Please help me install OS

[RN09]

I have a Gateway laptop. It was running W7 Ultimate fine until I'd done a stupid mistake. Tried to run FREOTFE and shut dowm my computer. It was long story. Anyway, I have to take the WD 320GB out to re-format and put it back to the laptop.

When I tried to put in the W7 cd to install the OS:

Chose language: english........
Chose install now
Accept the license terrms
Chose Custom (Advantage)

When I am at "Where do you want to install Windows?" page, I don't see any drives but at the bottom says: "No drives were found. Click Load Drivers to provive a masss storage driver for installation".
Click on Load Drivers and pop up the window says: "To install the device driver needed to access your hard drive, insert the installation media containing the driver files, and then click OK.

I don't know what it is. If I click OK, it say no divers were found. If I click on Browse, I can see the hard drive and cd drive but nothing in the hard drive of course. Now, I am stuck. Can't install the OS.

Go to BIOS, I can see my hard drive, cd drive....
Put HD into external enclosure, it is running fine.

Please give me some advices.

 

[whs]

Anyway, I have to take the WD 320GB out to re-format and put it back to the laptop.

Did you format the drive in NTFS? And what did you use to format the drive?

 

[Jonathan_King]

See my post http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/34853-common-installation-problems.html

 

[RN09]

Anyway, I have to take the WD 320GB out to re-format and put it back to the laptop.

Did you format the drive in NTFS? And what did you use to format the drive?

Yes, NTFS. I used my external enclosure and the desk top to re-format the drive.

I just tried run the cd OS on my desktop and put the 320GB HD (laptop hd) into encolusre wanted to install the OS on the laptop HD (320 GB). However, when I was asked which drive I want to install on, I only saw two drives which on my desktop, not the laptop HD.

Edit: So the trying above called "custom install" based on this. I am stuck at step 8

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20146-custom-install-windows-7-a.html

See my post [URL]http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/34853-common-installation-problems.html[/URL]

I will look into it.

 

[gregrocker]

Is the HD showing up in the BIOS?

Change its port/cable if necessary.

 

[RN09]

Is the HD showing up in the BIOS?

Change its port/cable if necessary.

Yes, I can see it in BIOS.

What do you mean by changing cable/port? If I installed the HD directly to laptop, then no cable. However, if I do "custom installed" like I said above, I used usb cable and I could see the drive in desktop.

 

[gregrocker]

You may have to load the HD controller driver at the Load Drivers link. This is normally only necessary if it is an older HD with dated IDE controller driver, as Win7 installer has most all SATA drivers.

Check the Support Downloads webpage for your computer/mobo model for the IDE controller. It may be part of the chipset. Unzip the driver file onto stick or CD, browse from installer link until the driver is picked up.

 

[RN09]

It is SATA HD: WD3200BEVT.

Can I install the OS on another external HD and then copy & paste to this HD?

I really screw up this time, huh?

 

[Saltgrass]

Does FreeOTFE have a bootable utility you might need to use to unlock the drive?

How did you reformat the drive when you moved it to another computer? Hopefully you used MBR and not the other option when you reformatted.

Could there be anything on your laptop, like some type of security setup that might be causing a problem?

If you boot to the Install DVD and go to repair, the command prompt window, maybe running Diskpart and then cleaning the drive would help. It does not seem this would be necessary if you were able to reformat the drive in another computer.

If nothing else, maybe using something like Killdisk would clean the drive. You might have to reinitialize it. There are some user guides on the site if you want to read about how it works.

 

[gregrocker]

You can't install Win7 to an external HD due to USB limitations.

You can however try as a last resort moving HD to another computer to install as this has worked for me several times. It changes out all the drivers requesting multiple restarts, but if it starts up then it is usually good to go with no performance issues.

 

[RN09]

Last night,

Saltgrass, I reformatted the simple way, right click the drive and reformat.

Right now, I use the hd came with this laptop: a WD 80gb SATA HD which I replaced with this drive. Install OS on it. The computer is running fine. It is ok for now before I find the way to fix the big drive.

-Use Acronis True Image (free 30 days trial) to clone the 80gb to problem one (320gb). It doesn’t recognize the drive.

-I run diagnostic test which I down load from Western Digital. The results:

Smart status: PASS
Quick Test: Fail
Test Error Code: 11-Cable-Write Sector error.

-Right click on drive – Property - Tool – Check Now and left it runs overnight. Everything seems fine. The results are conflict with WD diagnostic test???


Today,

-Run Killdisk to wipeout the drive. About 4hr to complete the task. The thing is after wipeout, some files I put lately still in there. Probably, I should use the kill.

Use Acronis True Image to clone again. Succeed. Switch the drive back to laptop. Everything seems ok now.

Thank you for everything guys

 

[Saltgrass]

Have you updated the bios in the computer lately?

I have a problem in that I do not know what the security program you tried to use might have done, if anything.

You could first try using Diskpart from the command prompt and using clean. That doesn't wipe the drive, but it does cause it to need to be reinitialized, which should not be a problem if you are reinstalling.

You might try using a smaller partition on the larger drive. Does the drive us an adapter to install?

Windows has a built in image backup I have used several times.

 

[gregrocker]

If WD Data Lifeguard Quick test failed, you'd need to run full test to try to fix all bad sectors - in case you didn't.

It can repair the HD, whereas the chkdsk your ran only repairs the file system.

 

[RN09]

Have you updated the bios in the computer lately?

I have a problem in that I do not know what the security program you tried to use might have done, if anything.

You could first try using Diskpart from the command prompt and using clean. That doesn't wipe the drive, but it does cause it to need to be reinitialized, which should not be a problem if you are reinstalling.

You might try using a smaller partition on the larger drive. Does the drive us an adapter to install?

Windows has a built in image backup I have used several times.

I don't recall that I have updated BIOS. The problem started when I used Free OTFE to create a small security portion on my 16gb usb flash drive. After trying unsuccessfully, may be some thing I did. Suddenly, whole computer shut down.

After I ran Killdisk, I clone it with the small drive then put the large drive back to computer.

I will try to create the image.

 

[RN09]

If WD Data Lifeguard Quick test failed, you'd need to run full test to try to fix all bad sectors - in case you didn't.

It can repair the HD, whereas the chkdsk your ran only repairs the file system.

Can you walk me through how to repair the drive. Thanks

 

[Jonathan_King]

If WD Data Lifeguard Quick test failed, you'd need to run full test to try to fix all bad sectors - in case you didn't.

It can repair the HD, whereas the chkdsk your ran only repairs the file system.

Can you walk me through how to repair the drive. Thanks

Just right-click on the drive, select Run diagnostics, and run an Extended test.

 

[gregrocker]

Full test is one of the menu choices (like Quick test) when you first boot into WD Data Lifeguard or GWScan.

 

[RN09]

The problem is like the post #11. When I ran the test, it pop up the window before I could run the test: "Cable Test: Write sector error". When I closed the pop up, Test stopped with error, please check the cable: . What cable? I have no idea.

So I ran the test with window explore, right click the drive - property - Tool - in error checking I click Check now - check on Scan for and attemp recovery of bad sectors. After about 3hr, it showed 72,891,211 free dusters processed. Your device or disk was suscessfully scanned. No problem was found. It is ready to use.

Does that mean I am OK?

 

[gregrocker]

You need to resolve the error which came up with WD HD diag/repair scan. Google the exact error message to research and resolve it. Then run the Full Scan to know the true condition of your HD.

Again: chdksk only sorts the file system, not the HD.

 

[RN09]

Googled, it seems alot of people having the same problems with no solid answers.

One site they indicated that the problem is because '"WD Data Lifeguard for Windows version 1.17. I installed 1.13 and the problem stops". I down load V1.13 and run the test. The resuls are below:


Test Option:QUICK TEST
Model Number:WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0
UnitSerial Number:WD-WX40A69W5272
Firmware Number:11.01A11Capacity:320.07 GB
SMART Status:PASS
Test Result:PASS
Test Time:12:42:41, February 12, 2010


Test Option:EXTENDED TEST
Model Number:WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0
Unit Serial Number:WD-WX40A69W5272
Firmware Number:11.01A11Capacity:320.07 GB
SMART Status:PASS
Test Result:PASS
Test Time:14:32:27, February 12, 2010