Win7 cant see SSD

[RySheR]

got my new intel x-25m today, putting it on the laptop and taking out the existing drive was a breeze until i installed the OS- win7 home premium full version.

here's the steps i took:

upgraded the SSD firmware- did this by setting the SSD to IDE, selecting the optical drive as the primary boot device.

went back to BIOS, made sure BIOS can see the SSD- it did. Changed the IDE controller to AHCI. Also made sure that the first boot device is the optical drive.

plugged in win7 disc and rebooted.

by the time win7 asked me where to install it, i cant see any SSD device as an option, it would tell me to load the driver for the storage device. did it my downloading the intel mass storage.... and put it on flash drive, but win7 can't see the driver in the flash drive. However, it was able to see the SSD but when i click on the SSD, nothing happens, even when i try to format the SSD.

please help.....i've spent so much money on this SSD i'm beginning to regret this.
btw, i'm installing it on an asus laptop.

 

[RebateMonger]

Model number of your Asus laptop. please?

 

[RySheR]

Model number of your Asus laptop. please?

asus k42jr

 

[RebateMonger]

If Win7 can't see the Intel AHCI driver in the flash drive, then either something's up with BIOS-level access to the flash drive or the driver package is in the wrong format.

Does the Intel AHCI driver installation folder have all of these files:

IaStor.sys, iaStor.cat, iaStor.inf, and TXTSETUP.oem ?

 

[RySheR]

If Win7 can't see the Intel AHCI driver in the flash drive, then either something's up with BIOS-level access to the flash drive or the driver package is in the wrong format.

Does the Intel AHCI driver installation folder have all of these files:

IaStor.sys, iaStor.cat, iaStor.inf, and TXTSETUP.oem ?

what i hve in the flash drive is the inte matrix storage manager- is this the wrond driver?
so i need the intel AHCI driver?

 

[RebateMonger]

what i hve in the flash drive is the inte matrix storage manager- is this the wrond driver?
so i need the intel AHCI driver?

The only thing that the Win7 installer "Load Drivers" routine can see are drivers. They can only be read by the Windows installer when presented in the format I described earlier.

You can get these files by downloading the "64-bit/32-bit Floppy Configuration Utility and putting the files on the USB flash drive.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...%ae+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel%c2%ae+RST)

 

[RySheR]

didnt work.
called intel and they said i dont need any driver if i'm installing win7.
intel toldme to update the bios.
updated the bios, the notebook was on AC only,
halfway thru the BIOS update the dog run under the table and disonnected the AC adapter.
notebook shutsdown.
wont boot again, all i get is black.
just my luck................damn SSD.

 

[wiedersehen]

it seems that Win 7 REALLY has a lot of problems like that.

 

[Hacp]

Try installing XP first(sp3 slipstreamed), then install windows 7 over the formatted drive. I've had this problem before where I had an unformatted drive and nothing would recognize it but XP. Once I formatted the drive, I was able to install vista and windows 7.

 

[Qbah]

didnt work.
called intel and they said i dont need any driver if i'm installing win7.
intel toldme to update the bios.
updated the bios, the notebook was on AC only,
halfway thru the BIOS update the dog run under the table and disonnected the AC adapter.
notebook shutsdown.03. Yuri Kane - Right Back (Anton Firtich Remix)
wont boot again, all i get is black.
just my luck................damn SSD.

I hate to be the bringer of bad news but you most likely bricked your laptop because of that. Shutting down in the middle of a BIOS update normally kills the mobo. It's because during the update the installer clears the current BIOS first. If it won't manage to copy a new one you're out of luck. The Intel dude was probably right - very old BIOS may have been the reason why the SSD was behaving flakey in AHCI mode.

No idea what you can do now... I guess the only option is to contact your laptop manufacturer and tell them your laptop shutdown during BIOS update and now it won't even POST. Maybe you can send it in for repairs?

 

[Makaijin]

didnt work.
called intel and they said i dont need any driver if i'm installing win7.
intel toldme to update the bios.
updated the bios, the notebook was on AC only,
halfway thru the BIOS update the dog run under the table and disonnected the AC adapter.
notebook shutsdown.
wont boot again, all i get is black.
just my luck................damn SSD.

This is the reason why you put a fully charged battery in the laptop before you flash anything. Even a old battery that can't hold it's charge will last 5 mins to at least finish off the flash.

Battery in laptop = free UPS.

Anyways. I'm not sure if it's applicable with laptops, but with desktop motherboards, you could order a new EEPROM (the flash that hold the BIOS) and just replace it. If your laptop is still in warrantee, your choice woild be to call Asus support.

 

[Old Hippie]

with desktop motherboards, you could order a new EEPROM (the flash that hold the BIOS) and just replace it.

Most of today's MB's don't have a replaceable BIOS chip....only the nice (usually expensive) units.

Most laptops MB's are buried and not easily accessible and the BIOS chip is probably soldered.

I'm betting the laptop is bricked and not easily fixed.....Sorry.

 

[RebateMonger]

Asus doesn't have any instructions for this on their Support site. I'd call them and see if they can help.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I've got a X25-m sitting at home waiting for me to install it.

Man, it shouldn't be this hard. What happened to plug and play? Load drivers during Windows install ? Wtf? Are we back to 1998?

 

[Old Hippie]

Man, it shouldn't be this hard.

It's not.

As usual you're reading a one-off situation that's got NOTHING to do with an SSD drive.

His screw-up would have happened with any type of drive.

 

[StinkyPinky]

It's not.

As usual you're reading a one-off situation that's got NOTHING to do with an SSD drive.

His screw-up would have happened with any type of drive.

I doubt he would need to flash the bios for a basic drive.

I've read a lot of people having problems with Win 7 and SSD drives during install. I doubt I will as I do this for a living, but it's 2010 and the Average joe should be able to do this crap without needing to flash a bios, update firmware for TRIM etc.

 

[Voo]

I doubt he would need to flash the bios for a basic drive.

I've read a lot of people having problems with Win 7 and SSD drives during install. I doubt I will as I do this for a living, but it's 2010 and the Average joe should be able to do this crap without needing to flash a bios, update firmware for TRIM etc.

Most people don't have any problems with installing their SSDs or any other stuff for that matter, there are always some outliers.
Also I really doubt we will overcome those pesky technical fundamentals like firmware or BIOSes in the next 10 or 50years.. that's just how it works, we may replace them with something that has a much cooler name, but all in all we can't get rid of this basic stuff. There's always the danger that it'll bite you, but well nothing interesting is ever safe

Also if you had no possibility to update the FW you'd just be stuck with your non TRIM version of the drive, which you can do already now, so that's an advantage isn't it?

 

[Golgatha]

Try installing XP first(sp3 slipstreamed), then install windows 7 over the formatted drive. I've had this problem before where I had an unformatted drive and nothing would recognize it but XP. Once I formatted the drive, I was able to install vista and windows 7.

That's a good way to mess up the alignment of your SSD.

 

[Golgatha]

didnt work.
called intel and they said i dont need any driver if i'm installing win7.
intel toldme to update the bios.
updated the bios, the notebook was on AC only,
halfway thru the BIOS update the dog run under the table and disonnected the AC adapter.
notebook shutsdown.
wont boot again, all i get is black.
just my luck................damn SSD.

The only thing you can do now is send it to the manufacturer for repair. Your dog just bricked your laptop. As someone else mentioned, laptop battery = free UPS.

 

[Golgatha]

I've got a X25-m sitting at home waiting for me to install it.

Man, it shouldn't be this hard. What happened to plug and play? Load drivers during Windows install ? Wtf? Are we back to 1998?

They call it bleeding edge technology for a reason.

SSDs have caused me to rebuild my laptop (not a huge deal, as it was a brand new unit) and most recently my desktop (huge deal, lots of configured programs...ugh, still so much work to do) because of silly alignment issues. For the price of these drives, one would think they would include a utility which would move your data and partitions around to make them properly aligned. I'm sure they don't want that liability though. I sure wouldn't.

 

[Diskonekted]

Almost a year later, I'm encountering the same problem (with Win7 that is, not the bIOS "issue"). I have the same laptop (K42Jr) and I'm running the lates BIOS version (6.04 at the time of typing).

I was installing with the latest build from TechNet, which included SP1 and when getting to the installation destination, no disks were shown. The drive appeared fine in the BIOS and I tried swapping to IDE SATA from AHCI, installing/injecting the drivers into the build DVD, formatting the drive in another Win7 computer and then installing on the laptop, but had no luck.

The strange thing was that the disk was being detected during the setup, but wouldn't show in the "Where to install" configuration. Looking at the "Load Drivers" explorer window would show that the drive (OCZ Vertex2, which was already formatted) was there. The same was found for performing System Repair options.

What did work for me was, going into the Command Prompt from the Windows Setup and using DISKPART to clean all configuration information from the disk. Once rebooted (after switching back to AHCI), the drive was fully detected and installation is currently happening, whilst typing this.

Hope this helps someone else!!