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First I guess there is a XP backup...Brute force: Kids, don't do this at home: copy ahcix86.inf danger.inf, edit danger.inf [ATI]%NapaDesc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_1002%NapaDesc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_1022Be aware: this connects all ATI/AMD devices to ahcix86.If it's boot at AHCI mode, delete latest files %SystemRoot%\inf\oem*.* next. That's the files from danger.inf. And delete the file danger.inf. Windows PNP should ask to install AMD AHCI driver. Point to the file ahcix86.inf. Reboot again. Delete section [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1022] Sweet, thanks so much for the instructions. Before doing this I thought I would give the previous method another go and plugged the drive into a few different ports to test which ones would recognize it. Also used the auto detection in BIOS, and I got it to show up on port 4/5! So I tried again with setting that port to IDE, and was able to get into windows and change the drivers as you previously suggested. Thanks so much again for your help, this has been a headache for me for months! Now I was finally able to install Ubuntu into a dual boot system... since Ubuntu didn't like IDE mode at all .

Edit the inf file. However that's the last approach.The hardware availables another one: Read the manual: B. Configuring SATA controller mode in BIOS Setup "OnChip SATA Port4/5 Type" can be set different to other SATA Ports. Connect the HDD to SATA Port4/5. And set the BIOS to AHCI with SATA Port4/5 to IDE mode. Boot XP from the HDD in IDE mode still. Next install AHCI drivers. Goto BIOS and set SATA Port4/5 to AHCI mode. Thanks again for an excellent suggestion! I tried this today. Got all excited as that seemed like it should work, but alas. Seems like the drive is not recognized when connected to port 4/5 . I even tried disconnecting all other drivers but it's still not showing up. Perhaps editing the inf is my only option at this point?

Which BSOD do you get?Which IDE driver do you use currently? A AMD IDE driver may conflict with the AMD AHCI driver. Do you use Standard Dual Channel IDE Controller? If not, then replace the AMD driver to Standard Dual Channel IDE at device manager. And disable the AMD IDE driver in registry. Try the AMD SATA RAID/SATA AHCI Driver 3.1.1540.127 provided by Gigabyte. Hey cdob, thanks for the reply! So I'm not sure which BSOD it is since it reboots immediately and I didn't disable that feature. Drivers I'm using are the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" (two devices) and the "Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller" (four devices). That Gigabyte driver was the very first one I tried changing these to but I still got "the specified location does not contain information about your hardware" message. Is there any way to force installation of these drivers?

Hi Fernando, glad to see this thread is still active thanks to you. Again, and I apologize for what I know is another off-topic post, I'm having a problem related to installing AHCI drivers post XP install. Because of all the activity here I thought it best to post in this thread though... Since I was not able to install the drivers on install, I'm now trying to do so after the fact. Unfortunately no method I have tried seems to work. For reference, I'm running a Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H with SB710. Tried the manual driver update method first: Result: No matter what driver I use, tried yours as well as the one provided by Gigabyte [link], it says "the specified location does not contain information about your hardware." Then tried the registry editing method: Result: No effect. Enabling AHCI in BIOS causes XP to crash on a blue screen during boot. Short of reinstalling the OS, I just don't know what else I can do. Any light you could shed on this would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!