SSD install

[johnmhigh]

Hi, im trying to install my old SSD (OCZ vertec plus R2 SATA2) into my girlfriends laptop ( HP PAVILION 15-P131na) however in the bios there in no options to enable AHCI, im assuming its on IDE atm, and when i get to the windows install screen the SSD does not show up.

 

Ive tried the "clean install" method from the command prompt with no luck as it does not see the drive.

 

However the SSD does have a current windows installation on it, i can format it but i will need to put in into my computer to do this and i dont think it will make a difference anyway unless im wrong.

 

any help would be very much appreciated 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Does it show up in the bios?

 

Does it show up in a linux usb?

[johnmhigh]

the bios dosent really show anything, it shows up during the windows install when i look for the drivers it says i need

 

[Captain_WD]

13 hours ago, johnmhigh said:

~snip~

Hi there john

 

Can you choose between bootable drives and configure the boot order in the laptop? The SSD should appear there. 

I would try to securely erase it on another system before placing it in this laptop. Do this and see if that works. 

What version of Windows are you trying to install? 

Contacting the manufacturer of the laptop is a good idea.

 

Captain_WD. 

[johnmhigh]

Yea I threw it back into my PC and that didn't see it either, even on the windows disk manager. I've sacrificed one of my crucial MX 100's for the laptop now, got window on it no problem.  However, it connected via a shitty ribbon cable that I can only assume us SATA2. Is there any way I can check if it's in IDE or AHCI mode other then bios. And if it's in IDE will I lose TRIM?

 

[Captain_WD]

On 15.09.2016 г. at 4:36 PM, johnmhigh said:

~snip~

You need to be in AHCI mode in order for the SSD to benefit from TRIM. 

 

Windows OS uses AHCI by default unless the BIOS limits it when set to IDE mode. This is done BEFORE the installation of the OS and switching between modes will require you to reinstall the OS. There are ways to go around this but involves tweaks in the system registry and I wouldn't recommend that. 

 

You can check which mode is the OS running on by viewing the list of controller drivers.

In the Device Manager expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers and see if any entry there contains "AHCI" in it. if there's such an entry without any yellow exclamation marks or red "X" marks then you should have AHCI properly enabled. 

 

You can even check what driver is the system using by right-clicking on one of the controllers > Properties > Details > Change property to Service and then you should see one of the three:

pciide.sys (means you are using Microsoft IDE driver 

msahci (means you are using Mcrosoft AHCI driver

iastor.sys (means you are using Intel ANCI/RAID driver

 

Let me know if you need any other help

 

Captain_WD. 

[johnmhigh]

Thanks for the detailed response, under IDE/ ATA/ATAPI  there is just one

 

AMD SATA controller

 

No entry for AHCI.

 

I can remember change and setting like this in BIOS as it's rather limited for some reason. 

 

Better off just keeping the HDD in then? 

 

Thanks.

[Captain_WD]

17 hours ago, johnmhigh said:

~snip~

Could you post a screenshot of your Device Manager? 

Can you see the option in the BIOS? 

 

Here's also how you can check if TRIM is enabled if you decide to use a SSD:

Open Command Prompt as an Administrator and run fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify . If you get as a result DisableDeleteNotify = 0 then TRIM should be working. If the values is 1 then TRIM is disabled. 

 

Captain_WD.