I am having some trouble installing drivers on the Gigabyte mobo GA-p55-usb3

After starting the computer, and going into the POST menu, the computer tries to detect the drivers, but only finds the HDD and the cd/dvd drive. After that, it shows 6 slots that remain as no drives found, then goes into a "Loading Operating System" screen that never loads anything.

I tried changing the integrated peripherals> Onboard SATA/IDE Device to Enabled and
Integrated Peripherals> Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode to RAID/IDE

Save settings, the computer boots up again, and does the same thing. I don't know what to do now.. someone please help.

Drivers aren't what's loaded in BIOS(or as you said, the POST menu), those are the files the OS uses to communicate with the hardware, anyway, at this point we need more information.
-What Operating System are you using?
-What are your actual devices?
-Is the computer new?
-Any recent changes to it, if not?

O.o we need to clear this mess up...
That implies you are getting into Windows. Only there is such a thing as "installing drivers". But you're not, right?
Then what ARE you trying? Without technical terms, just things like "activate my HDD in Windows", "start computer from USB flash drive", "Make my computer use component xyz", etc.
We need to understand what you are up to before we can help at all.

There is no actual menu. POST = Power On Self Test. It's an automated routine that checks for basic hardware (failures).
You probably mean the BIOS (menu).

Again, drivers are windows only.
So what is the computer trying to detect besides HDD/DVD? USB ports?

That is perfectly normal if you have 1 HDD and 1 DVD drive. Nothing else will be searched for during POST (except floppy).

Do you have Windows installed on your HDD? Or is it a new one?
If you haven't, you have to change boot priority in the BIOS to check your DVD first for bootable media and then put in your Windows CD/DVD and run the setup.
With some BIOSes you can change the boot priority "on-the-fly" for just 1 boot up by pressing F11 during POST (checking Memory and drives). If that doesn't work you have to go into the BIOS menu by pressing F2 or DEL during POST.

This isn't necessary. Leave it on default.

Scratch all that.
I had no OS on the system. It's a new build.
Here is the link to the build: http://www.staredit.net/topic/10800/
I am trying to install Win7. Upon getting to the Where To Install Windows screen, my HDD doesn't show up.

I watched a couple of YT videos, and people were saying something about partitioned drives. Am I supposed to have partitioned hdd's? I only have one btw.

I like to have a system partition ~30GB and 1 data partition (rest) so you can easily format your system drive without having to bother about backups.
Regardless of your partitioning strategy you have to have at least 1 partition so you can address all of your HDDs space. Kinda like an initialization process. You still have to format each partition after that, but windows setup should take care of that automatically.

Does linux detect the hard drive?
If only windows worked that way, so that you could set up default folder installs to d:\ rather than c:\, keep "my documents" in d, etc... I wish microsoft would just sell a 3 user version of windows (root+user+guest).

I'm totally lost.
Idk how to partition my hdd w/o an OS. Win7 won't even show the HDD during this step.
I read somewhere that I could get to the command prompt without an OS, but my manual
doesn't mention it.

I inserted the gigabyte disk, but all the drives that are found in there are either for vista or xp. There were some win7 .inf files in there, but they were for updating...

You can't get into command prompt without an OS. Command prompt IS an OS (dos, for example). I wish you wouldn't ignore me. Also, list your computer parts.

You can't. You always need some program that operates your system (OS = Operating System) to be able to do anything with it.

So Win7 setup comes without a partitioning tool? Fail Microsoft. Windows XP had one.
Here's a great tool for all sorts of tasks to repair or setup your system:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

I don't know about program files, but I know (because I did it) that you can relocate "My Documents" and similar folders to another physical location. Afaik you can't move desktop though, as it has to stay within your profile.
And program files isn't a big problem because most of the programs have to be reinstalled anyway. Those that don't have to can be moved to another folder anyway before you have to format.

I know this is not a perfect solution, but it's still much better than having to format the whole drive.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 7 2010, 12:25 pm by NudeRaider. Reason: links to English article now

Windows 7 lets you partition the drive any which way you like before you install it. His problem is that he can't get the HD to show up at all.

Also I'd strongly recommend a 'system' partition of at least 60gb, not 30 as Nude suggested. Over time the system drive will fill up with programs and spare files etc, and if it starts running out of space because you gave it a small partition, it's a nuisance having to fix it later. Anyway with the size of HD's nowadays it really isn't an issue to set aside 60-100gb for this. Ideally you would be using a separate SSD for your system drive anyway. Personally I like to keep "system" programs like Office and antivirus on the boot drive as well, which further gobbles into the space available.

Blu - I suggest going to your motherboard manufacturer's website. They will likely have a support forum, you should post there and you'll likely get help. But my suggestion for what you need to play with is the RAID/SATA settings in the BIOS. Try all different permutations that are available (and be methodical about it! write them down as you go so you don't repeat or skip one) and see which one works.

Also make sure you've got the HDDs plugged into the correct ports on the motherboard. New motherboards often have 2 sets of SATA ports, those that are from the ICH south-bridge and others that come from add-on chips put in by the motherboard manufacturer. The add-on chips may not be natively supported by Windows 7 (hence may not see your drives) while the ICH south-bridge-supplied ports are standard Intel ones and should readily be seen by W7. Normally the sets will be separated by some distance on the mobo, and the booklet that comes with it should identify them, probably the 3rd party ones will be called something like "promise SATA/RAID" or some other vendor name, which the ICH ones may be called "Intel".

Starcraft doesn't need an install . You can change a lot of the default things, but you can't change all the poorly designed programs which install to more than one place, and can't clean up after themselves.

Yes, we don't live in a perfect world, but I don't get your point unless you're trying to convince me that separating the system from your data as much as Windows allows it is a bad thing, which I wouldn't believe would come out of your mouth.

Also, changing the "program files" folder is possible although you could run into problems when updating any Microsoft product.

Oh and Lanthanide, I use the same Windows for years and I have yet to stockpile enough garbage that my 30GB wouldn't be enough. But maybe that's just me.

Oblivion save games are located in your profile settings. Autodesk files are split between your profile settings, system32, and program files. Arcmap literally requires 1 GB on the C:\ drive and 4+ on the install path. That's impossible to do on my 4 GB SSD when windows takes up 3 GB.

I want a 3 user system so that you don't have the profile settings between "all users", "administrator", and any other users you might have. I try to use portable installs more than anything. That way, I know the program is in a centralized location, and I can get rid of it with ease. The windows registry is nice, but I don't think it's all that necessary to customize programs which could simply use an ini file in the install folder.

The reason everything is so convoluted is because of multiple users.

The more I use linux, the more I like it. Unfortunately, the support is abysmal.

A prime example of a terrible programming, from the makers themselves.

Case: Mid tower w/5 120mm fans.
DVD: DVD/CD combo burner.
CPU: 2.66GHz Quad Core w/Hyper 212 cooler.
Motherboard: Gigabyte P55
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1333
GFX: XFX HD5850 1GB
Monitor: ASUS 22"
HDD: Samsung F3 1TB
PSU: SeaSonic 550w


So Win7 setup comes without a partitioning tool? Fail Microsoft. Windows XP had one.
Here's a great tool for all sorts of tasks to repair or setup your system:
<a class="smarterwiki-linkify" href="http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/">http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/</a>

I'll see if this program is able to help me. I'll post the results when I'm done using it.


So far, the only differences are slower/faster boot loads.

I am going to go to the store right now and buy some more dvds, going to try a ubuntu os setup.

Yes, YMMV. Temporary internet files, temporary install files, temporary zip files all accumulate in various places on C:\ by default. Other badly behaved programs like rockz has mentioned can accumulate on C:\. If you install Office and get it to copy all of the contents onto C:\ so you can "install" them later as required takes up a chunk more space, etc. Rule of thumb is 1.5x your ram set aside as swap file so on a 4 gig RAM system you've just eaten 6 gigs. Although I've seen articles around the place that indicate that really 2gb of swap file is sufficient regardless of RAM size, and only if you have problems with that should you increase it.

Vista itself is something stupid like 30gb by default (a lot of this can be removed though), although W7 is a much more reasonable 15gb or so.

Also, as we're giving directions for other, "average" users, it's better to err on the side of caution, rather than have them run into problems later with running out of space on C:\, having to get special programs to repartition it and fucking something up, obliterating their system and/or storage partition in the process.

I just tested ubuntu from a dvd boot on the build, and everything is running fine. I did a test on the Hard Drive, and the tests show the 1 tb hd is doing fine.

I am falling in love with the style of Ubuntu, so I'm considering keeping it. However, if I do, I'm not sure if I will be able to run sc2 on it.

Maybe I can install Win7 after ubuntu is installed? Hope so.

You should be able to format to ntfs while using the ubuntu bootdisk, then try to detect the partition with the win7 bootdisk.

the "rule of thumb" of 1.5x ram is stupid and pointless. You need to have RAM+pagefile>2 GB. If you have 256 MB of RAM, you can't even run XP comfortably on 640 MB. I don't particularly see a need for a pagefile when you have 4 GB of RAM.

Thx a bunch rockz, after formating to nfts, Win7 was able to detect the hd, and installation is in progress.

I was totally loving ubuntu, but I don't want to go through the trouble of trying to run sc2 the way people were doing it on YouTube. I might install ubuntu on this laptop though. Who knows.

Thanks to all that had the patience to help me, and if you didn't have the patience, it's okay, I thank you too.

SC2 should run on ubuntu using WINE, although probably a bit slower than windows does. What my sister's computer has is 2 partitions. One with ubuntu, one with vista. There are easy instructions on how to do that online. That way, she can use ubuntu most of the time, and boot up windows when she needs to.

You don't even need instructions to do it, the Ubuntu installer auto-detects and adds Windows into the bootloader, just as long as you put it and its swap file onto different partitions.