Erased hard drive to reinstall Win 7 but now won't reinstall

[Jim1970]

I wanted to convert my Sony Vaio back to Windows 7 after updating to Windows 8 last year. I tried using the recovery disks that I created when I got the laptop. It told me that I couldn't reinstall. So after trying multiple things, I finally decided to wipe out the entire hard drive thinking that it would automatically reinstall Windows 7 64 bit. Now when I try to reinstall, it can't find a drive to install it to and all I have is a black screen now telling me Operating System Not Found....please help so that I can reinstall Windows 7 64 bit on my Sony Vaio VPCCW21FX with a 500 GB SATA Hard drive and 6 GBs of RAM.

I'm thinking I may need to create a partition so that when I put the recovery DVD in to reinstall Windows, it has a drive to install the software onto. I don't know how to create a partition or if that will solve my issue. My laptop is now worthless. Also, I can't access BIOS. I completely erased the entire hard disk.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Jim depends on how you set the wipe up and how you formated it mate look at this and if you have access to another machine do it.
If the drive is wiped clean then follow this it says for SSD's but will also work on spinners
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html

 

[gregrocker]

Unplug all other HD's and peripherals,

Boot into BIOS setup, reset to defaults, save changes. (If an EFI BIOS you'll need to decide if you want UEFI BIOS vs. Legacy BIOS. If UEFI follow these special steps for Install, otherwise enable Legacy BIOS or Compatibility Support Module to proceed with normal install.) Set DVD drive first to boot, HD second, set SATA controller to AHCI, Save changes and Exit.

Then boot into Windows 7 installer DVD or flash stick burned or written using tool and latest ISO for your licensed OS version here.

At first installer screen Press Shift + F10, or enter System Recovery Options to open a Command Box, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 0 (after confirming Windows 7 target HD #)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="WINDOWS 7"
ACTIVE
EXIT
EXIT

Next click Install Now, then Custom install to Clean Install Windows 7 to the partition you created. If it fails then report back at which step and the verbatim error message.

In addition read over these steps to understand the tools and methods which work best to get and maintain a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. The steps are the same for retail.

After install you can adjust partition size or Create new partitions for data, etc. in Disk Mgmt. You are creating the partition here for the purpose of wiping the HD and marking Active which overcomes certain install failures.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes mate just go with Greg.

 

[Catalin23]

Thank you so much. Now the laptop is working.

 

[gregrocker]

Those steps are now a tutorial: Troubleshoot Windows 7 Installation Failures - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[RobJaw]

I installed licensed new copy of windows 7 home premium over Vista. Worked fine until I downloaded Mozilla 2016 (from Mozilla). then everything went dead and has remained so. What I have tried; I Booted from dvd drive with win 7 in bay, error message " bootmgr missing". I then Wiped HD and tried again, still dead. Then I Reformatted HD per your instructions and the error message said "files missing.

Thank you ,
Rob

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome Rob now you stated this

I installed licensed new copy of windows 7 home premium over Vista

Well personally I always clean a drive before doing something like that in case remnants are left over form what went before so how did you set up the 7 install exactly.

 

[RobJaw]

After 10 tries and following advice on this forum I got it loaded. Thank goodness my head is not going to explode. Best to All

Thank you for replying

Rob

 

[ICIT2LOL]

After 10 tries and following advice on this forum I got it loaded. Thank goodness my head is not going to explode. Best to All

Thank you for replying

Rob

Well that is good Rob but I would in future think of preparing the drive first or just getting a new one - but it is your budget but it would save the grief and time it spent working it out

 

[boyboyds]

I erased W7 Home from older DELL Inspiron 1545 laptop 64-bit, I was trying to Install Chrome OS, but failed.
While trying to install Chrome I was able to boot into Chrome from USB flash, but was not able to install it on the HDD.

I am using fresh install W7, I already used it on my other PC successfully.
It is not loading from USB flash (USB is set first), just blank dark screen after BIOS.

Any advice for me.....?


Thanks,
BBDS

 

[boyboyds]

Problem got solved after many attempts.......!!!!!!!

I used Rufus-2.9 to create W7 installer and the File System was set to FAT32 by default.
I recreated the installer by setting File System to NTFS.

My DELL Inspiron 1545 laptop 64-bit booted into W7 without any issues.


-BBDS