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E521 with advanced format drive ST500DM002 - do I need a separate SATA driver during Windows 7 install?
Hi,
I have an E521 with 2GB of Ram and X2 processor. I want to install Windows 7 on a brand new ST500DM002 disk (= native 4K advanced format). Will this work hassle-free, or will I have to install a SATA driver during install? If yes, which one? I cannot find the necessary information for this main board.
Thanks, Andre
osprey4
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January 27th, 2014 09:00
Hi Andre,
As you suspected, you'll need the Windows 7 RAID drivers in order for the Windows installer to recognize the drive. Our forum buddy rdunnill explains how to do this HERE. He's included a link to the NVIDIA support site where you can download the driver.
Andrevandenwyng
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January 29th, 2014 07:00
Hi Osprey,
thanks! I am going to install 32 bit Win7 but found similar drivers as the 64 bit ones you mailed. I will soon try this out.
One question though: after a successful install of win7 on this native 4K disk, how can win7 ever start up from this same disk, since it cannot read from it without a proper driver? Will I have to make Bios changes, download a new bios (if it exists for E521) or something else?
Best regards,
Andre
osprey4
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January 29th, 2014 15:00
Believe me, it works once the OS is installed.
Andrevandenwyng
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February 10th, 2014 00:00
Hi Osprey,
thanks again for your help, it works indeed! And it was even a lot easier than I thought. I didn't had to install any drivers. Here's what I did: first, I installed the brand new harddisk ST500DM002 in the Dell E521. I took out the original WD 320GB disk with 8000 hours on its counter. I had formatted the new disk first in an existing Win7 PC (Optiplex 7010) but I guess that was not necessary; I did it to make sure it was working. Then I put the Win7 CD in the drive, and had the PC startup from it. The brand new C: drive appeared without installing any driver! So I could continue. The install recognized everything in the PC, also the Asus EN9500GT video card. After tens of XP installs this was my first Win7 install and I never prepared and read so much to deal with everything that could go wrong; well, nothing went wrong...
André
osprey4
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February 11th, 2014 10:00
Andre,
Excellent. Glad to hear you're up and running.