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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Anonymous

2011-02-15T00:06:08+00:00

I followed these instructions and was able to locate my SSD, but when I tried to do the clean function I received this message:

"Virtual Disk Service error:

Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump, or hibernation volume."

I'm not 100% positive what that means, but it sounds as though windows has installed some critical files on my SSD preventing it from wiping it, however when I tried to install windows originally it would not find the drive. Any ideas?
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Anonymous

2011-02-03T21:20:36+00:00

This worked great for me too. My problem most likely occurred because I was trying to install on a 500GB Western Digital HDD which used to be part of a RAID0 array. I assume there's essentially no MBR on a disk like this as all data was formerly striped using the RAID controller, so the MBR ends up split onto both disks. Thank you very much!
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Anonymous

2011-01-29T14:26:38+00:00

thanks man solved my problem too!
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