Improve SATA Hard Disk Performance

Each hard drive in a modern computer is connected to the system through a storage controller. This driver is usually able to communicate with the hard disk via a number of different interface protocols.
To ensure maximum compatibility with all computers are configured in the BIOS to use the older IDE interface protocol to communicate with SATA hard drives modern. This setting is acceptable for the average user, but IDE lacks support for new technologies such as Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and free hard drive mechanisms (add or remove drives without having to reboot the computer).

Intel has invented a new storage controller interface known as AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) supports these new technologies with modern SATA hard drives. If you have a hard drive that supports NCQ, worth a try to see if it improves disk performance with the workload.

The main issue that prevents users from changing the storage interface protocol IDE to AHCI in the past has been blue screens that could only be cured by removing the BIOS settings or reinstall Windows. The cause of the problem is that the mass storage drivers installed when Windows was the first installation. Since IDE was able to install the IDE storage controller is configured with Windows. With the AHCI driver missing, Windows can not read from the hard disk and throws a BSOD with error code 0x0000005B.

Now there is a simple solution that allows you to switch between IDE and AHCI in the BIOS and Windows will start without problems. The key is to enable the AHCI driver in Windows before changing the BIOS settings.
For most users this will work:

1. Open Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci.
2. Right click on the Start registry DWORD and select Modify.
3. Set the value to 0 and click OK.
4. Now the Start setting should be set to 0.
5. Reboot and enable the AHCI setting in your BIOS.

If you are using a RAID adapter or other interface try the following:

1. Open up Registry Editor and naviage to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV OR HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor.
2. Repeat the steps above.

Not all users will see a major performance improvement with AHCI and a SATA hard drive but NCQ can be very helpful under the right workload. Post your experience and setup in the comments below. Sharing is sexy