Howto move Vista from PC with ATA hard disk controller PC with AHCI controller

This article is about migrating Windows Vista from a Dell D620 laptop with ATA to Dell D630 laptop with Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface).

If move an existing Vista installation from a PC with ATA hard disk controller to one with an AHCI controller Windows Vista will not boot, after loading crcdisk.sys it crashes.

This happens because Vista needs the correct drivers for AHCI.

The only supported ways to install them is pressing F6 during Windows Vista installation. This can either be done during the initial installation of Vista or during a repair install of VIsta.

If you don’t want to reinstall or repair install here is a quick way to do it.

1. Download the latest drivers for your AHCI hardware (the same drivers used to make the F6 install disk).
2. Boot up your disk (either on the old machine where it works, or) on your new machine after setting disk interface mode to ATA in the bios.
3. Download CPU-Z and start it (on the new machine) to figure out what the exact type of your AHCI hard disk controller you have.