Curiosity about Windows 7 image and SATA emulation on Controllers

[koganstyle]

The scenario goes like this,

I had a computer that had windows 7 installed and recently we purchased a new computer which I used imagex and the Windows AIK to make an image of and apply to the new machine.

The first PC was a Dell Vostro 200 and the new machine was a HP EliteOne 800 G1 SFF

After applying the image to the new PC, it would not boot. So I went exploring in the BIOS and found a settings BIOS Sata emulation IDE/AHCI/RAID

I changed the Sata emulation on the 800 G1 from AHCI to IDE and it booted

Has anyone experienced this kind of behaviour before or am I just taking crazy pills ?

Edited August 22, 2014 by koganstyle

[jaclaz]

Has anyone experienced this kind of behaviour before or am I just taking crazy pills ?

No, but you may want to start taking them . (since from what you described, you did something crazy but you were lucky and it worked .

 

Basically a SATA controller has TWO "ID's", the first one is compatible with a "Standard IDE controller" and the second is "specific" to  the controller (and need "specific" drivers), which one of the two is "exposed" to the OS depends on the BIOS settings.

 

Case 1:

Your "old" machine had it's BIOS set to IDE and thus the controller "exposed" a "generic" ID to the OS which consequently loaded and installed the "generic" IDE drivers.

Your "new" machine had it's BIOS set to SATA and thus the controller "exposed" it's own specific ID to the OS which consequently loaded and installed the corespondent SATA drivers (different from the first and IF they were available) and failed to boot.

As soon as you set the BIOS on the new machine in a way that it exposed the "generic" ID everything started working.

 

Case 2:

Your "old" machine had it's BIOS set to SATA and thus the controller "exposed" it's own specific ID to the OS which consequently loaded and installed the corespondent SATA drivers.

Your "new" machine had it's BIOS set to SATA and thus the controller "exposed" it's own specific ID to the OS which consequently loaded and installed the correspondent SATA drivers (different from the first and IF they were available) and failed to boot.

Normally an "old" install using SATA drivers would not AFAIK/AFAICR have "ready" the IDE drivers and "revert" to them if you change the BIOS to "IDE emulation mode" or the like, but it is entirely possible that during the lifetime of the "old" install it had used the "IDE" drivers and that they "remained" in the Registry <- just a possible explanation

 

Case 3:

If you "generalized" the .wim, it is possible that the "IDE" driver were available while the specific SATA ones for the new machine were not, haven't checked the hardware specs of the two machines, but if the "new" one is really "new" it is possible that Windows 7 has not the appropriate drivers "built-in" <- another possible explanation 

 

jaclaz

Edited August 22, 2014 by jaclaz

[Tripredacus]

What is it about yes and no questions?

 

It is solely due to driver support in the image. There isn't so much a generic HwID. Each controller will have its own HwID and specify the vendor and device IDs. So there is no garauntee that an OS can boot on IDE mode, it just so happens that is the most compatible. So it could be either Case 1 or 2. Not sure what you mean in #3, as Generalizing an image does not remove drivers. They would still remain in the OS, however sometimes Windows doesn't use them on new hardware. (this behaviour leads people to believe the drivers get removed)

 

Anyways, the behaviour is normal. You may be able to get AHCI mode back by manually adding the driver (the "have disk" method) reboot, change the setting and then try to boot into Windows.

[jaclaz]

 Not sure what you mean in #3, as Generalizing an image does not remove drivers. They would still remain in the OS, however sometimes Windows doesn't use them on new hardware. (this behaviour leads people to believe the drivers get removed)

I mean that the IDE drivers would be normally "available", while the SATA ones for the "new" hardware may not (as said I haven't checked the specific hardware used by koganstyle), so at first boot the "generalized" image would not boot (because there are no suitable SATA drivers available in it) whilst when booted in IDE emulation the "generic" drivers are "normally" installed, as if it was a "first boot".

 

The difference between Case 2 and Case 3 is thin, in Case2 what (sometimes) allows the loading of the IDE drivers is (possibly) a sort of "fallback", in  Case 3 the image has not a "set" driver for mass storage and it just attempts to load the right one in the mini setup phase (or *whatever*) when booting. 

 

jaclaz

Edited August 22, 2014 by jaclaz

[cdob]

The first PC was a Dell Vostro 200 and the new machine was a HP EliteOne 800 G1 SFF

The Dell BIOS offeres RAID or IDE, no AHCI.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19449394.aspx

Most likley the old machine used IDE mode.

 

I changed the Sata emulation on the 800 G1 from AHCI to IDE and it booted

Has anyone experienced this kind of behaviour before or am I just taking crazy pills ?

Transfer a windows from IDE to IDE is pretty normal behaviour, nothing courious about this.

If you like to enable AHCI http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

[jaclaz]

So that would have been a "Case 1", pretty much normal.

 

jaclaz