Win 7 Install HDD Problems

I am installing Windows 7 on a new internal HD on a HP touchsmart desktop. I can’t get the computer to recognize the HDD when installing windows. Anyone have any idea about a work around for this please ?

The existing HDD on the HP failed so I reformatted a Hitachi HDD that was previously an external back-up drive. I reformatted the drive and installed it into the HP machine, then tried installing Win 7. I went through the usual windows set-up screens, “language” “keyboard” “new install or repair” etc.

Then I get a message to look for the destination drive. Here is the problem, it won’t find the drive and asks me install a driver first. I checked the Hitachi drivers on another PC and it says the drivers are all installed. Am I making some kind of fundamental mistake here ? or is my new (old backup) drive also failed ?

What would happen if I put a brand new drive into the HP, would it also ask for the drivers an fails to recognise the HDD ?

Thanks for any support.

Thank you I'll give that try

OK I resolved this and wanted to post the results for anyone coming across this post in future.

Seem's, I disabled the hard drive in the BIOS. When I formatted the new drive I went into the BIOS to ensure the computer booted from the CD Drive first and hard drive second. In doing this I accidentally disabled the hard drive boot sector. Once I went back into BIOS and changed the hard drive from 'disabled' to 'enabled' I saw the hard drive again and could install windows.

I know a lots of folks say to change the boot order to install a clean copy of Win 7 but my personal experiences is not to do that, and just let Win 7 present the 'press any key to install the cd' screen.