Windows Installer Can't See 74GB Raptor HDD

tabak · 10 Jun 2009

I am unable to install windows on my 74GB Western Digital Raptor hard drive.

Windows 7 has successfully installed on my other SATA HDD, a 1TB WD drive that I want to use for storage and not for my OS. The raptor is seen in the BIOS, and is recognized and works perfectly fine once Windows is running on my storage drive.

I have tried everything I can think of, but the raptor just wont show up as one of options to point the windows installer to. There are two types of SATA ports on my motherboard. The regular SATA ports are controlled by ICH9R and the GSATA ports are controlled by GIGABYTE SATA2. I've obviously tried plugging the drive into both, and neither works. I have updated drivers for both of these controllers on an external drive, and every time I run the windows installer and get to the screen where I select a drive to install to, I load both of these drivers, but it never allows the Raptor to appear as an option.

I have attempted to install to the raptor both while running windows on the storage drive, as well as booting directly from the DVD boot disc I burned. I have tried installing with the storage drive unplugged from my motherboard, and with it plugged in.

I have tried a bunch of different HDD BIOS configs. The raptor is always there in the BIOS, but it just refuses to be a windows install option. Just today I systematically went through and tried all 8 permutations of the following BIOS settings with the raptor plugged into the first ("0") SATA plug on the motherboard, with the storage drive not plugged in.
SATA RAID/AHCI Mode: (AHCI or Disabled)
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode (AHCI or IDE)
Sata 0-3 Native Mode (Enabled or Disabled)

A number of these configurations I have tried with the raptor plugged into the gigabyte controlled GSATA ports, without any luck.

I have ran windows update, and when trying to install when windows is already running on the storage drive, I allow the 'install updates' to run.

I just can't think of anything else to try, and have no idea why this won't work. As I said at the start, the HDD is obviously operational, I run programs off it no problem when windows is running on the storage drive. Both the raptor and storage drive connect via the same interface (SATA). I'm just dumbfounded about this. If anybody has ANY ideas please let me know. My full system specs are in my profile. TIA.

Night Hawk · 10 Jun 2009

Welcome to the Se7enforums! I see you didn't get much of an answer on the other thread you started before.

I ran into a similar at first when forgetting to unplug one sata drive on the 5th sata port on the board when going to see a second installation of the 64bit RC on the drive plugged into the 3rd port while all other drives were unplugged. The boot files and boot folder as well still ended up on the larger storage drive even though it followed not proceeded the intended drive.

Solution? Until the next installation on same for a 3 way boot with the host and 32bit RC back on again all but that one drive were simply unplugged to see that drive made bootable. Since the installer sees the drive already and it's known to be in good working order a second clean install with the other drive unplugged should get you going.

tabak · 10 Jun 2009

You lost me a little bit there.

Are you telling me to clean install (off of a boot disc) on the HDD I want windows on, with all other drives unplugged? I have tried this and the drive never shows up as an option.

Thanks for your reply.

Night Hawk · 10 Jun 2009

The drive should normally be seen when selecting the custom install option. If you installed and tried to boot from the Raptor after installing before it wouldn't boot since the boot files, loader, and mbr entries were placed on the other drive.

With that being the only one plugged in you now have to start off with a different set of troubleshooting steps since you already made changes to bios settings. One thing would be testing the other drive's data cable on that drive as well as making sure the power is plugged in fully for the drive itself.

The port could be bad as another item to consider. Try plugging in on a different one to see if the installer picks up on it then.

kodi · 10 Jun 2009

In advanced BIOS Features
Set the RAPTOR as 1st in hard disc boot priority
Disconnect all other drives

Night Hawk · 10 Jun 2009

Once any other hard drive is unplugged unless assigning the optical drive as first the mbr on the remaining hard drive will be the first thing looked at by default. There won't any other hard drives to change from since they won't be seen by the bios.

tabak · 10 Jun 2009

There is only 1 hard drive plugged into my computer when I am trying to install windows.
I am booting off of the DVD boot disc.

I've tried this with every possible BIOS setting...

Night Hawk · 10 Jun 2009

Someone else at Microsoft answers mentioned having the onboard sata controllers set to the enhanced mode while the drive itself was running in ide mode. Once that person burned and booted from the WD Lifeguard utility disk he was able to convert the volume from dynamic to basic where the 7 installer then properly detected the drive and saw 7 installed.

The thread on that can be seen at Cannot install Windows (7) to the selected drive

The ACHI mode shouldn't be enabled until after Windows is on and running is one other advice seen often. Generally the problems seen when installing Windows to any sata drive were with XP in need of a drive disk. Vista and now 7 should easily detect the drive with the bios defaults.

chrysalis · 10 Jun 2009

I installed windows 7 fine using AHCI, AHCI shouldnt really be an issue with windows 7 as it now has native drivers for it. Is odd people have been reccomending toggling AHCI after installation as that is a very quick way to a BSOD on boot and possible corruption of data.

Night Hawk · 11 Jun 2009

Many have recommended that thinking everyone needs a dynamic volume while most desktops use a basic volume instead. Simply running the defaults with the P'n'P and OS2 enabled while the rest is at the factory defaults with the bios should see a fast install of 7 without problems.

The one thing that may be preventing 7 from going on would be not having prepartitioned and formatted the drive. Even with the RCs the drive tools are not complete at this time.

Windows won't install to a bare drive plus the 7 installer is not detecting a drive without a primary on it already. If you forgot to partition and format the drive and simply are trying to install direct to a raw drive the installer is automatically bypassing it as unusable.