Windows 7 cannot see hard drive during installation

[MikeMM]

Ok, so here is the story.

I have a laptop which has a ATA HDD and I tried to install Windows 7 on it, but when you come to the window for choosing a partition, nothing shows up.
I have tried to upload new drivers for the chipset on the motherboard from intel (Intel 865 Chipset) but no luck still it doesn't do anything. I am able to find the drivers and I guess it installs them but in the end nothing.
So my second attempt was to try and bypass this. I took another laptop and pluged in the hdd there and tried the installation, everything went smooth, when the first restart was prompted I took out the HDD and plugged it in my comp. Now windows starts up but only up to the logo and than restarts, over and over. I tried to install all over again but it still doesn't recognize the HDD on my laptop.

If you can think of anything pls help.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Please answer a few questions.
Did you have an OS installed on it before?
As I understand it, the installation works fine on another machine, but not when the same HD is in your machine. Is this correct?

 

[MikeMM]

There was Windows XP installed, but I formatted the hard drive and created a new partition. The hard drive works fine, i think it is the chipset drivers, Intel has not upgraded the Intel 865 chipset. Windows 7 cannot see the hard drive and it asks for drivers, and even though I downloaded them from Intel's website they are the old 2004 drivers. I dont really know if there is a way to work around this, but it doesnt look good.

 

[whest]

Firstly, if you have it set in the bios to boot from the cd/dvdrom it can cause installation to loop after the first reboot, as it restarts installation and loops - to fix you remove the install dvd during reboot, or go into the bios and reset it to boot from the hard drive first - so you need to remove the dvd while its rebooting quickly - you have 15 secs to do so before it restarts if you dont hit a key, or go into the bios, and reset it to boot from the hard drive.

If you still having problems i have a couple more solutions below.

It could be the partition created by XP if you can get to custom install during installation of Windows 7, delete the partition, and recreate it in the empty space, and then continue to install to the new partition created by Windows 7. Another question - is the drive marked as active? . Can be found in Control Panel - Administrative tools - Computer Management - Disk Management. Ignore marking as active if the above solutions work, or you havet an available OS, however you could use the other laptop if necessary.

 

[MikeMM]

First of thanks for replying.
The problem with the loop with the cd i did know that and I had fixed that problem before. But I think I have explained the issue kind of bad.

My problem is that when you get to the Custom Install in Windows 7 setup. My HDD is not recognized. There is nothing in the window, just like there were no drives connected to the computer.
Now I tried to fix this by taking my HDD and connected it to my brothers laptop, installed Windows 7 on the HDD and returned it to my laptop, and this is when the constant restarting started.
So by the fact that the Custom Installation window didn't recognize the HDD, i think that the problem is with the drivers for the motherboard?
The motherboard (Clevo D870P) has Intel 865PE for which I downloaded the drivers from Intel's web site. I did try to upload the drivers, and it finds drivers which are compatible with the hardware, so now do I install all of them or do I select one...?
Well I think I have tried almost everything, but it still doesn't recognize a HDD.


Is it possible to install Windows 7 on my HDD while connected to my brothers computer, install the support for the Intel 865PE and than transfer it to my computer.(or just in my dreams )

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Try this thread:http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/34853-common-installation-problems.html

 

[whest]

You can try this I found it a while back - if you can make sense of it - the bold text isnt showing as I copied it from a web page:

You are unable to select or format hard drive partition when you try to install Vista (probably be the same for W7)

All you need is a resource disk or a boot Cd with the help of which you can boot the computer and enter a DOS windows or command prompt.
Boot the computer using the resource disk provided by your computer manufacturer. (Contact your system vendor tech support for more info).
You may get 2-3options: Select Exit to DOS or Command Propmt.
1) At the command prompt, type A: and press <Enter>.
2) From the A:\> prompt, type the following commands, and then press <Enter> after each command:
NOTE: Type the bolded text only (the debug prompt is a dash -). You may receive an error if you type anything other than the bold text. The non-bolded text represents the system response that will appear after typing each command and pressing the <Enter> key.
debug
- A 100
xxxx:0100 INT 13
xxxx:0102 (Leave this line blank. Press <Enter> to continue.)
- RAX
AX 0000: 0301
- RBX
BX 0000: 0200
- F 200 L 200 0
- RCX
CX 0000: 0001
- RDX
DX 0000: 0080
- P
- Q

The screen returns to the A:\> prompt, and all data has been removed from the hard drive

 

[nabbasgcj]

I've Dell laptop core i3. For a compatibility issue of some of my soft-wares, I installed windows 7 ultimate 32-bit. In the beginning, all went smooth.
But now, when I run a clean install, the system boots from a boo-table CD. No message of pressing any key to boot from CD/DVD appears. But at the first restart, instead of booting from the hard drive, it again restarts form the CD/DVD again and starts installation a new. No message of booting from CD/DVD appears at all. Is there any way to display the message "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD" for the same purpose? I may please be responded at [removed by admin] Thanks

 

[Jonathan_King]

Hello,

Try booting into the BIOS, and changing the hard drive to be the first to boot.

Good luck!

 

[nabbasgcj]

Thanks. But if I set the hard drive to be the first to boot, then it will not boot from CD and hence the windows 7 will not be installed. What I urge is that it should first boot from CD having the windows 7 OS and at the first reboot during installation, it should boot not from CD but from hard drive. The actual way is that it should display the message "Press any key to boot from CD", so that one could press any key to boot form CD for installation and at the first reboot, the message "Press any key to boot from CD" should be left non-responded to boot from hard drive.
The real problem is to generate the message "Press any key to boot from CD" that is not being displayed at my system during installation.
The solution of this problem will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dr Nasir Abbas

 

[nabbasgcj]

Thanks. But if I set the hard drive to be the first to boot, then it will not boot from CD and hence the windows 7 will not be installed. What I urge is that it should first boot from CD having the windows 7 OS and at the first reboot during installation, it should boot not from CD but from hard drive. The actual way is that it should display the message "Press any key to boot from CD", so that one could press any key to boot form CD for installation and at the first reboot, the message "Press any key to boot from CD" should be left non-responded to boot from hard drive. The real problem is to generate the message "Press any key to boot from CD" that is not being displayed at my system during installation. The solution of this problem will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dr Nasir Abbas

 

[Sardonicus]

If you have a copy of XP or Vista.......
install the hard drive drive back into the laptop you're trying to boot from.
Set boot from optical drive in the BIOS.
See if you can get to the partition screen.
If you can get to the screen, delete all partitions and create a new one.
End the process.
Try installing Windows 7.

 

[kfitzenreiter]

Hello,

Is this a Sata Drive or a Pata drive? From your post it would seem to be standard IDE, but maybe I read it wrong.

One thing to check in the BIOS is the hard drive mode. It is called different things in different pc's but for sata drives sometimes if you leave the bios in IDE mode instead of SATA mode it does the trick. I wish I could remember the standard name for the BIOS field. Best bet would be to nose about in the BIOS.

If it is sata, then I would download the sata/raid driver to a usb stick and attach this during the windows installation process. You would then load drivers as you tried to do, but from what I've read I think that's what you tried so I would so try redownloading the driver again. Maybe your download was corrupt.

Barring all of that, a final less clean solution would be to reinstall Windows XP on a very small partition, say 8 - 10 GB or so. Then try to install Windows 7 from Windows XP. You may want to create the appropriate partitions from Windows XP ahead of time.

 

[neo101]

You appear to have a Sata hard drive - so as post above

Do you have a full retail version of Win7 or OEM?
If you keep installing it too many times - it will possibly block you & make you phone m/soft to reauthorise

 

[kfitzenreiter]

I've had to call the dreaded microsoft activation line and it wasn't that bad.

If memory serves the computer creates a long hash of numbers, I think 8 or 10 boxes of 6 digits or so. You enter them into the phone prompts and then I believe they give you a similar set to enter back into the computer. Then, it activates. There isn't even a human involved. It really wasn't that bad. It was more difficult than "activate windows online now," I'll give you that, but it didn't take more than a few minutes or so.

 

[SIW2]

OP's last post was more than 6 weeks ago.

Don't imagine you can help much now.

Thanks for trying, tho.

 

[kfitzenreiter]

Good point SIW2!

It was funny though. I replied to a post on tom's the other day that had been there for a few days or so and almost immediately the person replied back. He must have been waiting for someone, anyone to answer....

 

[SIW2]

He may be pleasantly surprised to get an answer after all this time - you never know.