Installing windows 7 on fresh PC

Hello,
I just built my first PC and I decided to install windows 7 on it. It has a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P P45 motherboard with an Intel Core2Duo E8500 3.16Ghz and a Seagate Barracuda 3.5" 1TB 32mb SATA HD PN: 9bx1a8-571. I have everything hooked up and running, the hard drive shows up in my BIOS but when I start to install windows 7 and it brings me to the selection screen for a hard drive no hard drive shows up. It then asks for me to insert the CD for the software for the hard drive, I put that in and it doesn't detect the files needed to install the hard drive. Any suggestions?

When you say it doesn't detect the files, are you browsing to the inf file for your hard disk controller?

Also make sure there is a TXTSETUP.OEM file. If your CD doesn't have them you can get them here...
SATA RAID - Intel ICH9R/ICH10R Driver (Preinstall driver)
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...hers#anchor_os

I boot up my machine from the windows 7 disk. I get through the intro stuff and get to the part where it says I need to install windows 7 to a hard drive and I'm at a blank list. It doesn't detect a drive and it says it needs the drivers to set up the drive. I take out the windows 7 cd, put in the cd that came with the hard drive assuming the files should be on there but it says the required files aren't on the disk. I tried also putting in the motherboard CD but it also says the required files aren't on that disk either. My hard drive is connected through a SATA port, I only have one hard drive and when the SATA RAID/AHCI controller is off it detects my hard drive and my CD rom drive in the BIOS but if I change it to RAID mode it doesn't detect either of them.

Do I need to make a floppy disk or something with the RAID drivers? Where would I get those at and can I use a USB since I don't have a floppy drive?

So you're not actually browsing to the drivers location, the disk is being scanned for the drivers automatically by setup?

If it doesnt find them, the disk probably only contains PNP drivers. You need the TXTSETUP.OEM file unless something has changed with Vista/Win7.

I would download the drivers from the link above and extract them to a floppy and load them that way. A USB thumb drive might work if you don't have a floppy.

I did that and put them on a CD and when I get back to the list there is an option to click that says "show drivers that aren't compatable with the hardware" when I click that it lists out all the drivers, so does that mean they aren't compatible or is it just because windows 7 is so new they aren't listed as compatible yet? If so which ones should I choose from the list there are quite a few.

I tried installing the Intel ICH9R driver and ICH10R it still doesn't recognize my drive though.

Once I install the driver do I need to restart and change something in my BIOS like the SATA RAID/AHCI controller or something?

Ok, I did some testing here and now I see what you mean. There's a browse and OK button.


You also don't need TXTSETUP.OEM anymore.

Yeah, to your question. I noticed that I had to show all instead of Windows 7 on gigabytes website for the disk drivers to show up.
You should try to load the ones that are made for previous OS's. My XP drivers work fine on Windows 7.
Looking at the site, there's only one driver that works in both XP and Vista...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Intel ICH9R/ICH10R Driver (Preinstall driver)
Note: Press F6 during Windows* setup to read from floppy. (For non-VISTA operating systems)
Download from :
Asia Asia(China) America Europe Europe(Russia) : ftp / http
O.S. : Windows® XP,Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition 32bit,Windows Vista x86 (32-bit)
-------------------------------------------------------------

They are probably on your CD.

If it's the same driver but works on many OS's you will get a bunch of lines like I do...


Just pick one as long as the inf file there at the end are the same.



I just noticed the last part of your question.

DMas2001 said:

I tried installing the Intel ICH9R driver and ICH10R it still doesn't recognize my drive though.

Once I install the driver do I need to restart and change something in my BIOS like the SATA RAID/AHCI controller or something?

Hmmm. No, you shouldnt need to restart and change the BIOS.
The driver isn't really installed at that point. It's just copied over to a temp location or memory until you cancel setup and then it's deleted.

Not sure what's up them but I suspect Windows 7 really doesn't like those drivers. Can you try installing an older OS and see if it gets past that point? If it does then you will probably have to wait for official Windows 7 drivers.

Maybe someone else more knowledgeable than me has some ideas.

I get a list like the one you show but it has a list of Intel ICH drivers. I tried installing the ICH9R and ICH10R and it still does not recognize the hard drive. There's many different versions such as ICH7M, ICH8M, ICH7R, ICH8R/DH/DO, some of the options are SATA AHCI controllers and some are SATA RAID controllers. I'm not sure which one to select.

I just tried installing XP on it and when it gets to formatting my hard drive to install XP it says it cannot format the hard drive. As I mentioned earlier the hard drive shows up in my BIOS so I know its got power and I know its connected to the motherboard. It shows 1000gb in the BIOS as available space so I'm really not sure whats up with it any idea?

I downloaded windows 7 64 bit so I also downloaded the 64 bit drivers.