SSD install problem

[stipalgl]

Hey guys, I just bought a crucial m4 64GB SSD for an OS drive and I'm having a little trouble installing it.

So the PC I'm putting it in is an old school Core 2 system running on an ASUS P5NSLI motherboard. Now this motherboard doesn't support AHCI so I figured the SSD would be running off the IDE channel.

The issue is this: When the computer boots, the SSD is recognized in the BIOS under the SATA 1 channel and everything is fine on post. I then boot from CD, trying to install a fresh new copy of Windows 7 and when it gets to the installer page where it lists all the drives, the page is blank, showing no SSD present. Yet it is recognized in the BIOS.

I looked online and haven't found anything to help me. Can anyone shed light on this? Much appreciated.

 

[GotNoRice]

That motherboard doesn't seem old enough to not support AHCI, something seems a bit off.

Check in the bios and make sure it's set to AHCI and not raid or something similar.

 

[stipalgl]

It actually doesn't support AHCI though. I checked and ASUS confirmed so. Furthermore, there's simply no AHCI option in the BIOS as well, further verifying their claim.

I'm just not sure why it doesn't show up under the Windows 7 screen where it asks "where do you want to install windows?"

 

[postmortemIA]

Windows 7 installer shall detect drive, even if it has no active partitions.

As for AHCI support, any board with ICH7 southbridge does not support it. Apparently older nvidia chipsets are same story.

I would get some linux live cd and see if its partition manager (gparted) sees the drive.

 

[Motorheader]

Have you tried the Nvidia Raid Driver for Vista in either F6 or advanced setup?

 

[stipalgl]

Motor, no I haven't. Is it something I need to install regarding this type of motherboard? Can that be done even with no drive recognized at all at the moment? Also, I'm actually trying to run Windows 7. Not sure if that would affect anything in anyway or not.

 

[raf051888]

I've been looking at this drive myself on Newegg. People mentioned they had issues with the drive until they upgraded the firmware. You may want to try that.

 

[stipalgl]

How do I update this stuff (firmware, RAID) if I can't install anything and have no alternative drives on the desktop? This is coming from my smartphone.

 

[raf051888]

Do you have another PC where you can create a bootable USB of Windows? Someone else in the Newegg Reviews mentions that it would not let them install from a Win 7 CD.

The review I'm referring to is from J@Y2TH@C.

 

[Motorheader]

You may have to since there is no official Win7 support for that mainboard chipset.