1. Windows 7 pays more attention to NTFS file permissions on foreign disks, so you may need to take ownership, or grant full access to the disk to your user account,. 3. I'm not sure what you are asking here. If you had installed your OS while in IDE mode, changing it to AHCI will likely cause a 0x7B STOP error. (vice-versa applies) AHCI is recommended if you have the option with a SATA disk, also if you have an SSD as your boot disk. 4. A true sign of Aero (aka Aero Glass) being enabled is that you have transparency in your GUI. Go into Personalize and there are 2 different theme groups, Aero and Basic and High Contrast. Pick one of the Basic ones to disable Aero.