Windows 7 installer won't see SSD. - by Ostriig
CaptSyn on 5/12/2010 at 17:36
There wouldn't be a driver for the SSD, only for the controller it's connected to, which should already be included in Windows own drivers collection.
Sounds like an issue with the laptop's controller not liking that particular SSD. Unfortunately, the tech is still too new and there are issues with various controller makes and models.
Ostriig on 5/12/2010 at 17:46
Oh fucking fantastic. If that's the case is there anything I can do about it, or am I stuck with money down the drain?
Still, why would it see it through the Repair->Load Drivers interface, but on the Installation one? Obviously, the laptop can read it, it just won't recognise it at OS installation.
CaptSyn on 5/12/2010 at 17:48
Have you tried selecting custom install and choosing the drive? I know it sounds silly since there's only the one drive, but you never know.
Ostriig on 5/12/2010 at 18:24
Yeah, that's what I've tried each time. I was hoping to be able to delete the service partition while I was at it, since it seems to be less than useless anyway.
Edit: And another thing, I know a guy from NBR who's got the exact same hard drive working on a 15'' model of the series, N53Jf, same Intel HM55 chipset. So it can't be a controller incompatibility, can it?
Renzatic on 5/12/2010 at 20:05
This is weird, messed up, and odd. The Windows installer might not be able to see it as a proper drive, but that's ultimately secondary. The real question is what does the bios see it as? What channel is it installed on? That kind of stuff.
If the bios sees it, then Windows will be able to. If you can't see it there, or it reports it as something weird, then it's very possible you could have a DOA drive on your hands.
It'd also be a good idea to test it out on another computer. If you've got a desktop PC, pop it in there on SATA1 and reformat it NTFS inside of Windows. Move a couple of files over, see if it works properly.
Ostriig on 5/12/2010 at 20:41
Quote Posted by Renzatic
The real question is what does the bios see it as? What channel is it installed on? That kind of stuff.
Um, I'm not sure, where would I find that info?
Quote:
If the bios sees it, then Windows will be able to. If you can't see it there, or it reports it as something weird, then it's very possible you could have a DOA drive on your hands.
It'd also be a good idea to test it out on another computer. If you've got a desktop PC, pop it in there on SATA1 and reformat it NTFS inside of Windows. Move a couple of files over, see if it works properly.
It doesn't
seem DOA. The recovery DVDs
did make a hidden partition with restoration files on it. I haven't yet mounted it inside the desktop, but I
have put it into an external rack and connected it to the desktop via USB, it was instantly recognised and I formatted the remaining 111GB partition to NTFS (though I could not see the hidden X: partition through Disk Management). Even more, the Windows setup utility itself
sees the drive and its contents, both partitions, but only through the Load Drivers utility, but not when going through installation procedure proper.
BIOS sees it just fine, listed as P0: Patriot Inferno 120GB SSD (P1 is BD drive). Other options on boot configuration are UEFI Boot Disabled and PXE ROM Disabled. I tried dicking around with the SATA Configuration options, switched from AHCI to IDE and back, but still same problem.
I've seen mention on their forums about "initialising" the drive, but that seems to be something done when adding a new drive in a system that already has a working installation, it's done through the Disk Management utility. Am I missing something?
Installation screen:
Inline Image:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb67/Ostriig/DSC00193.jpgExplorer screen for when I go through Load Drivers:
Inline Image:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb67/Ostriig/DSC00192.jpgOstriig on 5/12/2010 at 21:07
P.S. Okay, just tested with mounting the SSD directly in the desktop. Windows took a few seconds to apparently install a driver, the same way you sometimes see when you first plug in a new USB stick, but then it worked right way, played a video from it. And besides, if it is a missing driver at installation, why would Windows Setup however see it through the explorer?
Renzatic on 5/12/2010 at 22:22
Okay, here's what I recommend you do. Remember Gparted I was talking about earlier? It's time for you to use it. The easiest bet is to download a copy of Ubuntu, burn it on a disc, and run it from a live session. It'll be under system/administration/partition editor.
Alternately, if you have the drive hooked up as a secondary on a laptop, you can hit the win key, type administrative tools (if you're using vista/7), and go to computer management. Once you're in there, go to disk management, find your SSD drive (it'll probably be under disk 1), right click on the partitions, and select delete volume.
I recommend Gparted, but go with whatever you think you'll be most comfortable with.
What you're going for here is wiping out every single partition on your new SSD. Every. Single. One. Even your new recovery partition. Make it a completely blank, unformatted drive. After that, pop in your Windows 7 DVD, and try to install. If things go well, you'll see your drive.
The reason I'm telling you to do this is because I think you installing that recovery partition did something goofy with your MBR that's keeping Windows from seeing it as a viable bootable disk. Other than it being a dead drive, that's the only reason I can think of as to why the Win7 installer wouldn't pick it up during the install process. I doubt very seriously you have an HDD driver/controller incompatibility going on here.The laptop is a recent model, Windows 7 supports SSD drives over SATA. So...shit not working ain't make no sense. Try that and see what happens.
edit: (
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/531185-issues-windows-7-install-ssd.html) Damn, I love it when I'm right
Well, rightish. You ain't fixed yet. Try it out and see what happens.
CaptSyn on 5/12/2010 at 22:47
Gparted comes as it's own app you burn and boot with. Ubuntu isn't needed.
I would agree Gparted is the way to go at this point. Remove all hidden partitions and reformat the drive with one large partition.
Ostriig on 5/12/2010 at 23:19
I've got a Ubuntu disc on-hand, but now I see further problems. GParted only sees one single partition of 111.79GB: /dev/sda1, NTFS, not mounted. It also reports a warning:
Quote:
The device dev/sda1 doesn't exist
ntfsresize v.2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
ERROR(2): Failed to check '/dev/sda1' mount state: No such file or directory
Probably /etc/mtab is missing. It's too risky to continue. You might try another Linux distro.
Unable to read the contents of this file system!
Because of this some operations may be unavailable.
Please bear with me while I proceed step by step, I don't want to fuck up even more - do I carry on and delete this partition? And, am I missing a menu option, how do I get of that hidden service partition? I don't suppose it's being read as part of /dev/sda1, shouldn't it show up on its own?
Edit: I see an option to Create a Partition Table, would that help reset the entire drive? And would I do it as an MS-DOS partition table, or am I looking at something completely unrelated?
