Windows 7 Installer will not recognize SSD

Anonymous

I have just built a new computer and I want to install 64-bit Windows 7 Professional on an Intel X-25M 80GB SSD. I am doing a clean install on a new drive. When I get to the point in the Windows 7 installation that asks which drive I want to install the OS on, it does not show the Intel X-25M. It will show my other drives, however. If I unplug the other drives, it just shows a blank window instead of showing the Intel X-25M. I get a message saying it could not find a valid signed driver. I bought the retail version of the SSD, not an OEM.

I am using a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 motherboard and an Intel i920 CPU. The motherboard BIOS has no problem detecting and identifying the X-25M. I have the X-25M configured as an IDE. I updated the firmware of the SSD, but it did not help.

Windows 7 compatibility page shows no compatibility problems with the X-25M, but it apparently needs a signed driver, and I do not know how to get one.

Any suggestions?

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Anonymous

Does it show the SSD at all? I would check to see that it's indeed being picked up by the BIOS and if not, check the cables.

Occasionally, Windows setup can chuck a fit when it discovers a drive with an invalid MBR/boot sector and won't install to it. To fix this, you could try the following

1.Boot up Windows 7 disc.

2.When the welcome screen comes up on Windows Setup, press Shift + F10, which will display a command prompt.

3.Type "diskpart" (no quotes) and press enter.

4.Type "list disk" and press enter.

5.Hopefully you can see your SSD in the list. You should see a number identifying it. Now type "select disk X" (where X is the number identifying your SSD) and press enter.

6.Type "clean" and press enter. This will write a blank MBR, YOU WILL LOSE ANY DATA ON THE SSD if you did have anything on it.

Hopefully one of these tips helps :

)

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72 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-09-10T17:58:56+00:00

thx fam. it helped!
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Anonymous

2015-08-19T19:57:05+00:00

Showing up in BIOS but not showing up in DISKPART

HELP! :(
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Anonymous

2015-06-09T05:29:46+00:00

I am also facing this problem. In my case Win7 installer is able to see the SSD, but the Win8/Win8.1/Win10 can't. It is seen in BIOS/UEFI beside my DVD drive with no problem. The "diskpart" is unable to find my disk.

I tried to do a Power Cycle, initialise it via USB-SATA converter in Windows, I formatted it to NTFS,FAT, I also tried both MBR and GPT styles of partitions.

Even if I supply Intel Rapid Storage Driver during the installation, it cant locate the drive.

My SSD is Crucial BX100 and computer is Asus X550LB.

Firmware on SSD is updated so is computer's BIOS.

Have anyone manaegd to solve that?

Thankyou
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Anonymous

2015-01-08T23:49:07+00:00

I have the same problem. What happened in mine, I connected 2 ssd in RAID and it is connected to SATA II because my mother board cannot RAID on SATA III. After I install Windows 7 and my mother board driver everything works fine. Since I am a tinkering person then I tried to connect both 2 of my 120 GB ssd to SATA III. I did some modification in the RAID setup and I accidentally deleted one of the ssd. Now I cannot get the whole capacity of 240 GB instead the other ssd was missing and failed. To make story short I tried to boot on Windows 7 but it is hard for me to get into command prompt. So the easiest way is boot it up in my repair disk and select command prompt. I follow your instruction and it works fine. Thank you very much of your advice. I learn a lot of things.

Raymond Litorja
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