How to enable AHCI in Windows 7 RC after installation

AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) enables native command queuing and hot-plugging through SATA host controllers (Serial-ATA) for your hard drives. In many scenarios, it enables more efficient multi-tasking. Vista was the first Windows OS to support AHCI out of the box, whereas Windows 7 does the same. But an issue with AHCI is that if you install the OS without enabling AHCI in the BIOS, enabling it after installation will render your OS unusable. This is because Windows disable the AHCI driver since it is not needed during the installation.

There is one way to fix this, although you need to have knowledge of registry editing. The detailed steps from Microsoft are as follows:

To resolve this issue, enable the AHCI driver in the registry before you change the SATA mode of the boot drive. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Exit all Windows-based programs.
  2. Click Start, type Regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
  3. If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
  4. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesMsahci
  5. In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
  6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
  7. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

After this you’ll have to restart your computer, go to BIOS and enable AHCI. When you log in to Windows again, you’ll notice the installation of drivers for AHCI. Another restart will be required to finish the driver installation.enable ahci in Windows 7

I’ve simplified the steps by Microsoft by exporting the registry key. Just download the following file and run it. You’ll still need to go through the steps of restarting your computer and enabling AHCI in the BIOS.

Hopefully, you’ll find a somewhat noticeable improvement in multitasking, especially if you’re a notebook user. Of course with the variety of PC hardware, experience many vary.

Disclaimer:

Beware, though, you’re responsible on your own for messing around with the registry. This guide comes with no warranties if your computer blows up, gets angry at you, stops working or just shows a Blue Screen of Death.
About the Author

Technology enthusiast, Internet addict, photography fan, movie buff, music aficionado.

243 comments

  1. I confirm, it does work! just switched from IDE to AHCI, no issues. FYI, this will enable the basic Microsoft AHCI driver.
    Depending on your configuration, it is possible to update this driver with a native AHCI driver from your motherboard manufacturer.
    Last thing I noticed, I had to select my system harddrive to boot properly otherwise my system would hang, although properly selected in the bios.

  2. Just an FYI for anyone doing this on Win7 x64, you can’t use the provided .REG file here as it’s setup to point to the x86 version of the driver file. Following the steps listed to make the change manually works fine though

  3. Ahhh, thank you very much. This solved my odd issue of Windows 7 shutting down before the log-in screen when using AHCI. :D Now to find out how to get RAID to work…

    P.S. Love the disclaimer. :) How can I not love the nerds with a sense of humour? Wonderful man, just wonderful.

  4. Actually this did not work at all on the RTM version. Boot kept failing and I had to use a restore option in order to boot at which point the registry key was set back to the prior setting. And yes, I did change the key properly!

    1. Well I messed this up contrary to my claim. My key value was already 0 and I set it to 1 incorrectly. After this was remedied though by a restore, I can boot just fine with my primary sata adapter from Intel in AHCI mode, which it has been from the beginning, but setting my BIOS for the second internal Gigabyte sata controller from IDE to AHCI does still fail to boot but restarts so fast I can’t read the crash screen which is flashed only for an instant. The board is a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P with a P45/ICH10R chipset combination. I guess for some reason, the drivers are not being installed for the Gigabyte sata chipset after changing the BIOS. Registry key is and has been as recommended above. Thanks, Dave

  5. Thanks for this, it mostly worked on my RTM version however i'm still having some issues. I can't hot swap sata hard drives and I'm getting errors with the 2 IDE Channel device that's showing up when I open the Devices and Printers screen. I'm guessing this is to do with enabling the AHCI?

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  7. Thanks a lot.
    I was about to reinstal Win 7… And thanks to this I didn't had to!
    My config : asus P5K-E wifi ap + win7 final

  8. Worked like a charm for me with an Asus P7P55D pro motherboard. After windows 7 did the reboot thing I installed the intel drivers from Asus and everything is working fine. Did have a little issue with a USB device stop functioning for some reason but it might have been related to another update I had done earlier and just hadn't noticed. That was also an easy fix with an updated driver via Windows Update.

  9. Great info. Very clear and helpful. Thanks a lot.

    However, your registry file seems to add keys to
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemControlSet001ServicesMsahci
    instead of
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesMsahci

    I assume that “CurrentControlSet” actually refers to “ControlSet001” internally?
    Anyway, it worked perfectly.

  10. Pingback: how to enable ahci after windwos 7 installation - TweakTown Forums
  11. Thanks, Merci
    Works perfectly on Win 7 Final + Gigabyte EP35 DS3

    Win 7 Add a “Serial ATA standard AHCI1.0″ in peripheral management” so i think its good ?

  12. You're right – Windows keeps a few backups of the CurrentControlSet registry key (that is the CurrentControlSet001, etc, that you see) – used for recovery if something goes wrong. When running, the *currently used version* of the key is made available (mapped) as 'CurrentControlSet'.

  13. Great Guide!! method works flawlessly..
    However can somebody help me to enable IDE after installing Win7 in AHCI mode??.. I get the BSOD after switching from AHCI to IDE in bios…

  14. Works!! You’ve saved me from hours of frustration. I’ve got an ASUS P5B and Win7 x64. I bought an external eSATA drive and used your trick to enable it. Thank you!

  15. Didn’t work for me :(. I have a Dell mobo with ICH9R. Dual boot Windows XP (32) and 7 Pro (64). Bios only has setting of IDE/RAID, but it looks like RAID encompasses ACHI. Was able to change XP from IDE to RAID buy following one of the guides online – big reg entry to id the hardware, copy intel driver file, set bios and reboot. I thought 7 would be much easier – not! I made the suggested reg entry enabling msahci, but still BSOD on boot when setting the bios to RAID. When back to IDE 7 is ok. I have triple verified the reg entry. Any suggestions?

    Thanks!

  16. thanks a lot. it works like a champ. but ide x ahci performance looks the same. thanks anyway.

  17. Worked as advertised. The only new thing I noticed was that now the SATA drives, including the boot drive c: are included in the “safely remove hardware and eject media” icon. Of course, it won’t allow you to eject your boot drive:-)

    Thanks for the info!

  18. It worked perfectly for my P7P55D motherboard with Intel Core i5 750 / windows 7 bits, while the ASUS AHCI had refused to install, saying the OS was not compatible. Thanks a lot ! The result is brilliant, windows open much faster, although Windows Performance Index for my WD velociraptor stayed the same at 5,9.
    Pascal – France

  19. It worked for my Dell Studio 14Z.

    This was a problem for me – since I have a windows 7 UE that is “upgrade only” DVD (purchased from Academic Institution) – I have to install windows XP first, then install Windows 7. Problem is, windows XP would not install unless I change the HDD controller to ATA from the bios. Then after windows 7 installation is done, I had no way of going back to AHCI mode…

    Thanks for the tip. MUCH Appreciated.

  20. Worked fine on my Asus P6T SE with a Corsair P64 ssd under Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
    The windows performance index went from 7.1 to 7.3
    Thanks!

  21. Hi All,

    I tried doing the same thing for my Fujitsu Amilo si 3655 with windows 7 OS. The setting in registry is already 0.
    When i looked into BIOS and trying to enable Sata drive it is in non editable mode.
    I am very new to all these settings so probably I might be looking at some wrong place. Please let me know where exactly do I need to go to enable the AHCI mode.

  22. did not work for me on a p6t / i7950 / win7 ultimate x64 ….. changed the registry, enabled ahci in bios and got a bsod when starting windows …

  23. Mine hasn’t been working, so I would like to change it back.
    When you right click on start, in the “Msahci” and change the number to 0, what was it originally?
    I would like to change everything back to how it was before I tried this, as whenever I tried booting into windows, I would get a BSOD.
    So yes, what was the number before you are suppose to change it to 0?

    1. the original value is 3 … I did also revert the registry to its initial value for that matter and it worked fine!

  24. On my ASUS P5KC the registry script works fine.. No bluescreens.. However when I attempted to switch from SATA to AHCI it is no longer there..

    I will have to revert and figure out what is going on..

  25. It might be because I have 3 drives now installed.. I am so confused.. Oh well might just wait for reinstall time etc..

  26. I just went from a 7.1 to 7.6 score for my primary hard disk using Windows 7 “Windows Experience Index” test.

    This worked out great, thanks for the info!

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  28. Thanks alot! This worked perfectly on my Windows 7 retail OS and Gigabyte EP45-UD3P board.

  29. I tried same thing in Windows 2008 and it did work. This post saved my whole day. Thank you very much and keep going.

  30. Thank you for the post. Unfortunately it caused instability in my particular case, maybe there are additional settings in BIOS to deal with? or the native windows driver isn’t the best choice? changing the registry item back to 3 and going back to IDE mode in BIOS seems to work.

  31. Thankyou so very much for this!!!! Im running Win7 x64 and the instructions worked perfectly!!

  32. this reg file is not quite same as this post?

    1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci

    2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Services\Msahci

    am I wrong ?

  33. Thank you very much for sharing this info, worked perfectly for me after I installed a new motherboard and wanted to use the AHCI settings.

    Thanks!

  34. Does this patch work on a windows XP box ?
    My mobo bios does have ahci between the options, but for xp to recognize the disk, I needed to keep this options as ‘sata’ because if I select ‘ahci’ the installation procedure said there is no hard disk!
    So, now and after a successfull installation of xp, I wish to change it to ‘ahci’, but up to now, to no avail.
    Regards,

  35. Hey – thanks for the tip. Do you know if this will work going from AHCI to RAID? If so, do you know the value to enter?

  36. Thanks a bunch…will be trying this out on my home PC this weekend. Also thanks because this helped resolve an issue on my work PCs.

  37. Thanks a bunch…will be trying this out on my home PC this weekend. Also thanks because this helped resolve an issue on my work PCs.

  38. Hello,

    Despite your detailed walkthrough, I had to stick to Compatibility on my ThinkPad X60 with a Kingston SSD. Just didn’t go past POST if I turned on AHCI.

  39. Hello,

    Despite your detailed walkthrough, I had to stick to Compatibility on my ThinkPad X60 with a Kingston SSD. Just didn’t go past POST if I turned on AHCI.

  40. Hello,

    Despite your detailed walkthrough, I had to stick to Compatibility on my ThinkPad X60 with a Kingston SSD. Just didn’t go past POST if I turned on AHCI.

  41. It works with my Asus M4A79T MB, Windows 7 64bit and a Seagate HDD.

    Thanks for the hint!
    //XMaster

  42. It works with my Asus M4A79T MB, Windows 7 64bit and a Seagate HDD.

    Thanks for the hint!
    //XMaster

  43. Amazing!

    This is truly amazing, I would have expect Windows 7 to do much better than this! I just had a few blue screens after turning AHCI on. And guess what: Ubuntu, that I run dual boot on the same computer works fine. So we are at this point where Linux actually does better and is more robust than Windows. It used to be different, but times change as I can see. Now I have to jump through hoops to enable AHCI, a thing that is standard nowadays. It shows that Windows is all old and inflexible at a problem like this, and that they badly need to redesign some stuff from scratch!

  44. Amazing!

    This is truly amazing, I would have expect Windows 7 to do much better than this! I just had a few blue screens after turning AHCI on. And guess what: Ubuntu, that I run dual boot on the same computer works fine. So we are at this point where Linux actually does better and is more robust than Windows. It used to be different, but times change as I can see. Now I have to jump through hoops to enable AHCI, a thing that is standard nowadays. It shows that Windows is all old and inflexible at a problem like this, and that they badly need to redesign some stuff from scratch!

  45. Hi,
    I did the same steps as you have written but i was not requiered to restart my laptop! i restarted it and in BIOS i found nothing about AHCI.
    If anyone can help me please i will be thankfull!

    regards
    Tommy

  46. Hi,
    I did the same steps as you have written but i was not requiered to restart my laptop! i restarted it and in BIOS i found nothing about AHCI.
    If anyone can help me please i will be thankfull!

    regards
    Tommy

  47. Hi,
    I did the same steps as you have written but it was not requiered to restart my laptop! i restarted it and in BIOS i found nothing about AHCI.
    If anyone can help me please i will be thankfull!

    regards
    Tommy

  48. Great worked perfectly on my system. Did not use your file – followed your instructions and job is done. Thank you

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  51. dude, worked perfectly (except i had to go into each individual drive in the 'device manager' and select “better performance,” then i got my correct SATA speeds and didn't need the USB cable attached) [win 7 x64, 1 tb external] -thanks and peace!

  52. Hi, this isn't working for me. I've tried it a few times and it still hasn't showed up in the bios. I just installed Windows 7 last week.
    Please email the solution to
    Thanks in advance.

  53. this does not change your BIOS to show AHCI as an option. Read the post carefully. It states

    “But an issue with AHCI is that if you install the OS without enabling AHCI in the BIOS, enabling it after installation will render your OS unusable. This is because Windows disable the AHCI driver since it is not needed during the installation.”

    If you do not have AHCI as an option in your BIOS then either your hardware does not support it (most likly), your system only has AHCI and not ATA so there is no need for it to show as an option in your BIOS since you can not change it, or maybe you need to upgrade your BIOS.

    To the author thank you very much. I had Insatalled Windows 7 Ultimate x64 with AHCI enabled, but after getting everything setup and updated I wanted to ghost using a PE Disc so I had to change the SATA settings to ATA, I did my ghost image but forgot to set back to AHCI. After having issues with x64, my games would not install or run I decided to go back to x86. So I did my install and again spent days downloading updates to Windows 7 and drivers, utilities etc… Then when I went to the BIOS I realized what I had done, I went ahead and did my ghost but I could not get Win7 to boot after setting back to AHCI, I tried startup repairs, etc… I then did a search and found this article, very helpful.

  54. I went into the registry and it was already set to Zero, so I went to my bios and enables AHCI but all i get upon loading is the BSOD.

    I really don't want to re-install windows 7. That would be a huge pain in the #$%

  55. It worked except my eSATA hard drive still doesn't hot swap, although I can eject my internal hard drive now. Maybe I should have left my eSATA drive on during that restart?

  56. Unfortunately it didn’t work for me – just hangs after POST, Windows doesn’t start.
    I have Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, Intel 80GB SSDSA2M080G2C2 and Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R v2 motherboard FA BIOS.

    Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

    1. Connect your boot drive to one of the WHITE SATA connectors (I think the white connectors are controlled by the Marvell chipset or non-Intel chipset).

      Power up, go into BIOS, check boot order, change SATA setting to AHCI, boot to Windows. Install Intel ACHI driver, power off.

      Re-connect boot drive to a blue, Intel SATA connector.

      Power up, go into BIOS, check boot order, boot into Windows. Done.

    2. I have just built Gigabyte GA P55 UD5 Intel i5 CPU, and it works just fine converting to AHCI. OS
      Also on the GA X58A-UD3R_Intel i7 950 CPU, that was in IDE converted to AHCI okay. OS
      And again for the Gigabyte GA X58A-UD5_Intel i7-930 CPU Windows 7 OS Hard Drive, and Windows Home Server 2008 OS Hard Drive.
      Check connections 0 1 2 3 4 5_are on eSATA to AHCI controller. THis the main one.
      6 7 _are on GSATA to AHCI controller.
      8 9 _ are 0n GSATA to AHCI controller
      Thanks to instructions
      Tony.
      PS.
      6 7 8 9 As I am not at home, I am writing from memory.

    3. The best and most accurate way to enable AHCI in windows at post installation is to do it this way, and it will all be configured by the operateing system properly (you must have the Windows 7 installation disc to do this). Set all AHCI modes in bios and save the settings, reboot with the Windows 7 installation disc in the CD/DVD drive as if you were going to install windows settings.
      Make sure you have the bios set, so that if it fails to boot from your hard drive it then tries to boot
      from the CD drive. After you restart it will load all the windows setup drivers. When you get to the first prompt to set up windows (asks you for the time zone) X out the box to exit, it will ask you if you wish to cancel the installation, answer yes. then you reboot. Windows will now work properly and boot from your Hard Drive and all the AHCI drivers and configuration will be configured. When windows finishes booting, it will start showing new devices found and configure them properly ( mainly if you also set your cd/dvd drives to AHCI mode too. You are now all set and properly configured. Now you can take out the windows installation disc ( do not remove it prior to this point). It has worked perfectly for me every time.

    4. I found it a lot easier to set up a floppy/usb stick… and use the AHCI drivers for Windows Server 2003… during the setup…. when prompted I browsed to the x86 2k3 folder and Win7 accepted and showed the available driver.. (the checkmark was on for “don’t show incompatable drivers” I said OK and the install got underway….

  57. Thanks a ton, worked flawlessly for W-7 (64-bit). I might add that if you do not want to accidently eject your C drive, (or have your 15 year old daughter do it for you)then disable hot swapping in the bios, when you change to AHCI after changing the Reg-entry as described above.

  58. Hi,

    Is there any chance that after changing the registry, your machine won’t boot up. In that case how do you recover?

    Thanks

    1. I left clicked and it tried to open the .reg file as a music file. I right-clicked and did ‘save as…’ and it saved it as an mp3 file. I downloaded it, renamed the extension, and opened in notepad, and yes, it’s a registry file.

      Really odd behavior.

        1. I had this mp3 issue to in firefox, but I just downloaded it and changed the extension from mp3 to reg.

  59. It has an Extension of .REG same goes true for all Registry Files.

    Start

    Run/Start Search

    Type: REGEDIT

    Go to the following:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci

    Double Click “START” on the right Pane change the Value to “0” Reboot. And Enable ACHI in your BIOS either F1,F2,Del, F10 Depending on your Mobo.

    1. What if the option to change from sata to ahci in BIOS is not present? Is there another way? Any help would be fantastic.

  60. Pingback: Dell Latitude E6410 BSOD Switch to AHCI | DeveloperQuestion.com
  61. If someone has a mainboard that has a secondary SATA controller, such as JMicron, all they need to do is attach their boot drive to one of the other connectors. They can then change the SATA setting in the BIOS (which *only* affects the main SATA controller), boot, and install the AHCI drivers as any other new hardware. Once the drivers are install, power off, re-attach the boot drive to the main SATA connectors, and reboot. No need to futz around with the registry … :-).

    1. PS. This is assuming they’ve already installed the drivers for the secondary SATA controller (which some people forget to do).

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  63. hi all
    my main Asus P7P55D chip intel P55. HDD santa 2. OS Win 7 64 bit RC
    I trying convert mode Santa –> AHCI..failed !!! :

    Setup new install OS …not dectect HDD..
    after install OS with mode IDE . I run regedit :

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesMsahci

    I change mode in BIOS : IDE –> AHCI. reset my computer not success

    please help me…

  64. I did it with success, my intel x25 160 has windows 7 rating from 7.4 with IDE to 7.7 with AHCI. Yay!!!!

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  67. Worked for me, thanks.
    Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 with Phenom II X2 560 AM3 Dual Core, Win7 Pro 64bit

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  69. Worked like a charm for me, thanks! Asus P6TD Deluxe with Win 7 64 bit. Like others using Firefox, I had to remove the MP3 extension from the REG file.

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  71. I tried it, it works, the drivers were installed.

    Here’s the problem: When initially starting programs, there is now a 5 – 6 second delay, as opposed to the instantaneous loading that used to take place when I had them set as IDE devices.

    Any ideas?

  72. Worked for me!!! I had to reorder my boot devices after the change so the drive would boot first.

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  74. you said “Just download the following file and run it. You’ll still need to go through the steps of restarting your computer and enabling AHCI in the BIOS.” what file, where, how and what link? your mean the Icon
    “ahci” on right? I click on it. it is in windows media file format and can not play it. I appreiate very much for you reply or anybody’s reply. I followed you instructions on set a 0 data value in the registry and it did not work.

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  85. Thanks I did this and it worked. Now I have a problem though; 8 out of 10 times my computer will boot up to go into BIOS right away. I need to enter ‘discard changes and exit’ for it to boot up to Windows. Very anoying because I bought an SSD just so my computer would be (and boot up) faster. 
    Does anyone know how to fix this?  I tried flashing my bios, and changing the sata cables of my 2 drives around. 

    Thanks in advance : 

    Intel core i5-2320 @ 3.00GhzWIN7 64b sp18 gig ramgtx 560 bios: MSI H61M-E33 (B3) bios v10.141st drive SSD OCZ-AGILITY3 120g 
    2nd drive: some old (but good working Seagate sata 2, 3ghz , 220g   drive) 

  86. Just installed a samsung SDD 840, ASUS M3A78-EM mother board, could not for the life of me get AHCI to run right. Spent a couple of hours playing and updating my bios to no avail. Found this web site, tried this fix and voila!!! AHCI is now enabled and running!! Victory…Thanks for the great tutorial!!

    1. I’m right where you were Mike (but add a couple of hours)….I can’t wait to get home to try this! Will let y’all know.

  87. how come the path in the registry (if you do it manually) is different than the path it the .reg file you have for download?

  88. Well holy cow, it worked….Thank you Imran!! You have no idea how many days I’ve waisted reading other peoples spew, trying it, and failing…..sure wish I came across this sooner, but, it brought me from a 7.6 to a 7.8 on performance. Of course I had a couple of 6.0 etc…on the way to get here :(….But thanks again and keep it up…..please.

  89. Bless you!! I fought with this issue for a day and a half. Found your solution and fixed it in less than 5 minutes. I’ve saved your post and “fix” so when I have to do a reinstall down the road, it will be a cake walk next time.

  90. FYI:

    I followed your steps, however after I enabled AHCI in the BIOS after making the registry change and shutting down I still got the Blue Screen. Enabled IDE mode and booted normally. Confirmed the reg key was still set as mentioned above. This was on an 8440p EliteBook HP Notebook.

  91. Your steps say the change has to be made in subkey CurrentControlSet. The file we can download makes the change to ControlSet001. Do both keys need to be changed?

  92. Maybe it olddie, but still work! U save me. Triple boot: Win 7, Maverick & Sierra, all in different disk, Clover boot loader!

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