Severely unhappy PC dislikes installling Windows7

[Donnegal]

Morning Everyone,

I am having an usually difficult time installing Windows on my upgraded PC. I replaced my motherboard, CPU and ram last night and spent hours pulling my hair out.

I have built tons of systems over the years, and although the few I have done with RAID arrays can be a lilttle finicky, I have never had this type of issue...

Upon installing on a new RAID-0 partition on a pair of SSD's, Windows installer begins, gets to the flying icon screen, then locks solid.

I have adjusted every setting in the BIOS I can think of. The computer place I bought the gear from benched all the hardware together and it ran amazingly for them.

This is the equipment I'm using:

~ Asus Maximus V Extreme motherboard
~ G.Skill TridentX Series 16GB PC3-19200 Dual Channel DDR3 Kit (2 x 8GB)
~ Intel i7 - 3770K CPU
~ stock CPU cooler for now
~ MSI Twin Frozr III 4GB GDDR5
~ 2 Corsair Force Series GT Solid State Drives
~ Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

​

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

~ Donnegal

 

[theog]

Have you tried UEFI mode?

As the new MOBO's now have a uEFI/BIOS firmware.
How to install Windows 64 bit on a uEFI/BIOS firmware:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-7-a.html
or
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with

 

[Donnegal]

I have... I am thinking I will do the "install from USB stick" thing tonight and see if that works... I don't trust that sneaky DVD drive.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[gregrocker]

Actually it's Win7 that doesn't much like RAID.

What are the advantages that RAID0 confers? Do you work with huge files that require the extra space that today's capacious HD's don't even provide?

It isn't even redundant so you lose all data if you lose one HD. I would unRAID then unplug one HD to Clean Install Windows 7

 

[Donnegal]

I run RAID-0 for speed, nothing more...

 

[gregrocker]

Have you compared to see the difference because I've not heard there is such an advantage? We only see problems with Win7 install and RAID.

What we have seen here is that an SSD is the greatest speed improvement.

 

[Britton30]

FWIW I would install w7 to the SSD then move User files to the fast Raptor drive.

 

[VistaKing]

Might want to take a look here RAID . Make sure you only have the two SSD drives plugged in . If you have another HDD unplug that until you have completed installing your Windows. If Windows doesn't see the two drives you might want to install your RSAT drivers by clicking on the LOAD drivers button on the screen where it asks you where you want to install Windows .


Added : Might want to update your firmware . Corsair SandForce 5.03 Firmware Update - All Drives and Capacities HERE - The Corsair Support Forums . Just to let you know you would have to break your RAID to do so. You can't update your SSDs firmware on RAID setup.

Note : Take a look at the attachment. It has the Firmware application along with a tutorial.

 

[Donnegal]

Awesome everyone! Thanks for all the help... looks like I have a bit of work to do tonight, will let you know how I make out.

 

[theog]

I have... I am thinking I will do the "install from USB stick" thing tonight and see if that works... I don't trust that sneaky DVD drive.

Thanks for the reply!

If Using a USB Pendrive on a PC with a uEFI BIOS.
USB Pendrive need to be formated to FAT32 as in
UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows
Take note of Step 11 for Windows 7.

 

[Donnegal]

Gregrocker: My reasoning for increasing seek and access times accross a RAID-0 SSD array is explained here:

Benchmark Results: PCMark Vantage : SSDs In RAID: A Performance Scaling Analysis

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have real-world experience to share? We would have heard if the benchmarks translate in the wild.

My own view is skewed by seeing only problems with RAID installs. Others may have differing views.

 

[Layback Bear]

Raid zero is great for ssd's if you want to make benchmark charts and graphs. Other than that is nothing but a trouble maker. Of course one can do with ones computer as one so desires. If ones desires don't keep Windows 7 happy then one has problems.

 

[Britton30]

From the benchmark link there was only one significant increase with RAID, Windows Media Center. I don't think for that it's worth the possible hassle to use RAID.

 

[Donnegal]

So far so good. Installing Win7 on a RAID-0. Will get some numbers up once she's all stable.

 

[gregrocker]

Glad to hear it. Keep us posted on how it runs.

 

[VistaKing]

How did you get windows 7 to install on RAID ? Might be useful for other members to know in case they get the same issue you were having .

 

[Donnegal]

Well, great news!

Finally all installed and up and running.

Found the issues:

1) Definitely boot from a USB stick when doing a RAID-0 array on a Win 7 machine... so does not like that pesky CD ROM. I knew it wasn't to be trusted! SSDs running flawlessly.

2) And here's an odd one... specifically on the Asus Maximus V Extreme motherboard, there is an mPCI-E combo Wi-Fi card that installs on the board and is secured by a screw. Apparently in some cases (mine was one of the lucky ones) this causes quite a lot of grief when trying to install windows due to the way its secured to the board with a little metal bracket. Sounds absolutely ridiculous... not sure if its the bracket, the screw, or the little mPCI-E card itself, but removed it all and no problems.

Removed the mPCI-E card, installed with a USB stick and was up and running in no time!

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions everyone!