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We know we can't install Windows XP in regular method if we enable AHCI in BIOS, We must add additional SATA drivers before the installation. Here I introduce one method to enable AHCI in Windows XP  after installation. But we must disable AHCI in BIOS before the installation.

1. Prepare the SATA drivers for your chipset.

A、For the desktop computers. SATA drviers may be found in the driver CD/DVD. but for the laptops, you may find it or not. You can look for some drivers in your driver disk, such as Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver、Matrix Storag、SATA Driver、AHCI, etc.

B. If you don't have the SATA drivers. you should try it in the official website. occording to your computer model and your operating systems.

C、I must say, AHCI drivers has more universal effects. because the motherboards are composed by the chipsets. the chipsets manufacture have only several. AMD, INTEL, NVIDIA..., for more informatin, you can find it in your computer manual books. or look for the research engine(google.com, etc) by the computer model. I believe you can find your chipset.

D. If you make sure your chipset model, you can search the AHCI drivers according the model. and use it no problem. commonly these drivers may have iaAHCI.inf, or SATA, etc. you may recognize them immediately.

2. Change the SATA mode in BIOS as ATA or compatible.

If your Windows XP has been installed. I think your SATA mode must be compatible or ATA mode if you haven't install SATA drivers. Now before installing AHCI drivers. you should ignore this step. If you haven't install Windows XP. You must check the BIOS settings of SATA mode. make sure the SATA operation is in ATA or compatible mode.

The details of changing SATA mode, Please refer toHow to Change the SATA Type in BIOS.

3. Install Windows XP in regular operations

If your Windows XP has been installed, ignore this. If not. You may install it in regular operation. the SATA drivers can be installed in the next.

4. Install AHCI drivers

Notes:

If the Windows XP has been installed. Here we can begin our installation of AHCI drivers.

You must make sure that you have no important files to be backup in your desktop, system disk. because if you install AHCI drivers failed. you may suffering blue screen, or restarting errors. you should backup these important files of your system disk.

A. Enter the device manager

Right click My computer in the desktop. select properties, select hardware in the popup window, click the button of device manager, you can see the below windows.

locale to the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, this is my desktop computer's name. It may be different in your computer. we should look for the first controller, called ATA storage controller, No matter what your harddisk is installed as a master or a slave. the name here will  be right. In a word, I want to change the ATA drivers to SATA drivers. So you must select the ATA storage controller(there are two port in the screenshot. there is no problem when I select the first port). right click the item. and select Update Driver...

B. Hardware Update Wizard

Here we select No, not this time. Press Next.

C. Do not accept the recommendation.

We should select Install from a list or specific location(Advanced), Press Next.

D. Select the device driver you want.

Here we can not select the SATA drivers to be installed directly. If you do so, you may suffering a blue screen. the operating system may be destroied. In my experimentation, I must refresh the ATA drivers as a Standard Dual channel PCI IDE Controller at first. I think, this will be working on your computer.

No matter how the standard controller drivers installed. these should make no errors. because the default drivers are supported by all the ATA controller.

Select Standard Dual channel PCI IDE Controller, and press Next.

E. Waiting for the completion.

Click Finish.

F. Accept the warning.

Here we may receive a pop window of warning, "System setting change",(the screenshot ignored) Press Yes and go on.

The computer may need a restart, You can restart it or not. I find no errors if I don't restart it before the next operations. 

G. Repeat the initial operations and reenter the Device manager.

Here we can find Standard Dual channel PCI IDE Controller, yes, we will update it now. right click the controller and press Update Driver.

H. .....(same as the above step). Getting to the Select the device drivers you want to install for this hardware window.

Here we should click the button Have Disk.

I. Install from disk windows.

click Browse...

J. Locale your SATA drivers and select the .inf file.

K. Click OK to make sure the selection.

L. Select the right chipset model

When the .inf file has been selected. the controllers that the drivers support will be list in the window below.

I must remind, you must select a proper SATA controller that will be installed. If you select a improper controller. the system will have a blue screen. You can find the right model in the screenshot of G step. the model may be the same as the ATA controller.

For my computer, Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI controler is right. (We can find ICH9M-E/M in the G step, too). Press Next.

M. Update Driver warning befor installation.

Click Yes, make sure your selection.

N. Waiting for completion.

O. System setting Change Message

Press Yes to restart your computer.

P. Change the SATA mode to AHCI in BIOS and reset the computer.

When your computer boots up, you need to change the SATA mode to AHCI, save and exit. Details for referrence How to Change the SATA Type in BIOS.

Q. If all are OK, your computer will enter the desktop and finish AHCI installation

When you enter the system. windows xp will find "new" hardware, it will update the SATA drivers we have installed in. finally you may need other reboot. When you reenter the system. Open the device manager, you can find AHCI controller has been installed properly. If blue screen occured or restart computer automatically, that is to say your installation above is failed. You must change the SATA mode back and restart the computer again to the older controller. but unfortunately in my test. I can't enter the windows xp again in spite of setting back of the ATA mode. I must repair my Windows XP by the other methods. So You must attention these operations mentioned above. make sure the next operation will be right. the drivers are right.