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I just bought an SSD SATA drive, and wish to install Windows 7 directly on it. The problem is, when Windows asks me where do I want to install it, it doesn't recognize any drives.

  • I have disconnected all my other HDDs
  • My BIOS recognizes the SSD drive.
  • I went back to my original instalation of Windows and my SSD drive is recognized
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did you enable ahci in your bios? – KronoS Aug 15 '11 at 20:40
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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

A little more info on the model of the MB and the model of the drive will be welcome.

Is your MB bios up to date? Same is with SSD drive.

Are you using recent W7 SP1 install media?(shouldn't matter much, but you could download fresh iso from microsof store).

It may be something with SATA/AHCI compability - check how your drive is set in bios and change to the other setting.

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up vote 2 down vote

The Windows 7 install DVD might not have the proper sata driver for your chipset. when the windows installation fails, there is an option at the bottom to load additional drivers. select this option and follow the directions to install the driver for the sata controller.

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If the install DVD recognises the hard drives when they are connected then that would rule out a SATA driver issue. – Col Aug 16 '11 at 20:43
@Col - WTH? If the install DVD recognizes the hard drive, he wouldnt have asked this question, would he? – Keltari Aug 16 '11 at 22:22
My point is if the install recognises the spinning disk but not the SSD then the problem isn't the SATA drivers since they are the same regardless of what's plugged into the controller. I'm guessing he originally installed to his spinning disks without problem but now cannot install to his SSD. – Col Aug 17 '11 at 8:03
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up vote 0 down vote accepted

This is the suggested resolution:

Boot up Windows 7 disc.

When the welcome screen comes up on Windows Setup, press Shift + F10, which will display a command prompt.

Type diskpart and press enter.

Type list disk and press enter.

Hopefully you can see your SSD in the list. You should see a number identifying it. Now type select disk X (where X is the number identifying your SSD) and press enter.

Type clean and press enter. This will write a blank MBR, YOU WILL LOSE ANY DATA ON THE SSD if you did have anything on it.
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