[SOLVED] AHCI Driver and SSD on laptop

[nipplefish]

This is driving me absolutely crazy. I'm trying to install Windows 7 x64 on my Dell XPS M1330. I just bought an OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD off someone on this forum. It was previously used in a RAID0 array.

I install it in my laptop, and the BIOS sees it as a 64GB drive. Cool. I have AHCI mode enabled in the BIOS. So I boot to my Win7 disk, and it doesn't see the drive. So I load the AHCI driver on a USB stick, it finds the driver fine, and the drive pops up..... as a 119.2GB drive? It's all unallocated space and I can't create any partitions on it, not even a very small one. It throws the following error: "Failed to create a new partiton on the selected unused space. [Error: 0x8007045d].

Argh!#@ Please help me before I headdesk myself to death.

 

[razel]

It could be just the partition table on the SSD. Your laptop can physically detect the drive, but logically, software cannot see any partitions, perhaps because of the previous RAID0 setup. You'll need to delete all existing partitions. Easiest way is to plug the SSD in a USB enclosure and use Disk Manager to delete the partitions (if any).

Otherwise, when you boot off your Win7 disk, try to get to a command prompt. I think it's in the 'repair this computer' porition. Once there you can get to a prompt type:

diskpart
list disk (find your SSDs disk #, probably 0)
select disk # (where # is your SSD disk #)
clean

Clean will zero out the beginnng and end of your SSD which is where the partition table, MBR, and usually copies of NTFS file system data are. This should get your SSD's drive layout back to a new state where Win7 sees it as an empty drive and will offer you to create a new partition.

You shouldn't need to load any AHCI driver, unless it's a specific issue dealing with your laptop. I have a feeling the ACHI driver is giving you the wrong 120GB size leading to the unable to format issue.

 

[nipplefish]

Yep, you were spot on. I stuck the drive in an enclosure and reformatted it in Disk Manager on my desktop. I would have figured the installer's disk tool would have been capable of doing this, but apparently not. The laptop found the drive immediately without a driver and is installing now. Thanks!