SOLVED: HDD not visible during Win7 install (RAID with Intel SRT)

red454 · 01 Jan 2013

I had an awful time putting Win 7 Ultimate 64 back on to a 1TB HDD that I had been using on a Gigabyte P55 board. I needed to do a fresh install on a new Z68 ASUS motherboard that now uses Intel SRT with a 120GB SSD.

(I have set up a SSD with Intel SRT before, so it did not scare me to do it again)

So the new install had to be set to RAID in the BIOS. Wiped the drive and reformatted it. But Win 7 could not "see" the HDD. It showed up in the BIOS. It was visible and accessible on another computer. But this installer screen just didn't show any hard drive. Just a big empty window. Very frustrating since I had wiped / partitioned / formatted this HDD at least 5 times.

Finally figured out that the Install screen has an option to install drivers. I put the mother board disk in the CD drive and browsed to the folder with the Intel RAID drivers. The first driver I tried didn't work, but the second one installed. I put the Win 7 Install DVD back in the drive and POOF! - the HDD was then visible and selectable and I was able to proceed with the install.

gregrocker · 01 Jan 2013

A couple of questions to clarify:

Why was a single HD set to RAID in BIOS? And where did the SSD fit in since you didn't install the OS to it?

red454 · 01 Jan 2013

gregrocker said:

A couple of questions to clarify:

Why was a single HD set to RAID in BIOS? And where did the SSD fit in since you didn't install the OS to it?

The Intel SRT requires that the SATA be set to RAID mode before loading the OS. SRT won't work on a system that was set up in AHCI mode. (If you start with AHCI you have to edit the registry and switch to RAID in the BIOS).

After the OS is loaded, the SRT driver is installed. You fire up the SRT and select the SSD. The SRT software splits the SSD into a cache drive (64Gb) and the remainder (for me it is about 47Gb) can be formatted and accessed like a normal drive.

gregrocker · 01 Jan 2013

Have you considered installing to the SSD? We've had several users with a much smaller cache drive who did so and got better performance.

red454 · 01 Jan 2013

Yes and no - I will at some point move to a SSD system. Waiting for the $ per Gb to come down a little more. And perhaps it is as close as it will get.

Maybe my logic is flawed, but I like the SRT cache drive since you can use it and never really fill it up. It will just overwrite old, unused data space with regularly accessed data. So yes, my system is a little slower this way, but I like it. For now.

I am using it on an ASUS Z68 Maximus Gene-Z system and a Z77 Maximus V Formula system.

gregrocker · 02 Jan 2013

A 128gb SSD would be large enough for most users to install their OS and programs upon to get the maximum speed benefit of an SSD, not just use it for paging cache.

red454 · 02 Jan 2013

I am at 196 Gb on my current OS and peripheral software. I use SolidWorks and it hogs space. A 240 or 256Gb SSD would likely suit me well. And they really aren't all the pricey now. I just built one new system and upgraded two others, so I may do something later this year.