Intel shows step by step how to do it for every other manufacturer except evga. I tried mimicking/translating the steps to evga ..but, I'm dumb or something.

While installing, you have to pull in the driver for the drive ..but it crashes every time halfway through. I even put the driver files on another hardrive (instead of using the supplied cd rom) and feed them to the install but no go.

Win8 install doesnt have this issue :/

I remember a real elaborate driver install for win7 x64 using a revodrive on a p55 ftw. But it worked until the raid would fail every couple months.

Make sure you have the latest BIOS installed. There were some fixes for Windows 7 in the last update.

 
Good job RJ.            

 
Why is this such an issue though? I am about to build a Z170 Stinger and plan to install W7pro on it.. just ran out of time this weekend.
 
 

Zuhl3156

Nereus
 
Why is this such an issue though? I am about to build a Z170 Stinger and plan to install W7pro on it.. just ran out of time this weekend.
 
 

Are you going to use an Intel 750 SSD? The 750 is a totally different animal as far as SSDs are concerned. A normal SSD should have no problems.

Nope. 500GB Samsung 850 EVO primary.
 

Zuhl3156

Nereus

Zuhl3156

Nereus
 
Why is this such an issue though? I am about to build a Z170 Stinger and plan to install W7pro on it.. just ran out of time this weekend.
 
 

Are you going to use an Intel 750 SSD? The 750 is a totally different animal as far as SSDs are concerned. A normal SSD should have no problems.

Nope. 500GB Samsung 850 EVO primary.
 

As long as you have the latest BIOS installed you should have smooth sailing from start to finish.

wrong. Evga got keyboards working ..but that's it ..they didn't sit through an entire install process of Windows 7.

His answer is only good for getting win 7 onto an intel 750 if you magically already have win 7 installed on a normal ssd ..I had already given up and just installed win 10 at that point.

Zuhl3156
Well, that's not good to hear. I hope Nereus has better luck with his install. Nereus could just install Windows 7 on a SSD using his current PC and not activate it until it's on the Z170 build, I hope. I am personally waiting for the Z117 chipset which should be more polished with more features than the Z170.

It went alright.. at first. Flashed to BIOS 1.04 (came shipped with 1.01 still!), had no problems installing W7 with SATA CD/DVD unit once I switched on W7 installation mode in the BIOS. Spend many hours doing something like 350+ updates to Windows, loaded all the drivers from EVGA and NVidia, then started having problems.
 
USB3 driver wouldn't load, and it showed in error state in device manager, but I could see some sort of USB3 driver showing in the control panel > uninstall list.. so when I tried uninstalling that, it wouldn't let me. I'd tell you the exact reason, but I can't log in to windows anymore..
 
Similar issue with realtec drivers - kept spitting an error during install.
 
Anyway once Windows was fully updated and all drivers were loaded (except USB3 and realtec), I went back into BIOS and turned off that W7 installation mode, as EVGA said to do. Save and reboot.. get to Windows login screen, and neither mouse nor keyboard work, although both are receiving power. Reboot, go into BIOS and change it back to Windows 7 installation mode, save & reboot.. still can't log in - keyboard and mouse apparently not being seen anymore no matter what. Brilliant. Now I am back at square one and can't do anything. Why this driver wasn't native to BIOS is a mystery to me, particularly when 57-60% of all o/s out there are W7, and w8 & w10 make up barely 10% together... 
 
So basically a day wasted. Seems I either have to go through the entire install process again and never switch off that w7 install mode, or else buy W10 (which I definitely do not want), or go back to an older platform.. or perhaps buy another brand motherboard - unless they are having the same issue.
 
Considering my schedule is so busy I average 3-4 hours sleep a night at most, I really cannot afford time to go through this again and again. Bah.
 

Zuhl3156
From what I'm seeing around the different forums the Z170 chipset dropped support for EHCI which is required by Windows 7. I have to wonder what Intel got for forcing Windows 10 down Z170 owners throats. Was it a one time payoff or will it be a percentage of the Windows 10 licenses installed on Z170 motherboards?

It is difficult to say but perhaps Intel has decided that Windows 10 support should take priority.

 
Being trying all day and problem just gets worse - mouse scroll stopped working, not because of mouse drivers but something again related to USB drivers. I am seriously almost pulling my hair out with this one. Also as mentioned, disabling that "Windows 7 Installation" mode in BIOS stops the mouse and keyboard working again so can't log in to windows. When I was in there earlier, tried having USB drivers install via right click in device manager, it found drivers but said installation unsuccessful. 
 
I think maybe others are right - this platform has been intentionally made to work with Windows 10 and have issues with Windows 7.
 
I am trying one more time to fresh install Windows 7 pro, then I give up. I really don't want Windows 10, way too many issues there, so it may be back to X79 and I'll have to sell all the Z170 gear I purchased (a complete new system) and lose hundreds of dollars in the process, as many of the parts are not refundable, only have replacement policy.
 
I am angry.
 

You could try booting to the Windows installation CD and then use Diskpart from the Command Prompt to 'Clean' the SSD.

Zuhl3156
You could try booting to the Windows installation CD and then use Diskpart from the Command Prompt to 'Clean' the SSD.

It's an SSD not a mech drive, and also it's a Samsung EVO 850, and normal secure erase doesn't work, you have to use their own tool on a bootable USB device (which I have used a bunch of times and still have the USB drive), but of course this Z170 platform motherboard wont boot from anything in the USB drive, just ignores it. Even when I've gone into the BIOS and disabled every other boot option, and only allowed USB, it still ignores the USB device and boots from the SSD!!!! And yes, plugged in to the USB2 ports, not USB3, since they don't work either. It's a frigging joke... is there anything even programmed behind that GUI, or is it just there to make us feel like we're getting a complete working BIOS.. it feels like that.
 
add-on: go look at product details > details tab... under "Operating System Support" there are no operating systems listed!! LOL, sounds about right!
 

 
Broke down the build, and in the process of putting the cover on the CPU socket, I bent a bunch of pins. *sigh*.  Paying to send the motherboard in, get socket repaired or replaced, send back, then sell it.. lucky if I break even, so I tossed it in the trash. Yeah you heard me, I just tossed out a near brand new Z170 Stinger.
 
At least a couple of the parts I salvaged and rebuilt my wife's rig - like a brand new EVGA Supernova P2 850W PSU. Upgraded her to a Z97 Stinger too. I have a big box full of parts to sell in the near future.. including an i7-6700k and some DDR4 ram, if I can't return it.
 
It's currently 4:30am and I am finally sitting down and having a well-deserved ice-cold beer (Corona), then going to bed.. until my daughter wakes me up at 7:30am, lol.