Win 7 pro 32 or 64 on M3N78 Pro... Aarugh!!

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
D

dives

Distinguished
Jan 28, 2012
12
0
18,510
Hey everybody. Could use some help here....

Been trying for two days to get Win 7 onto an M3N78 Pro mobo with no luck (dreaded missing driver issue). I have tried every trick googling can come-up with. Including, but not limited too....

1.) Trying different images
2.) Moving to USB from DVD
3.) Building install using Power ISO, WinToFlash, etc.
4.) Ensuring image is UDF and rebuilding
5.) Checking UEFI
6.) Switching HD to AHCI and back to IDE
7.) Moving the install USB to different USB ports
8.) Trying multiple HDs (SSD and non-SSD)
9.) Bare-boning the system
10.) actually trying to install the chipset drivers (go figure).
11.) Wiping the HD with DiskPart
13.) Flashing the bios
14.) Tried switching from 64 bit to 32 bit install
and more....

NOTHING WORKS! And what is most frustrating is that the ability to navigate the computer via the Win 7 install tools shows that all drives are recognized and navigable. Why would any more drivers be needed???

What am I doing wrong? Thinking of moving the drive to another computer for the install and then moving it back for reconfiguration.

Has anyone else been able to install 7 (of any flavor) on this board?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all!

Trip

p.s. how do you make sure your questions end-up in the right category? I was in Forums->Hardware->Motherboards->Asus when I created this. Thanks!

Update: SOLVED: I have posted detailed solutions for both a 32 bit and 64 bit install below. In Summary: the simplest solution overall... just use Universal USB Installer from the beginning and don't worry about "UDF", "AVDPs", DiskPart, etc. It just works in terms of both building the Install image AND preventing the dreaded installation error I reported here. Best of luck! - Trip
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
COLGeek

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
Apr 6, 2009
54,254
3,433
179,340
Is the motherboard's RAID controller disabled? Usually, the only time you need storage drivers when installing Win 7 is if using a RAID. Access you BIOS and make sure the RAID functions are disabled. I also recommend (after making the RAID changes) to installing Win 7 with your SATA Mode set to AHCI.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dives

Distinguished
Jan 28, 2012
12
0
18,510
COLGeek,

Thanks for the suggestion. In the bios, under Advanced -> MCP Stroage Config, the options are IDE, RAID and AHCI. I have tried both IDE and AHCI and neither work. There are no other references to RAID anywhere else in the bios, so I must assume that when IDE or AHCI are selected that RAID is by default disabled.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks again!

Trip
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dives

Distinguished
Jan 28, 2012
12
0
18,510


Unfortunately, that's not an option in the bios :(

Oops, sorry, I take this back. OnChip IDE Channel0 is the setting.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dives

Distinguished
Jan 28, 2012
12
0
18,510


Thanks! I gave that a try, same issue.

Do you know of issues pertaining to this ISO source...
http://techverse.net/download-windows-7-iso-x86-x64-microsofts-official-servers/

I'm beginning to think it may be my installs "disks" even though I have tried both CD and USB versions built on different computers, both 32 bit and 64 bit.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
COLGeek

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
Apr 6, 2009
54,254
3,433
179,340
Those ISOs should be fine. Those are the official versions as distributed by MS. I guess it is conceivable that you corrupted the ISOs during the download or burn process. Try re-downloading the ISO and then burning to DVD at the slowest possible speed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dives

Distinguished
Jan 28, 2012
12
0
18,510


I had burned using an Asus laptop running Win 7 64. It only had one speed (4x). I have made several USB install disks on different computers. My download speeds are ~100 mbps and quite clean. Do you think that it may be that I am using SanDisk 16gb USB drives? I have them come-up in the the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool as unrecognized as a USB drive and thus used Rufus and WinToFlash.


 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dives

Distinguished
Jan 28, 2012
12
0
18,510


Just 1 SATA drive for now, checked all cables repeatedly. However, I will say, now, after downloading the iso (for a 3rd time) and rebuilding the install USB drive (for the fourth time) it seems to be working and doing so on all hardware configuations (including SSD with AHCI enabled and on-board IDE controller enabled)

Thanks so much for sticking with me!

One last quick question. Just installed 32 bit version. Should I go with the 64 bit if running primarily older software?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dives

Distinguished
Jan 28, 2012
12
0
18,510
I was eventually able to get the 32 bit install to work be downloading the ISO again and rebuilding the installation USB Flash Drive using just Rufus pointing at the downloaded ISO without having to worry about UDF or anything else. However, when I attempted this same process with the 64 bit version, I ended-up having the same issues again. I'll make a couple more attempts with the 64 bit version, but I'll probably stick with the 32bit version if I don't get it to work soon.

Thanks to COLGeek for all the help!

Trip

UPDATE: Win 7 64 bit install solved.

I was eventually able to get the 64 bit version installed too. The primary issue is that the "Windows USB/DVD Download Tool" is very finicky about what it likes as an ISO file. Many of the "fixes" on the internet included "converting" it to UDF using something like PowerISO (which actually made the "Download Tool" work, but not the install). Another issue supposedly had to do with a second "Anchor Volume Descriptor Pointer" (AVDP) missing in certain ISOs and thus using a tool called "isoavdpcopy" to fix the issue. That too made the ISO recognizable, but the install still did not work. Another issue is that the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool does not like USB drives larger than 5 GB and supposedly certain USB drives are not great to boot from. So, there are all sorts of fixes using "diskpart" along with various USB ISO makers such as Rufus and WinToFlash. These fixes legitimately got the ISO to the USB drive, but the issue of the error message still prevailed ("missing cd/dvd drivers"). In the end, I gave it one last try and resorted to an ISO tool made initially for Linux installs (but runs on Windows). The tool is "Universal USB Installer". You simply run it on the original ISO taken directly from the Microsoft download site and it works. No need to fuss with UDF, AVDPs, DiskPart or anything else. It just works.

Thanks again for all the help!

Trip
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom