Solved Migrating from RAID to SSD and switching to AHCI

OK I'm stumped. Currently using Onboard RAID1 which is just a pair of 1TB SATA drives that boots into windows 8.1. SATA BIOS mode is set to RAID.

I [DEL]need [/DEL]want to switch the onboard SATA mode to AHCI so I can boot to SSD, instead.

I'm sure some have tried this: If you just clone the RAID partition as it sits on to the SSD, it will not boot the SSD when the SATA Bios mode is set to AHCI.

So, besides a bare-metal reinstall, how do move my Win8.1 installation on to the SSD so that when its all done the SSD will boot into windows and the SATA Bios is in AHCI mode? I'm not opposed to purchasing software like Macrium or Acronis if any of those can do the job.

It seems like anyone using onboard RAID would have run into this problem after purchasing an SSD.

If you wish, you could try:

1. Open Admin command prompt: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
   
2. Restart to BIOS and set to AHCI
3. Restart. Windows will boot into safe mode and will update the driver.
4. Open Admin command prompt: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
5. Shutdown the PC and disconnect 1 disk.
6. Restart to boot Windows Normally.
7. If goes well, use Macrium Reflect Free to clone your SSD.

Hope this helps !!!

topgundcp said:

I you wish, you could try:

1. Open Admin command prompt: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
   
2. Restart to BIOS and set to AHCI
3. Restart. Windows will boot into safe mode and will update the driver.
4. Open Admin command prompt: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
5. Shutdown the PC and disconnect 1 disk.
6. Restart to boot Windows Normally.
7. If goes well, use Macrium Reflect Free to clone your SSD.

Hope this helps !!!

Click to expand...

OK, I will give this a look. Thanks!

Now I'm off to clone over to the SSD. Here's a screenshot showing AHCI is now enabled in the device manager and for the SSD:

Great. Glad you got it sorted.

One little note I would add to your instructions:

If after you clone your drive to the new SSD and find out it continues to boot to safe mode, you need to re-execute step 4, at which point it will now properly boot from the newly-cloned SSD in normal mode and Windows will load properly.

The only snag I ran across was I had to re-activate Microsoft Office because it detected some hardware change. Windows cloned over perfectly and did not have to be re-activated.

Thanks again. Saved me DAYS of rebuilding my machine.

One little note I would add to your instructions:

If after you clone your drive to the new SSD and find out it continues to boot to safe mode, you need to re-execute step 4, at which point it will now properly boot from the newly-cloned SSD in normal mode and Windows will load properly.

Click to expand...

You should not have to re-execute step 4. What could have happened is when you did step 4, the replication did not happen immediately to the other disk then when you cloned, the info in BCD was missing from the disk.
Thanks for reporting back !!!