Windows 7 installation doesn't detect hard drive

[Darryl Licht]

After finally getting Win 7 Ultimate installed and running, my power supply quit, and the PC wouldn't start at all. Nada. Replaced the power supply, now all I have to do is purchase a full version of Win 7, or re-install WinXP then re-install Win 7, 'cuz the re-partitioning and reformatting of my drive killed my XP installation, nullifying my Win 7 Upgrade license. FUN!

WinXP isnt part of the direct upgrade path for Win7, only Vista can do a direct upgrade... you always must format when moving from XP to 7! See these tutorials for more info:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/131041-upgrade-install-xp-windows-7-a.html

 

[ntwynn]

Dave;

Are you just trying to format an empty disk?

Try this:

run diskpart command from a prompt.

Then each of these commands, followed by the enter key after each one.

list disk (to show the ID number of the hard disk to partition, normally Disk 0)

select disk 0 (change 0 to another number if applicable)

clean (this deletes all partitions)

create partition primary size=80000 (creates a partition with 80 GB space; to use the entire disk as one partition, omit the “size=value” parameter switch; use a similar command to create more partitions if needed or create in Windows 7 after installation)

select partition 1

active

format fs=ntfs quick

exit

Worked for me as well - THANK YOU!

Note that I did have to reboot for it to take affect.

Created an account just to thank you for this. Was getting so frustrated. Thank you again. Anyone having this problem needs to skip hours of frustration and just do this.

 

[karncx]

Dave;

Are you just trying to format an empty disk?

Try this:

run diskpart command from a prompt.

Then each of these commands, followed by the enter key after each one.

list disk (to show the ID number of the hard disk to partition, normally Disk 0)

select disk 0 (change 0 to another number if applicable)

clean (this deletes all partitions)

create partition primary size=80000 (creates a partition with 80 GB space; to use the entire disk as one partition, omit the “size=value” parameter switch; use a similar command to create more partitions if needed or create in Windows 7 after installation)

select partition 1

active

format fs=ntfs quick

exit

I am a lot thankful to this thread and you. I have my win 7 running now with few more
tweaks left.

 

[Blackguard4]

thanks a lot

Thanks a lot man. Like the others, i just made an account to thank you for this. I tried basically everything before I read your post. After I created the partition, formatted to NTFS and restarted the computer, my HDD was visible in the windows setup. Worked like a charm!

 

[gregrocker]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/324687-windows-7-installation-failure-overcome.html