Solved No hdd drivers/windows won't install.

[smurfyy]

Hey guys!
Some might remember me from over at VF.

I'm having a little trouble installing Seven Professional on my netbook.
Here's the story.

Vista Home Basic was OEM installed, I partitioned the 250GB drive into 2 pieces, a 41GB and the other half is whatever is left. 7 Pro installed perfectly, no problems at all. A few months later I ran out of space in the partition, so I made a new 8GB one and tried to extend the Seven one, I failed. So by now the drive is in a pretty bad state. Last night I decided to bite the bullet and delete the Vista partition using the 7 installer. Partition deleted fine, Seven began to install, then I got an error, something about a missing file, and the installation stopped.

Because the installation disk was a copy of the one from my PC, I decided to use the original disk, so again, booted the CD, accepted the terms, Custom installation, now this is the problem part.

The installer does not see the hard drive. I then stopped the installation. I connected the drive to my PC and formatted it on there, the whole drive, to NTFS, I thought that the installer would see the partition, then do it's thing and install on there.

So again, I plugged the drive back into the netbook, booted and still got the same problem.

The installer shows an error on the drive selection screen; "No drives were found. Click Load Driver to provide a mass storage driver for installation."
What I don't understand, is that when I first installed Seven, it found the drive and installed no problems, but now that I have completely formatted the drive, there is no driver for it.

The netbook is an Acer Aspire One 751h-52Yk, it's the Vista version, 250GB, 2GB. The hard drive is a Toshiba MK2555GSX.
It's saying that theres no driver for it.

If anyone could help me, it would be great, as I'm completely out of ideas, even my dad is, and he works with computers all the time.

Thanks again guys

 

[theog]

Try downloading the F6 Sata Controller drivers use at Load Driver.
If you can only find F6 drivers for Win xp there will do.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/68505-sata-driver-load-windows-7-vista-setup.html

 

[smurfyy]

Thanks theog, will have a look, nice tutorial btw

 

[theog]

Looking at the drivers on Acer Aspire One AO751h downloads, you have a Intel Sata Controller, no need for driver to install Windows 7.
Will HD show in BIOS? If Yes try the drivers from here:
Intel Sata Controller Drivers

 

[smurfyy]

Yeah, I can see the drive in BIOS, when I hit F12 to bring up the boot menu, it's there too.
Was that link to a download page? As is's asking me to select items, and I have no idea what chipset it is lol.

 

[theog]

Also try this:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html?ltr=U

 

[theog]

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&keyword=%22F6+drivers%22

This link works.

 

[smurfyy]

Great, thanks, downloaded and put it on my memory stick.

When it loads there's a list of about 18 different drivers, does it matter what one I select? I've tried a few and my drive does not show up.

EDIT--
Just noticed that I had the "Hide drivers that are not compatible with the hardware on this computer" box unticked.

 

[theog]

YES, it will, check the spec's to see which Sata controller you have.

 

[smurfyy]

Okay, have tried that and it's not working unfortunately.
I'm going to try something different--
Use my computer to install the drive up until the part where it wants a reboot. Turn the computer off then, then swap the drive back to my netbook and carry on with the installation.

It might work, it might not. It's worth a try as I just want my netbook back. Will post back with how it went in an hour or so.

 

[smurfyy]

Hmm, that was a lot quicker than I thought.

Okay, so far
It installed up to the point of reboot, like I said I would, swapped the drive back.
It wouldn't boot, so we plugged it into my dads computer and it started to boot, we quickly turned off the pc so it didn't install for his pc.
It still wouldn't boot from the drive, I just had a flashing _
We then done a restore on the BIOS and rebooted, then boom, up comes the windows logo.

At the moment it's finishing the installation, then as I type, it's just rebooted.

Will post back again with the final results.

 

[smurfyy]

And yup, it works, maybe that's worth creating a tutorial from?
Just need to install the drivers and stuff.

Anyways, really happy, thanks for the help theog, appreciate it

Solved!

 

[theog]

BIOS is small, but can make big ,big problems.

Well done.

You are welcome.

 

[Egghead]

A slightly easier solution

Ran into this same problem just recently when I replaced the hard drive in an Aspire One and tried to reinstall Windows 7 with a retail install disk. The mass storage drivers were not picking up the drive I had put in and none of the drivers (XP or Windows 7 versions) I downloaded from the Acer support site or other suggested sites seemed to resolve the problem.

The drive was visible in the BIOS but not during the installation. I had previously formatted the drive to NTFS on another system before inserting it into the Aspire One.

To solve, I downloaded Parted Magic (partedmagic.com) booted the Aspire One with it and using the Gparted partition editor application, deleted the NTFS formatted partition and also (probably the important bit here) I deleted the partition table and created a new one (msdos). I left the drive unformatted, rebooted the system with the Windows 7 install disk and it recognised the drive and allowed me to install Windows immediately without having to load any drivers.

Hope this is useful to anyone who finds this problem.

 

[theog]

Ran into this same problem just recently when I replaced the hard drive in an Aspire One and tried to reinstall Windows 7 with a retail install disk. The mass storage drivers were not picking up the drive I had put in and none of the drivers (XP or Windows 7 versions) I downloaded from the Acer support site or other suggested sites seemed to resolve the problem.

Post 2.

 

[Egghead]

Post 2.

No theog, your driver advice does not solve the problem (believe me I tried many, thinking one of the drivers would eventually work) - which is why I posted about using Gparted on a bootable Parted Magic CD.

Boot the live CD on the netbook, run the Partition Editor and just select the hard drive and choose Device -> Create Partition Table... and ensure the new partition type is "msdos". It is quite likely to fix the problem.

I found this thread when initially searching for 'windows installation not seeing the drive'. I tried your driver suggestions at load driver but they did not work (they didn't for smurfyy either) and smurffy's solution (removing the hard drive etc) seemed overly complex. I found a way to fix without removing the hard drive so thought people could benefit. I didn't mean to tread on anybody's toes or mean any disprespect because I might believe I have posted a better solution, I just wanted to post the solution that worked for me as it seemed easy and it might help people. No biggie. Your welcome