GA-X58A-UD3R boots to BIOS - next steps?

[Indio22]

I just built my first PC using the GA-X58A-UD3R motherboard.  I started the PC and was able to boot into the BIOS after hitting the Delete key.  I updated the date/time values in the BIOS, and looked around at some other values.  All three of my hard drives are listed, and also my DVD writer.  The BIOS shows 12gig of RAM as expected.  Overall so far, I am not seeing any problems. 

I rebooted the PC again, and this time did not enter the BIOS.  Eventually I got this message:

"Boot from CD/DVD: Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disk and Press Enter"

I think the above message is a good sign?  Meaning the PC wants me to install my Windows 7 disk to install the operating system?  But before installing Win 7, I have some questions.  I read the UD3R user manual and searched online, but I am still not clear, can someone provide advice on the following BIOS settings?:

Which of the following should I set in the BIOS?:

A) Select “Load Fail-Safe Defaults”.  (An online guide is recommending this.  But other guides mention this setting is only for persons having problems.)
B) Select “Load Optimized Defaults”.  (Some persons are recommending setting this if the system does not have issues, and then setting any other BIOS modifications.)
C) Don’t select either of the above A or B options.  (I am not encountering any issues so far, and the BIOS seems to be seeing all my hardware.  Maybe I should leave well enough alone and not load either the Fail-Safe or Optimized defaults?)

Thanks for any advice on the above items.

[Indio22]

Also I am quite confused about the BIOS IDE vs. AHCI settings for the SATA drives.  For reference, I have the following installed:

A) One Samsung F4 320gig hard drive that will be used as the boot/app drive (on SATA port O).
B) Two Samsung F3 1TB hard drives for scratch disk/storage/etc (on SATA ports 1 and 2).
C) One Asus CD/DVD writer (on SATA port 3).

The questions:

1) Do I have the above drives assigned correctly, or should I have any of the drives installed on a different SATA port?  (Looks like there are total of 9 SATA ports on the MB.)

2) It seems I must enable either AHCI or IDE control modes for the drives before installing the operating system (Windows 7)?  I find pro and con arguments abound on the web.  I am very confused.  Anyone have a recommendation?

Thanks for any advice.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte UK Forum.

Regarding the BIOS settings if they are working alright for you just leave well alone.  There is no point messing with something that's not giving problems. Normally however you should load the Optimised BIOS Defaults.

As far as the drive allocations are concerned they are fine and again no point moving any of them.

The hard drives you can use in IDE or AHCI mode(settable in the BIOS) however if it is already set to one and you change it after installing the OS you will have to do some registry editing so that it boots ok.
 
The optical drive you must leave in IDE mode.