I will attempt to explain my situation fully. This might be long; please bear with me as I have found no solution. Thanks in advance for any assistance for this issue. I've worked with computers for years, but this is my first build.
I bought the UD5H for its reviews and recommendations and because it has five SATA3 ports. I want to connect five SATA3 drives. Since Windows 8 has native mirroring functionality, I will use two 3TB HDDs to mirror onto two others. The SSD will be used as the OS / system drive. The build went clean, was able to enter BIOS upon first boot (I patted myslf on the back for this). Here's how the drives are setup on SATA ports:
- SSD on Intel SATA3 port 0 (I figure this will be the most efficient port for the system drive)
- HDD 1 on Intel SATA3 port 1
- HDDs 2, 3, 4 on the Marvell SATA3 ports
All five drives are recognized in BIOS; SATA mode set to AHCI since I will not be running RAID. I can also see the DVD drive connected to an Intel SATA2 port. So, now I'm ready for the Windows 8 Pro 64-bit install. Boot to DVD.
The install starts fine, enter key, etc. The page where the install asks "Where do you want to install Windows?" shows the four HDDs, but the SSD is missing. Just great. There's a "Load Drivers" selection on this page. I have no driver for the SSD. I asked Crucial tech support about it. They said Win 8 should be able to recognize it; if it asks for a driver, that would be a SATA driver. (But the current SATA driver sees the HDD) He also suggested swapping SATA cables, ports, SATA power ports on PSU, use a SATA2 port just to get the OS installed. None of these things worked.
I also tried disconnecting the HDDs. The install sees no drives at all - whether it's alone on a SATA3 port or a SATA2 port. I try setting the SATA format to IDE. Continues to recognize the HDDs, still no SSD. I connected the SSD to a SATA2 port on my Windows 7 desktop and formatted it. Nothing.
Maybe there are some drivers for the mobo needed for this to work. The GIGABYTE product page for the Z77X-UD5H lists only rev. 1.0 - I have rev 1.1, so I'm not really sure if the downloads listed for 1.0 apply to me. Maybe they're all updated on 1.1? I assume they are not and I need to update.
I move forward with the Win 8 install to one of the HDDs. I can always reformat this after I get the SSD running. That install goes well and I now have Windows 8 Pro up and running. Now to update the drivers. I insert the GIGABYTE Intel 7 series Utility DVD that came with the UD5H. I install all the Chipset, Intel and Marvell drivers. All the while I'm thinking... this won't work - these updates are all going to the C: drive - the current HDD install of Windows. I was hoping to get the motherboard itself updated. Can this be done by an OS-runing utility? Or is BIOS the only thing that really updates on the mobo? Sorry for the ignorance, this is, after all, my first build. After the GIGABYTE utility updates, the SSD is still not seen by the Windows 8 install.
How in the world am I going to get the OS installed onto my SSD? I have no idea if the root of the problem is the motherboard, the SSD itself or Windows - or something else. By the way, the SSD shows up just like it should as a 128GB disk drive in Device Manager and as an available drive in Windows Explorer. Any suggestions?
Intel Core i5-3570K (Ivy Bridge)
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H rev 1.1
Crucial Ballistix 2 x 8GB DDR3 1600
Crucial M4 2.5" 128GB SSD
WD Green WD30EZRX 3TB Drive x 4
Rosewill Challenger-U3 ATX Mid Tower Case
SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W PSU
ASUS DVD Burner
no audio or graphics card for now - use onboard
Windows 8 Pro 64-bit (Full Ver) - OEM
