Trouble getting windows 7 onto new installed SSD

[cfitz94]

I recently bought a GTX 970 and 250gb samsung 850 EVO for my Dell windows 8 desktop.

I installed the graphics card and updated the drivers and it all seems fine so far.

As for the SSD I am lost. Here is what I know so far:

My mobo has one Sata 3 slot and three sata 2 slots. Currently my 2TB HDD is plugged into the Sata 3. My OOD is in a Sata 2 and I put the SSD into the third Sata 2. (I know I should put my SSD into Sata 3 for maximum performance but was gonna wait til I had it working with windows 7 loaded up)

I am pretty sure my SSD is connected up properly (but maybe not...) because I installed the Samsung Magician software that came on a disk and it can detect it and tell its free/used space and all that jazz so im confident its not broken!
When I installed it I put it in a 3.5" bracket, put it behind my HDD, everything fitted in nicely.

When I was in the BIOS menu I changed the load order with OOD at the top. I also made sure AHCI mode was on, which it was by default. (i have a disk with windows 7 ultimate x64 on it which works fine when i launch it on windows 8)
I restart my pc and it has a list of my sata ports, it had installed for all three. slot 0, 1 and 2. For the rest of the slots it didnt say installed (because nothings plugged in i gather)
At one stage I unplugged my HDD so it was only the SSD and OOD plugged in via sata and it had the 2 ports listed as installed.
Also it didnt load the cd with windows 7 which i thought was weird, but maybe thats because theres no detected hard drive? idk...

ALSO, I have tried installing windows 7 onto the SSD while running off windows 8 on my HDD but the option for the SSD didnt come up when I had to select a drive.

Sorry for the wall of text, thanks for reading if you got this far. Any help would be appreciated because I am now lost in what to try next.

 

[Chicano]

Looks like the BIOS is not fully detecting the SSD on AHCI because it needs drivers... the ODD didn't load the Widows 7 disk for the same reason. Set the BIOS to IDE Mode to load the Windows 7 installation, and instal the drivers from the Win7 installer or later from the Device Manager.

From Windows 8 it's a different story: Samsung Magician can detect the SSD either because W8 has SATA drivers installed and/or because the SSD is Samsung... or because the drivers need to be on the SSD to install Windows in the BIOS AHCI mode. Whatever the reason, before starting the Windows 7 installation:
1. disconnect the HDD from the motherboard or disable it's SATA port from the BIOS,
2. Set the BIOS to IDE Mode/IDE Native
3. Install the SSD SATA drivers at the beggining of the Windows 7 installation, or from the installed Windows 7 Device Manager... after that set the BIOS to AHCI mode.

 

[cfitz94]

Looks like the BIOS is not fully detecting the SSD on AHCI because it needs drivers... the ODD didn't load the Widows 7 disk for the same reason. Set the BIOS to IDE Mode to load the Windows 7 installation, and instal the drivers from the Win7 installer or later from the Device Manager.

From Windows 8 it's a different story: Samsung Magician can detect the SSD either because W8 has SATA drivers installed and/or because the SSD is Samsung... or because the drivers need to be on the SSD to install Windows in the BIOS AHCI mode. Whatever the reason, before starting the Windows 7 installation:
1. disconnect the HDD from the motherboard or disable it's SATA port from the BIOS,
2. Set the BIOS to IDE Mode/IDE Native
3. Install the SSD SATA drivers at the beggining of the Windows 7 installation, or from the installed Windows 7 Device Manager... after that set the BIOS to AHCI mode.

What I have just done a few minutes ago is make a single partition taking up the whole hard drive, had to be in some kind of GUID format. Then it showed up on windows explorer and I got windows 7 installed.

My problem now is nothing works cause of missing drivers. I can get my graphics card driver because it was on my other hard drive but any idea on how to get the rest easily?

 

[Chicano]

Well, even if the SSD was not initiated the BIOS should have recognized it to be partitioned from the Windows installer.

If the Network adapter driver is not one of those that are missing, download SlimDrivers to update or download and install missing drivers. Remove the driver utility or disable it's automatic setting. If the network adapter driver is also missing, download it via Widows 8 from the motherboard's website product page / Support / Downloads, and move it to Windows 7 with a usb pendrive or with both SSD and HDD connected.

https://www.slimwareutilities.com/slimdrivers.php

 

[cfitz94]

Well, even if the SSD was not initiated the BIOS should have recognized it to be partitioned from the Windows installer.

If the Network adapter driver is not one of those that are missing, download SlimDrivers to update or download and install missing drivers. Remove the driver utility or disable it's automatic setting. If the network adapter driver is also missing, download it via Widows 8 from the motherboard's website product page / Support / Downloads, and move it to Windows 7 with a usb pendrive or with both SSD and HDD connected.

https://www.slimwareutilities.com/slimdrivers.php

Thank you, slim drivers sounds perfect! I will try it out in the morning to make sure I didnt miss anything. Thanks again, I loaded up windows 8, downloaded my required drivers, saved them to my SSD desktop via the windows finder, it was the V drive for me.