X25-M + ICH9R + AHCI = No Post

[idata]

I have an Asus x38 Maximus Formula mboard, flashed to the latest bios (1403). With the X25-M plugged in, if I set it to AHCI in the BIOS, it hangs while detecting the SATA port. If I set it to RAID, it doesn't even POST. If I unplug it and then POST and set it to IDE, plug it back in, then works just fine (Win7 x64).

I'd love to have it in AHCI mode so I can hot-plug my external SATA drive for backups.

Is this a drive/firmware issue or a mboard BIOS (ie Intel controller ROM)?

Are other people seeing this?

Connected to the SATA ports:

1 X25-M 80GB

1 150GB Raptor

1 WD 1TB Green

1 DVD burner

1 internal SATA drive cage for backups (normally unplugged)

1 eSATA for external usage (OCZ Throttle, etc)

So, I have a cable plugged into every slot, although only 4 are powered up at all times.

[idata]

Does this help you? It helped me definately

http://http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-7-rc-after-installation/ http://http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-7-rc-after-installation/

[idata]

It's kind of hard to load drivers in an operating system, IF THE COMPUTER CAN'T POST in the first place!

[idata]

I've been having the exact same problem, except I've got an ICH10R on my motherboard (Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P). Do you have a G1 or G2 80GB drive?

I see the same behavior as you (hang during AHCI BIOS drive detection), and it ONLY happens when a Win7 RTM partition is installed on the drive. If the drive is blank, it is detected no problem. I previously was running Windows 7 RC1 on this exact drive for months with no issues. It's only when I got my retail Win7 Pro upgrade that I began seeing this problem.

Again, as Wachamakalit said, this all happens during the BIOS startup process, well before the OS loads, so it can't be a driver issue. But there must be some kind of software aspect to the problem, because it only happens when there's a Win7 partition present, as if the AHCI BIOS is reading some information from the partition table or MBR or something and getting confused .

[idata]

It's a G2, with the latest firmware (not the pulled one, but the latest shipping one). Come to think of it, I did format it with Win7 Beta 64-bit before I tried to install the Win7 upgrade.

I took the drive to a friend's house today (hardware review guy for a tech website, with the latest hardware) and it was hot-plugged by win7 + AHCI and detected without any problems. He could see it, write to it, etc.

But, with it plugged in, it wouldn't get past the drive detection on his mboard POST either. So, it's definately drive related, and not so much the motherboard/system/OS.

Someone from Intel reported that they will have a fixed BIOS out by the end of the month. I'll try that, and if it doesn't fix it, I've got an RMA number (good for 9 more days) that I will send it back to ZipZoomFly and get a replacement (and hope a data dump of the OS on the new drive will get past this).