Solved Cannot reinstall Windows 7 64bit after formatting infected SATA hdd

[swordson]

Hi all, thanks in advance.

I am repairing a laptop that was infected with a virus by reinstalling Windows 7 64bit after formatting.

Laptop specs, lacking because i didn't write it down before reinstalling:
hp dm4
465gb sata drive (the only hd on laptop)
4gb ram
intel dual core processor

history:
previously installed with Windows 7 enterprise 64 bit, infected with virus with pop up ads and occasionally fail to boot.

What I did:
Don't have windows 7 bootable DVD, so I created a bootable USB with windows 7 enterprise 64 bit from Microsoft as a trial for IT developers. Booted to installation screen, detected 3 partitions on the SATA hd, and I tried to reformat all partitions into one. So I deleted the partitions into one unallocated space, and create a new partition with only 8mb unallocated space on the whole drive.

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk..." error shows up, and I restarted to BIOS diagnostics, which cannot recognize hd, so I booted to windows 7 setup from the USB again, opened command prompt (shift + F10), and did the following (X is the boot drive from usb):

X:\sources\diskpart

DISKPART>LIST DISK \\disk 0 shows up as the empty hd

DISKPART>SELECT DISK 0

DISKPART>CLEAN ALL \\succeeded

DISKPART>EXIT

X:\sources\exit

Then I restarted to Windows 7 setup, and since I completely cleaned it, now it doesn't have any partition, so I created new partition again with 8 mg unallocated space left.

Open command prompt again

X:\sources\diskpart

DISKPART>SELECT DISK 0

DISKPART>LIST PARTITION \\partition 1 created with correct size showed up

DISKPART>SELECT PARTITION 1

DISKPART>ACTIVE

DISKPART>FORMAT FS=NTFS \\succeeded

DISKPART>EXIT

X:\sources\exit

Hoping this would settle the matter, I unplugged everything from the laptop, including the battery, and pressed and held power button to reset BIOS, fire up the sucker, and went to BIOS diagnostics and performed a quick hard drive test, which shows to be healthy.

Booted up to Windows 7 setup again, open command prompt to check partition status

DISKPART>LIST VOLUME \\shows volume 1 is C: with the healthy NTFS 465gb partition

DISKPART>SELECT VOLUME 1

DISKPART>DETAILS \\shows that it's writtable, installable, and healthy (no to all parameters that would prevent windows installation)

exited command prompt, went back to windows setup interface, it still wouldn't install windows 7 onto that partition, which is recognized with labelled name at this point.

Since this laptop was purchased in 2010, and it's a HP BIOS, there should be no need to turn on AHCI (and I can't anyway, BIOS doesn't have any option besides boot order and diagnostics), I don't think it's good idea to install XP first as a stepping stone, because of the SATA compatibility issue, so right now I have no idea how to install Windows 7 on a clean laptop :shock::shock:

Any help is appreciated!!!

Thanks,
Swordson

 

[gregrocker]

Why are you not Clean Reinstalling - Factory OEM Windows 7 with the licensed Win7 Home Premium 64 bit which came preinstalled on the that model? Anything less is a waste of a $100+ license you own for life of the machine.

What is the verbatim error message or fail point and when does it occur? Clean Install Windows 7

Exactly how did you write the ISO to flash stick? Try Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown.

Is there a newer BIOS update?

Look in BIOS update to see if there is an EFI Boot disk in BIOS boot order. If so if you don't remove it then it requires special steps to install.

 

[swordson]

Why are you not Clean Reinstalling - Factory OEM Windows 7 with the licensed Win7 Home Premium 64 bit which came preinstalled on the that model? Anything less is a waste of a $100+ license you own for life of the machine.

What is the verbatim error message or fail point and when does it occur? Clean Install Windows 7

Exactly how did you write the ISO to flash stick? Try Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown.

Is there a newer BIOS update?

Look in BIOS update to see if there is an EFI Boot disk in BIOS boot order. If so if you don't remove it then it requires special steps to install.

I already have the license key from an educational institute, and this laptop was originally installed with Windows 7 Enterprise to comply with the educational institution's software, so none of the factory stuff remained.

The bootable USB is created with Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool, using the official windows 7 enterprise .iso file from Microsoft Technet

The error is the same throughout the whole process at the format screen "Where do you want to install Windows?" of the setup:

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu."

The only thing that's the same from factory setting is the BIOS, which is f.08 for HP dm4, and it doesn't have a UEFI option, just the following:

1. internal hd
2. usb drives
3. internal dvd drive
4. usb optical drive
5. virtual drive

There is newer bios version, but I don't know how to flash the laptop without a platform installed.


Thanks for the reply

p.s. I highly doubt making another bootable USB (don't have any dvd-r available yet, don't know if that will make a difference) with Windows 7 premium OEM will bypass that error, but I can try if there are not simpler solutions.

 

[swordson]

If I just fire up the laptop without the bootable USB, it says bootmgr is missing, which is interesting, as it should say no bootable device is detected, because the hdd should still be empty.

 

[Maguscreed]

You really need to do this.
Something is screwy and this is the only way to be sure of removing it.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html

The only other thing I could think of that would be messing with things would be if linux had ever been installed that seems unlikely though.

 

[swordson]

You really need to do this.
Something is screwy and this is the only way to be sure of removing it.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html

The only other thing I could think of that would be messing with things would be if linux had ever been installed that seems unlikely though.

I will look into that, never installed linux on it tho, thanks

UPDATE:
Actually I already did that, except my partition was 465gb, I guess i can repeat the process and scale it down to 100gb, and the thread you suggested stated there are problems with installing windows on large hard drive.

 

[Maguscreed]

So basically everything sees the drive but the windows installation?
Are you 100% sure your usb is set up properly.

 

[swordson]

So basically everything sees the drive but the windows installation?
Are you 100% sure your usb is set up properly.

BIOS sees the drive (hard disk quick test), Diskpart sees the drive (diskpart> details), windows sees the drive too (at least the name i assigned showed up properly on the "where do you want to install windows" screen), but it just refuses to install

And I think the usb is set up properly, i mean the USB/DVD download tool is fairly simple, I will try it again with windows 7 home premium iso, maybe it's something with enterprise.

I am really out of ideas at this point, please stay with me

 

[Layback Bear]

I have no answers but do have a idea.
You posted.
I already have the license key from an educational institute, and this laptop was originally installed with Windows 7 Enterprise to comply with the educational institution's software, so none of the factory stuff remained.
-----------------
Have you contacted the Educational Institutes IT Department to find out if others are having this problem and the possible solution.?

 

[swordson]

I have no answers but do have a idea.
You posted.
I already have the license key from an educational institute, and this laptop was originally installed with Windows 7 Enterprise to comply with the educational institution's software, so none of the factory stuff remained.
-----------------
Have you contacted the Educational Institutes IT Department to find out if others are having this problem and the possible solution.?

No I have not, and maybe this piece of information would provide some brainspark. The previous installation of Windows 7 Enterprise was actually installed in UEFI mode (3 partitions), which is not an option in the BIOS.

 

[gregrocker]

Then the EFI choice in BIOS boot order must have since been hidden by selection of a Legacy BIOS setting in BIOS, because it couldn't be installed with the EFI boot partitions otherwise. Are you sure?

Look at your BIOS settings closely. If necessary read the Manuals found on the PC Support Downloads webpage. It's possible your HD is still formatted GPT required for EFI install, too.

These are the steps required to install 64 bit Win7 (only) in UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums. But you'd need to re-enable it in BIOS first.

You can also remove the EFI Boot disk as it currently is then reinstall to an MBR disk converted by wiping the HD with Diskpart Clean command as Magus suggested in Post 5, then partitioning NTFS Primary and mark Active using Step 2.2 in SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation to assure installer sees it.

 

[swordson]

UPDATE:

Error persisted, with the same message:

Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu.

And these are things I tried:

• I made a Windows 7 home premium OEM bootable usb, and the following were done with the same usb.
• I used Diskpart to clean the hdd again, and convert it to gpt, and create an efi partition, but I don't know how to change it from hidden, so Windows couldn't install
• I used diskpart to clean the hdd again, and convert it to mbr, and create primary partition, and the same error shows up

The BIOS really doesn't let me do anything besides changing the time and date, diagnostic tests, and boot order.
The boot option on BIOS only let me change how many seconds should be delay before booting and if i want vdisk/floppy disk to be enabled.

The more i play with diskpart, the more I think it's something screwy about Windows installation recognizing raw disk??

I highly doubt that bootable usb/bootable dvd would make a difference, but I will try to get a bootable dvd soon, maybe reading another NTFS drive messes up installation the same way if the computer has more than one drive.

in normal cases, it should work if i am installing to a basic primary partition, but since that didn't i work, I am heading the way of making efi partition (which I am not too familiar with), and maybe the method I tried this morning with diskpart is wrong.

Also, I came across this article (Create a GUID Partition Table Partition on a Raw Disk):

HOW TO: Use the Diskpart.efi Utility to Create a GUID Partition Table Partition on a Raw Disk in Windows

But the suggested commands didn't seem to do anything, because when I list volume and partition, it just said no volume/partition on this disk.

 

[gregrocker]

I don't see how you have an EFI BIOS if there are no settings showing it and you have a floppy in your Boot order. EFI is cutting-edge technology just now coming into the mainstream. What made you think you had an EFI install previously? Maybe it was an image that had those partition labels but was actually an MBR install.

Test the HD using maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan followed by Disk Check run from installer Command Line on a full disk partition you create as given before.

Confirm that you created and marked Active a Primary NTFS partition from Step 2.2 of SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

 

[swordson]

Major Update

Turns out it wasn't a matter of type of boot disk it is, it was the bootable USB that caused the problem. I had a hunch thinking that windows keep recognizing the USB as one of the boot drive too, even tho it is not installable. I managed to get a hold of a DVD-r and made a bootable win 7 sp1 home oem, which magically got through the error flawlessly

But life is never that easy, now I am encountering error 0x80070570 during the expanding windows files phase, which would cause the drive unformattable because of the 100mb system reserve partition windows created. Diskpart would state that it's a virtual disk that contains a boot sector, thus unformattable.

But here's the weird part, I plugged in the bootable USB, and was able to alter the partition any way I want except installing windows with the "windows cannot be installed on this disk..." Error, whereas the DVD would let me partition and install, but would not let me change partition after the system reserve, interestingly confusing.

If someone can make light of that weird situation, please enlighten me

Anyway, now that I am into install phase with the new error 0x80070570, I haven't figured out what to do, besides formatting the hdd the I way I want it without installing windows, because I didn't run checksum with my bootable, so i am going to make another dvd bootable soon

Also, I've read that the common cause is faulty ram stick, but I am only comfortable with messing around desktop hardware, not laptop, so I am avoiding that approach for now.

My current plan is to run full memory test and hard drive test from BIOS, and I don't know what after that, but at least I am less baffled

 

[gregrocker]

I asked you earlier to try writing the ISO to flash stick using Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown menu. Did you do this?

Wipe the HD with Diskpart Clean Command accessing installer Command Line using DISKPART At PC Startup. Then format the partition also already suggested in Step 2.2 of SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

If this won't work then write to stick Hiren’s BootCD 15.1 using Hiren's BootCD From USB Flash Drive (Pen Drive) » www.hiren.info then use Partition Wizard to wipe the HD, format an NTFS Primary partition, then Modify>Set to Active. Try install.http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164

 

[swordson]

I asked you earlier to try writing the ISO to flash stick using Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown menu. Did you do this?

Wipe the HD with Diskpart Clean Command accessing installer Command Line using DISKPART At PC Startup. Then format the partition also already suggested in Step 2.2 of SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

If this won't work then write to stick Hiren’s BootCD 15.1 using Hiren's BootCD From USB Flash Drive (Pen Drive) » www.hiren.info then use Partition Wizard to wipe the HD, format an NTFS Primary partition, then Modify>Set to Active. Try install.http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164

Yes i did, I have been using diskpart commands to clean and format since the beginning before I started this thread but i will try the third party method that you suggested

 

[swordson]

Problem solved, don't know why tho, I just made another bootable DVD, and install with it...

 

[gregrocker]

Bad installer.