Resolved Velocity Solo x1 and BootCamp

[Gav Mack]

Well guys, I have gone ahead and left my Windows 7 installation for dead. Today I went ahead and installed Windows 8 on my spare drive. No problems. So very odd. Not a huge deal for me though, because anything I don't bother to back up, I don't need. Just going to be a night of reinstalling stuff, which I don't mind. Plus, I need to learn Windows 8, as much as I don't like the interface. I'll just mod its visuals back to Windows 7 standards as much as I can. I might redo the 7 installation if I REALLY hate Windows 8, but the fact that it installed and functions with the Solo is good enough for me. I'll keep updating this thread if I come across more problems. Thanks for all your help.
-N

It's bearable with 8.1 and 'start menu reviver' replacing the metro madness.

 

[NOTNlCE]

It's bearable with 8.1 and 'start menu reviver' replacing the metro madness.

It's not as horrific as I remember the preview being. Of COURSE there are corruptions and errors, and I can't seem to install a few updates. Lost my patience for the evening, I'll try again tomorrow.

 

[azentropy]

I'm having a similar issue on a 4.1. Originally I had my internal 1gb SSD drive installed in Sled #1, Two 1gb HDD in 2 and 3 software mirrored, and a 256gb SDD for "Windows" installed in my ODD bay #2. I had some issues with BSOD at first that was due to Apple using an old driver that didn't like the RAID 0 configuration. But I got that resolved.

Later I got a Solo X2 and moved the "boot" drive from sled #1 to it. I then installed a 500gb 2.5 drive into sled #1 as a "scratch" drive. I thought all was well, I don't boot into Windows too much now anyway and most of the time I'm fine with using VMWare Fusion to access it. Then all of the sudden it stopped working and would just hang if I tried to set it as my startup. I thought it my have started to boot and then would hang but wasn't able to figure out it wasn't even getting that far until I put back in my GT120 as the 660ti I have doesn't give a boot screen. I'm thinking at may have happened pretty much right after updating to 8.1 as I did the update while in Boot Camp, but don't recall using it in Boot Camp after the upgrade was complete. I may have just been using VMWare since.

After lots of trial and errors:
1. Removing RAID drives again
2. Removing 2.5 drive.
2. Switching Window SSD to sled #2
3. Switching Boot SSD to sled #1 (leaving solo blank).

The only thing that worked was completely removing the Solo x2 card. As soon as I removed the card it would work.

Finally I put it back together how I "want it" and decided to just wipe out Windows and start again. I was having some performance issues with it anyway (both in VMWare and Boot Camp) and figured I should start clean or just install Windows 7 instead. What is odd is that when I now go into BootCamp Assistant I get a "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition". This is with it installed on the Solo x2.

I haven't tried swapping it back gain to sled 2 to see if it then works.

 

[NOTNlCE]

Once I move all my data over to Windows 8, the current 7 drive is getting a fresh installation, since that's what I believe allowed 8 to function. I can't imagine that 8 just "allows" the AHCI driver for the Solo by default. Also, I can't access the Mac drives from 8, probably because I didn't install it with bootcamp directly. Don't know why, maybe it's because the 8 drivers are "better" or if it's because it installed with the Solo in a PCIe slot. We'll find out.

 

[costabunny]

Once I move all my data over to Windows 8, the current 7 drive is getting a fresh installation, since that's what I believe allowed 8 to function. I can't imagine that 8 just "allows" the AHCI driver for the Solo by default. Also, I can't access the Mac drives from 8, probably because I didn't install it with bootcamp directly. Don't know why, maybe it's because the 8 drivers are "better" or if it's because it installed with the Solo in a PCIe slot. We'll find out.

Hope it all works. Just for info I installed the Bootcamp Support Drivers on 8 and it sees the mac drives fine.

X fingers for you

 

[NOTNlCE]

Alright, here is my report. For sure, its a problem with Windows 7. I did a fresh install through Boot Camp, the same way I did my 8 install, and I blue screened the first boot. As far as 8 goes, Windows Update KB2795944 keeps spitting back Error Code 8007371B. I have tried everything, and from what I understand, it's something about code needing to be written to the EFI partition of the disk, and it simply won't do it. This is the last update I need to install before I can download 8.1 from the Windows Store, and without it, I'm basically SOL. The GOOD news is, I have a functional Windows installation which I can use without having to dig into my tower and rip out the Solo every time I need Windows. And as much as I don't like 8, it's going to have to do. I've read that 8.1 makes things feel a lot smoother and run a lot better, but I can't update at the moment (because if this damn error). Thanks for all the help so far guys, at this point it seems like a Windows problem. I'm gonna go ahead and mark this as "Resolved" since the real goal of this was to prevent myself from digging into my tower every time I needed Windows. Again, thank you.
-N

 

[Supersonics]

Thanx and additional infos...

Thanx to NOTNICE for the Win8 tip. I had searched all over the place since receiving my Solo X2 last week.

One additional note to help others...I was unable to get Windows to install (gray screen) until I moved my Solo to PCI slot one...it was originally in two (counting from the top). I had seen the PCI tip in another thread. Wish I had tried that before giving cash to MS, but my Mac is back to full power and that's all that counts.

Mac details: 4,1 flashed to 5,1...added a w3680 and self-flashed Zotac GTX 680, plus the Apricorn...running on 10.9.1 (from the Apricorn and Win is on a spinning disk in one of the bays).