Win7 installation on 880gma-ud2h (DVD or USB?)

[Kenshiro]

Dear Gigabyte Team,

I have one SSD drive which I will run as my boot drive, meaning OS and Games.
I have read that using USB flash to install your OS can speed up installation and often by-passes DVD issue with SATA and PATA ports/chanelling.

Here is where my confusion starts...if I want to use a USB stick, I understand that I need one USB drive > 4 GB, but what about the formatting?
Does it need to be NTFS or FAT32?  According to this link (part 2), it needs to be NTFS formatted, but I also read somewhere that for Gigabyte boards only FAT32 format is possible...

Am I mixing up things in here and getting confused?  Or can I go ahead trying the installation with NTFS format for USB Flash drive....
Or would you rather recommend stick to the good old DVD installation?  Furthermore, I don't even know if this mobo supports a USB installation with a usb drive higher than 2 GB....

I'm always such a pain....

Kind regards,
Ken

[absic]

Hi Ken,

not a pain just doing the right thing by asking.

The USB Stick needs to be formatted in NTFS.
It needs to be at least a 4GB stick to hold the installation media.
When you are ready to install the OS make sure the new PC is switched off before you insert the pendrive. Startup the PC and press F12 to get to the BOOT menu and select USB HDD as your first BOOT device.
If everything goes as it should the OS should then install without a problem.

I have been using a USB Pendrive for installing Vista and Windows7 on many Gigabyte boards and not had any problems with doing so and I have used variouis size pendrives 4GB, 8GB and 16GB.

[Kenshiro]

Hello absic,

Thanx a ton again for your valuable input.

You see, I got confused by this thread on tomshardware -> http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274723-30-880gma-ud2h-fails-boot
That refers to a boot usb and for Linux...

One last question...If I insert a dedicated graphic card into the pci slot this will automatically override the onboard graphics I believe...no need to make changes in Bios, right?

Cheers,
Ken

[absic]

It is always a good idea to disable the On-board graphics if you are running a dedicated graphic card (Unless of course your motherboard allows Hybrid crossfire and you are looking to use that).

There are a couple of changes you should make to the BIOS and they are:
Under the Advanced BIOS Features section go to IGX Configuration and then disable the Internal Graphics Mode. (This can also be done under the MIT Section of BIOS)
Under the Same section go to Init First Display and change that to PEG.

And that's all the BIOS changes you should need for this particular situation.

[Kenshiro]

You should be addressed with Sir from now on.
Sir Absic,
you are my gigabyte hero, thank you for your effort in making things look so easy.

Thumbs up!   

Cheers,
Ken

[jannie]

I think this has a good sound to it....SIR.. ABSIC..We can do a poll

[absic]

No problems Ken!  

If you run into any display issues and want to get the On-Board graphics working again the quickest and easiest way is just to clear CMOS. Reattach your monitor cable to the on-board graphics and go back into BIOS to re-set things.

If you leave the On-board graphics enabled and you are using a higher spec'd GPU then you will find that it won't run at the specified ratings, it will run at those for the lower rated GPU (On-board graphics chip in this case) which is why it is always a better option to disable the On-board graphics.

[Kenshiro]

You are the man absic!

I've just stumbled upon another thing that is worrying me....

Those two light blue SATA cables that come in the gigabyte box....are they certified Sata 6.0 gb/s cables?  If not, I will have to get at least one for the SSD, it makes no sense plugging a SSD that supports Sata III with a Sata II cable, when I have Sata 3 ports on the mobo....I'm thinking specifically for the SSD, not for the other HDD's.

Cheers,
Ken

[absic]

Hi Ken,

there is no difference in any of the SATA cables and I have used Red (original), Yellow (SATA2) Black (SATA3) cables quite happily on my WD 6GB/s HDD's.
I got caught out in the early days thinking I needed a special SATA 6GB/s cable but keep your money in your pocket.

I am currently using mini Red SATA leads on my two main HDD's and swapping the cables to the expensive SATA3 Cables I have, made no difference whatsoever, to the speeds at which they function.

EDIT: I have also tested all the cables with my sons SSD with exactly the same results!