Windows 7 - ssd configuration

I just installed ssd in my computer and it doesn't show up in the explorer - I'm assuming that's because it isn't formatted yet. So I went into the computer management screen and the ssd is there as "not initialized". A dialog came up saying the ssd disk must be intialized before the logical disk manager can access it - there were 2 choices for intializing: MBR or GPT. I am not sure which one I should go for.
Or should I leave it to windows 7 to format it when I install Windows 7 on the ssd?

Post a screen shot of your Disk Management.

I'd disconnect all other drives before trying to install Windows to an SSD---or to any drive for that matter.

Here is a screenshot of my disk management:

I assume the drive in question is the middle one with 55.80 unallocated?

Is it brand new and never before formatted?

What happens when you right click in that space and attempt to make a volume?

Post another screen shot of what you see when you try to make a volume (partition).

I am a bit puzzled why you would see anything about logical disk manager, MBR, or GPT.

Yes the middle one showing 55gb unallocated space. That's the new ssd I just installed. Like I said in my original post I hadn't formatted it yet and checked to see if it showed up in disk management. It did and that was when I got a dialog to say it needs to be intialized for the logical disk manager to access it. That dialog showed 2 options - MBR or GPT (see screenshot below):



Also, when I right click that space all I get is two options: properties and help, the rest are greyed out.

Guess I'll bite the bullet and initialize ssd with the mbr and see what happens after that. Hope it doesn't damage ssd or anything.

What you saw is perfectly normal - this would happen everytime you install a brandnew, never-used drive. There's nothing in sector 0 of the disk, no partition info, no signature, nothing. Windows needs to write either an MBR (with an empty partition table) there or, as you found out, a GPT.

MBR and GPT are simply two different (incompatible) partition schemes, each with their advantages and limits. MBR disks for example can only support up to 4 primary partitions (or 3 primary and 1 extended) and a total disk size of 2TB.

The MBR is the preferred one for general usage, so you did just fine. You could have let the Windows 7 install DVD take care of this, but as you still have no actual partitions on the SSD you're good to go. The installer will set them up.

Run these commands in elevated Command prompt.

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
Create partition primary align=1024
Active (assuming you want to install an OS)
Exit

whs, he can do these steps but there's no need to - and if there's one single active partition then the setup DVD won't create the 100MB boot partition.

Question is whether the OP prefers a Windows system in a single partition or with the separate boot partition? Functionally, it doesn't matter though.

Undertand. Not having the 100MB active partition may be an advantage. Lots of people run into trouble with that. Plus many do not understand the concept anyhow. And it is just one more thing to image.

He can, of course, initialize the SSD in Disk Management and let the installer do the rest. His choice.