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.

[tomharis932]

This is actually a really helpful breakdown, especially for anyone struggling with older setups and NVMe drives. The GPT conversion step you highlighted is a lifesaver, I can imagine how much time that must have saved once you figured it out. It’s great that you took the time to share the full process because these little details are usually what trip people up. It reminds me of finding useful guides in unexpected places and discovered things I didn’t even know I needed. Posts like this definitely make the whole process easier for others.