Win7 on ASUS P5K-VM won't recognize any hard drives, no matter what !!

gn2 · 27 Sep 2011

I've now spent an entire day, 20 plus hours, trying to get Win7 to install on a simple ASUS P5K-VM.

I've tried EVERYTHING I can think of, the Windows installer simply will not see any hard drives NO MATTER WHAT.

I've downloaded the specific drivers from the motherboard site, put them on a USB drive and pointed Win7 to them and loaded ALL OF THEM and it still never see's ANY kind of hard drive.

I've tried an IDE drive on the JMicron PATA connector, I've tried two different SATA drives on ALL SATA connectors, I've tried in AHCI mode, and IDE mode, I've tried with the IDE connector turned off in BIOS and everything I can think of and STILL Windows installer never sees a hard drive. I'm installing from USB, but I've also tried it from DVD, and even though Win7 will read from the DVD drive which is the slave position on the IDE channel it STILL won't see the IDE hard drive on the exact same cable !!!!

I've swapped cables, hard drives, connectors(4 different SATA connectors), I'm at my wits end...

I've even tried loading VISTA, it won't find any drives either....

I suspect its likely a driver issue, but how in hell do I figure out which driver to load and when ???IF its a driver issue....

theog · 27 Sep 2011

Will the HD Drive show in BIOS?

Take a look at these posts:
Windows 7 Installation Errors : Troubleshoot Step by Step
Common Installation Problems and Their Solutions
Questions to use for help with Installation Issues
Tutorial quick reference list for Installing Windows 7
Questions to use for help with Installation Issues

gn2 · 27 Sep 2011

Yes, hard drives show in bios connected to every connector available, every time, which is why its such a huge stumper for me, I've installed Win7 successfully on a lot of different boards, and never encountered anything like this...

Also, there are no errors, simply no drives detected, even after loading drivers and refreshing, regardless of what drivers I try too...

gn2 · 27 Sep 2011

Is it possible that hard drives that were configured as Dynamic Disk's are invisible to Win7 setup ?

Through a confluence of circumstances, all the hard drives I've tried to load Win7 on, in this instance, *might* currently be Dynamic disks...I'm reformatting with diskpart now, unfortunately I forgot to use the "quick" option, so it's going to take a while to complete...

Thanks for the points to those posts, I can always learn more about this hobby...

gregrocker · 27 Sep 2011

Yes, possible. After wiping HD, boot installer to use Custom>Drive Options to create and format your partitions IF installer sees the HD.

If not, use Diskpart or Free Partition Wizard bootable CD to create and format an NTFS Primary partition, then mark it Active to give installer an edge. Step 2.2 here: SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Unlikely it's drivers if both SATA and IDE tried, since Win7 has all SATA drivers as well as most others.

Check for latest BIOS update, if none reset the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

Is this a known-good installer which has worked before recently? Confirm ISO and burn another DVD using ImgBurn at 4x speed, or write ISO or DVD to flash stick using Ultra ISO trial version: on file tab Open ISO or DVD, on Bootable tab Write Disk Image, Format, Write. Boot under USB, Removable or HD's.

gn2 · 27 Sep 2011

gregrocker said:

Is this a known-good installer which has worked before recently?

Yes, the disk is good, used several times in the last couple days, also, the USB install drive has also been used several times in the last few days, I don't think the installer is at fault at all, the same thing happens with a whole different OS on a whole different disk...

I'm hoping its just because all the drives I've happened to try with this install were Dynamic Disks at some point in the past, and I'm not entirely sure if they've been converted back to Basic disks.

I'll know soon, formatting is about 50% now....

gregrocker · 28 Sep 2011

Keep us posted.

gn2 · 28 Sep 2011

Well, the solution is ugly, but its working...

I used diskpart to "clean" the disk, then made one large partition and marked it "active", tried again, still nothing. So I used diskpart to "clean all" and left it as unallocated space, still didn't see the damn drive....so...getting desperate, I pulled a drive from another box that Win7 was fully installed and working on, hooked IT up in addition to the drive I wanted to put install on and rebooted using the already configured drive as the boot drive.

Predictably, it wouldn't completely boot into Windows, hahaha, but on restart after trying to repair the existing installation(which failed of course), I hit F8 trying to get to the screen where I could pick "Safe Mode" to start in, instead, the BIOS boot menu came up, so I chose the USB drive with the Windows 7 installer, booted to that, and tried my installation again....

This time, it showed the drive that had Windows 7 already installed AND the blank drive !

FINALLY !

Why this worked after never being able to see any drives is beyond my understanding, but I'm just glad to finally be seeing Windows 7 loading....

Corazon · 28 Sep 2011

Bizarre!

But quite an ingenious solution. Glad you solved it :)

gn2 · 28 Sep 2011

Update: Upon restart after installation, I feared Windows was just using the boot info on the drive from the other computer because there was no system reserved partition on the new drive, and there was on the drive from the other computer. I removed the established drive and lo and behold, it wouldn't boot into Windows....sigh....

But, I used the CD, chose "Repair..." and the SECOND try, it actually worked, repaired the boot info on the now single drive and Bob's your Uncle...only a whole day later, Windows is finally installed....