# Convert from AHCI to RAID mode (ICH10R)?



## DMF (Feb 24, 2010)

Vista x64 on a Asus P5Q board with ICH10R controller that can be set in AHCI or RAID mode.  System was built using AHCI mode with the original drivers.  I want to add a RAID-1 array for storage.  At first I thought I could stay in AHCI mode, but the system wouldn't recognize an array since RAID drivers are required.  But switching to RAID mode, it couldn't find the system disk since AHCI drivers are required.  Catch-22.

Somewhere I heard that the latest drivers fix that, so I installed the latest Intel Storage Matrix Manager, which did something to the drivers. Whatever it was, the system wouldn't boot in either mode due to a "corrupt boot image".  Not sure what I did, but I eventually got it to boot using AHCI mode.  The new drivers are installed (apparently both modes now use the same drivers) so the system now sees an array formed by the ICH10R BIOS setup.  Partial victory.

The problem is, there are several features of the Intel software that are only available in RAID mode.  So I still need to switch to RAID mode.  What's the secret?


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## Deleted member 24505 (Feb 24, 2010)

Try this-
http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardware/112584-how-enable-ahci-raid-mode-without-reinstalling-windows-p35-ich9-ich9r-4.html


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## DMF (Feb 24, 2010)

Great thread.  Thanks for the link.  I'll save it to try later, since that registry hack pre-dates the latest Intel drivers that seem to work in both modes (I think).  There's a couple other things I want to explore first. 

When I built this machine, it was my intention to do RAID-1 on the boot drive (which is why I have two WD RE2 drives in it).  But that turned out a disaster since Vista installer went nuts and fixing it manually was whole new, unexplored land.  (XP installer produced a bad BOOTINI (sp?) but with manual hack I got XP up with RAID1 x32 boot.  But I wanted to use x64 as XP-64 seems a bit of a dead end; thus Vista-64.) 

With the new drivers, maybe a RAID1 boot drive is now possible?


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