the install portion of the OS as it is already installed from when it was in my laptop... that's what I'm thinking.

 

[johnb35]

Ok, this is what you need to try doing. Download and create a killdisk bootable cd or dban and totally wipe the ssd. Then try installing windows.

But first, try putting the cd drive on one of the gray sata ports instead of the brown ones.

Ultimately though, I believe you need to wipe the ssd first. I believe its a mbr disk instead of a gpt disk or vice versa. Problems installing windows with issues like that.

 

[maxamd]

The Gray SATA ports are Sata 2.0, correct? In intels case, at least. Not sure if AMD designates their SATA speed tiers as 3.0, and 2.0.

 

[johnb35]

No, they are both sata 3. The gray ones are asmedia controller to where the brown is AMD controller.

 

[maxamd]

UPDATE: I plugged the HD into both of the grey ports on the mobo, and unplugged the sata cable that was going to nothing. I was able to boot to the Windows 8 CD. However, BIOS didn't even see the HD. But the windows CD did. BUT i received the same error from windows, saying that the HD need an option changed in BIOS or whatever.

I also wanted to add that I've tried everything with a different video card. Just wanted to mention that nothing was different with the different card.

Currently it's trying to boot in the Second Sata slot (Was in the 1st one, before i tried both of the grey ports to no progress). Been 5 minutes at least.

 

[maxamd]

Guess I'm just going to have to create a "Wipe" disk and see if that helps?

 

[johnb35]

Make sure the bios is set to ahci and not raid. Connect the hard drive into one of the brown slots as they are configured ahci at default, connect the cdrom drive to one of the grey slots.

On the brown sata ports, 1-4 can be set to ahci, ide or raid. Ports 5-6 can be set to ahci or IDE only.

And as said before, if you already have an OS installed on the SSD then you will need to wipe it using killdisk or dban. Usually this will fix any installation issues.

 

[maxamd]

The cdrom drive is in a brown slot and configured as IDE. So I will move it to a grey slot and leave it as IDE. However I'm not sure if the grey slots are viewable from BIOS. When the HD was in that slot, Windows setup saw the HD but BIOS only lists the devices on sata ports 1-6.