SATA III 6 GB/S HDD Issue

Hello all

I am looking to get some non conflicting information such as I have read over the last few days regarding on getting the 6 GB/s performance out of my new WD1002FAEX 1 TB HDD. I realize that I may not be able to get the full speed claimed but I thought that I would at least get a boost of some sort.

This is my first build and and all is working well except I am not getting any better performance out of my new drive.

My Setup:
Asus Rampage III Formula Mobo
Intel I7 920 processor
12 GB G Skill Rip-jaws 4Gx3 DDR3 PC3-12800 1.5v clock 9-9-9-24
Western Digital WD1002FAEX 1 TB HDD
Asus GTX 260 Video Card
Corsair H60 liquid cooling
Corsair 700 GS PSU
Windows 7 Home Premium

I believe I may have an issue in the BIOS that needs to be changed but I am not sure as to the best way to do this.
Currently I have my new WD HDD in the system that I cloned from my previous drive prior to my new build. (Previous HDD was the same 1 TB only it came with my old box store computer Asus CG5290 and i'm not sure of the brand although I do still have it.) It is hooked up correctly as I am using the 6 GB/S cable that came with the mobo and I do have it pluged into the correct port (Red one).
I am not too familiar with all the bios settings. I have planed to start to learn how to OC my system which is why I put this together and I just felt safer with the dual bios on the board.

Do I need to enable ACHI in the BIOS? Can this be done without having to re install windows? I do not have a back up disk for a fresh install unless I can copy it off my old drive somehow as Windows 7 Home Premium came installed and I have had it for a few years now.

Any and all information would be much appreciated.

 

To increase performance, you definitely need to change the SATA port to AHCI mode if it is not already. But you have to do a fixit first. If it is already in AHCI mode, I am not sure what the problem would be.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

 

So I need to do the registry fix first then reboot into the BIOS and change the drive from IDE to ACHI. I dont think I need to runt he fixit as I have not had the error because I have not made the change in the BIOS yet.
Would I need to install the dirver at boot up? I have already put the driver on the HDD as it came with the mobo cd.

 

Yes, do the registry fix first then change the BIOS. As far as the driver goes, Windows 7 has native drivers for SATA mode. I believe those drivers on the CD were for when you first install Windows 7. You should be able to update the SATA drivers by going to your Motherboard support site and get the latest there after Windows 7 boots with the registry change.

 

Great, I will give it a shot when I get home and will let you know how it goes. Thanks again for all your help!

 

Changed the registry key as directed and rebooted into the bios where I changed the setting to AHCI. Rebooted a couple more times and it all works fine with no errors. However still no improvement in performance. I guess I will have to reformat the HDD and re install windows? It may not even be worth the effort, what do you think?

 

Depending on the situation of your drive, it may not be a noticeable to you difference, what i would have recommended would have you run a a benchmark on the drive, then doing it after your change. If its a huge hassle to reinstall personally i wouldn't bother.