GA-Z68AP-D3 Rev2 - Driver Selection Confusion

[Lsdmeasap]

Anytime, and good luck with the testing!

No, you wont have any VM issues, although if drive letters change or if it cares about drive location movements, then it will just ask you when starting up if you moved or copied the machine - just say copied and you'll be back in business.

[Hellomaster]

I will finally have time to get to it tonight.

Question question about virtual machines.

I know that if I install Windows 7 on the SSD, it will align properly so I don't need to worry about that.  If I install Windows XP on the SSD, it will not align properly and will not perform as well as it can.  Therefore, I would need to properly align it.

I have Windows 7 as my host OS, and I have Windows XP as a virtual image that is located on the SSD.  Do I need to worry about any alignment issues?

[Hellomaster]

I re-read the manual and I saw where SATA3_0 was.  Then I opened the PC again and then I saw that the actual mother has the SATA3 ports stacked.  It was not stacked in the manual!  I ran the SSD program and I am in IDE mode.

I haven't plugged the SSD into the SATA3_0 port yet because I'm a bit scared.  If I do it, will I finally be able to install the SATA drivers?  As of right now, my PC still "does not meet the requirements" to install the drivers.  Will the drivers successfully install if I use the SATA3_0 port?

If I ever re-install Windows again and I already have the SSD connected to the SATA3_0 port, will it automatically be in AHCI mode?

I installed a recent video game and after installing, I started the game.  It said that a file named "xinput1_3.dll" was missing and therefore would not start.  I researched what this was and it was a DirectX file.  I thought Windows 7 already included DirectX.  What's the deal?

[Lsdmeasap]

XP inside an aligned windows 7 machine will be fine, as the disk it would be contained on is already aligned itself.

SATA3_0 is the bottom white port, against the PCB, you can move the drive around safely.   You must be in AHCI mode to install the Intel drivers, you will need to make the following changes in windows before rebooting to the BIOS and setting that to AHCI.

Enable switching between all IDE/AHCI/RAID modes by changing "Start" Values in these keys to 0 (Win 7 / Vista ONLY)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci\Start
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pciide\Start 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV\Start

If you reinstall windows, all you have to do is be sure the BIOS is set to AHCI before you install, then it will always be in AHCI mode, no matter what port it's installed into.

Yes, windows 7 has directX 11 by default, however some games install specific .dll files or updates to directX while they install.   Sounds like your game didn't install this properly or you need to download the latest directX end user runtimes, you can get that here, this will fix the issue
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=35

[Hellomaster]

In that case, the SSD was plugged into the SATA3_0 port the whole time!  But it is in IDE mode.  I guess the factory BIOS setting was IDE (I did not touch the BIOS settings before installing Windows).

Thanks for the info on the game.  I will update DirectX tonight and see if the problem is remedied.  I am currently using the DirectX that came with Win7 SP1.

This is my plan:
1.  Since it was in the SATA3_0 port the whole time, I will not change anything hardware-wise.
2. I will change the registry settings to what you suggested.
3. I will go into AHCI mode in the BIOS
4. I will install the SATA drivers (it still will not let me install as it is).

[Hellomaster]

Thanks for your help.  Everything is now resolved.

[Lsdmeasap]

Just coming to check in on this with you, and I see great news!

Nice to hear everything is now sorted out!!   Post back anytime if you need more help with anything!