new win7 install, ropey hdd  

hi guys, well here i am again asking you clever lot how to cure my problems. i will keep it short. i have a toshiba hard drive 150G all cleaned up with formatting tools etc. i have a win 7 disc which is pukka and i have loaded in a few times with no problems so i know disc is fine. i fit toshiba hdd into sony laptop and the installation goes through to the custom install page for clean install and the next page should show the primary drive to be selected for the installation but in the top panel of the installation where the details of the hdd should appear , nothing shows and the message at the bottom of the page asks for drivers for the hard driver. load drivers then select places to find it etc, i have done the same putting the hdd into a dell laptop just to see if its a difference in the bios settings but its not, the same thing happens. i can couple up the hdd via usb connection to a desktop so can i do something to the hdd, ive used this connection to scan the sectors of the hdd. it looks like the problem must be on the hdd if 2 machines dont want to know it and an installation i did yesterday flew in with the same disc and set up.. hey guys you know the answer to this as you have done with my other problems so i will thank you in advance for firstly reading this and for the help you might kindly give to my problem. im off to have some ciders and wait for your help... cheers sj

Screen shots where you fail in the installation process might be helpful.

"cleaned up with formatting tools". What tools? Have you used Diskpart "clean" command on the Toshiba HD?

I have no idea what "pukka" means.

When did the Toshiba hard drive most recently work fine with an operating system on it and what operating system was that?

sorry about that. pukka is an english term means all good so in relation to the win 7 disc its means it works ok as its been used before. yes the formatting tools i have used were diskpart whilst i had i connected to my main desktop and it was externally connected via usb. i also ran it through easeus to format it. it was ok for ages then started to get unstable. i used hdd regenerator to check for bad sectors but all was good, unlike another one i have here which is shot away.i read that the drivers for the hd are in the bios but the 2 laptops i have tried the toshiba hd in, run their own connected hard drives ok but when i try this toshiba hd in them ,using the win7 disc, it asks for drivers during the installation stage sorry for delay my friend..thanks again

I'm guessing "pukka" is kind of the opposite of "ropey", another bit of Brit slang I've never heard. One of my ancestor's was burned at the stake in Staffordshire in 1612 on the orders of King James, but I haven't kept up.

Hmmm.....this happens with the Toshiba drive in a Sony laptop or in a Dell laptop.

What operating system was most recently on the Toshiba hard drive and in what laptop was that installed?

Is your Windows 7 install disc as supplied by someone like Dell or Sony, or did you buy it in a retail shop, or download from a website, or??

Laptops have their own peculiarities. I'm strictly a desktop guy, so don't have insight into that.

What model Toshiba 150 GB hard drive is this?

My last resort idea would be to use Diskpart and do a "clean all" rather than "clean", but you might want to wait for input from others.

How old is the Sony laptop ? if is roughly 5 years old then the BIOS wont correctly detect a drive that is larger than 500GB with a 7,200 speed without first installing the Intel rapid storage drivers (not the ones Sony gives you) but since the drive you speak of is 150GB that is very strange considering it is mostly Toshiba drives that Sony uses (I think they both actually the same company, but don't quote me on that).

I gather this 150GB drive is not the original one that came with the Sony laptop ? as if it is not and your trying to use a Sony recovery disk then it is not going to work, you can force it but when it comes to boot in Windows for the first time it will BSOD on you... I think as ignatzatsonic suggests "clean all" would be your next step and see how that go's me personally I would perform a low level format (write all 0's or 1's to the drive) this has cured many strange drive problems for me in the past.