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Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1098987
01/31/17 09:33 PM
01/31/17 09:33 PM
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I have done it successfully twice without having to reactivate or call. It can be finicky though... only one way to find out!


Gardens put to bed for the winter. Time for some gaming!
Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099083
02/01/17 11:22 AM
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What did you do? Just pop it in and hope it worked or did you do something to ready the computer? What's the "finicky" you're talking about?

Last edited by Melia; 02/01/17 11:23 AM.

The four food groups: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and HOT chocolate.
Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099089
02/01/17 12:02 PM
02/01/17 12:02 PM
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I had a Windows 7 installation that deactivated itself after I attempted to install MS Office. There was no reason why it should have deactivated -- no hardware change, just some bug associated with installing Office I guess.

If you click Start button --> Control Panel --> System
(or Start button --> right-click Computer --> Properties)
you should get a window with a section for "Windows activation" at the bottom of the window. If Windows has deactivated, you should see a link to "Activate Windows now" in that section. The window looks like this
http://www.kodyaz.com/images/windows-7-activation/activate-windows7.jpg

As long as your computer has an Internet connection and everything else is OK, clicking that link should make Windows re-activate in a few seconds.

The above is the way I did it. There are other ways to start the Activation manager, such as clicking the Start button and typing the word
activate
into the Search box.

If Windows doesn't reactivate, you'll have to call Microsoft for help. They may have a long key to give you, so keep a way of recording it nearby.

More here
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-your-windows-7-pc-genuine-again-after-a-hardware-upgrade/

Originally Posted By: Melia
What's the "finicky" you're talking about?

It's a word I saw used when Googling for solutions to problems with M.2 drives.

Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099090
02/01/17 12:04 PM
02/01/17 12:04 PM
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What Jenny was talking about... sometimes you have to call them and sometimes it reactivates on its own and sometimes you just pop the drive it and boot it up. Since this is a new motherboard, you will need to install the motherboard drivers on the HDD.


Gardens put to bed for the winter. Time for some gaming!
Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099231
02/02/17 11:36 AM
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This is the biggest mess we've ever encountered with getting a computer up and running. I got up this morning and found this note (husband is sleeping after wrestling with this thing for hours last night). "Need to get online to install GeForce Experience - NVidia graphics card software; Windows isn't detecting Network Adapter; need to install driver for Network Adapter; missing drivers for Ethernet Controller, PCI Simple communications controller, SM bus controller, universal serial bus controller. I installed the motherboard updates. I've yet to connect to the internet and left the internet cable unplugged."

Oh - my - goodness! Edit: All the above might work now that the motherboard has been update. Stay tuned.

Last edited by Melia; 02/02/17 01:01 PM.

The four food groups: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and HOT chocolate.
Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099233
02/02/17 11:51 AM
02/02/17 11:51 AM
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Download the drivers from
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4957#dl
and burn them to a disc using another computer.

Did the motherboard come with a driver CD?
You could use that if you're having trouble moving drivers over. The drivers from the CD are probably old, but they'd probably work and get you started.

You need the LAN driver, and possibly also the chipset drivers if you're going to get Internet working.

A lot of your problems are from your motherboard being newer than Windows 7 -- so Windows 7 doesn't have the built-in drivers for them.

Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099277
02/02/17 05:55 PM
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We're done! I'm up and running AND with my original drive so new configuration didn't have to happen. Finally! It's been a long, tiring week for my husband. He went online on his own computer and downloaded drivers for all he needed, then used the CD to install them on my computer. Ahhh! So nice to be back!

Thank you, both of you, for all the help you gave us. You are the greatest!


The four food groups: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and HOT chocolate.
Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099280
02/02/17 07:30 PM
02/02/17 07:30 PM
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Glad to hear you were able to work it out.
Too bad we couldn't get the M.2 drive working as the main drive.

Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099283
02/02/17 08:03 PM
02/02/17 08:03 PM
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Oh, oh! One little problem...why won't the computer recognize my secondary hard drive? It recognizes the external one just fine but not the 1 terabyte drive that's there for backups and has my pictures folder on it.


The four food groups: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and HOT chocolate.
Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099285
02/02/17 08:15 PM
02/02/17 08:15 PM
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See if the BIOS recognizes there's a second drive.
Check the connections if the BIOS doesn't see it.
Is this a normal SATA drive or is it the M.2?

If the BIOS sees the drive and Windows File Manager doesn't,
use the Windows 7 Start Search and look for
diskmgmt.msc
If you run diskmgmt.msc (the disk management tool), it should show your drive space even if the drives aren't formatted with a file system Windows understands and/or have no drive letter. See if the drive shows up in there (don't format it, but you can assign a drive letter to it if it has none and looks normal otherwise)

Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099314
02/03/17 12:13 AM
02/03/17 12:13 AM
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Earl said BIOS does not "see" the drive. It is a normal SATA drive. We took out the M.2.


The four food groups: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and HOT chocolate.
Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099320
02/03/17 02:29 AM
02/03/17 02:29 AM
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Try reseating the cables, both the data and the power cables.
Try plugging into a different SATA connector and using a different power connector.

Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099353
02/03/17 11:31 AM
02/03/17 11:31 AM
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He said he's already done all the above to no effect.


The four food groups: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and HOT chocolate.
Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099358
02/03/17 11:54 AM
02/03/17 11:54 AM
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Do you have another computer you could put the drive in to test whether it works there?
If it works in another computer, then there might be some BIOS setting on the GA-Z97X-SLI motherboard that affects whether it's being detected. After flashing the BIOS, did you check AHCI, Legacy, CSM settings?

Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099368
02/03/17 12:53 PM
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The C drive had be turned back to IDE. It wouldn't work otherwise. But he can check all the rest. Edit: OK...he checked the drive on his computer which has the BIOS set to ACHI. The computer I'm using is not able to boot the C drive on ACHI so he had to change it IDE.Which is weird, because our daughter's external drive shows up just fine on this computer via a USB 3. But not my 3 terabyte...it doesn't show up. The files are all there, thank goodness. I just can't access them. He's going to try checking the Gigabyte motherboard website and see what else he can update on the drivers.

Last edited by Melia; 02/03/17 05:21 PM.

The four food groups: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and HOT chocolate.
Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1099416
02/03/17 07:09 PM
02/03/17 07:09 PM
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It sounds like the storage drive was from a computer that used AHCI and Windows 7 needs AHCI drivers to read it. Maybe one of the drivers on the Gigabyte website under where it says "SATA RAID/AHCI."

At least you know the drive and your files are OK.

Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1100151
02/09/17 11:35 AM
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OK. It's been days since we contacted you about the hard disc that the computer can't "see." We contacted Gigabyte support and they said that with new hardware we should have reinstalled windows 7 to the "C" drive because there could be registry problems associated with a new mother board.
Well, we didn't do that because you all indicated it was possible to use the old hard drive successfully and not have to re-format the entire drive with a new win 7 OP, re-install EVERYTHING (we hate Microsoft for making this such a destructive process), etc.
Two if the hard drives work - the "C" drive that we boot from and our daughter's external hard drive where she keeps all of her pictures. It's loaded so she used a secondary drive to warehouse everything. BUT, the hard drive where I keep my pictures won't show up. Why? We can't figure this out. We tried using it as an external drive - didn't work either.
We don't think contacting Gigabyte support will help with this. They are so used to doing things one way I don't think they've tried to figure out alternative routes like you guys.
I just used CCleaner on the registry in hopes it would help. It didn't. I was thinking of using the drive on my husband's computer and finding a way to share all the files so I could see the pictures, upload to the hard drive as needed, in short, use it from my computer to his. I don't even know if that's a possibility.
Help!

Last edited by Melia; 02/09/17 11:37 AM.

The four food groups: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and HOT chocolate.
Re: Can't boot up win7 [Re: Melia] #1100157
02/09/17 12:27 PM
02/09/17 12:27 PM
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Originally Posted By: Melia

Two if the hard drives work - the "C" drive that we boot from and our daughter's external hard drive where she keeps all of her pictures. It's loaded so she used a secondary drive to warehouse everything. BUT, the hard drive where I keep my pictures won't show up. Why? We can't figure this out. We tried using it as an external drive - didn't work either.

I think it is because if Windows 7 was installed while the BIOS was set to "Legacy/IDE" -- that it can't read drives that were created on a computer where the BIOS was set to AHCI. You'd think that installing the AHCI drivers in Windows 7 would allow it to read the backup drive, but apparently not.

I don't see a solution unless you ...

1. Get a new hard drive of sufficient size
2. Format the new drive on the computer that's using Legacy/IDE so it's ready to copy files to.
3. Remove the new drive from the Legacy/IDE computer.
4. Connect both the new drive and the backup drive to the computer that is able to see the backup drive.
5. Copy all files from the backup drive to the new drive.
6. Remove the new drive from the computer that's using AHCI and put it in the computer that's using Legacy/IDE.
7. Check that the files are viewable.

You'll end up with two backup drives. I think this is the safest method.

There are how-to's online for changing Windows 7 that was installed using Legacy/IDE to one that can boot AHCI. Doing that wouldn't require a new hard drive, but you said your Windows 7 wouldn't boot after you installed it with the BIOS set to AHCI.

If you want to try it anyway, Google something like

change windows 7 to ahci

and you'll find how-to's like this
http://winaero.com/blog/switch-from-ide-to-achi-after-installing-windows-7-or-windows-8/
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind...0b-219fcaab2ac9
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help...-the-boot-drive
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/98737...alling-windows/

Apparently this doesn't work for everyone, so I think the 2nd hard drive is safer.

Alternatively you could get a 2nd external drive and copy the files on the backup to that using the computer that can read the drive.

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