Asus Z170 -A and a Win 7 install

[deustroop]

Hi,

I'm planning to swap my present Asus board (P6T) for a hot dog Z170 A with an i7 CPU (vroom, vroom). But I'm also running the venerable Win 7 and I know a problem when I create one.
I know for example that there are no USB 3 drivers in Win 7, stopping any fresh install, and that Asus has a handy PDF on installing them before the Win 7 install disk takes over. But question one is --does the Asus plan work ? Has anyone used one of the three options in the PDF to fresh install Win 7 on this board?

My second question is, do I need to be concerned, in that this new board will perhaps against all odds just boot easy peasy using my existing drive and I can drop the USB 3 drivers in later at my leisure ?

Third, what to do during install, using any method, to engage the UEFI thingy which I do not have now ?

TIA amigos

 

[Deders]

Yes having the Asus DVD in the drive whilst installing windows from USB worked for me.

If you can get a bios update there should be a USB emulation option in there somewhere that should negate the need to do this but I have not yet tested it.

 

[i7Baby]

with win 7 I changed from x79 extreme 4 to 6 without much driver change at all.

you never know till you give it a go.

 

[deustroop]

with win 7 I changed from x79 extreme 4 to 6 without much driver change at all.

you never know till you give it a go.

Do your usb ports work ? Usb 2 and 3 ?

 

[i7Baby]

Yep. Only problem I had was with mouse driver - which windows eventually self downloaded and installed.

 

[deustroop]

Yes having the Asus DVD in the drive whilst installing windows from USB worked for me.

If you can get a bios update there should be a USB emulation option in there somewhere that should negate the need to do this but I have not yet tested it.

I checked the web and the option is in Advanced/usb configuration. It seems that this workaround is for usb installs and that if one uses a dvd install disk, there are no issues with the mouse and keyboard during the install. I also assume one would have to use usb 2 ports for the mouse/keyboard. Is this correct ?

 

[Deders]

I checked the web and the option is in Advanced/usb configuration. It seems that this workaround is for usb installs and that if one uses a dvd install disk, there are no issues with the mouse and keyboard during the install. I also assume one would have to use usb 2 ports for the mouse/keyboard. Is this correct ?

I think if you use a DVD install, you would need 2 DVD drives. I had to borrow an external. Having the devices in USB2 ports won't help because the old method of communicating with USB has been done away with and replaced in z170.

Hopefully the recent bios feature would mean you don't need to worry about this.

 

[wrohdejr]

Yep. Only problem I had was with mouse driver - which windows eventually self downloaded and installed.

I just moved my 2gb seagate sshd from my old amd board to the new z170-deluxe with i7-6700 4.0 cpu. Boy this is a nightmare. I got windows to boot but my mouse driver is microsoft ps/2 driver. If i install my logitech driver it doesn't over-right it or give me an option to remove the ps/2 driver. If install the intel usb 3.0 drivers none of the usb ports work and i have to do a restore to go back and reinstall all the boards drivers. Question is how long did you have to wait for your mouse driver to update. The mouse works just no scrolling wheel. It's tough using the scroll bar!

 

[Deders]

You might consider using Windows Media Creation tool to make a DVD or USB stick to do a fresh windows install from.

 

[wrohdejr]

You might consider using Windows Media Creation tool to make a DVD or USB stick to do a fresh windows install from.

I am starting to think the same thing. I have alot of stuff on my sshd win7 drive and i was hoping i could just swap it over. I am starting to think i might have to make a new hd and install win 10 just to ease the pain.

 

[Deders]

You could partition it?

 

[wrohdejr]

I was thinking that as well. The c drive is 2tb i could drop it down to 1tb and put win 10 on one of them.

 

[wrohdejr]

since win 10 is a upgrade for free from win 7 will they let me put win 10 on the new partition as a new install or will i have to install over win 7?

 

[Deders]

If you use the media creator from your current windows 10, it should store the key and activate itself. You may want to find confirmation of this, I have yet to try it myself.

 

[wrohdejr]

Thats the thing i don't have win 10 yet i am still on win 7.

 

[Deders]

Do the upgrade, then make the media.

 

[wrohdejr]

well i did the upgrade over night only issue is i couldn't activate win 10. So i started a support chat with microsoft and they remote desktop and activated it for me. I did tell them that i had to upgrade mb and cpu for the free activation. Now all devices work properly and usb 3.1 works along with the right mouse.

 

[wrohdejr]

ps i didn't have to do a clean install. The upgrade on the current hd worked out all of the issues.

 

[deustroop]

ps i didn't have to do a clean install. The upgrade on the current hd worked out all of the issues.

Are you saying you upgraded from within Win 7 to 10 and the process kept your apps and settings in tact ? No need to reinstall any apps ?

 

[Deders]

Are you saying you upgraded from within Win 7 to 10 and the process kept your apps and settings in tact ? No need to reinstall any apps ?

I had to re-install all my drivers, and most of my apps. Games seemed ok.