Since the Win7 is so driver-complete a missing SATA HD usually means other problems. It will more likely need the driver if it is older IDE which may not be included in DVD.
However it is fairly easy to insert your SATA controller driver into the installer: unzip to stick or CD, from Load Drivers link at left below browse into folders until it plucks it out and installs it, refresh window, see if HD shows up:
Be sure to try all the other steps suggested, too.
Well, I have an older custom built Windows 7 Professional box that about to have its hardware updated:
- CPU: Core 2 --> i5
- Motherboard: MSI P965 --> Asus P7P55D-E
- Memory: DDR2 --> DDR3
- Chipset: Intel P965 (ICH8R) --> Intel P55 (ICH10R(?))
The network card will be different as well, but the ATI video card will stay the same together with the DVD burners and the memory card reader; there's no floppy drive. The four SATA 2.0 drives will be kept as well, one of them has the OS.
The only additional hardware is a SATA 3.0 SSD drive where the OS is being planned to reside as a fresh install. Yes, I do have a retail, or genuine version of Windows 7.
Just out of curiosity, I am going to delay installing the SSD drive and the new OS and test Windows 7 with the updated hardware. It seems to me that recovering from chipset version changes might prove to be too much for Windows 7. Especially when it is couple of generations of difference between the two versions.
Now I am curious...
Cr00zng, I'm looking to do almost the exact same thing, so I'm wondering whether you tried it and if so, how it went?
I am attempting to do this same thing. I am currently running my copy of win7 64 bit Enterprise on an AMD machine. I am upgrading to an Intel Core i5 machine, with all componenets greatly upgraded. I would prefer to keep my OS intact, as it is a pretty fresh install (less than 1 month old) and I do not want to go through the trouble of doing it again in a week. If there is a way to mirgrate the OS from one syste (AMD) to another (Intel) please let me know!
Get imaging software and store off the HD.
As you can see from earlier post input, you might be able to just swap over the W7 installed drive. I'm guessing you can use an install disc to prepare the current drive for the swap, as in XP.
IMO, put your new hardware togather, get the baseline bios settings correct, and do a clean install.
You might want to try this: Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer
Method 1 applies to you.
Kari
Unfortunately Win7 can't Repair Install from boot as XP did to adjust to new hardware. It will sometimes start up but often won't.
If not, if you can SysPrep the HD while on it's old hardware to remove all drivers, activation and prepare it to start on new hardware: Windows 7 Installation - Transfer to a New Computer
Or you can boot Paragon Adaptive Restore CD to prepare the HD to start on new hardware. This can be done on any machine as long as you don't allow the HD to start until it is placed in the target machine.
There is also an imaging option using Acronis 10 or higher with Universal Restore which will remove all drivers, activation, etc to prepare image to start on new hardware.
Kari, just wanted to thank you for the link -- I followed the instructions and it worked flawlessly (apart from an initial error message from sysprep that was fixed by a quick googling pointing to needing to stop all Windows Media services first). I took a Win7 64-bit Professional install and moved it to a new motherboard+CPU+RAM combo, and everything worked. I'm now happily up and running in less than a night, with no program reinstalls needed. Thanks!
Thanks, Greg.
BTW, you could have found that information about Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service sometimes disturbing sysprep, and how to fix it, also from my tutorial. It's mentioned, with pics and instructions, at the end of the tutorial
Kari
Hehe, indeed it does, now that I scroll down that far. :) I guess I was too excited to even read that far.
This really is a revolutionary method for me, as I build new computers and/or reinstall Windows fairly often, and I always dread not the actual Windows installation itself, but all the time it takes to reinstall all my programs. I'm ecstatic that this headache seems now to be a thing of the past. Thanks again!
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