Thinkpads Forum

i re-downloaded the intel matrix driver after the reinstall of windows XP...but my question is what do i have to do to toggle back to AHCI mode for my hard drive. Simply re-installing this driver, and entering BIOS has only left me with the blue screen of death.

I'm sure it's something really easy.

If you didn't install the intel matrix driver on the very first startup of Windows, I don't think it's possible to get it working in AHCI mode after that. I made the same mistake and tried all sorts of things (such as using the Recovery Console, doing a Recovery installation of XP, reinstalling Windows over the current install, etc). What worked in the end was a reformat and a fresh install.

I could ofcourse be wrong, and there might indeed be a way to solve this problem if you didn't do the matrix driver installation after the first Windows startup.

Good luck!

the instructions on http://www.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/ ... MIGR-62909 should get it working post install

Those instructions did not work for me. YMMV. As mentioned, I had to do a reformat and a fresh install before it could work.

Those instructions with the link worked perfectly. Thanks a lot for pointing me in the right direction. So to clarify it IS POSSIBLE to enable AHCI after a windows install.

I think that others may have had a problem because they extracted the file to a different location c:\drivers\win\imsm instead of c:\drivers\win\sata. When i originally downloaded the file it defaulted to download to the former rather than the later. After following the link, i had no problem.

Thank you for the help! I too was able to get it working on my T60p. You MUST follow all the directions step by step.

Here's the abridged version:

-Download the file, and expand it to: C:\DRIVERS\WIN\SATA
-Then go to run and put this in: C:\DRIVERS\WIN\SATA\PREPARE\INSTALL.CMD

(*Note: You MUST change it to the SATA directory for the second step to work. Or just change the second step's directory to the matching one.)

-Reboot, go into BIOS, set as AHCI, boot into Windows then manually specify where the driver is once the new hardware found wizard pops up.

Reboot, and you're all set Hope this helps!

Thanks again!