Thinkpads Forum

Dear all,

Help ... does anyone know how to enable AHCI on a T450 when using UEFI BIOS?

The full, long version:
I have a second-hand T450, and need full disk encryption. I'd prefer to use Bitlocker in "eDrive" mode, where Windows 10 manages the encryption keys but the actual encryption is done in hardware on the drive.

So, I took my T450 and:
- Installed a Samsung 850 Evo SATA SSD
- Updated to the latest BIOS.
- Entered BIOS, and loaded defaults with "OS optimized" enabled (the one that sets BIOS to UEFI and loads Win 8.1 protected startup keys etc.)
- Enabled TPM in BIOS, and set it to TPM 2.0 mode
- Saved settings, powercycled.
- Installed Windows from new ISO file

But, when I have loaded Windows 10, I cannot Bitlocker encrypt the drive in "eDrive" or hardware mode -- it does so in software.

Looking around, Samsung's' Disk Magician reports that my drive isn't using AHCI. AHCI is a requirement for eDrive. But I can't find ACHI in the BIOS anywhere -- and I looked as carefully as I can. Is AHCI available somewhere when the BIOS is in UEFI mode?? :O

AHCI is standard/always on in T450 (and newer) BIOS, Compatibility/IDE has been discarded.
There are no settings to change that.
I'd suggest you dump W10 and go back to W7 (or W8.1).

While there may be no IDE mode, there might still be a RAID mode. Last time I used it the Samsung software considered that "not AHCI" although for most other purposes it's the same. Could be RAID mode was removed too though.