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Casady

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What to change in the registry to boot Windows from a PCIe Sata controller?

I have an intel mainboard that supports only 3GB Sata. I want to upgrade it to 6GB Sata with a controller like this:

http://geizhals.at/eu/msi-star-usb3-sata6-a582787.html

After installing the controller and device drivers, what do I have to change in the registry, so that I can boot from that controller, without having to reinstall Windows 7?

I have the fear that if I simply install the driver and attach the sata cable of my SSD from the internal Sata Port to the new Controller, I get an Inaccesible Boot Device bluescreen.
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David
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Save the money and just plug the SSD into the existing controller, then you won't have to do anything.  SATA-3 is downward compatible with SATA-2.   Unless your SSD sustains >300MB/sec then you gain nothing by buying a different controller.


(But it isn't a registry fix. You need to install drivers for the controller and set the boot path in the BIOS to the new controller/Disk combo)
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Casady

ASKER

The SSD is already installed in the system and capable of contant 500 MB / sec (benchmarked), so my current setup is slowing it down considerably. This is why I want to upgrade to the Sata 6GB controller.
fair enough, thought I would throw that out there because majority of people don't purchase such a fast SSD.  

In any event there is not registry setting for interface speed or even boot device.  There CAN'T be.

Why? Because how could it possibly read the registry to get boot path & interface speed w/o it already being booted?
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ASKER

Actually not all device drivers are available at the time when Windows starts to boot. 95% of all drivers are loaded DURING boot time, not BEFORE boot time. When the Windows loader does not find the driver (even if the driver is installed!) it gives a 7B blue screen. I had such a case about 3 years ago and had to make edits to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci to fix it. Since it took me a lot of time back then to find the solution, I wanted to make sure that this same problem does not arise again if I switch the boot device from MS to a third party PCIe sata driver. (I haven't purchased the new controller yet).

p.s.

The vast majority of todays (>100GB) SSD drivers are capable of at least 370 MB / sec.
But we're talking about a boot target driver and parameter for interface speed.  Such things must interact at the BIOS level.
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Mohammed Rahman
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@mody

why it's a bottleneck? a pcie x4 (the link I've posted) card has 2 GB / sec transfer rate (and even a pcie x1 card would have a 500MB / sec transfer rate)
@Casady: I apologize. I was reading the transfer speeds for PCIe 1.0 x1 and hence thought it will bottleneck. But later realized that the 2.0 x1 has a transfer speed of 500 MB/s

I was reading on few forums that the Marvel chip based controllers will not be as good as some heavy duty LSI chips. Hence, in real world, they will not be as fast as they are described theoretically.
I've requested that this question be deleted for the following reason:

Not enough information to confirm an answer.
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ASKER

You were absolutely right. The 6GB 4x PCIe card with marvell controller was 30% slower than the internal 3GB intel port. What a shame!
@Casady:
Thanks for your response. This will be an eye opener for others.