Windows 7 x64 seems to corrupt HD's MBR in AHCI Mode

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• Thursday, June 18, 2009 8:12 PMSaMcp1123Answerer

   
  

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  Hello Rafael,
  
  I have a few questions to be sure I understand the problem completely,  when you install Windows 7 RC you turn off all but one of the hard drives,  install the operating system,  then turn them all back on?   After doing this method the MBR appears corrupt? 
  
  If this is correct then I suspect you have other operating systems on some of those other disks and this is likely the problem.  When Windows 7 installs it writes it's own new version of boot files and includes all other previous operating systems to be included.  During installation if those other boot files weren't there then it wrote it's own brand new bootloader not to include any other versions.  Then when the other drives get re-activated theres all the different boot files confusing the computer.  I could be way off on this and thats why I ask the questions above to be sure. 

  ---

  -Scott
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• Thursday, June 18, 2009 10:22 PMRafael Borges - Quality Assurance

   
  

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  Hello Scott,

  
  

  First of all, thank you for your reply. 

  And the answer to your question is no, I do not turn them back on after the installation. I usually do this kind of method, when installing two or more OS on the same machine, because I don't like to use boot manager nor dual boot system. I use the BIOS' Boot Menu instead, and set my "most used" OS as the default boot HDD on the setup. So for a better understanding, I will type the steps I usually do in here:

  
  

  My steps to install a new OS on my machine:

  1. Turn off the computer (of course);

  2. Turn off all the HDDs, except the one that will have the OS installed in, usually a SataII HDD in AHCI Mode; (This step simulates a brand new computer with only one HDD)

  3. Boot by the DVD, (in this case Windows 7 x64 RC);

  4. Erase the existing partition, create a new one, and format it (through Windows Installer);

  5. Perform the Install;

  6. Boot by the reformatted HDD, activate, install all drivers, perform all the updates, which will take a few reboots, etc;

  7. Only after I am really sure that it's all working as expected, I turn the other HDDs back on, and change their letters in my order;

  
  

  Now, I do this, in order to prevent on formatting the wrong HDD, which already happened a lot.. :P

  
  

  So, in the case above, my computer stops booting, just after the step 5, to be more exact, just after windows 7 have writes all the boot files, write the MBR, and etc...

  
  

  I know the issue you refer to, that's why I only turn the HDDs back on, in the end of everything.

  
  

  Anyway, thank you for your help!

  Guess my issue is a never-ending legend.. Strange though, how I easily found the very same issue for different people on google. 

  
  

  Thanks,

  Rafael 
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• Thursday, June 18, 2009 10:56 PMLawrence GarvinMVP, Answerer

   
  

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   The thing is that I can switch the HD to IDE Mode (which I did and it works just fine, as IDE), but I want to have it working on AHCI, not in IDE.

  
  In order to have your drive work in AHCI mode, it's necessary that Windows7 has the requisite in-box SATA driver for your SATA controller, or that you have the driver and can install the driver during the partitioning step of installation.
  
  Lacking an appropriate SATA driver, running in AHCI mode is not likely to be an option.

  ---

  Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA
  Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
  Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2009)
  
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• Thursday, June 18, 2009 11:47 PMRafael Borges - Quality Assurance

   
  

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  Hello Lawrence, 

  
  

  And thank you for your reply, that was my initial thought, the strange thing is that on the beta version of Windows 7, this kind of thing wasn't needed, so I will try to load the Intel newest driver on Windows installation... I am not sure that will work either, but I will try that right now and I will post the result here. 

  
  

  Thank you,

  Rafael
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• Friday, June 19, 2009 1:54 AMRafael Borges - Quality Assurance

   
  

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  Hello again,

  
  

  I got the same result using the newest drivers from Intel... I will still try other things, if I have success in any, I will post here...

  
  

  Thanks,

  Rafael
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• Friday, June 19, 2009 2:12 PMRafael Borges - Quality Assurance

   
  

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  I finally got it to work...

  
  

  So I'm using a Windows 7 x64 RC with AHCI, luckily not everybody had this issue, but anyway, what I did was simple:

  
  

  1. Performed a LOW LEVEL FORMAT on the HDD that was freezing the boot (I used Samsung's HUTIL for that, because my HDD is Samsung);

  2. Change the SATA MODE to AHCI or RAID (Intel says that the best thing to do is select RAID, always, for better compatibility with OSs in general);

  3. Reinstall Windows 7 x64 RC, but using the latest RAID/AHCI Drivers, and load them instead of proceeding windows default drivers;

  4. There you go.. :)

  
  

  OK, so the credit should go to Lawrence, because loading the manufacturer's RAID/AHCI drivers is something I never did in Vista nor on Win7, anyway. What should have happened is that the MBR was not replaced on my first attempt using the manufacturer's drivers, so with a LOW LEVEL FORMAT or a ERASE MBR (not FIXMBR), is clear enough, so in another attempt to install (using manufacturer's drivers) it should work properly...

  
  

  Thanks for all the answers guys..

  Rafael

  • Marked As Answer byRafael Borges - Quality Assurance Friday, June 19, 2009 2:18 PM
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• Saturday, July 04, 2009 10:05 AMUnkownFreak

   
  

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  Very Interesting
  I found your post googling around
  I own a brand new HP IQ  820 These are the new Touch PC s from hp
  
  Actually i have the same Problem
  First i thougt its a hd issue and HP sent me a new one !!! cool
  
  But as i install win7 rc1 on the clean hdd after 2 days the system starts to freeze sometimes again.
  I even changed memory and put another 1TB WD RE3 hd in it but now it freezes "sometimes again"
  i figured it out to be a ahci Problem when i install original Hp drivers (for vist64) it freezes sometimes
  I installed newest intel matrix storgae drivers from intel and woooom no more hd found when rebooting.
  Bummmer.
  So i bootet it with the win7dvd recoveryconsole and made a system restore and took a look at the drivers .
  the original Win7 driver works best till now (even when it freezes sometime)
  original newest INTEL doesnt work (vista64 bit cause no win7 driver was there.) =no Hd found
  Seems like win 7 and ahci is the problem
  I didnt try to change in the bios to ide
  maybe i try that and test if it will freeze again.
  
  best regards from Austria
  
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