Building abit v17 with sata hdd and windows 7 problems

Is this a new drive, or are you trying to use a previous windows 7 installation? If it's a new sata drive, trying using the hardrive software to prep it. It will format and set the sata drive as a boot device. I use maxblast 5.0 which works with seagate and maxtor drives, but other brands have their own available for download. After doing this, if you're using more than one hardrive, disconnect the other drive temporarily and install 7 on your new sata drive. For sata drives, use the "ide" setting in the bios.