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.

[idata]

Just for anyone else following. I have also updated my Bios to the F6B on the Z170x Gaming G1 and it works perfect now.

I was unable to get gigabyte to respond so I did risk it and found it out on the net.

[TScha5]

Awesome glad it worked for you. Yeah it must be a fundamental problem with their entire Z170 Gaming series since you had it on yours and yours is Gaming G1 and mine is Gaming 7. I still don't understand why they don't just post it to their website so people can download it...???

[MWatt1]

My issue is slightly different as I have a Samsung M.2 950 Pro on my Z170 Gaming 7. I have exactly the same issues as the 750 users. Contacted GB and their support is useless. They also sent me that Bios and I notice no published on their website. However, even now the board says I have no NVME drives and I can't perform a UEFI install. Why are these technologies being released to market without appropriate support in place, v frustrating.

[jbenavides]

Hello Wattsee,

You can find some useful information in the previous comments posted by other users.

If none of these actions help, we would advise to check back with http://www.samsung.com/us/support/ Samsumg Support and http://www.gigabyte.us/support-downloads/technical-support.aspx Gigabyte Support, so they can advise about the actions required to install the OS to your Samsung SSD.

[Sparki]

GA-Z170X-UD3 (and other Z170 motherboards)

i7-7600K

Samsung SM951 NVMe (MZVPV512HDGL-00000)

Trying to install windows 10, receive a message saying something like 'missing driver'

GigaByte Support ticket, 7 day response time that didnt help!!

I wish I could run my IT support company like that!!

The issue also occurs for me with JUST a SATA 500Gb HDD, so not a driver/NVMe issue

I used vLite to integrate the HP NVMe driver and GigaByte util to add the USB drivers to the USB stick

The issue was resolved by:

- boot from the windows 10 (or windows 7, both have the same issue) USB stick.

- once into the setup and have a mouse pointer, before clicking anything, remove the USB drive from the computer.

- click next/continue, the installation wizard will run through until a pop up saying something like 'missing driver'

- plug the USB stick into a DIFFERENT USB port

- Wait for the USB drive to be found by the system (60 seconds or so)

- hit the 'rescan' button and the installation continues

I am a 3rd line Hardware Systems Engineer with over 25 years experience and have never seen this before. This took me over 20 hours to just to get windows installed, with NO help from GigaByte... VERY POOR.

Hope this helps