Help, installation not recognizing harddrives

So I have a computer with x86 version of windows vista, I am installing windows 7 x64 version.

So i pop in the disc, choose custom install in order to do a whole fresh install. I have 2 partitions, I select the main one to use.

computer reboots install install mode, takes forever to get to the menu, when i finally get back to the install screen and have a similar window in which to choose the drive to install windows, there are no options.

it says "no drives were found. click load driver to provide a mass storage driver for installation."

so now I cant seem to boot up aside from with a cd, i do believe it wiped my drives already, and it can't find any hardrives so at the moment im at a loss.

any ideas where i should go from here?

Set the DVD drive as the primary or first boot device in your BIOS and put in the install disk.

Reboot the computer and you'll get a prompt to "Press Any Key to Boot from CD/DVD drive." Do that within 4-5 seconds and the install should begin and then the drive should show up after a couple of preliminary screens. Then your good to go. You may want to delete the old partitions and do new ones.

Keep us posted!

BTW, Welcome to the Windows 7 Forums website mattminski!

well it wasnt that i was having trouble booting, it was that the installation process wasnt recognizing my hardrives so i had nothing to install on.

However since then I've scoured and realized i need to have drivers for a 64 bit operating system, so it took some trial and error but i eventualy found some signed drivers that are letting the installation see my hardrives.

from what ive gathered a sata raid setup is troublesome for some when installing windows 7 x64 but for now its installing and hopefully will be smooth sailing, if not i shall be back!

thanks

Should not be, but you do need to state you are setting up a RAID array, Is your system Intel ?

Well, if you would have stated that you were doing a RAID setup to begin with it would have saved time!

Yeah, you needed to install RAID drivers from the one install screen that shows the drive option.


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I wish people would give more complete information when posting questions on this forum. Too many times inaccurate or incomplete information is given and delays helping the poster.

Sorry for breaking in on this discussion however I have a similar problem as described below. Would be interested in solution as it appears similar to mattminski's prob

I am assembling a new computer,
Intel i5 750 processor 2.66 GHz LGA1156
8GB Kingston memory DDR3
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3R ver 1.0 Mobo
2 x Samsung HD161HJ 160GB 7200rpm SATAII 3GB/s
Galaxy 9600GT
Windows 7 32bit OEM Pro version
Quattro True Power 850W PS
plus other new bits [case etc]

Got it all assembled and systems boots into BIOS fine. Setup the disks as a striped raid pair and this is displayed fine in BIOS.

I have the disk configured in a RAID 0 set using serial ata bios version iSRC1.2e . The drives are visible in the bios boot device delection menu as:
1. SCSI-0 : Intel OS RAID0 W7 [OS RAID0 W7 being what I called the RAID set]

In the Intergrated Peripherals menu I have the "exteme Hard Drive (XHD)" option enabled which automatically sets the PCH SATA Control Mode to RAID(XHD).

So I have copied the chipset RAID driver off the motherboard disk D:\bootdrv\imsm\32bit\*.* to a floppy [and have also tried a USB key]

I insert the driver into the appropriate drive reader for the prompt when installing W7 and the driver file Intel(r) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO/PCH SATA RAID Controller (A:/iaSTOR.inf) is eventually displayed as the suitable file for the system.

The install checks the hard drive, and the floppy clicks into gear and the following message appears: "No new devices could be found. Make sure the driver files are correct and located on the driver installation media."

My initial reaction was to head off and locate some W7 32bit drivers off the Gigabye web site and try these however this was not successful, same as above. Have also tried Intel site.

There is probably something very obvious that I have done or not done. However can seem to get the driver for the P55 chipset RAID option to install.

Any help appreciated.

Hi Rikki27 and welcome

Take a look here > http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...&DwnldID=17882

Im sure I posted this before ... anyway >

1. In the RAID BIOS, configure the two drives into the array you want (volume size, stripe size, etc) and save.
2. Reboot back into BIOS and set your RAID volume as first in the hard disk boot priority
3. Boot to the Windows 7 installation DVD and you will see it in your array as it's only option, install Windows 7.
4. After Windows 7 is in place, you can install the Matrix Storage Console by right clicking the .exe, and "run as administrator".
5. Make sure you have "write back caching" enabled for the RAID volume.
6. Plug in any other Drive you are going to use outside the RAID.
7. Recheck the boot order in BIOS to make sure the RAID volume is still set as the primary drive and if it is thats it.