Solved Changing IDE to AHCI caused no boot

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churin

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The OS is installed while the mode was set for IDE, and afterward it was changed to AHCI. Now, the system does not boot. "Attempting repair" is displayed and the process does not advance.
W8 is installed on a ssd and a hdd, and both exhibit the same symptom.
The system includes GA-970A-UD3, FX-6300, DDR3 1866 4GBx2, 1TB SATA3 and 120GB SATA3 SSD.
 
Hellow Brink,

msahci is in W7 but not in W8. The tutorial you referred to is for W7. Is there one for W8?
 
In that case, look for this in the registry instead in Windows 8.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\StartOverride

Change the 0 DWORD value from 3 to 0.

Reboot, and change your SATA controller to AHCI in BIOS.

You will boot into Windows with AHCI drivers.
 
There is an alternate way to change from IDE to AHCI that might work on your system. But some warnings first.

OEMs suggest reinstalling rather than changing, especially with an SSD.

You stand the chance of loosing your install if something goes wrong, and different systems may behave differently.

Not Recommended for Windows 7.

While in Windows 8, open msconfig.exe and go to the boot tab and check Safe Boot. Click Apply and OK, and allow restart.

Boot back into the Bios and change the controller to AHCI. Saving the change which will cause your system to reboot.

This time, let it continue the boot into Safe Mode. While there, Windows 8 will install the AHCI drivers. You can check the SATA controllers in Device Manger to make sure if you want.

Open msconfig.exe again and uncheck the Safe Boot box on the Boot tab.

Reboot your system normally.

I did not let my system run long after I changed mine, but I might expect some background housekeeping activity from the NTFS utilities. If something does not work correctly, then you might have to reset the controller to IDE to boot.
 
Pleased to report that both systems(W8-ssd and W8-hdd) now work under ahci mode.
With W8-ssd there are two entries under StartOverride, 1 and 2. I changed both. With W8-hdd there is only one entry.
I went through the Safe Mode for W8-ssd but I skipped that for W8-hdd and no problem happened. Since I had the backup image so that I wanted to try that.

One question by passing: Is there no longer F8 available to have the system to boot in SAFE BOOT?
 
The SAFE MODE is something I want to try when the system fails to boot. It appears the option 1 is the only way to do that. Am I correct? That seems to require sort of scary changes under command prompt.

The tutorial, "How to Start Windows 8 in Safe Mode" appears not applicable when the system is in no boot situation. Exception to this is that the Safe Mode may be available if the Option One is implemented when the system is healthy. Is this correct?

I created the W8 Repair Disk quite some times ago and I tried this for the first time but I could not find a way to have the system boot in Safe Mode.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Churin,

Sorry for the late reply. I've been doing some more testing to see if I may be able find another way.

Currently the only way to boot to Safe Mode at boot only would be either option below. They only look scary, but they're not so bad. If you have any question about them to help feel more comfortable about doing one, then please just let me know.

 
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"F8" noted in the last option in the list does not seem to be the same as that for W7 and earlier versions Windows.
The three options appear to include those that need to be made available when the system is bootable. Which one of the three options does not require such advanced preparation?
 
Unfortunately, if you don't use OPTION FIVE, then there's really no option that doesn't require some advanced preparation. :(

Personally, I think OPTION ONE is the most useful and helpful when needed.
 
I reviewed the Option Five again. There are five options to do the Option Five. Is there any in these five options that does not require any advanced preparation before no boot happens?
 
OK, what I understand so far is that there is no longer Safe Mode that can be prompted by hitting F8 key.
It is however, possible to let the system boot to Safe Mode, but that requires pre-arrangement when the system is bootable.
One of those is adding Safe Mode option to Windows Boot Manager.
Does this mean the menu is displayed every time when the system boot?

Is there a way to modify the W8 Repair Disk to have "Safe Mode" option included in it.
 
Safe Mode was done this way to help tighten security by preventing unauthorized users from using Safe Mode to bypass set security measures.


churin said:
OK, what I understand so far is that there is no longer Safe Mode that can be prompted by hitting F8 key.
It is however, possible to let the system boot to Safe Mode, but that requires pre-arrangement when the system is bootable.
One of those is adding Safe Mode option to Windows Boot Manager.
Does this mean the menu is displayed every time when the system boot?
Click to expand...

Correct on all.

You could change the amount of time to display the OS at boot to say 5 seconds or to be long enough to select Safe Mode if needed, then make Windows 8 the default OS to automatically run at startup. This way you will only have to wait however many seconds you set before Windows 8 starts up automatically.​

churin said:
Is there a way to modify the W8 Repair Disk to have "Safe Mode" option included in it.
Click to expand...

Not that I'm aware of.​
 
Thanks for the clarification.
Unfortunately not unless you just happen to dual boot to use OPTION THREE.
Click to expand...
I assume the above does not mean the pre-arrangement can be done using any working W8 machine.
Could one of the dual boot be W7? I can add another W8 if required.
If I click the above link, then a list of five options are displayed, clicking one of those may displays another page where a new set of options. . .
Please provide a path for me to get to your recommended tutorial page.
 
Churin,

That link is for that tutorial. The "OPTION THREE" is for that option 3 in that tutorial out of the 5. ;)

The one I recommend it OPTION ONE in that same tutorial to add Safe Mode to Windows Boot Manager.
 
I am afraid that questions I am going to ask as follow may make our communication further convoluted:
Can the OPTION ONE or adding Safe Mode to Windows Boot Manager be done to repair a no-boot W8 by using one of the dual-boot system that is still working? Can one of the dual-system be W7 or can it be an independent another W8 machine? I asked these question already in my previous post.
 
LOL, no worries Churin. Please feel free to continue asking questions until I hopefully get all of them answered. :)

It doesn't matter if you dual boot your Windows 8 with Vista, Windows 7, or another Windows 8.

If you use OPTION ONE to add Safe Mode to the Windows Boot Manager, then it's specific to the OS it was created for. You don't have to have a dual boot to use this option. If you do dual boot, then you could add a Safe Mode for each OS to the Windows Boot Manager.

If you do dual boot, then it may be easier to just disable the Windows 8 GUI Boot menu to be able to use OPTION TWO in the tutorial below to boot to Safe Mode for either OS whenever needed.
 
The reason I mentioned the dual-boot and so forth is because of the following statement in one of your earlier post:
Unfortunately not unless you just happen to dual boot to use OPTION THREE.
Click to expand...
The above gave me an impression that the OPTION THREE could be implemented if the system is dual-boot.

By the way I never see the Windows 8 GUI Boot menu because of the way the dual-boot is set up.

Having said the above, which one do you recommend that I try? Could you point a specific web page where the procedure is, rather than referring to the option number?
 
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