Sorry for the long history.
Have a Lenovo T60p w/ a host controller chipset ICH7 family (Mobil I. 945GM/GMS/940GML Express or 945GT Express Chipset), which is reported compatible w/ a Travelstar 7k 1000 HDD. This HDD is AF.
The system is W-7 Ultimate 64b SP1. The detected chipset inf version is 9.3.0.1026.
1] The v:8.9 Matrix driver, I understand, have been rename or update as RTF drivers and a version higher than 9.6 recommend. I can only find versions 10 and 11 at your site. Never mind that they refuse to install with the message about not the correct machine. But after much investigating characteristics of controllers and reading the .inf files, I took a chance in manually installing V:11.7.0.1013. My choice was the I. 7 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller
Installing this driver corrected ALL (so far) the problems that I was having with the software running with the v:8.9.0.1023 driver. The HDD alignment is correct.
This were some of the problems I was having previously, in case you wonder:
1] Windows Update did not work, showing a red writing warning.
2] MS fixit would not download to fix Win Update.
3] IE-10 had some display failures of several random sites.
4] Windows Live Mail would not start, claiming a corrupted calendar.
A repair did not correct the problem so WLM was uninstalled.
Downloading a file to run or save to reinstall, was blocked.
5] Outlook 2007 worked but pictures failed displaying as before, on
the previously authorized messages, neither they show the
message that allow selection of pictures for downloading.
6] Downloading drivers from Intel was a complete failure because
they could not be run or save.
There are more abnormalities, but this is sufficient to get the
flavor of the problems.
2] I understand from another posting, that there was an issue with a v:11 driver, which was been fix, recommending the v:10 temporarily. As I see V: 11.0, 11.2, 11.6 and 11.7 so closely dated, I wonder if the driver was fix or resolution is still pending.
Your advice on all this will be appreciated.