PCA Forums

Just wondering if anyone uses the default: configure SATA as IDE? Advantages or disadvantages?

I know on my xp system, I had an issue getting the ACHI drivers installed (once I found the right ones).

On a regular spinning hard drive there is MAYBE a slight performance hit using IDE emulation.

However on an SSD you will suffer a BIG performance hit so ACHI is recommended.

It's also a bit risky switching an installed OS from IDE emulation to ACHI. If you don't pre-install the ACHI drive first before switching it in BIOS, the OS may become unbootable.

Any new system you build from this point on should be configured for ACHI and most mobos come that way.

The only other issue is that older bootable CD utilities like Acronis didn't properly support ACHI. I think Acronis supports it since the 2010 version, although 2010 does have some problems with a few Dells I've used it on in ACHI mode. I know Acronis 2012 is fully ACHI compatible.

Spinrite is another one. If Spinrite can't see your drives in ACHI mode, then you need to temporarily switch to IDE Emulation. Just make sure you switch back or your OS may get messed up.

Steve Gibson has mentioned that he intends to upgrade Spinrite to 6.1 which will natively support ACHI properly, and will also have better support for USB.