Windows 7 - Cannot install on SATA Drive

This seems to be such a frequent issue that it could/should be a FAQ but I haven't found my answer yet.

I am (currently) running Windows 7 64 ULT on my home PC. I purchased an Intel X25M 80GB SATA drive and connected it in order to benefit from the speed. The issue is that setup hangs during the "expanding files" on this drive. Looking back I have *never* been able to install windows (XP Vista or 7) on a SATA drive on my mobo.

In order to avoid confusions I did the following.

Removed the 2x400GB striped drives. Removed the old PATA-IDE drive, therefore only drives available were the Optiarc DVD and the new Intel SSD.

Booting into the DVD, the setup shows the Intel drive available (but it takes a very long time between clicking install windows and gettting the next screen). I created a partition in it, (Windows created another one @100MB). Clicking next got the copying windows files to 100% but then the expanding windows files goes *extremely* slowly and hangs at about 68%.

I tried with another Win7DVD same result. so I plugged my old PATA IDE drive back in and went back to that.

Any ideas?

welcome.
Set the bios first boot on DVD drive, and when you put your hard disc SATA drive, set the hard disc is master.
and try to install OS.

Try with only 2g of ram.

Take a look at these posts:

http://www.sevenforums.com/installat...-problems.html
Tutorial quick reference list for Installing Windows 7
Questions to use for help with Installation Issues
Clean Install Windows 7
USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create

I managed to get it working in the end...

a) - created USB bootdrive
b) - removed 2nd monitor from graphics card
c) - removed all but 2gb of memory from card
d) - disconnected all other HDD/CDROM


Thanks for all the help folks!

glad hear it solved.