Solved Installing Windows 7 on an old computerI am trying to install window 7

[Bilbo]

I am trying to install window 7 on my old PC (10 years). It is a 32 bit system so I am using a 32 bit installation disk and everything seems to go fine, but it does not see my other hard drive. If I go to Disk Management and use 'Rescan Disks;' (from the Action Menu), it to now sees the other drive, but if I reboot, it does not see the other drive until I do it again. Anybody have any ideas?!

 

[Ztruker]

Post a snapshot of a fullscreen Disk Management:

To open Disk Management, press Windows key+r, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter or click GO. Make it full screen. Expand the fields as necessary so everything can be seen.

How to Use the Snipping Tool in Vista - Vista Forums (says it's for Vista but also works with Win 7/8).

Once you have the image saved, click on the Paperclip Icon next to the Smiley Icon. In the Manage Attachments window, click Browse and navigate to where you saved the image and select it.
Click the Upload button.
Close the Manage Attachments window.
Click on the Paperclip Icon again and select the image you uploaded. It will be placed in your post.

 

[gregrocker]

Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

Did you run Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor before install to get a list of possible issues?

 

[Bilbo]

Disk Management Screen Shots

I have two screen shots. First is before I use 'Rescan Disks' and the other is after

 

[gregrocker]

Since you have five primary partitions on the other HD it must be a GPT disk. Your BIOS may not be able to handle GPT disks. Is there a newer BIOS update on the PC or mobo's Support Downloads webpage?

If not you can move the data off to Convert GPT Disk to MBR Disk - Windows 7 Forums
and then reformat your partitions as you wish to copy the data back in.

 

[Bilbo]

New Screen shots

Hi again. I removed all primary partitions, as gregrocker sugested and I am having the same problem. The other disks don't show up until I click 'Rescan Disks' in disk management. I am posting the new screen shots to show what is there now. First is before and then after.

 

[gregrocker]

Sometimes Disk Mgmt is not accurate. Do these drives show up in Explorer or Start>Computer before you need to Rescan Disks to show them in Disk Mgmt?

Next test the HD with Disk Check followed by the maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan.

 

[Bilbo]

Test results

These drives do not show up in Explorer or Start>Computer before I need to Rescan Disks to show them in Disk Mgmt!!! I ran Disk Check and other programs to see if I could find any problems. Only disk that showed problems was the Disk I: marked as swap. I also tried reinstalling win 7. All to no avail. Tomorrow I am going to try installing with the other disks disconnected. Maybe this will fix(?) my problem (Ha Ha).

 

[gregrocker]

If not then move the data off the other drives, wipe them with Diskpart Clean Command to clear the drive of all code that might interfere. Do this with the OS drive, too, before reinstall.

 

[Bilbo]

Problem Solved

After I wiped all hard drives and disconnected extras I re-installed. After installation I then connected the other drives, one at a time. The small 6.8Gb was causing all my problems, so I switched it out with another drive of similar size. Everything is working just fine. I did several re-installs to make sure that I had fixed the problem and I had.

I am now a happy installer.
Thank you everybody that replied to my problem and helped to solve it.

 

[gregrocker]

What kind of drive is that small? Flash stick? It doesn't say removable.

As stated earlier it may only need to be wiped with Diskpart Clean Command

 

[Bilbo]

6.8Gb Drive

If you look at the second screen shot in post #4 you will see it at the bottom. It is a IDE Hard Drive. Yes it is small, but my computer is old. It is 10 years old!!! The hard drive itself is even older. I was using it to put my pagefile.sys in XP. I read it was better on another drive to the OS.

Thanks again for your help.