Dual boot Windows and Ubuntu, Dell m1530, issue with Sata drive and AHCI mode
Some time ago, I bought a Dell m1530, with Linux Ubuntu 8.04 pre-installed. I have since moved on and installed a few upgrades of Ubuntu. I am currently using Ubuntu 9.04, which I like very much. But I wanted to make the machine a dual boot with Windows, so I could also do a few things that Linux can’t do yet.
Yesterday and today I spent a huge amount of time trying to understand why Windows would not see my hard drive. I assumed this was a result of the Linux boot loader changing the Master Book Record (MBR), and I spend hours trying different ways of addressing this. But that was not in fact the issue. Instead, the problem was due to the hardware settings, and specially the fact that my SATA hard drive was set to use something called AHCI mode. As described in this blog post on the topic, older versions of Windows don’t have drivers that support AHCI.
I was finally able to fix this problem by entering the Dell Bio setup, and changing my SATA setting to an ATA emulation. After making this change, Windows XP had no problem finding my Sata drive.
Tags: ahci, data, dell, dual boot, m1530, mbr, ubuntu, windows xp