windows 7 installation help

[Alston518]

ok i just built my first computer. It turns on and everything is fine. I started installing windows, and i get to the part where it asks me where i want to save the os to, and my hdd's should be showing up, but nothing is there. It says in my manual i need to go into my bios and change my sata type to raid or whatever, since i am using a sata hdd. When i do this, i go back into installing windows, and after i click install and it goes through starting the setup, i get a screen that says a required cd/dvd drive device driver is missing. Then it says i need to load a driver and it lets me browse.

What i want to know is...

Should i be changing the sata type to raid? and if so, is it the AHCI driver that i need to be loading?

 

[MindoverMaster]

You don't need RAID... Turn on AHCI in BIOS.

 

[Alston518]

You don't need RAID... Turn on AHCI in BIOS.

ok, do this even though my hdd's are SATA hdd's???

 

[KSoD]

It shouldnt matter if they are SATA or not. RAID doesnt have to be used. It is for redundancy and backup purposes. I have 4 SATA HDD's and i dont have RAID. Try using ACHI Mode. If that doesnt work try turning on IDE Mode.

 

[Alston518]

It shouldnt matter if they are SATA or not. RAID doesnt have to be used. It is for redundancy and backup purposes. I have 4 SATA HDD's and i dont have RAID. Try using ACHI Mode. If that doesnt work try turning on IDE Mode.

alright ya i wasnt sure just because that was what my motherboard manual said but yeah thanks ill give it a try

 

[KSoD]

I can understand the side of caution cause of what the manual says. But in reality it shouldnt be required.

 

[Curbkiddytech]

Also if you were running your hard drives on a RAID Array, at Installation you would need to hit F6 to load the drivers. Otherwise the operating system wouldn't be able to see the hard drives at all and thus giving you an error saying "no hard discs were found for installation" or something like that. I recieved that error more times than I could count because I wasn't loading the correct RAID drivers. As Mak213 stated, ACHI or IDE would be the correct settings. If your hard drives don't show up after that, check the the power and data cables on the drives and motherboard to be sure there is no loose connection. If the drives show at the BIOS screen, then the configurations for IDE, AHCI, or RAID are incorrect. If the drives don't show up at the BIOS screen at all then it's either a cable problem or your drives died on you.