AHCI, Windows 7 and can only boot with Windows DVD present
- by Rob Pridham
Foolishly, I installed Windows 7 with my new SSD set to IDE. I would like to change it to AHCI. I have done this before, with a different motherboard.
What happens:
I set the controller to AHCI in the BIOS; I also check correct boot order
On boot, I get the 'BOOTMGR not found' error
I use the Windows Recovery Console on the DVD
Diskpart etc can see the disks, and bootrec claims to have rewritten the MBR/bootloader
I reboot, same problem
Recovery Console again and it detects a problem, fixes, reboots
Recovery Console again and it detects the OS, and a problem - fixes, reboots
I ignore the 'press any key to boot from DVD' prompt
Windows boots fine
I restart without the DVD and I'm back to square one
That optional 'press a key to boot from DVD' stage is something that the recovery process introduces - normally you have to choose to boot to the DVD at the BIOS stage. You also see this when installing Windows. I suspect that whatever temporary state that is is compatible with AHCI - but not the standard it returns to.
I have done the msahci/iaStorV registry hacks to no avail (this worked with the previous board). I can put it back to IDE where normal service is resumed. The board is an Asus M5A99X, the southbridge is AMD SB950, and this is Windows 7 x64. I would quite like not to have to reinstall it again.
Any ideas as to what I can do as a permanent fix?
