how to install Windows 7 64 bit on Promise SATA or RAID

[Benjamin]

I am not able to install Windows 7 64 bit version of OS on Asus A8V motherboard. No hard drives gets detected when I am at the screen of choosing hard drive to install Windows. I also tried to install Sata and Raid drivers from flash drive but it will not read it. I have done many adjustment in Bios, downloaded many drivers for the Promise SATA and Promise RAID but nothing works. Can anyone please tell me how to install Windows 7 64 bit on Promise SATA or RAID? Waiting for your replies.

[newtech]

I have searched the Asus website for the driver and found out that there is no support for your motherboard listed anywhere. You wont be able to run Windows 7 on your mobo if you cant find Raid drivers for Windows 7. I guess you will have to wait or email asus support about this problem that you have.

[nitesh mehta]

One solution for your problem is that you can use Vista drivers (same 64 bit version) and install it on your Windows 7 machine. Just ensure that you download the exact Promise drivers and that it is 64 bit version. You can also try to plug your drive directly to your mobo and if you dont want to add in card or you can also try a different Sata controller card. Have you also considered updating your mobo BIOS, which might be beneficial.

[Expertz]

I found some vital information that denotes that Asus A8V doesnt support the Windows 7 OS platform. For your reference, please access this link to download detail information. You can however install Windows Vista 64 bit driver and test it. You can also check out the Windows 7 Compatible ASUS Motherboards from here. In any case feel free to contact Asus support for your issue.

[netdragon]

There are only 64-bit RAID drivers but no Promise 64-bit SATA drivers for the A8V Deluxe on Windows 7 (and I tried hacking in every driver out there I could find). Therefore, you must set up brand new (or wiped) disks in RAID mode to utilize the two Promise SATA connectors. For any existing disks: They need to go on the VIA connectors, not the promise connectors.

One warning is that you CANNOT do this for existing drives or the beginning of your disk will be wiped by RAID data. Therefore, they will be erased. You will need to plug existing drivers into the 2 VIA SATA slots to copy data.

Otherwise, you can install 32-bit Windows 7 and be able to use SATA on the integrated Promise card, though what a waste so I recommend the RAID approach instead since you don't get any gains from running it in SATA vs RAID mode aside from slightly more disk space.


I personally have 2 1TB drives in Mirroring mode on the Promise card. However, you should be able to have 2 disks, with each as a seperate RAID channel (though you will lose a slight amount of disk space from RAID configuration data versus SATA)

[thindery]

Had a question about your post. I have an A8V Deluxe with 2 drives on xp. One of the drives is my media drive and and the other for my os (I don't care about the os drive getting cleared) However, I don't want to have to burn all the files onto DVDs from my media drive if I do the upgrade to Win7 x64.

When you said

For any existing disks: They need to go on the VIA connectors, not the promise connectors.

This will keep my media drive intact, and it won't get wiped and win7 will recognize it? Or am I just flat out of luck and it will get wiped no matter what to get it recognized.

From what I have read, It almost sounds like the whole mess with the A8V board and trying to upgrade to a win7x64 is such a pain you might as well buy a whole new system, but I don't have enough money to fork out and I have a win7 x64 sitting at home as a present I got for christmas!

The media drive is:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3300831AS 300GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 1.5Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive