Getting Intel 750 SSD to install and boot Windows 7 on z170 motherboard

[JSwan1]

All,

I created this account for the express purpose of (hopefully) making the installation process a little easier for those who may have trouble installing Windows 7 on their new Intel 750 SSD. After going through tremendous difficulty, I figured the least I could do is to lessen the pain for someone else.

My motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7

Here are the things that I had to do to get things working. Note that these are not necessarily in order:

1.) Have Windows 7 either on DVD or USB (using the Windows USB Installation Tool available from the Gigabyte support site). Though Gigabyte claims that the USB installer is necessary, I found that not to be the case for me.

2.) Change the 'storage boot option control' to "UEFI only" in BIOS

3.) Change/maintain 'windows 8 features' in 'other OS' in BIOS

-steps 2 and 3 are described with pictures in the 'Boot Guide for NVMe SSD pdf file:

http://download.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/sb/nvme_boot_guide_332098001us.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/sb/nvme_boot_guide_332098001us.pdf

4.) Have driver CD (included with SSD) on hand, or load Intel NVMe drivers (from Intel website's drivers and downloads section) onto USB. I used the CD.

== KEY STEP THAT I MISSED AT FIRST ==

5.) Convert the Intel 750 SSD to a GPT partition (vice MBR). I wasted so much time struggling until I figured this out.

Here's what I did:

-Used Win 8.1 CD that I had on hand (from HTPC), and booted to that drive in UEFI mode (hit F12 to bring up boot menu). From there, I used the built-in parstition utility:

a. From inside Windows Setup, press Shift+F10 to open a command prompt window.

b. Open the diskpart tool:

diskpart

Identify the drive to reformat:

list disk

Select the drive, and reformat it:

select disk clean convert gpt exit

I'm told you can also use a Linux program (GNU Parted) to do the same thing. I wound up with the disk being divided into 3 separate partitions.

==END STEP THAT I MISSED AT FIRST ==

6.) Once done with the GPT partitioning, boot Windows 7 in UEFI mode, and then install the necessary NVMe driver from step 4.

7.) Install Win7 into the 'primary' partition of the SSD (this was partition 3 for me).

Installation should go smoothly from there. I was getting error after error when trying to do steps 6 and 7 without doing step 5 first.

I hope this was of some help.

[PHans4]

Well, the instructions in this thread are to install Windows 7 on a Z170 chipset based mainboard with a NVMe drive.

That is much harder because Win7 lacks both native NVMe and USB3 support so several compatibility settings need to be changed in the BIOS.

Or the installation DVD updated with Intel's USB3 drivers which is quite cumbersome.

But you write in your last message that you are trying to install Windows 10 so all of that mucking about does not apply to you.

The system should just install as is unless there are some compatibility issues as you mention.

Have you updated to the latest BIOS F5 as released quite recently by Gigabyte for example?

Gigabytes own compatibility list mentions support for the Samsung NVMe SM951 SSD drive.

Ok it might not be an Intel but from what I have seen if a mainboard is NVMe compatible it will work with all drives.

The BIOS obviously has a generic NVMe support module, there is nothing Intel or Samsung specific about it...

A Google search reveals several forums where people say upgrading their BIOS helps:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Gigabyte+GA-Z170X-Gaming+7+nvme https://www.google.com/search?q=Gigabyte+GA-Z170X-Gaming+7+nvme

[TScha5]

yes i have I have updated BIOS to F5. Still no luck. When I try to install windows it tells me that I have to enable the controller but I don't know where to do that in the bios.

[TScha5]

After mucking about with BIOS settings for hours and just out of despair deciding to move the Intel 750 SSD from the PCIe x8 slot to the PCIe x4 slot I was finally able to load Windows 10 onto the drive and now I can also see the drive under Boot Priority in BIOS. I figured I was done but nope. When I do a powder down and reboot it goes straight to BIOS. Now, I can just hit Save and Exit and it immediately launches Windows 10 so it's not a huge deal but for this kind of money I don't see why it won't just boot to Windows from startup. So I'm returning the Gigabyte motherboard and will try another, especially since they seem not to have a support department. Thanks for your help though.

[TScha5]

Ok gang here's the answer...you need a new BIOS. I explained the issue to Gigabyte Support and they created and emailed me a BIOS update. I don't know if it's on their site yet but it's called BIOS F6b. That is what finally solved the problem of being able to boot straight to Windows from cold boot with the GA-Z170X Gaming 7 Gigabyte Motherboard using the Intel 750 PCIe SSD (NVMe). Before that BIOS update I was using F5 (which apparently worked for some people) and was only able to do warm reboot to get straight to Windows. After flashing to F6b all problems are gone. Everything is running great. Problem Solved.

-Resolved.

Tyson

p.s. - Thanks to those of you who responded and assisted. And I gotta say, I know alot of us were knocking Gigabyte support for just generally seeming to not give a damn (like most companies nowadays) but in this case, they did it. I emailed them and got the answer in one day. Pretty damn impressive by any standard if you ask me. They're Aces in my book.

[idata]

Thanks tysoncreative I have contacted Gigabyte to see if they have any type of updated Bios for my G1 board

will update after they get back