New SSD on CF-53J - Windows install can't find drive

At work our only CF-53J's original SSD completely died today, so much so that it isn't even detected in BIOS and it says the bay is "Empty."

I replaced this dead Crucial M4 with an Intel DC S3520 SSD at 150GB and it is seen in BIOS at the correct size. In BIOS we have the mode set to AHCI.

However, when I try to install Windows 7 Pro x64 from a USB drive, the Windows installation will not find the drive. I load an Intel Series 7 RST driver that I got from Intel direct, and it still won't see the drive. I tried the Series 7 RST driver that I got from Panasonic's site, and it still won't see the drive even with that one.

We tried the same thing when setting the drive mode to "Compatible" in the BIOS, but the results are no different. I've been looking most of the morning on the web for anyone experiencing a similar issue, but have had no luck so far.

Any suggestions on what else I should be trying? I've not run into this issue with other PCs that needed the RST driver loaded at install.

 

Is the drive new and unpartitoned?
Try loading from a DVD and see what happens.

Possibly the original drive was not bad. The motherboard drive controller may have gone tits up.

 

yes ...
can you try the old drive on a 'nix machine (easiest that i know of) ?
use the "disk manager" to look at the drive .
the SMART data reader will help determine any problems .
heck , it may not even see the drive ... and that would confirm that the drive is toast .

 

Controller was not tits up. Even running Diskpart while still in the Windows Setup phase the drive was seen.

While you posted, I tried one more thing, which resolved the issue, and now I feel a bit stupid:

I was running the install from a USB stick plugged into one of the USB 3.0 ports on the CF-53, and never thought there was an issue there as it booted to the install and everything worked as expected other than not finding the hard drive from within the installer.

Then I thought to plug the stick into the USB 2.0 port on the CF-53, and what do you know, it found the drive and is currently installing Windows.

Something to keep in mind for next time.

Thanks for the suggestions, though.

 

makes sense though ...
the 3.0 ports may have to "wait" until the software is loaded at boot time in order for those ports to be active .

 

Yes, in hindsight it seems obvious, hence why I feel a bit stupid, heh.

 

I have done the same thing before. I forgot about it.
Think there is a setting for legacy usb that "may" enable the usb 3 ports as usb 2 during boot.

 

I done the same the other day on my 19, went to reload a fresh w7 on one of the partitions and it wouldn't play ball, I swore and started jumping up and down like a lune, shouting at myself

"this always f*****g happens to me, why does nothing f*****g work"

Then realised that the side port was set to USB 3 in the bios, set it to usb 2 and away it went