I'm almost a complete illiterate when it comes to RAID, as I've only used standard IDE/SCSI/SATA drives and controllers over all my years.
But on a new Win7 install on a brand new machine and empty hard drive(s), doesn't the installer want you to pick the drive which the BIOS considers 'hard disk #1', and that's where the OS must get installed? That's where the BIOS will boot, and that's where the 'active' partition must go.
On a brand new completely empty drive non-RAID configuration, the only eligible drive for install is hard disk #1 per the BIOS. That's where Win7 will put its 'system reserved' primary partition (i.e. the small partition where boot manager files go, and which will be marked as the 'active' partition). After that, a second primary partition is created for the Win7 OS itself, and unless you invoke partitioning it will just use the entire rest of the drive.
But if you try to install to any other hard drive other than 'hard disk #1' per the BIOS, you'll get this complaint about 'cannot be installed on this disk'.
If you want to install Win7 as a second bootable OS in an environment which already has one running bootable OS (e.g. WinXP), it is the WinXP partition which is already 'hard disk #1' in the BIOS and marked as 'active'. Win7 changes the boot manager files right in THAT WinXP partition, and doesn't need the 'system reserved' partition. And you can now install Win7 in any other partition you want, on the same drive as with WinXP or on another drive... with the boot manager menu back in the WinXP partition populated with the proper information and drive/partition locators.
But otherwise, 'hard disk #1' per the BIOS is the only place where a fresh clean new install of Win7 can go... for non-RAID.
That having been said for non-RAID installs, is there any possible relationship between this information and your current RAID situation... where again Win7 refuses to install where you want it installed? Is the 3x1TB RAID configuration considered 'hard disk #1', and therefore it SHOULD be acceptable?
Again, pardon me for my RAID ignorance.
But on a new Win7 install on a brand new machine and empty hard drive(s), doesn't the installer want you to pick the drive which the BIOS considers 'hard disk #1', and that's where the OS must get installed? That's where the BIOS will boot, and that's where the 'active' partition must go.
On a brand new completely empty drive non-RAID configuration, the only eligible drive for install is hard disk #1 per the BIOS. That's where Win7 will put its 'system reserved' primary partition (i.e. the small partition where boot manager files go, and which will be marked as the 'active' partition). After that, a second primary partition is created for the Win7 OS itself, and unless you invoke partitioning it will just use the entire rest of the drive.
But if you try to install to any other hard drive other than 'hard disk #1' per the BIOS, you'll get this complaint about 'cannot be installed on this disk'.
If you want to install Win7 as a second bootable OS in an environment which already has one running bootable OS (e.g. WinXP), it is the WinXP partition which is already 'hard disk #1' in the BIOS and marked as 'active'. Win7 changes the boot manager files right in THAT WinXP partition, and doesn't need the 'system reserved' partition. And you can now install Win7 in any other partition you want, on the same drive as with WinXP or on another drive... with the boot manager menu back in the WinXP partition populated with the proper information and drive/partition locators.
But otherwise, 'hard disk #1' per the BIOS is the only place where a fresh clean new install of Win7 can go... for non-RAID.
That having been said for non-RAID installs, is there any possible relationship between this information and your current RAID situation... where again Win7 refuses to install where you want it installed? Is the 3x1TB RAID configuration considered 'hard disk #1', and therefore it SHOULD be acceptable?
Again, pardon me for my RAID ignorance.
Via Sata Driver Download
Jun 28, 2006 - VIA V-RAID Driver is a combo driver for VIA VT6410 IDE RAID controller, discrete Serial ATA RAID controllers VT6420 and VT6421. Oct 31, 2014 - MD5 of the driver, b818addc643b6ddbfde14b. SATA RAID Controller,VIA VT6421 RAID Controller,VIA SATA RAID Controller [.]. Description: The VIA PATA/SATA IDE Driver Package (previously known as the VIA MiniIDE Driver) features the VIA SATA Hot-Plug Filter driver, which supports VIA Hot-Plug Technology. For use with the following Product/s: VT8251 Integrated Serial ATA RAID controller ( VT8251 ) VT8237 Integrated Serial ATA RAID controller ( VT8237 VT8237 ).