[HOWTO] Boot Macs with Intel Chipset in AHCI Win7 Vista XP Linux

[NicoDr]

Hello,

 

i've got a brand new 27" Intel Core i5 Quadcore iMac equipped with the Apple 256GB Solid-State-Disk.

 

I only use my iMac with Windows 7 64 Bit on the SSD. The performance of that ssd running the standard drivers is rather poor than great. So I would like to switch the SATA-Controller from IDE-Mode to AHCI-Mode.

 

What would be the right way to do that?

 

I already did switch my old 24" Intel Alu iMac to AHCI with windows 7 64 Bit following these instructions:

DarkFader

 

What do I need to do with the 27" iMac to get AHCI running with Windows 7?

 

Best regards,

 

Nico

[Pandamonia]

An update to the following post:

 

Successfully implemented on a Mac Book Pro 6,2 (mid 2010) using the Intel i5 chipset and also confirmed to work on the i7 version as well.

 

Testing provided by Jay V. Thanks for being willing to risk your brand new machine!

 

Will not work on 13 inch Mac Book Pro (mid 2010) with Nvidia chipset Intel Core 2 Duo.

Will not work on Mac Mini (mid 2010) with Nvidia Chipset Intel Core 2 Duo - the latest generation as of this post.

 

I have overhauled the script to provide you with basic instructions on how to get it done quick and easy using Windows 7 and Windows Vista

ahci_MBP_i5.sh.zip

 

Sorry this will only work on Macs that use an Intel chipset for the northbridge/southbrige.

So any Mac using Nvidia chipsets such as the 13 inch MBP and new Mac Mini will not be able to use this because they are using Nvidia MCP89/MCP99.

The reason for this would be that Nvidia has not released any datasheets for their chipsets to the public, unlike Intel that has full disclosure of all commercially available chipsets.

 

 

Hi I am having trouble understanding what i am doing with this script. i have set the keys in windows registry to 0 well 2 of them anywy because there is only 2 i can find not 3.

 

i open the script in OSX and i tried copying it in to terminal, i copied just the middle bit without the Echos and i also copyed the whole thing and then rebooted but it seems not to work for me. im guessing im doing wrong?

 

im on a I7 MBP with SSD so i need AHCI.

 

Could you please help?

 

thanks

 

Edit. - I forgot to run this in Sudo -s mode. but i copied the whole think into Terminal with Sudo -s and it got messed up at the end and went into some kind of loop?

 

any ideas?

[ssmotivex]

Has anyone had any success with latest 2010 Mac Pro?

[netvigator201]

Hi! This guide helped me enable AHCI on my Macbook Pro 2007 model.

 

After setting the appropriate registry key, I ran the script in OSX.

 

I rebooted and Windows successfully detected and installed the Generic Microsoft AHCI driver.

 

I rebooted after that installation.

 

At this point I went to Intel's Website to download the Intel Storage Matrix Manager (I think it's at version 89, version 85 is linked in post 1). I downloaded the Windows 7 English version and it installed successfully. It then prompts me to reboot.

 

On reboot, Windows loads for several seconds and then immediately bluescreens. I think the error is an 0x7B error.

 

After this, I have to run a system restore to the point before I installed the Intel driver to get windows to boot again.

 

I tried going BACK into OSX and redoing the script, but it states that "It appears as though the MBR has already been modified".

 

Any ideas? I'm already pretty happy that I finally get AHCI, but it'd be great to install the Intel driver because you guys say it performs better.

 

I also have this problem with my MacBook Pro with ICH8M south bridge.

 

I have a habit that I will turn off the system restore in Windows, so that I have to re-install the windows 7 many times for this failure.

 

I searched from the web, I notice that many failure cases of installing the Intel matrix storage drivers were found with ICH8M MacBook.

 

Does there any other solution for the owner of the MacBook Pro with ICH8M south bridge to correctly install the Intel matrix storage drivers?

[johnsock]

Here is a BETA of the new AHCI Enabler tool. It is designed to replace the script used previously. This has been tested with all Intel chipsets used so far by Apple. The program also includes the ability to backup and restore your MBR. I recommend you do this, since this program is still BETA. Use at your own risk!

 

Please provide feedback via this forum, whether it's bugs, feature requests, complaints, or praise!

 

AHCI_Enabler.dmg

[andrewcrow]

Here is a BETA of the new AHCI Enabler tool. It is designed to replace the script used previously. This has been tested with all Intel chipsets used so far by Apple. The program also includes the ability to backup and restore your MBR. I recommend you do this, since this program is still BETA. Use at your own risk!

 

Please provide feedback via this forum, whether it's bugs, feature requests, complaints, or praise!

 

AHCI_Enabler.dmg

 

Tried this on a Macbook Pro 4,1 (pre unibody 2.6GHz dual) but it just said "chipset not found". Trying to get a OCZ Vertex 2 120Gb SSD working properly using the optical drive bay (OptiDrive). Any suggestions? It works just now but stalls some times and has a good think about doing anything all the time and it's driving me daft!

[johnsock]

Tried this on a Macbook Pro 4,1 (pre unibody 2.6GHz dual) but it just said "chipset not found". Trying to get a OCZ Vertex 2 120Gb SSD working properly using the optical drive bay (OptiDrive). Any suggestions? It works just now but stalls some times and has a good think about doing anything all the time and it's driving me daft!

 

Can you check in System Profiler and let me know what chipset is reported? Also, do you know if the optical drive bay on this model is SATA or PATA? I know the other pre-unibody models were PATA, which is not something I've tested.

[andrewcrow]

Can you check in System Profiler and let me know what chipset is reported? Also, do you know if the optical drive bay on this model is SATA or PATA? I know the other pre-unibody models were PATA, which is not something I've tested.

 

Hi John,

 

The chipset is reported as being -

Product: Intel ICH8-M AHCI

Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

 

This is under Serial-ATA and I suspect has answered my question. I have an OptiBay for the SSD and the original drive is in the original place (as there is some shock protection there). On the SATA port all that shows up is the original drive and the SSD is on the ATA port. In this model the optical drive was PATA unfortunately.

 

It looks like I need to move the SSD to where the original hard drive was (on sata port) and put the older mechanical drive in the OptiBay. Does that sound right? Better look out some foam or other way to cushion is a bit in that case.

 

Cheers

Andrew

[johnsock]

Hi John,

 

The chipset is reported as being -

Product: Intel ICH8-M AHCI

Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

 

This is under Serial-ATA and I suspect has answered my question. I have an OptiBay for the SSD and the original drive is in the original place (as there is some shock protection there). On the SATA port all that shows up is the original drive and the SSD is on the ATA port. In this model the optical drive was PATA unfortunately.

 

It looks like I need to move the SSD to where the original hard drive was (on sata port) and put the older mechanical drive in the OptiBay. Does that sound right? Better look out some foam or other way to cushion is a bit in that case.

 

Cheers

Andrew

 

Andrew,

 

I suspected that was the case (PATA for optical drive) but I didn't have that model handy to check it out. The AHCI specification is based on SATA, so you will have to hook up the SSD in place of the original hard drive for this to work. The ICH8-M chipset is supported by the AHCI Enabler utility and it should be recognized once you have an NTFS partition residing on the SATA drive.

I wouldn't worry too much about foam for shock protection as long as the OptiBay allows for a rigid mounting of all parts within the case. Modern hard drives are much more durable than they were in the past and for more peace of mind you could always drop in a hard drive with build-in shock protection (I know Seagate makes some, possibly others).

 

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. Let me know how it works out.

 

CK

[andrewcrow]

Andrew,

 

I suspected that was the case (PATA for optical drive) but I didn't have that model handy to check it out. The AHCI specification is based on SATA, so you will have to hook up the SSD in place of the original hard drive for this to work. The ICH8-M chipset is supported by the AHCI Enabler utility and it should be recognized once you have an NTFS partition residing on the SATA drive.

I wouldn't worry too much about foam for shock protection as long as the OptiBay allows for a rigid mounting of all parts within the case. Modern hard drives are much more durable than they were in the past and for more peace of mind you could always drop in a hard drive with build-in shock protection (I know Seagate makes some, possibly others).

 

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. Let me know how it works out.

 

CK

 

Thanks. I decided to just swap the drives over but had a few problems - could not boot into Windows 7 or Ubuntu after I changed them round, but that may be something to do with the operating systems rather than refit.

 

It's not the first time I've knackered up boot records and stuff so I'm re-installing all 3 OS' again! I've made osx the first partition this time, rather than windows 7. That might have something to do with it?!

[johnsock]

Thanks. I decided to just swap the drives over but had a few problems - could not boot into Windows 7 or Ubuntu after I changed them round, but that may be something to do with the operating systems rather than refit.

 

It's not the first time I've knackered up boot records and stuff so I'm re-installing all 3 OS' again! I've made osx the first partition this time, rather than windows 7. That might have something to do with it?!

 

I hope you get it figured out. What are you using to triple-boot the system? I ask because the AHCI Enabler will only work if Windows is booted by loading the MBR. Using LILO could bypass this in certain situations and I'm not sure how rEFIt would handle the MBR as I've not used it much. This should be interesting...

[andrewcrow]

Well the sh**s hit the fan now! Tried restoring osx from a disk image but there is apparently something wrong with both the images I have! Now the AHCI Enabler program won't work (The License Agreement comes up but will not go away - can't agree or quit). It worked before when the drive was on the PATA channel but obviously didn't see any chipset).

 

Looks like I need to start from scratch again..... why does apple update download sooooo slow?? 37 hours is the estimate! aaaargh

 

EDIT: Once I had updated Snow Leopard the AHCI Enabler got past the point mentioned above. I managed to format the partition for windows 7 using Tuxera NTFS and that made it recognisable by the AHCI Enabler program - you just need to make sure that there is only one NTFS formatted partition plugged in as it would not show up before when I had other external drives plugged in.

[johnsock]

Well the sh**s hit the fan now! Tried restoring osx from a disk image but there is apparently something wrong with both the images I have! Now the AHCI Enabler program won't work (The License Agreement comes up but will not go away - can't agree or quit). It worked before when the drive was on the PATA channel but obviously didn't see any chipset).

 

Looks like I need to start from scratch again..... why does apple update download sooooo slow?? 37 hours is the estimate! aaaargh

 

EDIT: Once I had updated Snow Leopard the AHCI Enabler got past the point mentioned above. I managed to format the partition for windows 7 using Tuxera NTFS and that made it recognisable by the AHCI Enabler program - you just need to make sure that there is only one NTFS formatted partition plugged in as it would not show up before when I had other external drives plugged in.

 

I'm glad you got it running and I'd like to get some more info about your setup. When you ran AHCI Enabler initially, was it under 10.6? It should not require anything higher than that, but it may be a build setting I need to fix. Also, when you ran the program with external disks hooked up how many of them showed up in the list? Only drives with NTFS partitions should show up, but external drives should not prevent your internal one from being detected. There may be a bug with my drive detection code (an ongoing problem) that needs to be addressed. If you can give me some more specifics about what drives were hooked up, the partitions they contained, and how they were connected might help me reproduce the problem.

[andrewcrow]

I'm glad you got it running and I'd like to get some more info about your setup. When you ran AHCI Enabler initially, was it under 10.6?

 

The first time I ran it was on the latest version of Leopard. The second time I ran it was after installing from the SL disc which I got soon after it was released (pre-ordered).

 

It should not require anything higher than that, but it may be a build setting I need to fix. Also, when you ran the program with external disks hooked up how many of them showed up in the list? Only drives with NTFS partitions should show up, but external drives should not prevent your internal one from being detected. There may be a bug with my drive detection code (an ongoing problem) that needs to be addressed. If you can give me some more specifics about what drives were hooked up, the partitions they contained, and how they were connected might help me reproduce the problem.

 

I have quite a different set up - it's a Macbook Pro 4,1 (Early 2008) with Intel chipset but I have a new OCZ Vertex 2 120Gb SSD in the main bay and at the time I had the old sata 200Gb drive in the OptiBay. This other 200Gb drive was formatted as NTFS and I possibly had another 1 or 2 NTFS formatted drives plugged in via an PCIe 3/4 eSATA card! I also run Tuxera NTFS - not sure if that makes any difference?

 

I have read of issues with this particular SSD on a mac so that possibly introduces another layer of problems!! If I can get this done I will happily write up a step by step guide (and possibly break out the chanpagne!).

[Squuiid]

johnsock, THANK YOU! Really appreciate your efforts on this. Works perfectly on my i7/SSD MBP. Thanks very much!

 

Of note, I had used the initial 1.0 script on my i7 and then found it not to work. This made it very difficult to then run the 1.1 version as it would inform me that the mbr had already been modified. In my trying to fix this I accidentally overwrote my backup too!

So, what I did was edit out the section where it checks to see if the script has already run, crossed my fingers and ran it! It worked!

Cheers.

[johnsock]

johnsock, THANK YOU! Really appreciate your efforts on this. Works perfectly on my i7/SSD MBP. Thanks very much!

 

Of note, I had used the initial 1.0 script on my i7 and then found it not to work. This made it very difficult to then run the 1.1 version as it would inform me that the mbr had already been modified. In my trying to fix this I accidentally overwrote my backup too!

So, what I did was edit out the section where it checks to see if the script has already run, crossed my fingers and ran it! It worked!

Cheers.

Glad to hear you got it working and I appreciate the thanks. The new AHCI Enabler program has better backup/restore capabilities than the script so hopefully it will be easier for others to use in the future. I uploaded the new program a few posts ago, so you should be able to grab it there.

 

Ludacrisvp: want to update the original post to link to the new program?

[cesarvog]

I've got a 15" MacBook Pro, mid 2009 (MacBookPro5,3) with the Nvidia MCP79. Just wanted to report success using the following method:

 

1. In Device Manager, find the Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller.

2. Choose 'Update Driver Software', 'browse ...', 'let me pick ...'.

3. Uncheck 'Show compatible hardware'.

4. Choose 'Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller' in the manufacturer list, and the same for model (should be the only model)

 

Finally, in the registry, check that in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci Start is set to 0.

 

Note: only do this with a MCP79! Normally, forcing a driver on hardware it doesn't expect is dangerous. However, in this case, it appears to be safe. I've found that Linux can use AHCI on MCP79 in legacy IDE mode, and this is why: http://fixunix.com/kernel/258426-patch-ahc...ler-ahci-c.html

 

I followed above instructions, but that did not seem to make any difference in disk performance. I'm running Windows 7 x64 on a 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo MacMini3,1 with 2 GB RAM (will add 2 GB more memory soon in order to be able to use x64). Disk Performance Index remained unchanged from when it was using the Standard IDE controller (5,4). Unfortunately, the MacMini3,1 has the MCP79 AHCI SATA controller...

 

I'm not sure if my Mac Mini is doing BIOS emulation or not (don't really know how to verify...), because I did not use the Boot Camp Assistant prior to installing Windows 7 x64. I chose to run x64 version because I read somewhere that the 64 bit version would be able to boot from EFI... Since I was hoping to boot Windows 7 x64 from EFI, I simply resized OSX partition leaving 100 GB free space and installed rEFIt as boot manager. Then I installed a patched Windows 7 x64 by choosing the DVD disk on rEFIt screen. I've also read somewhere that the standard Windows 7 x64 disk had to be patched because of the dreaded "Select CD-ROM boot type" error, which my patched disk was able to avoid. I was dissapointed when Windows Setup finished to learn that device detection had in fact installed the Standard IDE controller, reason why I followed your instructions.

 

Does anybody know how to verify if BIOS is being emulated or not?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

C

[johnsock]

I followed above instructions, but that did not seem to make any difference in disk performance. I'm running Windows 7 x64 on a 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo MacMini3,1 with 2 GB RAM (will add 2 GB more memory soon in order to be able to use x64). Disk Performance Index remained unchanged from when it was using the Standard IDE controller (5,4). Unfortunately, the MacMini3,1 has the MCP79 AHCI SATA controller...

 

I'm not sure if my Mac Mini is doing BIOS emulation or not (don't really know how to verify...), because I did not use the Boot Camp Assistant prior to installing Windows 7 x64. I chose to run x64 version because I read somewhere that the 64 bit version would be able to boot from EFI... Since I was hoping to boot Windows 7 x64 from EFI, I simply resized OSX partition leaving 100 GB free space and installed rEFIt as boot manager. Then I installed a patched Windows 7 x64 by choosing the DVD disk on rEFIt screen. I've also read somewhere that the standard Windows 7 x64 disk had to be patched because of the dreaded "Select CD-ROM boot type" error, which my patched disk was able to avoid. I was dissapointed when Windows Setup finished to learn that device detection had in fact installed the Standard IDE controller, reason why I followed your instructions.

 

Does anybody know how to verify if BIOS is being emulated or not?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

C

 

The BootCamp Assistant only resizes and partitions the drive and then sets the boot drive to your installation disc, if desired. It does not have any effect on BIOS compatibility layer that gets loaded. The Mac always boots using EFI. The EFI boot loader will load the BIOS compatibility layer any time it is instructed to boot a Windows partition. Since the BOIS compatibility layer never puts the chipset into AHCI mode, you will always initially boot Windows in legacy mode. The 'Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller' driver that you can force install is there for compatibility purposes and operates solely in legacy mode. The chipset can't be placed in AHCI mode once the OS has booted. That's why we are doing it in the MBR code here. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a way to configure the MCP79 chipset registers like we can for the Intel ones.

I hope this answers some of your questions, and let me know if you need more info.

 

CK

[ElArteest]

Anyone know what the suggested method is for getting AHCI enabled on an early 2008 Mac Pro with Windows 7 installed? Is the method shown on page 1 of this thread the best method or has there been a better/easier way of doing this?

 

Not worried about the OSX side of things as I now converted into a Windows 7 only machine.

 

Kind regards,

-J.B.

[johnsock]

Anyone know what the suggested method is for getting AHCI enabled on an early 2008 Mac Pro with Windows 7 installed? Is the method shown on page 1 of this thread the best method or has there been a better/easier way of doing this?

 

Not worried about the OSX side of things as I now converted into a Windows 7 only machine.

 

Kind regards,

-J.B.

 

The process on the Windows side of things is the same, but you will still need to enable AHCI mode by modifying the MBR on the Windows boot drive. Both the script and the AHCI Enabler application are designed to run in OS X. The easiest way to get this working would be to boot OS X from another drive so that you can run the AHCI Enabler application. I'm not sure if Windows 7 will allow you to modify the MBR on the boot drive from within Windows, so this may be your only option.

[ElArteest]

The process on the Windows side of things is the same, but you will still need to enable AHCI mode by modifying the MBR on the Windows boot drive. Both the script and the AHCI Enabler application are designed to run in OS X. The easiest way to get this working would be to boot OS X from another drive so that you can run the AHCI Enabler application. I'm not sure if Windows 7 will allow you to modify the MBR on the boot drive from within Windows, so this may be your only option.

 

Ah, I see. Thanks for making things less confusing for me.

 

Cheers!

[Crevice]

I can't select my windows boot drive from the drop down on your program. The only hard drive I can select is my windows storage hard drive. I have 2 hard drives for windows, one is a 40 gb SSD for boot up and where windows 7 is installed, the other drive is a 500 gb partitioned drive just for files and what not. Your program DOES see the 500gb windows partitioned drive, but not the SSD with windows actually installed on it, (which i want ahci enabled) any ideas?

[johnsock]

I can't select my windows boot drive from the drop down on your program. The only hard drive I can select is my windows storage hard drive. I have 2 hard drives for windows, one is a 40 gb SSD for boot up and where windows 7 is installed, the other drive is a 500 gb partitioned drive just for files and what not. Your program DOES see the 500gb windows partitioned drive, but not the SSD with windows actually installed on it, (which i want ahci enabled) any ideas?

 

Give me some specifics about your installation and I'll see if I can figure out the problem. I need to know the computer model, the type of interface connecting each drive, and how each drive is formatted. Good info from the following command is also helpful:

 

sudo gpt -r show -l /dev/disk0

 

Run the above command for each drive in your system. It will print out partition information that would be helpful in finding out why the program isn't seeing your drive.

 

EDIT: Your Windows7 install isn't on FAT32, is it? My program only detects NTFS partitions at this time, but I'm planning to fix this in the near future.

[Crevice]

Give me some specifics about your installation and I'll see if I can figure out the problem. I need to know the computer model, the type of interface connecting each drive, and how each drive is formatted. Good info from the following command is also helpful:

 

sudo gpt -r show -l /dev/disk0

 

Run the above command for each drive in your system. It will print out partition information that would be helpful in finding out why the program isn't seeing your drive.

 

EDIT: Your Windows7 install isn't on FAT32, is it? My program only detects NTFS partitions at this time, but I'm planning to fix this in the near future.

 

I'm at work, so I need to run that command when I get home. Here is what I can tell you now thought. I have a new 2010 mac pro, 6-core Westmere system. The solid state drive I am using is an OWC 40 gb SSD, which is installed in the spare optical bay of my mac pro. Windows 7 is installed on the system, which is formatted as NTFS. The other drive which is the only drive the program is finding, is a partitioned drive in a standard mac pro hard drive bay. It is also NTFS. I hope that helps for now.

[johnsock]

I'm at work, so I need to run that command when I get home. Here is what I can tell you now thought. I have a new 2010 mac pro, 6-core Westmere system. The solid state drive I am using is an OWC 40 gb SSD, which is installed in the spare optical bay of my mac pro. Windows 7 is installed on the system, which is formatted as NTFS. The other drive which is the only drive the program is finding, is a partitioned drive in a standard mac pro hard drive bay. It is also NTFS. I hope that helps for now.

 

Is the Windows7 installed alone on the SSD, or is it partitioned there along with OS X? I have some ideas about what might be happening here, based on prior experience with multiple drive bootcamp setups on my Mac Pro. The 'gpt show' output for your drives should shed some light on this.