Problem with pgrading my G73JH with an SSD

[cic]

Hi all, I'm looking for some help as I'm a bit frustrated trying to upgrade my G73 with an SSD.

I picked up a SanDisk Extreme 240g SSD and tried to install it. First I added it as the secondary drive to ensure that it was working. It formatted fine and I could even save data to it and then copy from it after a reboot. This meaning that Windows 7 clearly detected the drive. Also, I did not have to install any drivers to do this... the drive was picked up automatically.

I then removed the primary drive and installed the SSD into the primary position. I then tried to install windows 7 via the ISO available from this site. The ISO did all of it's pre-install, yet when it came to the drive selection screen, the SSD was not discovered. In thinking this may be a raid / ACHI problem I changed the setting in the bios to IDE. The drive was still not recognized by the win7 install disk.

Any ideas why the disk would not be detected during the windows installation process? Also, what can I do to fix this?

[Zygomorphic]

Go back to your HDD, update the SSD firmware, and make sure that you are in AHCI mode. IDE will be a load of trouble with SSDs. They have enough problems (outside the Intel ones) with Windows 7 like you described.

[cic]

Upgrading the firmware had no effect. This was both in AHCI and IDE.

[dstrakele]

If the SSD is properly connected, but NOT recognized in the BIOS, it is likely the SSD is defective. You could help confirm this by attempting to install the SSD to another computer, or by installing a different drive in the same SATA port on your computer. Since you report the primary HDD was recognized, it is adding evidence that the SSD has failed.

If your SSD IS being recognized in the BIOS, but Windows installation fails, it is likely the installation media or ODD is bad.

[cic]

dstrakele wrote:
If the SSD is properly connected, but NOT recognized in the BIOS, it is likely the SSD is defective. You could help confirm this by attempting to install the SSD to another computer, or by installing a different drive in the same SATA port on your computer. Since you report the primary HDD was recognized, it is adding evidence that the SSD has failed.

If your SSD IS being recognized in the BIOS, but Windows installation fails, it is likely the installation media or ODD is bad.

I'm not sure if any of this applies. What is the ODD?

The drive is recognized when I boot up with the original drive as master and which already has Windows7, it's recognized in the BIOS (which I did not originally state, but since it was recognized as a second drive during normal boot up I didn't think it was worth mentioning), and lastly the Windows 7 install disk sees the original factory installed HDD, but just not the SSD.

Could it be an issue between SATA1 and SATA3?

[dstrakele]

No - you only need to physically remove or disable the HDD with the Windows installation to perform the OS installation on the SDD. I just wasn't thinking of this in my previous post, which (you are cotrect) does not apply.

After installation, you'll want to remove the Windows installation and Master Boot Record on the HDD, or your Windows System Image at backup will consist of the OS partitions on BOTH SSD and HDD.

ODD = Optical Disk Drive.

[cic]

dstrakele wrote:
No - you only need to physically remove or disable the HDD with the Windows installation to perform the OS installation on the SDD. I just wasn't thinking of this in my previous post, which (you are cotrect) does not apply.

After installation, you'll want to remove the Windows installation and Master Boot Record on the HDD, or your Windows System Image at backup will consist of the OS partitions on BOTH SSD and HDD.

ODD = Optical Disk Drive.

Unfortunately the windows installation CD will not recognize the SSD.

[dstrakele]

1) Does the SSD appear in the BIOS? Confirm you have SATA Configuration set to ACHI in the BIOS.

2) http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/278380-32-recognized-bios-windows-setup-installation-updated discusses a similar issue to yours. The user reported the SSD was detected in the BIOS, but could not be detected by the Windows Installation DVD. He resolved the issue by burning a new copy of the Windows Installation DVD.

3) In http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/32141-63-windows-installer-detect-install, a user reported the same issue, but ended up having to replace his SSD.

4) In http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/263475-32-windows-detect-shows-bios, it states:

"If you are using Windows 7 and you go to do a your fresh installation and the drive does not show up as available in the setup screen but it was showing up in the BIOS follow these steps now:

After booting into the installation disk, at the welcome screen press shift+f10 and a cmd window should pop up. Enter "diskpart" (w/o quotes), then "list disk". Your SSD should be listed here, note which disk number it is listed as. Enter "select disk x" (where x is the number of your disk). Then enter "clean". Cochise! Finish your install. Also be sure to check out the "Useful SSD Articles Part 2" topic in these forums for some suggested tweaks to your disk to optimize for Win 7."

[cic]

dstrakele wrote:
1) Does the SSD appear in the BIOS? Confirm you have SATA Configuration set to ACHI in the BIOS.

2) http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/278380-32-recognized-bios-windows-setup-installation-updated discusses a similar issue to yours. The user reported the SSD was detected in the BIOS, but could not be detected by the Windows Installation DVD. He resolved the issue by burning a new copy of the Windows Installation DVD.

3) In http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/32141-63-windows-installer-detect-install, a user reported the same issue, but ended up having to replace his SSD.

4) In http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/263475-32-windows-detect-shows-bios, it states:

"If you are using Windows 7 and you go to do a your fresh installation and the drive does not show up as available in the setup screen but it was showing up in the BIOS follow these steps now:

After booting into the installation disk, at the welcome screen press shift+f10 and a cmd window should pop up. Enter "diskpart" (w/o quotes), then "list disk". Your SSD should be listed here, note which disk number it is listed as. Enter "select disk x" (where x is the number of your disk). Then enter "clean". Cochise! Finish your install. Also be sure to check out the "Useful SSD Articles Part 2" topic in these forums for some suggested tweaks to your disk to optimize for Win 7."

I'll give #4 a shot. #1 is confirmed. I've done #2 via an install CD as well as a USB install. I can also try #3 as a last resort.

Thanks for sticking with me on this one... I was about to just give up and assume I couldn't have an SSD 🙂

[cic]

dstrakele wrote:
1) Does the SSD appear in the BIOS? Confirm you have SATA Configuration set to ACHI in the BIOS.

2) http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/278380-32-recognized-bios-windows-setup-installation-updated discusses a similar issue to yours. The user reported the SSD was detected in the BIOS, but could not be detected by the Windows Installation DVD. He resolved the issue by burning a new copy of the Windows Installation DVD.

3) In http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/32141-63-windows-installer-detect-install, a user reported the same issue, but ended up having to replace his SSD.

4) In http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/263475-32-windows-detect-shows-bios, it states:

"If you are using Windows 7 and you go to do a your fresh installation and the drive does not show up as available in the setup screen but it was showing up in the BIOS follow these steps now:

After booting into the installation disk, at the welcome screen press shift+f10 and a cmd window should pop up. Enter "diskpart" (w/o quotes), then "list disk". Your SSD should be listed here, note which disk number it is listed as. Enter "select disk x" (where x is the number of your disk). Then enter "clean". Cochise! Finish your install. Also be sure to check out the "Useful SSD Articles Part 2" topic in these forums for some suggested tweaks to your disk to optimize for Win 7."

#4 did it. Thanks a ton for your help!