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Switch Windows 10 from RAID/IDE to AHCI

Support Team
2022-05-26
61 Comments
in Microsoft Windows

Some systems will have the Windows operating system installed using RAID drivers including the Intel Rapid Storage Technology. SSD drives typically perform better using AHCI drivers.  There is in fact a way to switch operation from either IDE / RAID to AHCI within Windows 10 without having to reinstall.  Here are the steps:

  1. Click the Start Button and type cmd
  2. Right-click the result and select Run as administrator
  3. Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal (ALT: bcdedit /set safeboot minimal)
  4. Restart the computer and enter BIOS Setup
  5. Change the SATA Operation mode to AHCI from either IDE or RAID
  6. Save changes and exit Setup and Windows will automatically boot to Safe Mode.
  7. Right-click the Windows Start Menu once more. Choose Command Prompt (Admin).
  8. Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot (ALT: bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot)
  9. Reboot once more and Windows will automatically start with AHCI drivers enabled.
  • Tags
  • AHCI
  • Intel Rapid Storage
  • RAID
  • Windows
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 7
  • Windows 8

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Comments (61)

Chris Tue, 13th Nov 2018 8:30am

Correction. There *must* be a space between bcdedit and the forward slash. There is no command called "bcdedit/set" (for good reason)

Good information and thank you - it worked nicely. :)

Waron Thu, 22nd Nov 2018 8:22am

this works, thanks

I used the ALT commands

Jeffrey Wed, 2nd Jan 2019 1:50pm

This approach worked on my Windows 10 machine - which should have been set up with AHCI in the first place since all of my drives are SSD. However one must know that it may take several reboots for your D: disk to re-appear and become stable. In the first reboot, my data appeared to have been lost. After swearing at the computer several times, I decided that perhaps a reboot would help the situation. Fortunately after 2 more reboots, the disk re-appeared and all of the data was intact.
Thank you for these steps to switch my computer from RAID to AHCI.

Grant Sun, 10th Feb 2019 9:33am

Added a Samsung 970 Evo (500GB) NVMe M.2 alongside the existing HDD in new Dell Inspiron 5570. Samsung software couldn't load the drivers because drives configured for RAID. I set AHCI in BIOS and W10 (home) wouldn't boot up. Returned to BIOS to RAID and rebooted successfully. Found this thread and tried it. Yes, it worked! It took a bit of work to manipulate the the drive letters afterwards but got there eventually. Thank you for the information.

Evan Thu, 7th Mar 2019 10:19am

I had a really odd experience attempting this on Windows 10, but I finally figured it out:
When I switched to AHCI and got to the safeboot menu, my keyboard wouldn't work. If I tried to get to the keyboard settings nothing happened. I was able to get to the Command Prompt terminal via the 'Windows Systems' tab in the Start Menu. Once I had opened the Command Prompt, I could type in it using the on-screen keboard (Start Menu -> Settings -> Ease of Access -> Keyboard (scroll down and it's on the left) -> On-Screen Keyboard). Then I typed bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot (there didn't seem to be a way to use curly brackets). Then I Rebooted, and found that I had left Safe Mode, and everything was back to normal :)

It's one hell of a work-around, but hopefully this helps somebody!

Vinícius Sun, 10th Mar 2019 9:41am

Thanks @Evan! The keyboard thing also happened to me, but using the virtual keyboard did the job. If you press the shift key you'll be able to use curly brackets!

Travis Hauch Fri, 12th Apr 2019 12:01pm

Thank you very much! I am running Server 2016 and didn't realize my Intel board was in IDE until I tried to run two SSD's in Raid0 and was only getting about 400MB/s. I switched to AHCI and was getting "Inaccessible boot device". I used the method described above and it's working now! 1100MB/s.

Franco DeIuliis Wed, 16th Oct 2019 11:39am

Worked perfectly on a Dell Inspiron 15 7586. Came pre-configured in RAID mode and updated to 970 EVO Plus without the ability to get the Magician to function.
As soon as I completed the operation which took about 3 minutes, everything worked perfectly with no glitches or issues

edwin Thu, 14th Nov 2019 6:24am

Saved my day. Alternative command is somewhat confusing. I used bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal and bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
Result is that W10 booted with sata settings set to AHCI, Happy!

Thanks for sharing!

Geoffers Fri, 29th Nov 2019 3:28pm

Saved my bacon!
I got my ageing (10yrs) Dell T5400 back into life using the full commands.

Very many thanks!

John Mon, 23rd Dec 2019 9:09am

Just performed the procedure on an old Dell D630 fitted with a Kingston SSD that didn't have AHCI enabled.
Went flawlessly and machine now seems to boot a little quicker and feels quicker in operation.

Many thanks!

waren Sat, 4th Jan 2020 2:45pm

This worked for me! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

At some point my intel RST drivers stopped, and I was unable to reinstall the drivers. I thought it was a windows 10 1903 build issue however my system was still on 1809. The problem was at the BIOS level. Some how either through a BIOS update or a dead battery the BIOS storage configuration changed from RAID to IDE.

Without RAID enabled in the BIOS the RST drivers will not install. Also be sure to select the correct driver for your chipset. The newest drivers are not fully backwards compatible!

However even if I manually installed the RST x64 drivers first and then changed the BIOS to RAID the system would not boot.

I opened windows disk management utility and confirmed that the RAID 1 array was broken. Both disks appeared in the drive list, with one showing a warning due to addressing conflict (oh no)

Steps
1) installed the newest intel RST x64 driver that supports the chipset
2) set safeboot per above
3) enabled RAID in BIOS (was IDE)
4) booted to safemode
5) removed safeboot per above
6) checked that intel RST is running YES!
7) verify RAID 1 array (no idea how long the array was broken)

run windows disc management tool and verify RAID now appears correctly as 1 drive

After this Through some update cycle windows stealthily replaced all of the chipset and storage drivers with generic MS drivers.

I hope this helps someone else

esamett Fri, 31st Jan 2020 12:14pm

to enter bios is a separate step. On my PC it is hitting "DEL" key during reboot.

Tonni Sat, 29th Feb 2020 9:37am

Awesome. This worked.

Rasiel Jimenez Sat, 14th Mar 2020 1:37pm

(ALT: bcdedit/set safeboot minimal). No space between bcdedit/set

Sun, 29th Mar 2020 12:24pm

Worked perfectly on a Dell XPS 13 9360 (i7, touchscreen, SSD). Stupid question: Why doesn't the WIndows automatic repair do this?

Tom Williams Wed, 8th Apr 2020 8:26pm

This article is a LIFE SAVER!!!!! I'm in the process of migrating a new Windows 10 installation from a 2TB HDD to a 1TB SSD. This is a new (refurbished) Acer desktop system that came with RST with Optane configured in the UEFI settings. So, I followed the steps to switch it to AHCI and Windows 10 now boots. I'm now off to re-clone the HDD to the SSD. :)

For those having problems running the bcdedit commands, the "ALT" commands are supplied as *alternate* commands to use. So, either run the bcedit command that appears *before* the parentheses or run the command INSIDE the parentheses, but not the commands as shown above.

For me, I ran these commands:

bcdedit /set safeboot minimal

(then I rebooted and switched to AHCI)

bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot

THANK YOU for writing such clear and accurate instructions!

Peace...

Alex K. Wed, 22nd Apr 2020 7:06am

Worked flawlessly, thank you!

Dillonharless Sun, 26th Apr 2020 1:25am

It's 2a.m. God bless you.

gamingpower Thu, 7th May 2020 9:31pm

@Tom williams thank you very much for better explaining this tuto !
because it did not work because of ALT in the tuto!
and i confirm : it woooooooooorks !!!!! :-D

I have an asus Z97-A motherboard and Intel rapid storage technology is automatically activated in my bios and it automatically activates RAID and i didn't want to.
I wanted AHCI. Every time i reselected AHCI, i had a blue screen crash !

Thanks to this great tuto i can finally! :) i did not believe it and yet it works perfect!
I will see if the file transfers are accelerated in writing with my SSD samsung 850 evo 250go :) because before in RAID i never exceeded 80mb/s for files of 20 - 100go approximately when my ssd can go much higher...

Ingo Wed, 1st Jul 2020 5:11pm

I cloned a normal HD onto an SSD, so the setting was at ATA in the bios. Windows ran fine with ATA setting booting from the SSD. I booted normally into Win10, set the safemode, rebooted and changed the BIOS setting to AHCI and booted. Win10 booted into safe mode. In there changed the setting back to normal boot and now its running in AHCI mode.
Awesome! Thank you!

julio linarez Fri, 17th Jul 2020 7:39am

Este autor se merece una ceveza bien fria.

Thank you a lot.

Salman Fri, 24th Jul 2020 11:48am

Worked like a charm!
Shukria :)

Robert Thu, 13th Aug 2020 3:47pm

PERFECT! I was trying to install Linux Mint 20 on a brand new laptop that was running Intel RST by default. Linux couldn't install while RST was enabled, your command prompts and easy instructions in the BIOS made this a breeze. Thanks!

mehmet Sat, 22nd Aug 2020 9:20am

thank you so much

John Bengtson Tue, 25th Aug 2020 3:57pm

Worked perfectly (used the shorter ALT commands) on my 12-year-old system that, with SSD and a few other upgrades along the way, is still running fine.

Robert Noonan Fri, 4th Sep 2020 5:14pm

I have been trying to dual boot a Dell 5593 laptop with Windows 10 and Linux. If I set disks to RAID, Linux won't load. If I set it to AHCI, Windows won't load. This cure has at least got me part of the way there. I can now boot Win10 in AHCI mode. Now all I have to do is get the machine to boot into the Linux memory stick and take it from there. Thanks to all of you guys who take the time and trouble to help out the rest of us. Give yourself a pay rise.

Drew Tue, 15th Sep 2020 1:27pm

Thank you - with your instructions I was able to install Ubuntu 20.04 on a new Dell XPS 17 9700

William Tue, 6th Oct 2020 2:52am

Thank you, this made my Ubuntu installation on my Dell Inspiron 5400 so easy, after i had almost broken my Windows lol
Perfect tutorial

James Sun, 11th Oct 2020 8:33pm

I used the alt and it worked completely fine, going from IDE to AHCI.

Wed, 14th Oct 2020 6:47am

Sorry for the previous comment.

It works perfectly!

me Thu, 22nd Oct 2020 5:17am

hi kids
/set parametr in bcdedit return error

i did it much simpler

- to enable F8 key (safe mode) use command
(In win 10 Build 1909 or leter)
bcdedit /set bootmenupolicy legacy

- in Windows control panel / system /device menager / remove the hdd drive with system and confirm reboot
- ater reboot go to BIOS setins and set the AHCI mode save setings and exit bios
- next reboot go to safe mode command prompt by F8 key
- in safe mode command run chkdsk /f and confirm ( i dont know if its nesesary but i did the step)
- reboot system by CTRL+ALT+DEL
- done
sorry for my language (i don't know english)

Joseph Cepi Sat, 21st Nov 2020 7:51pm

So AWESOME!!! Thanks!
Had an "Oh Bugger!" moment when I realised that I had installed Windows 10 to a new SSD in IDE mode.
Saved the above instructions to a txt file on the desktop for copy and paste into cmd prompt purposes, and it all worked a treat. This saved me a heap of time not having to re-install all over again.
Many praises.

Thu, 3rd Dec 2020 3:31pm

Thank you sooo much! This worked too well to be believed.

Miroslav Hristov Fri, 4th Dec 2020 6:00am

P.s. done that.
Removed second part of command ALT
And everything finished perfect!

Thanks a lot for the livesaver trick!!!

Craig Tue, 2nd Feb 2021 1:30pm

Going to try it again. I'd suggest though, at least from what I experienced last night is to make sure you use an admin account that isn't linked to a MS account password online. Wouldn't boot into Safe Mode with Networking no matter what i did. I had to create an install disk on another computer, start to reinstall just to get to a cmd prompt. I wound up creating a password-less admin account on cmd line which enabled me to delete the safeboot mode value. Gonna try again tonight with the new account!

Bill Fairs Sat, 20th Feb 2021 4:40pm

Worked a charm without any hiccups whatsoever, BRILLIANT!

Vignesh Iyer Mon, 1st Mar 2021 2:52pm

There is one thing I want to ask about this.
I checked in my Device manager and there isn't an option like IDE ATA/ATAPI controller aka I am not able to find any SATA controller or something. Would this technique work even if these controllers aren't present? Will it install these drivers automatically once I change mode?
Model - Lenovo Ideapad S340, 1TB HDD + 256GB SSD.
Basically, I want to install Ubuntu, which I am unable to do because of RST mode. And I don't want to lose Windows.
Rest, I am convinced this technique works.

Relieved Sat, 13th Mar 2021 9:14pm

It worked, so awesome, thank you so much. I struggled over this for hours and tried a bunch of things from other websites, none of which worked.

owen dawson Fri, 19th Mar 2021 9:50am

how to i start in bios once i reboot?
system does boot in safemode

Vignesh Hariharan Iyer Wed, 31st Mar 2021 9:16am

Ok. I decided to bite the bullet and it worked for me. Though the BIOS gave some notification that my disk will be erased if controller mode is changed, still changed it to AHCI mode and booted according to the steps above and it worked. No data lost, everything works fine. This piece is a savior.

Kenneth D. Rainey Wed, 19th May 2021 5:17pm

Dual Booting my new Acer Aspire A515-55.
Thanks for this great tutorial. I am a long-time Ubuntu/Linux user and fan. I have been using a Toshiba that was released with Windows Vista (long gone) on it. I bought a new Acer Aspire A 515-55. Imagine my distress in finding that not only could I not dual boot, but the Acer factory install of Windows 10 with RAID/RST would not let me load Ubuntu at all. My pre-purchase research did not uncover this problem.

I found several work-arounds on the web, but while the others were clear about the problem, they were not as clear on how to solve it. Each manufacturer, it seems, was a little different in how to reset from RAID with RST to AHCI. I was fearful I would turn my new machine into a boat anchor. Your tutorial saved my investment. Ubuntu 21.04 is working fine along side of Windows 10. I used the alternative edits.

rickticktock Thu, 27th May 2021 9:29am

My Microsoft Surface Studio has UEFI not BIOS and I can't find a way to do what is done here in BIOS. This is stopping me from installing Ubuntu.

Fernando Nascimento Sun, 22nd Aug 2021 3:03pm

Hello!
I need help!
I was trying to performe this and got stuck on first reboot!
The PC starts but I get nothing on the screen!

Gianni Tue, 24th Aug 2021 6:58am

Unfortunately, it is not working on my laptop, at the moment.

I own a Dell Inspiron 17 5770 and I have the OS installed on a M.2 2880 NVME SSD (Crucial P5) plus the original 2.5 HDD; everything is working perfectly with this setup.

The problem comes when I substitute the original HDD with a Crucial MX500 (2TB) SATA 2.5 SSD, which I have recently purchased and wanted to use as a secondary storage unit.

Despite I have initialized, cloned, allocated and formatted it several times, and then changed SATA Operation from RAID to AHCI, it doesn't work.

I mean, the 2.5 SSD is sometimes visible after booting, but it disappears in a few minutes, or as soon as you try to use it.
If you try to paste something or to make any operation on it, the PC gets very slow or even crashes sometimes.
Once desappeared, the system does not detect it in the Disk Management either.

The only two situations in which the drive is visible are:
- when I plug it from an external SSD case, via USB;
- when it is set as the main storage and boot unit (cloned from the M.2 SSD).

However, the problem is that I want to keep the M.2 as the main storage unit and use the 2.5 SSD as a secondary one, but I don't really know what else I can do to achieve that.
Could anybody help me with that issue, please?

Gkkirilov Sun, 12th Sep 2021 8:19am

Tried and worked on Windows11

Tue, 5th Oct 2021 4:07pm

@Gianni. You need to conduct two steps. (1) change raid to non raid using above method and (2) then cloning the drive. Cheers Michael

Alex Gao Sat, 6th Nov 2021 4:41am

How could i can get the information about "RAID or AHCI" by use command

Eric Tue, 16th Nov 2021 10:42pm

This works on Windows 11 as well on my Dell 1065G7 laptop.

Leo F. Sat, 1st Jan 2022 5:02pm

Worked for me under Windows 11 quite fine. Stupidly I installed Intel RST, but has no benefits for me. Afterwards I was not able to update SSD firmware with Samsung Magician. Searched for some hours for a valid solution to get rid of Intel RST. This is the solution that worked. Thanks a lot!

Jim R. Fri, 14th Jan 2022 9:37am

This worked! I have a Dell XPS 17 with Win 10 Pro installed. I needed to change from RAID to AHCI in order to allow me to image the m.2 ssd to an external m.2 SSD. I will also be doing this for my brother in law on his XPS 13.

JM Thu, 20th Jan 2022 4:11pm

YEE! WORKED! Many thanks to This article and Tom Williams ->TIME&$&LIFE SAVER!!!!!

For me & Dell Latitude D630, I also ran these commands:

bcdedit /set safeboot minimal

(then I rebooted and switched to AHCI)

bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot

THANK YOU for writing such clear and accurate instructions!

Result: Boot time is about -30% (and I guess all other) in AHCI mode for WD3200BEKT 7200rpm

Peace...

Tom Billiodeaux Sat, 26th Feb 2022 8:25pm

Thanks Leo F. I just installed new system using Asrock Z690 Pro RS motherbd and Intel M2. 36gb x 512gb.
Also having another m2 with 1 TB, each in a 64gb/s slots.
I could not get the Intel RST driver to install in W10 after it was loaded.
Could not install the Intel Obtane drivers.
However the system is working with full combination on the intel obtane m2 card...556 gb where W10 was installed.
I can see all drives and formated each with W10.
I do not see any need to perform Intel Obtane memory install because of your post.
thanks

Joe Sun, 20th Mar 2022 11:29pm

This worked brilliantly on my Dell Inspiron 3671. Swapped Intel Optane memory with Samsung 980Pro 1TB SSD without issue, but couldn't figure out how to switch from RAID to ACHI without reinstalling Windows 10. Thanks.

Olaf Tue, 22nd Mar 2022 9:34am

This doesn't work for me. Dell Precision 5530 with NVME SSD. System does not boot into safemode, it always runs into BSOD Inaccessible Boot Device

Tony Linde Mon, 4th Apr 2022 5:33am

Sadly, did not work for me and my XPS 8950 purchased new a week ago runing Win11 with 1TB SSD as boot drive and second 2TB SSD additional. Tried and retried three times as suggested on Dell forums but now have bricked system: cannot even recover using USB image. Will update if it turns out to be some other problem.

Tony Linde Mon, 4th Apr 2022 9:12am

Correction: it does now work. The reason the system looked bricked was because it was not sending anything to the graphics card. Using advice on another problem (https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/XPS-8950-will-not-boot-from-Windows-11-USB/m-p/8118243/highlight/true#M67559) I switched the monitor to the onboard display card and was suddenly seeing Windows in safeboot mode. Going back to normal mode I now had a version of Windows that could restart. I was then able to plug my monitor back into the graphics card.

Don Williams Thu, 7th Apr 2022 12:21am

Thank you so much for this! I want to dual boot Windoze and Linux. Worked great! Many thanks for this!

Armin Sauer Fri, 8th Apr 2022 5:11pm

I would like to install Linux on a USB which doesn't even work due to the RST issue. Is there any experience with windows installs which are secured by bitlocker? Does this work differently than described here? I am hesitant to try something out as the device is a company laptop.

Kenosha Computer Guy Thu, 28th Apr 2022 8:50am

Worked PERFECTLY for a customer's self installed SSD/IDE non-SATA BIOS setup!

Machine is now 100X faster!!!!!

Armando Tue, 24th May 2022 2:42pm

I tried but it did not work. In step 5, the main disk control is set to Non-Raid; the slave disk control is already set to AHCI. Both disks are controlled by the microchip Intel RST but it is in Non-Raid. Cannot modify this information, No such options in BIOS.
Laptop FX505GT de Asus.
I need this because UBUNTU keep stopping the installation saying that I have to disable Intel RST.
Any further idea?

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