Win7 on SSD installation help

[Totalpower]

Hey guys so I want to install win 7 on my SSD but use my HDD to store all my data. I was wondering how I go about doing this. I've read a couple of guides but they have just ended up confusing me.*Here's what I got in my system. I currently have windows installed on my HDD.

Motherboard: Biostar TZ77XE3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Hard Drive: Intel 330 Series 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk

[RicheemxX]

So are you trying to clone over the current install, start new or what?

Installing a new instance of Win7 to an SSD is no different than installing on a standard SATA. Slap the disk in, select the drive you want and go.

[Taxmancometh]

That's what I was thinking when I read the OP's post. But I could not ascertain what he/she wanted to do.

I have read somewhere that the install on a SSD needs to be on the first sector or something. Something I didn't mess around with and my SSD (An Adata) and it works.

[RicheemxX]

Just a note, as I forget this sometimes, if you are installing with two drives attached especially when using an SSD as primary, you might want to temp. disable the second drive as Windows sometimes rights the boot manager to the other drive and it makes it a PITA if you have to remove that drive.

Other wise here is a quick guide from OCZ
Installing Windows 7 - SSD Zone

[Totalpower]

I want to do a clean installation of windows 7 onto my SSD. I've have installed windows 7 onto my SSD before but when I do it is the only drive that I can access.

[RicheemxX]

Well that's a completely different issue altogether.

When you say you can't access it, do you mean the drive is shown but you can get to the files as in not having permission to use them. Or are you saying the drive doesn't show at all?

If its the later then does it show in disk management?

[Totalpower]

When I install win 7 on the SSD I can only see the SSD when I go to the "my computer" option. I cannot see the HDD. The opposite happens when I install win 7 on the HDD.

[RicheemxX]

does it show in disk management? if so you might need to re-initialize it

[Totalpower]

yep it shows up in disk management.

[MTAtech]

Perhaps the drives have the same letter and therefore Windows Explorer can only show one. Disk Management gives a better clue as to what the PC can see.

But you should only have one drive connected when installing Win 7. If you have two I read that sometimes the drive won't boot unless the install DVD in in the DVD drive.

[Totalpower]

Ok so I should unplug the HDD when I reinstall windows? Won't that mean I have windows installed twice?

[RicheemxX]

Won't that mean I have windows installed twice?

You are loosing me again. I thought you just did a fresh install of Windows on the SSD? You don't need a new install, but yes unless you formatted the old drive you have two installs of Windows. You probably can't "dual boot" to each but you should be able to see files and folders on the other drive. Like I said if it can be seen in drive management then you might need to initialize it or assign it a drive letter but that should be it.

[MTAtech]

I'd recommend just changing the drive letter (because it's easier) of the drive that's not the boot drive.

[Totalpower]

Ok here is what I am trying to say:
I currently have Windows 7 installed on my HDD. In the past I have been able to install windows 7 on my SSD. What I want to do now is do a clean install of windows 7 onto my SSD so I have a faster boot time while I store and have access to all my programs on my HDD.

I can see both my HDD and SSD in disk management but not under the my computer option. I'll attach 2 images to help explain.

*Edit* Disk 1 is my HDD and Disk 0 is my SSD

[electric]

i think all you need to do is format the SSD while in disk management,than
you should be able to see the drive [ computer].

turn computer off ,disconnect the large drive.leave the SSD hook up
with your win7 disk in the dvd drive [ put in while booting ] install windows

[RicheemxX]

According to that picture the reason you aren't seeing the second (SSD) drive when you are booting from the primary SATA drive is because you have no allocated space on the SSD. Basically you haven't formated it or set a partition size.

If all you want to do is install Windows on the SSD and make it your primary boot drive, then do just that. I'd disable the second drive, you can do that from the bios, there shouldn't be a need to unplug or remove it. Then go through the install like you normally would and install W7 on the SSD. Set it to be the main boot drive and you should be good to go.

You can then format the larger SATA to remove the current windows install and programs and then use it for storage or to install all your apps to like you are saying you want.

If you are trying to leave all the current programs on there and not format it then you are going to run into some issues with some of the applications as they won't have registry hooks in the new install. That can be a bit of a nightmare to work around. Usually you'd just want to re-install everything, but you might do a Google search and see if you can find a tutorial or something that will outline an easy way to make that work properly w/o re-installing everything.

[Totalpower]

So I disabled the 2nd boot drive (I think thats what it's called) in BIOS which was set to my HDD and partitioned my SSD and installed windows 7 on it. The only problem is that I couldn't enable my HDD after that. BIOS registered that it was plugged in but I could only select my cd rom drive as my 2nd boot drive. My HDD didn't show up on "my computer" or disk management*

I reset my BIOS settings and physically unplugged my HDD but now my screen says missing operating system and I can't Install windows. Also I deleted my SSD partition but it keeps saying there isn't enough memory to create a new partition.

[RicheemxX]

Sounds like you did something wrong. You don't need to disable a "boot device" you needed to disable the drive itself. Since that didn't work right you'll probably just need to disconnect it until you get Windows installed and running on the SSD. Then re-connect it and it should show up, like I said previously you should see it in disk management and might need to re-assign a drive letter or re-initialize it but it should be there.

Since you aren't planning on using it as a boot drive there is no reason at all to set the second SATA drive as a boot device.

As for once you unplugged the second drive and it now showing the OS that was the entire reason for disabling the drive to begin with. Windows 7 often places the boot manager on what it thinks is going to be the primary drive. Usually it's going to be the device located in the first SATA port but sometimes it does some weird things.

So this is what I'd so, start by making sure the SSD is on the number 1 SATA port. Keep the larger drive unplugged, format the SSD and install Windows as you normally would. Get everything up and running and all your drivers updated. Then plug the SATA drive into port 3 or 4, unless its a SATA3 drive and needs the faster connection, then it would need to be on port 2.

Once you get that far see where you stand.

[Totalpower]

By SATA drive do you mean my HDD? Currently I believe have my HDD in SATA port 1 and my SSD in port 2 and my cd rom in port 3. I'll move my SSD to port 1 my HDD to port 2 and leave my cd rom where it is.*

[RicheemxX]

Yeah the main, larger hard drive is what I mean. So what you should have it is
SATA port 1 would be your SSD -
SATA port 2 1tb HDD - but again I'd leave it unplugged for now just to make sure you can get Windows working on the SSD drive
SATA port 3 Optical drive