please don't laugh...

mypcbroke said:

Wait, my external hard drive with where my computer from a few months ago is saved? It's a Hitachi Simpledrive.... something or another

How would I update my BIOS?

Can you look at this website and find your model?

http://www.simpletech.com/


Does your Laptop and the external hard drive have an eSATA cable?

SATA Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

Look about half way down the page, you can see the eSATA cables.

Work with Dave on getting your HD swapped as that is the most promising route now.

But there is one thing to deal with when you get around to it. I just re-read thread and see this:

mypcbroke said:

The factory default has Network Boot enabled and F12 Boot Menu disabled. And SATA mode has been in AHCI

I think your SATA controller should be in IDE mode. Change it to IDE to try install.

And make sure network boot is disabled.

I worked on a Science Experiment Today

I built a mini desktop computer.

AMD x64 240 CPU
Gigabyte GA-M68M-S2 Motherboard
2 x 1gb G.Skill DDR2 800 memory
1.5 Seagate HD (Brand new, not formatted)

Installed Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit from TechNet subscription download
.iso burned with ImgBurn at 4x speed to DVD

Install took about 25 minutes, No Errors at all.
Connected to internet with Cat5 cable the whole time, it picked up updates.

Looks like Home Prem took 9.10gb of HD space, & the 100mb reserved partition. :)



So now I am perplexed at "mypcbroke's" install problem

I'm thinking we need to go back to the WD DataLife Tools Boot CD.

We need to write Zeros to the HD TWICE in a row to clear a re-occuring corrupted boot sector from being written to correctly.

Then we should have almost a bare virgin HD to try without any formatting for an install.

1. You can now boot the computer to the diagnostics CD. Make sure your boot order in your BIOS is set to boot to the CD-ROM drive first.

1. You will see the following options:
2. SELECT DRIVE - Always choose this option first, as it determines which drive you will be working on.

• QUICK TEST - This option tests your drive quickly for any major physical problems. (Please note: Although this option is safe and does not alter the data on your hard drive, Western Digital recommends that you have a current backup of your data).
• EXTENDED TEST - This option checks your drive thoroughly and it can repair any correctable errors. (Please note: Although this option is safe and does not alter the data on your hard drive, some data loss may occur, depending on the errors found and the errors corrected. Western Digital recommends that you have a current backup of your data).
• WRITE ZEROS TO DRIVE - The Write Zeros option, wipes any and all data off your drive. This option used when your data is no longer usable or recoverable. If you no longer need any data from your drive and would like to start over, run this option to set your drive to an as new condition. NOTE: Please make sure that you have selected the correct drive to perform this function on as once ran, no data will be recoverable.
• VIEW TEST RESULTS - You can see the results of the test you just performed

Should we try the extended test

EXTENDED TEST - This option checks your drive thoroughly and it can repair any correctable errors. (Please note: Although this option is safe and does not alter the data on your hard drive, some data loss may occur, depending on the errors found and the errors corrected. Western Digital recommends that you have a current backup of your data).