I called HP support and they claim they do not support AHCI in BIOS on this PC. I then complained stating it was an advertised MS-Windows 7 capability, and that with the PC they sold me Windows 7 so it should be included. HP advised for an extra $59.99 they could sent me to an internal HP department that could help me. I refused, stating I had already paid for the Win7 OS and was not going to pay another $59.99. HP support repeated that they do not support AHCI. I then told HP I wanted a rebate for the Win7 OS since they HP are selling a version of Win7 with no AHCI support.
HP stated they would connect me direct to their rebate department. There was a few minute on-pause hold followed by a disconnect. No rebate department connection.
The HP support staff were very polite, but overall it was a frustrating experience. They disconnected me once at the beginning of the support, and I had to call again and start all over. In total I was on the phone for about 2 hours. They went from saying (1) I had a refurbished model so it should be supported, to (2) My refurbished model warantee had expired (even though my mother had owned it for only 2 weeks direct from Best Buy) to (3) ok, we will try to help you on the phone even though we HP think warantee has expired.
I was placed on hold about 2 dozen times, while clearly the support person was confering with their boss or someone else.
In the end I can’t help but think I am more a victim of some policy, as opposed to a real limitation with this hardware. I have a suspicion that IF I could lay my hands on the AMD ATI AHCI drivers for win7 (64-bit) I might be able to get this to work. I did find some Intel AHCI drivers for win7, but they do not work.