In need of simplified install instructions for SSD (please read).

[essenbe]

Probably as far as the GPU. Click the start button - right click computer and select manage - allow user control and click in the left column disk management. See if your hard drive is there. If it is a new hard drive-right click new simple volume follow the prompts assign it a drive letter and format. If it already has a partition on it right click select change/add drive letter or path. select add and give it a drive letter. Either way it should show up in explorer now.

 

[Anesthetize]

Probably as far as the GPU. Click the start button - right click computer and select manage - allow user control and click in the left column disk management. See if your hard drive is there. If it is a new hard drive-right click new simple volume follow the prompts assign it a drive letter and format. If it already has a partition on it right click select change/add drive letter or path. select add and give it a drive letter. Either way it should show up in explorer now.

Yeah, it's a new* HDD. I'll give that a go now, and get back to you.

 

[essenbe]

I like Samsungs, I have 4 of them. I also have the P67 version of your Z motherboard.

 

[Anesthetize]

Okay, so I just got around to trying it. I can do everything you said to do except click on 'new simple volume.' It's greyed out. It's connected properly, it even shows up in the BIOS.

Any ideas?

 

[essenbe]

Is the disk new or old? Can you click on 'change drive letter or path' If you can click on it and add to give it a drive letter. If that does not work, expand disk management and post a screenshot so we can see the top section and the bottom section, even if you have to take 2 screenshots. How to post screenshot.

How to use snipping tool

 

[Anesthetize]

Is the disk new or old? Can you click on 'change drive letter or path' If you can click on it and add to give it a drive letter. If that does not work, expand disk management and post a screenshot so we can see the top section and the bottom section, even if you have to take 2 screenshots. How to post screenshot.

How to use snipping tool

It's a new HDD, but I can't seem to get anything working on the PC yet, including internet. Then I realised I've actually not installed anything like motherboard drivers and such (not sure if it makes a difference.

Anyway, I'm at a little hurdle. I installed the drivers from the disc, and on the reboot I got this...

Driver Disk Preparer v1.07 - ASRock Incorporation, all rights reserved
Model Name: z68 Extreme4

Select Source:
1. Generate the RAID/AHCI diver diskette for Intel z68 Chipset
2. Generate the AHCI driver disckette for Marvell SATA 3.0
3. Exit

Should I select 1 or 2, or just exit?

The computer might function properly after this.

 

[essenbe]

Exit

 

[Anesthetize]

Exit

Ah man. I done that, it reboots and sends me back to the same screen. I pressed Exit again, same thing. I guess it wants me to select another option?

EDIT: I ejected the driver disc and it booted fine...but I don't think it finished installing everything, so if I put the disc in again to install everything again, I'll probably get the same issue.

Why do PC's have to be so much trouble?

Hopefully I get this sorted soon.

 

[essenbe]

Truthfully, I'm not sure. I think you installed the raid driver and it wants you to set up a raid array. Start up again, go into bios and make sure that Marvel is disabled and that the Z68 controller is what you set it on to install windows. Make sure neither one is set to raid.

 

[Anesthetize]

Truthfully, I'm not sure. I think you installed the raid driver and it wants you to set up a raid array. Start up again, go into bios and make sure that Marvel is disabled and that the Z68 controller is what you set it on to install windows. Make sure neither one is set to raid.

I'm in BIOS. Marvell SATA3 Operation Mode disabled.

SATA Mode - AHCI Mode.
SATA Aggressive Link Power Management - Enable.
Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) - Disabled.

SATA3_0: OCZ-VERTEX2:

Staggered Spin-up - Disabled.
External SATA port - Disabled.

SATA_1: SAMSUNH HD103SJ:

Same as above.

Don't know where else to look. Nothing says I have RAID selected for anything

EDIT: Hold on. Got the thingy working so I can now install drivers properly. 1 min

---------------

Okay, I've got something going here. Was able to click on 'new simple volume' then it says 'simple volume size' which I leave the same (953867)? Then assign a letter, easy.

Then 'Format this volume with the following settings:
File System - exFAT or NTFS?
Allocation unit size - Default/512/1024/2048 etc...?
Volume Lable - Something like 'HDD'
Perform quick format - [box] ticked.
Enable file and folder compression - [box] unticked.

What settings do I choose?

And thanks for the help again! finally getting somewhere

 

[essenbe]

Just hold on. I'm trying to get some help.

 

[Anesthetize]

Just hold on. I'm trying to get some help.

Cheers pal. Also, everything on the disc installed itself eventually. I now have some software on the desktop, some junk, some to do with the mobo itself, some adobe stuff like Reader and Air (don't know what Air is)...

But yeah, things are coming along now.

 

[essenbe]

So, I take it is booting now?

 

[Anesthetize]

So, I take it is booting now?

Yeah, I had to keep taking the motherboard disc out, and putting it back in. It eventually installed everything just fine. It's just getting the HDD recognized now. And to do that, I right clicked on a part that brought up a option that said 'Initialize Disk' which I clicked, then clicked on MRB (MBR? whatever it is), and that seemed to like switch it on so I was then able to click 'New Simple Volume.'

My problem now is the settings used for that. Simple to some people, but it's still all new to me. I put a question mark next to the parts that I didn't know what to select in my reply 2 posts ago.

Aside from that, everything seems to be fine right now!

 

[essenbe]

Truthfully, I'm not sure. I think you installed the raid driver and it wants you to set up a raid array. Start up again, go into bios and make sure that Marvel is disabled and that the Z68 controller is what you set it on to install windows. Make sure neither one is set to raid.

I'm in BIOS. Marvell SATA3 Operation Mode disabled.

SATA Mode - AHCI Mode.
SATA Aggressive Link Power Management - Enable.
Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) - Disabled.

SATA3_0: OCZ-VERTEX2:

Staggered Spin-up - Disabled.
External SATA port - Disabled.

SATA_1: SAMSUNH HD103SJ:

Same as above.

Don't know where else to look. Nothing says I have RAID selected for anything

EDIT: Hold on. Got the thingy working so I can now install drivers properly. 1 min

---------------

Okay, I've got something going here. Was able to click on 'new simple volume' then it says 'simple volume size' which I leave the same (953867)? Then assign a letter, easy.

Then 'Format this volume with the following settings:
File System - exFAT or NTFS?
Allocation unit size - Default/512/1024/2048 etc...?
Volume Lable - Something like 'HDD'
Perform quick format - [box] ticked.
Enable file and folder compression - [box] unticked.

What settings do I choose?

And thanks for the help again! finally getting somewhere

NFTS
Default
Label-whatever you want-suggest something meaningful to you like Samsung Data
Quick format
leave unticked (Compression)

 

[essenbe]

Apparently what happened was- you set 1st boot device as DVD. You rebooted with the DVD in the drive and it was trying to boot from the DVD.

Also, it is not necessary to install everything on the disk. Just drivers. some things you will probably be uninstalling.

 

[Anesthetize]

Yeah, it's all working now. Got my HDD recognized, all good.

Yeah, there was some junk on the CD I've already kicked off.

One thing though' just for the hell of it, I put one of the EVGA tech demos on to see how the card holds up, and the screen flickered between the demo and just white. I had a few pixels that kept flicking to red too. It didn't even want to start up a couple of times.

I keep feeling like I might have damaged my GPU while installing it (it's insured, I can replace it if so), but could that also be because it's using non-up-to-date drivers? Or perhaps just a sketchy tech demo?

Anyway, thanks a lot for the help mate. I asked a lot of people for help with this, and I struggled to get any, but you stuck with it, and I really appreciate it!

Thanks again

 

[essenbe]

No problem, any time. Hang around this forum and you will learn a lot. When you get time, browse through the tutorials. You'll find how to do things that you would have never believed windows could do. Good luck and I'm glad you have it working like you want it. If the graphics card gives you problems, post a topic on the graphics section here.

 

[whs]

Congratulations, you did a fine job. Now that you are nearly done, I like to answer 2 questions you had earlier (I just now saw the whole thread)

1. to get rid of your hibernation file, open an elevated Command Prompt (run as admin) and type or paste this command:

powercfg -h off

Then hit Enter. That will save you as much space on your SSD as the size of your RAM. If you ever want to get the hibernation file back, the command is powercfg -h on.

2. The user data you should keep on the HDD and not the SSD. But rather than moving the standard user folders (Documents, Music, Videos, etc.), I suggest you define a partition on your HDD and define new user folders (Documents, Music, etc.). And then you move your own data into there. Then you right click on each of those folders and click on "Include in Library" and select the library where they belong.

The advantage of this approach is that those folders will really only contain your own files and the standard user folders which stay on the SSD will be used by various programs for program files that are required to run those programs. So there is no mix up. The said program files are not very big and can be easily accomodated by your SSD.

3. There are a lot of "experts" who recommend all kinds of tweaks for the SSD. I recommend to stay away from those tweaks. If any, they are usually of very little advantage and sometimes they are even counterproductive (e.g. disabling Superfetch). It is also not true that your SSD will suffer from many write operations. This SSD will survive your system any time - so do not worry. I have 5 SSDs on 5 different systems and my oldest is 3 years old. In that time it has not suffered at all.

PS: Steve (essenbe) is a good man. He sure gave you good guidance. You were lucky to have found him.

 

[Anesthetize]

No problem, any time. Hang around this forum and you will learn a lot. When you get time, browse through the tutorials. You'll find how to do things that you would have never believed windows could do. Good luck and I'm glad you have it working like you want it. If the graphics card gives you problems, post a topic on the graphics section here.

I thought it was giving me problems, but I'm not putting it down to the fact that I've not updated the drivers. WEI was giving my a 6.0 for a GTX 580, but I asked for a re-run and it went up to 7.9.

I tried a demo of a game (Empire Total War), was getting some funky little black spots in the grass flickering on and off, but nothing in the sky. Could be the drivers, could be this crappy monitor which needs replacing. I'm almost certain it's not the card at this point.

Still, I'll hang around, check out some tips and tutorials on getting this computer in a leaner, faster state. And if I get any questions, I'll be sure to ask them here, as I've recieved more help here than anywhere else so far.

Again though, thank you very much, you've been a big help!