Maximum PC

HI,

I recently upgraded to a 2TB Seagate Hard Drive and a 180GB Force 3 Corsair SSD Drive, but I can't get windows installed on them. I can format both drives but when I try formatting the 100MB space that it creates as an extra space for system files it won't do it. It just sits there with the icon acting like it's doing something for minutes and minutes. I tried creating the space from each drive separately but I can't format it regardless. When I choose to just install Windows on the SSD it says 'can't format drive 1' along with a long error code. I'm at a loss. I even tried installing Windows on the Seagate 2TB drive but that didn't work either. I've tried installing Windows 7 64-Bit, Windows 7 32-Bit and Windows 8 64-Bit. Any suggestions would be much appreciated and thanks in advance for your help.

My system specs are:

Windows 7 64-Bit Home Premium
AMD Phenom II 955 Quad Core 3.2GHZ CPU
Seagate 2TB 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
Corsair 180GB Force 3 SSD
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 Motherboard
8GB Ripjaws DDR3 1600MHZ RAM
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 560 Ti Video Card

You can't install win7/8 on 2 gigabyte hard drive. Here are the minimum specs:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... quirements

If it won't install on a properly sized drive you may have to do a bios update first.

Nasty

Oh shoot that was a typo. I meant a 2TB Drive. Sorry. The problem persists though. I have a 2TB Seagate 7,200RPM 64MB Cache Sata 3 drive and a Corsair 180GB Force 3 Sata 3 Drive. I'm running the latest BIOS version for my Motherboard.

I'm doing the standard Windows format through the setup utility. I'm guessing the default is NTFS and I don't even see a way to switch it. I'm not familair with AHCI. I had it set to IDE. What is AHCI and do you think that's the problem? I can put the hard drives back and and switch it if you think that's the problem.

I switched to AHCI and it didn't help the situation. I also disconnected the 2TB Drive and tried to install Windows on the SSD and that didn't work either. I tried doing so by not formatting the drive manually as well.

In the white cluster of SATA ports, do you have your hard drive plugged into number 1 port?

Nasty

Yes.

Have you tried different ports in the white cluster?

Have you tried to turn on the raid ports in the bios and try them?

Nasty

Tried it, still no luck. A lot of people seem to be having issues with the Corsair Force 3 line of SSDS. I am returning this one for either a Samsung 256GB Model or another 2TB Seagate Hard Disk to run in RAID 0. My question is this: How much faster would my system be using the SSD for my primary OS/APPS/GAMES over a RAID 0 Array with two 7,200 64MB Cache SATA 3 hard drives?

I'm leery of ordering another SSD but will do so if you guys feel the performance far outweighs a RAID 0 set up.

2TB in RAID 0? That's a pretty big risk there... I would rather do a RAID 1. Let's assume the fastest hard drive in that range is 150MB/s, your theoretical read rate is going to be 300MB/s, assuming even loading. So you can reach lower end SSDs right there. The only thing you won't ever beat SSDs in is seek times, but this only matters if you're serving or streaming data (and the drive has been idling)

Hmm.. I'm still tossing around a few ideas. I'd like RAID 0 for the speed. I could just run this Seagate 2TB hard drive by itself and take the newegg store credit and finally buy that Logitech 510 Keyboard and Razer Death Adder Mouse I've been wanting for some time. Although getting another Hard Drive would be nice to have the speed of RAID 0. Then of course there's always the Samsung SSD but I'm starting to move away from that idea as this has all left me with a bad taste in my mouth and I'm leery of more computer troubles. Also, I noticed that the Samsung SSD has a limited return policy on it.

Why do you think 2TB in RAID 0 is a big risk compared to two 1TB Drives in RAID 0, for example?

As said before, RAID 0's risk fair outweighs the reward, especially in sizes that big. I wouldn't ind RAID 0 in say smaller sizes for system use because you can just create a system restore image. But the entire shebang? You're putting your data on the line there.

Risk aside, RAID 1 provides the same read throughput as RAID 0, and reading is a whole lot more frequent than writing.

The fact that you could not install Windows 7 on the 2TB drive make me wonder about an issue that I run across from time to time.

Could the issue be your DVD drive? Occasionally when I'm trying to install Windows 7 on other people's systems, it will stall about 10 minutes into the process. I often waste hours testing RAM and re-seating cards before I remember to try swapping out the optical drive for a known good drive.

Can you borrow a DVD drive from a different maker as a test? (I don't think it's the drive itself but some mis-match between the drive controller, the motherboard controller and the Windows 7 driver set)

No, don't do Raid 0 on those two terry drives! If one drive dies it takes ALL your info and windows with it. I suggested two small drives in Raid 0, just to do your work on. When the work is done save it on a large hard drive. Do not keep it on a Raid 0 setup, always move it to another backup source as soon as possible. Raid 1 is slower but a lot safer as is Raid 5 and 10.

Nasty

I installed just the 2TB drive and installed windows on it. I'm just going to use that for now. I have a 1.5TB external drive that I use to back up my data.

Windows 7/8 installation automatically handles that partition. I believe the only thing you can do is remove it if you decide not to install Windows on that drive.

Also, you do not need to partition(if you want to use maximum capacity) or format anything when installing Windows 7 or 8. All you need to do is tell the setup which drive you want to install Windows on, & Windows Setup handles the rest.

For some as yet unknown reason, the problem you initially described seems to happen on occasion with the AMD chipsets (except for socket FM1), these steps should fix the problem:
1> from a working computer with internet connection, go to ASUS site & download the AMD AHCI Driver for your motherboard (under Utilities for some reason) or download the latest directly from AMD http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/w ... ndows.aspx & install/extract to a thumb drive
2> with computer unplugged, remove the battery on the motherboard & clear CMOS
3> reinsert battery, plug in computer, start up computer, & enter BIOS
4> Load Optimized BIOS settings
5> Set SATA ports 1 through 4 to ACHI & last two to IDE, be sure to have your Optical drive installed on port 5.
6> Change other BIOS settings as necessary, then save & exit BIOS, and insert thumb drive
7> Start Windows 7 or 8 installation, when you get to which drive to install, choose "install driver" option (even if the drives show up) & browse thumb drive for appropriate folder.
8> select drive you want Windows installed on, should be the 180GB SSD for best OS & program performance, & click install or next. (or have you gotten rid of it already?)

EDITED 6/6 17:40 EST.
RAID 0 = striped which gives you close to double (for a 2-drive RAID-0) the read & write performance of a single drive + the capacity of both drives combined.
RAID 1 = Mirrored which mirrors the data from one drive to the other with equal or slightly lower (especially on a motherboard controller) read & write performance of a single drive in my one time use experience with RAID 1, and the capacity of a single drive.

I think this was the problem with my RAID 1 - no duplexing.