Installing Win 7 Pro on New SSD - AHCI, Dual Boot and Other Questions

I'm going to install Win7 Pro 64 Bit on a new SSD which I'll mount on a machine that is currently on Win XP. My machine has an old AMD Phenom CPU with Asrock M3A790GXH/128M motherboard. I am using AHCI mode/driver for my old SSD and I plan to continue using AHCI for my new SSD. I am also using PhenomMsrTweaker to automatically ramp up the CPU speed when the CPU load is high, and ramp it down when the load is low. These are my questions:

1. Does the Win 7 Pro installation automatically install the correct AHCI driver (does it already have the correct driver for my motherboard) or do I need to download the AHCI driver and make it available during installation?

2. I want to have a dual boot system where one boot partition is for my audio recording/production apps while another boot partition is for my business and other apps. I want to have a menu to select one or the other as the partition to boot when I start up my machine. Could you please suggest some ways that I can implement this?

3. Can I use the same license key to install Win 7 Pro 64 Bit on these two boot partitions? If so, how do I go about registering my license with Microsoft? Do I need to register it twice?

4. Is there a PhenomMsrTweaker version that is compatible and works with Win 7 Pro 64 Bit that I can download? A download link would be much appreciated.

5. I have the onboard sound disabled for my motherboard as I'm going to use a special sound card (RME Hammerfall HDSP 9632 on PCI slot) for my system. Is it a good idea to disconnect the RME sound card first during Win 7 installation and connect it later after Win 7 installs? I'm worried that the Win 7 installation might not have the correct driver for my sound card, so installing the sound card later with the correct driver from RME might be a good idea. Do you think so?

6. What other possible drivers do I need to have on hand that the Win 7 install might not have the correct drivers for? I would like to be prepared and have these drivers ready should they be needed during Win 7 installation. Note, I am only going to use the onboard video/graphics and the sound card is the only non-standard thing in my system.

7. Considering my hardware and system and the things I am aiming to achieve, are there any things to watch out for that might cause the install to fail or not be completely successful?

Much thanks in advance for your most appreciated help!

I assume your going to put the new drive in the xp pc then install 7? the first job is to goto the MB makers site and see if it has drivers for 7 if its old you may not be able to get any drivers and if your using 64bit the drivers must be signed or they wont work

samuria said:

I assume your going to put the new drive in the xp pc then install 7? the first job is to goto the MB makers site and see if it has drivers for 7 if its old you may not be able to get any drivers and if your using 64bit the drivers must be signed or they wont work

Yes, the old Win XP drive will be set aside and be replaced with the new drive.

Oh my, I can't find my motherboard anymore on the manufacturer's download page. Where can I possibly find the drivers that I need? I have sent a message to Asrock support and hope they will reply.

What exactly are signed drivers and why the requirement to have signed drivers when installing 64 bit?

Thank you so much!

UPDATE:

Sorry, after a little more digging, I found the drivers here:

ASRock > M3A790GXH/128M

But why are there so many drivers? Do I need all of them? Isn't the All-In-One driver enough?

MS set a code in place for 64 bit the drivers must be tested by MS to ensure they dontcrash the system they are then signed without that they wont load.



You should download lan driver you may not need any but if you have the lan you can get on the net and download the others if needed

samuria said:

MS set a code in place for 64 bit the drivers must be tested by MS to ensure they dontcrash the system they are then signed without that they wont load.



You should download lan driver you may not need any but if you have the lan you can get on the net and download the others if needed

These are the Win 7 64-Bit drivers available for download:

AMD all in 1 driver ver:8.631_W7_logo
Realtek high definition audio driver ver:R2.31
Lan driver ver:7005
AppCharger ver:1.0.4
SATA RAID Driver (For system to read from floppy diskette during Windows installation)
VGA driver ver:8.631
AMD OverDrive ver:3.0.2
IES ver:2.0.78
Instant Boot ver:1.23
OC DNA ver:1.5
OC Tuner ver:2.3.82
ASRock XFast LAN utility ver:6.61
ASRock XFast RAM utility ver:2.0.28
ASRock XFast USB utility ver:3.02.28

It seems that some of these, like the XFast LAN/RAM/USB utilities, are not really drivers and can be skipped, but that's just my suspicion. How do I know which ones are needed? Will the Win 7 install ask for the driver it needs that it doesn't have available? For example, will the Win 7 install ask for LAN driver or VGA driver if it doesn't have these drivers for my motherboard or will it install a generic driver instead?

You only need the LAN driver chances are windows will have all the right drivers but if you need to get any with LAN driver you can get on the net to get them. What sata does the board support being old it may only be sata 2 so it would reduce the performance of a ssd which are sata 3

samuria said:

You only need the LAN driver chances are windows will have all the right drivers but if you need to get any with LAN driver you can get on the net to get them. What sata does the board support being old it may only be sata 2 so it would reduce the performance of a ssd which are sata 3

Thanks Samuria!

The board supports SATA 2 only. Because AHCI is faster than IDE, I have set AHCI mode for SATA in the BIOS. I hope Windows will have the AHCI driver. If it doesn't have it, will the installation prompt me to insert a driver disk for it? Which of the drivers I listed has the AHCI driver? Could it be in the AMD All In 1 driver or in the SATA RAID driver? I want to be prepared with the correct driver disk in case the installation asks for it.

It should have all the drivers as win7 is about same age as the board

Megahertz07 said:

As it's an old computer you probably don't have more than 4G of memory.
Only install win 7 64 if you have more than 4G of memory.
If you have 4G or less, install win 7 32. It will run better.

First, set BIOS properly (SATA=AHCI) etc.
I would say that Win 7 installation disk has all needed drivers for installation. Once you finish installation, open device manager and look for the missing drivers.

I have a backup drive with win 7 and I use the same license. In my point of view, is the same computer, only different boot drive and the will never be used at same time.

I suggest you install win 7 in one partition, activate, install all drivers and updates then shrink the partition and create a new one. Then clone the fist partition on the new one. As your MB and disk is a MBR, use EasyBCD (EasyBCD 2.3 Download - TechSpot) to make it dual boot.

For the updates, use the offline SP2 and then the security ONLY updates.
MS releases SP2 for Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums

Thank you so much for all these great info!

When Win 7 doesn't have the exact driver, will it leave the driver missing or will it install a generic driver that it thinks is the closest one?

So you suggest to install and activate Win 7 only once then clone it to the second partition? Does the second partition have to be the exact same size as the first partition?

What do you mean by "shrink the partition"? You mean create an image of it? And how exactly do I clone the first partition to the new one?

Do I need to download and install IE 11 if I'm not gonna use it (I'll use Firefox)?

So, in the Windows update download links you provided, I should look for "Updates for Windows 7 for x-64 Based Systems" since I'm installing Win 7 Pro 64-bit, correct? I just want to be sure about that.

Thanks again!