Lessons learned on new Win7 on new build

[snoopysowner]

I just had to post this, as I have not seen it mentioned anywhere.

I fought with getting this install to work for weeks and I stumbled across the solution. I was attempting to install on a SSD and it would fail. I was able to install on a 160GB WD drive so I knew the drive and DVD were good. My Intel DX58SO2 has 6 SATA2 (3GB/s) and only 2 SATA3 (6GB/s) ports. So naturally I wanted the SSD on one SATA3 and my new 600GB on the other. I have an Azza 3000 case with 10 "easy swap" bays (4 2.5 and 6 3.5), so I was able to try several different ways of installation (install on a SATA2 drive and after booting, try to install on the SDD......). I finally decided to put all my HDD on SATA2's so I could build RAIDs and put the DVD drive on the SATA3, I figured the SATA3 was backwards compatible and I would have any problems with the drive.
And VOILA, the install went smoothly. Apparently Windows did not like trying to install from a different drive controller.

My rig:
Intel DX58SO2, i7-965 Extreme (liquid cooled), 24GB DDR3, 256GB SDD, 600GB VelociRaptor, 2 74GB WD Cheeta's in Raid 0, 2 130GB WD Enterprise drives in Raid 0, 500GB WD eSATA, nVidia GeForce GTX670 FTW+ (liquid cooled) all in a spacious Azza 3000.

 

[Layback Bear]

Welcome to the Forum.

Intel® Desktop Board DX58SO2 Extreme Series Product Brief

Check out page #3 paragraph #7 and see if that is any help.

 

[gregrocker]

In addition always unplug all other drives during Win7 install.

Other tips to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 - same for retail.