Windows 7 x64 driver installation issue

bump :)

Hang tight, I've sent a PM to one our members that has a couple of NF4 based systems and hopefully he can help.

I really can't offer much help, because I never ran into a problem such as this. Despite the fact that the nForce 4 has been discontinued for a while, I doubt that the chipset is the root of the problem. The thing that rings an alarm for me is that it is a MSI motherboard. I have had several, and now I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole. I have been told that MSI makes some other good products, but motherboards are not among them. If it were me, I would replace the motherboard as soon as possible.

If you decide to continue to attempt fixing the problem instead, you are in a pair of the best hands to do so already.

Sometimes on older boards RAID includes SATA so you can try RAID setting with SATA enabled while loading the SATA driver, see if it takes the driver and install proceeds.

If not, then I'd change it back to IDE mode and attempt loading driver again.

RAID and IDE were the only SATA controller settings, correct?

Next try pre-formatting the partition NTFS primary, mark it Active using free Partition Wizard bootable CD: Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software - Partition Wizard Online

Next I'd try changing SATA ports.

I don't recall the BIOS configuration on the MSI boards that I've had, but on the Asus I now have, on the Main (first) page of the BIOS settings, below the drive listing, is an item labeled IDE Configuration. There you set whether a drive is SATA or RAID.

Which chipset driver version are you using? I have had problems with the fashion that the storage controller were listed in the Device Manager with some of them. However, even when I did, it didn't cause a problem such as this.

So I bought a crappy mainboard? that sucks. anyway im using these drivers NVIDIA DRIVERS 15.49 WHQL
Stormy13 linked me to it in the beginning of the thread. As for the "IDE Configuration" I do not have anything like that in my main BIOS window. I have:
> Standard CMOS Features,
> Advanced BIOS Features,
> Integrated Peripherals,
> Power Management Setup,
> H/W Monitor,
> Green Power,
> BIOS setting password,
> Cell Menu,
> M-Flash
Load Fail-Safe Defaults
Load Optimized Defaults
Save and exit
and lastly exit without saving.
Sorry for the massive wall but i thought it was for the best if I missed something obvious

Now I changed it to RAID from IDE and before it loads windows of off the usb it directs me to
-Define a New Array-
In it I can see my HDD in the Free disks section
the Array disk section is empty.
I get to choose RAID Mode either Spanning, Striping, Mirroring, Stripe Mirroring and RAID 5.
Do I smell progress? :)

Unfortunately RAID in this case appears not to include a SATA setting, so unless someone else has a better suggestion it will need to be set back to IDE with SATA enabled. On more modern mobos, you'd have a choice of SATA or AHCI besides RAID and IDE. Perhaps if you look more closely you'll find other SATA-related settings besides the SATA enabled or disabled.

Next I would try plugging into SATA1, see if install proceeds or SATA controller driver is accepted.

If you have access to Acronis 10 or higher with Universal Restore you can import any Win7 image for your version to apply to HD then activate, or with Paragon Adaptive Restore you can install to your HD in another computer and move HD back to problem machine to start it up then activate. Sometimes this will work even without using Acronis or PAR.