Can't use SSD Toolbox on my X25-M ??

[idata]

Hello,

I have just setup my new computer with Win7 installed on a WD Velociraptor 300GB and an intel SSD X25-M 160GB where I installed Flight Simulator. When I first launched Windows 7, it did not show my SSD in "My Computer" and I had to go to "Disk Management" to select the SSD Drive and "activated" it in NTFS. Now everything seems fine.

Now, I wanted to instal the SSD Toolbox to optimize my drive. In the bios, all SATA drives are set with IDE. Unfortunately, when I launcg the SSD Toolbox, it says that the SSD drive is not compatible with the tool..... what's going on ?

Thank you

Greg

[idata]

Thank you very much for your comprehensive answer... However, I have launched FSX on my SSD as usual and it took for ever to launch...... therefore, I have rechanged the MSAHCI registry in Win7 to "START 3" and revert back to IDE in Bios and my program start quick again...... Do you know why the programs takes much longer to launch in AHCI mode ? Can I do anything about that ? If not, what's the point of changing to this mode ?

Thanks again

[idata]

At the moment, you are using the SSD only for FSX, right? So you might want to keep controller in AHCI, go back into disk management and delete the drive then re-create the logical drive under AHCI. Will take less than a minute.

AHCI is required to enable many of the SATA specific commands. IDE mode is used mainly when you have compatibility issues.

You can run into problems when you change controller modes without rebuilding / refromatting drives, particularly when popping in and out of RAID.

[idata]

Ok thanks will try that. BTW, when you select AHCI in Bios, it affects all hard drives (you can't just select AHCI only for the SSD) , right ?

[idata]

You are correct. AHCI is a controller setting, and affects all devices attached to that controller.

You are also, for the time being, best off using the Microsoft generic AHCI drivers instead of the Intel drivers.

[idata]

That is correct. It will affect all drives on the system. Best to start with AHCI or RAID when installing drives / OS. I only use IDE mode myself with certain DOS boot disk HDD tools for disabling (or enabling) low level commands such as acoustic management and the like. If you do find yourself having to run under IDE mode for firmware updates or tweaking commands it's good idea to pop back into BIOS after you have finished and set the controller to AHCI / RAID before the OS boots. That way the OS remains blissfully unaware that a change was ever made.