new hard drive partition error

[mcvey101]

Hi, any advice would be much welcome. I had to buy a new HD for my toshiba satellite 5520. I have fitted it and loaded my 1st recovery disc, as soon as it starts reading the disc I get an error telling me "no partition available". What am I doing wrong?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I've never used an OEM recovery disk, but I'd at least manually partition and format the drive and then retry.

You say "fitted". I assume that means installed only, no partitions or formatting.

Of course, recovery disks are not infallible, but I'd at least partition and format before making any assumptions.

 

[mcvey101]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I only installed it. How do I partition?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Did you ever see a menu when booting from this recovery disk?

I'd expect you'd access it via an F key, possibly F12.

I'd be very surprised if a properly functioning recovery disk wouldn't partition and format automatically or at least give you the choice to do so.

You could partition and format with a Windows disc, which I'm guessing you don't have?

Are you positive you don't want to do a clean Windows install, rather than a restore to factory specs?

Take a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xubB8fgynwA

Which mentions using the R key and later the F key.

 

[gregrocker]

Reboot into BIOS setup using the F2 key. Is the HD recognized anywhere? Set it first to boot.

Now reboot and tap the F12 key to boot the Recov Disk. What happens?

You'll get a much better install doing a Clean Reinstall Windows 7