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As far as I know your mobo must support AHCI and simply connecting PCI controller will not help here. Even if you have compatible chipset you need in any case install Intel drivers for AHCI. Otherwise the drive in AHCI mode will not be detected. <br />
Here is a good post on enabling AHCI: <a href="http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831" rel="ugc">http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831</a>
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As far as I know your mobo must support AHCI and simply connecting PCI controller will not help here. Even if you have compatible chipset you need in any case install Intel drivers for AHCI. Otherwise the drive in AHCI mode will not be detected.
Here is a good post on enabling AHCI: http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831 [http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831]

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If you have a motherboard with Intel ICH chipset in it, you CAN switch to AHCI even if all your installation was done using the IDE mode.<br />
==&gt; Please follow the instructions below (It worked for me)<br />
&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831" rel="ugc">http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831</a>
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If you have a motherboard with Intel ICH chipset in it, you CAN switch to AHCI even if all your installation was done using the IDE mode.
==> Please follow the instructions below (It worked for me)
   http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831 [http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831]

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Thanks for the help guys. &nbsp;I looked into the reg change as an option, but for the price of adding on a PCI card, I'm going to go with that and avoid the hassle.<br />
<br />
Thanks again,<br />
<br />
Dave
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Thanks for the help guys.  I looked into the reg change as an option, but for the price of adding on a PCI card, I'm going to go with that and avoid the hassle.

Thanks again,

Dave

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I have a Server 2003 box with a sata boot drive. &nbsp;The OS was installed with the drive configured as IDE.<br />
<br />
I want to add some hot swappale sata drives, but know I have to enable AHCI in BIOS. &nbsp;Changing this will affect my boot drive and cause a BSOD (or so I've read).<br />
<br />
Can I simply add another PCI (or PCIx) storage controller that would have AHCI enabled to control the non-boot drives?<br />
<br />
Thanks
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I have a Server 2003 box with a sata boot drive.  The OS was installed with the drive configured as IDE.

I want to add some hot swappale sata drives, but know I have to enable AHCI in BIOS.  Changing this will affect my boot drive and cause a BSOD (or so I've read).

Can I simply add another PCI (or PCIx) storage controller that would have AHCI enabled to control the non-boot drives?

Thanks

adding an AHCI storage controller to existing system

Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media used to retain digital data. In addition to local storage devices like CD and DVD readers, hard drives and flash drives, solid state drives can hold enormous amounts of data in a very small device. Cloud services and other new forms of remote storage also add to the capacity of devices and their ability to access more data without building additional data storage into a device.

Storage

Storage devices include any device used for storing and retrieving digital information. Hard disk drives (HDDs) use one or more rigid ("hard") rapidly rotating disks (platters) coated with magnetic material. Data is accessed in a random-access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored or retrieved in any order and not only sequentially. The primary competing technology for secondary storage is flash memory in the form of solid-state drives (SSDs), but HDDs remain the dominant medium for secondary storage due to advantages in price per bit and per-device recording capacity. CD-RW (Compact Disc-ReWritable) is a digital optical disc storage format that allows information to be stored outside the mechanical HDD.