Windows 7: Cannot find partitions - help please

Hi,
Ok so I am trying to install windows 7 64bit over the existing Windows 7 Home premium 64bit. I click on the clean install and when it comes to selecting the partition to install windows on there is nothing there and I get this message:
"To Install the device driver needed to access your hard drive insert the installation media containing the driver files , and then click OK "

I have tried going to HP's site to see if I can find some driver that would be what I am missing and I cannot find anything that seems right. I also do not have a recovery drive which is totally my stupidity and I deleted it when trying to create a partition to run Linux along side which never worked.

Basically I just want to do a clean install of 7 and start over from scratch... Maybe I dont need too, I dont know but either way why wont my partitions show? Would creating a back up drive off another 64bit system work to at least bring it back to somewhat factory?

Thanks in advance!

Are you booting the installer to install and not running it from Windows 7?

Look in BIOS setup under BIOS boot order. Do you have an EFI Boot disk there? If so it requires a different method to install with an EFI BIOS: UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums

You can also remove the EFI Boot disk from BIOS boot order and enable any Legacy BIOS option, wipe the HD so the installer will reformat it MBR instead of GPT used for EFI installs.

If no EFI, then where did you get the installer? Did you burn it yourself? Being prompted for drivers during a normal MBR disk install is almost always an installer problem.

Thanks for the info. I did not see anything that said EFI in the BOIS. This is a burned copy but we used it on our desktop with out any problems. We did just try to load it while in windows and it found the partitions and is installing right now. I have no idea is this is a good or bad way to install but I guess I will see shortly. Thanks for your help.

It will suffice as long as you chose to overwrite C and not install to another partition which would lock out the letter C and end up with Windows 7 on another letter drive. This is why it's always best to boot the installer - to assure it always installs to C for a host of reasons.

If it's not an EFI BIOS then did you have all other HD's and peripherals unplugged? The next step would be to wipe the HD with Diskpart Clean Command. But you found a workaround which may work for you.

May I ask what the issues were that caused you to want to reinstall?

Awesome, we put it on the C drive
We do not have anything unplugged, could there be another problem with the HD?
The laptop has Home Premium and we had been attempting to run linux along side windows which wasnt working for us. In the process was when I deleted HP's recovery drive and messed around with the partitions so we figured we mine as well upgrade and get back to "stock" settings. I dont know if it makes a difference but we were having the same issue with the install of Ubuntu, the partitions were not showing for the install.

Most likely it needed wiping with the Clean command I linked you earlier. If that isn't enough you'd want to format an Active partition using Step 2.2 in SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Since you've decided to do a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to get rid of the bloatware which is worst on HP's, follow the steps in the blue link to get it perfect.

Great! Thank you for all this awesome information! We are going to continue with this tomorrow. Should we be doing the clean install before the installation? Also, thanks for the install info to get rid of HP's non-since add ons!

If you're satisfied with the install you did then you can keep it providing it gives good performance after doing all of your Important and optional Updates, supplying any drivers then still missing following the tutorial, installing programs and setting it up to completion.

Feel free to ask back about any issues which arise.

If you're unsure about the partitioning and want our advice post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk mgmt drive map and listings, using Snipping Tool in Start menu, attaching using Paper Clip in Reply box.