In addition to RAID and IDE mode, newer M/B (chipsets) also provide AHCI
mode which would need drivers if AHCI mode is being enabled in BIOS.
LOL and yes and thanks - LOL at bunches of misinformation in previous and
post posts.
But this all takes us back to Carey's answer which is spot on and which I
had a problem with ONLY because it (ASUS MakeDisk program) didn't work with
my USB-floppy - revert back to my old floppy and it works just fine.
AHCI, with NCQ, and the like, is more important to Vista and ff opsyses,
(at the 5% improvement level) though if I were back on XP SP2 or 3, I would
use it there as well. I initially added it to my present Vista build as a
guess, but
http://expertester.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/ahci-vs-ide-–-benchmark-advantage/
suggests there may be validity, and in any case, the only time it "hurts"
me is when I go to do a restore of my C partition and discover that the
stand alone Acronis program will not see my sata drives if they are under
AHCI - simple solution - for that boot, just change back to IDE, restore
the image, change back to AHCI, and off we go. In retrospect, I would
probably do this next install with AHCI turned on.
(for other readers, always initially flash your BIOS to the latest when
dealing with a relatively new-to-market mobo as the initial release
generally has memory/cpu recognition deficiencies, for ANY manufacturer)
"my OEM" is me. I build my own boxes. I stay very legal. I communicate
very well with myself!!!
I had thought that it would be necessary to have a driver floppy, but then
I spotted ICHa* drivers on my Vista install CD so I thought I'd ask.
Now that I have a floppy and spare of the ASUS drivers, it is all a moot
point, and cudos to ASUS for providing an updated version of its MakeDisk
program for that mobo, with the more recent drivers.
Okay, kiddies, that's it for me for this thread!
Always learning!!! And that's what's fun!