Windows 7 installation doesn't detect hard drive

[gregrocker]

Remove all but 2gb RAM to try install. Swap your RAM. Test your RAM.

Are you unzipping the drivers to stick before browsing to find them?

When you ghosted to SSD, did you attempt Startup Repair to repair or rewrite the MBR which sometimes doesn't copy? Did you select to "Copy the MBR" during imaging? Try also using WIn7 backup imaging, or Macrium Reflect.

You may need the firmware update for your mobo to detect SSD.

 

[BigPete7]

negative. I have tried to install Windows 7 by connecting the Vertex 2 to a working system (both internally and via a usb caddy), and putting in the Windows 7 install DVD. Still didn't detect it.

 

[BigPete7]

ram is fine, tested that.

yes I unzipped the drivers to a USB thumb drive. It loaded the drivers but still couldn't see the OCZ Vertex 2.

I'm gonna leave out the ghosting idea from now on because I want a fresh install.

I have updated the motherboard bios to version 206 (from 204).

 

[baarod]

ram is fine, tested that.

yes I unzipped the drivers to a USB thumb drive. It loaded the drivers but still couldn't see the OCZ Vertex 2.

I'm gonna leave out the ghosting idea from now on because I want a fresh install.

I have updated the motherboard bios to version 206 (from 204).

Try imagex from Win7PE? Install Windows like the pros! If it doesn't work at least we can see what's going on...

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/7943-install-windows-7-fast-without-dvd-usb-device.html

 

[theog]

ram is fine, tested that.

yes I unzipped the drivers to a USB thumb drive. It loaded the drivers but still couldn't see the OCZ Vertex 2.

I'm gonna leave out the ghosting idea from now on because I want a fresh install.

I have updated the motherboard bios to version 206 (from 204).

What mobo do you have?

What sata controller is fitted?

 

[BigPete7]

okay this is weird. I thought I'd try something different:


I put the original drive back in;

installed Paragon Partition Manager;

made the partitions smaller by deleting the "storage" partition (which was empty), deleting the "recovery" partition, deleting as much stuff as possible, then shrinking the remaining "OS" partition to eliminate all the free space;

Restarted and booted the Norton Ghost CD;

Ghosted from the original drive to the SSD;

of course it didn't boot because the boot.ini (or equivalent) would have been stored on the "recovery" partition, which was the first partition on the drive, so I put in the Win7 DVD and went through the options to fix the startup, where it detects your Win7 OS and creates / fixes your Boot.ini.

So now it works, but it's still the standard bloated OS that comes with your average Asus laptop, utterly dripping with fat and free trials and superfluous applications.

So I tried booting windows from a USB disk (again). I tried this before and it didn't detect the SSD, but this time I formatted the USB disk accidentally, forgetting that I already had the Win7 install disc on it (perhaps I formatted it in NTFS this time, instead of FAT32?) and now it detects.

yay. :shock: (finally!)

so...I'm not sure which part actually made it detect!

 

[gregrocker]

so...I'm not sure which part actually made it detect!

BIOS update is my guess.

 

[JMonty42]

Worked for me

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 registered on here just so that I could say that this method worked great for me. I had tried using the format command from the command prompt earlier, but that didn't work at all. These steps you outlined worked great. After I restarted, the drive showed up in the list to install on without a problem. Thanks a lot!

FYI, my setup is:
ASUS P7H55-M Pro LGA 1156 mobo
Western Digitial Caviar Black 640 GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" HD

 

[claaaay13]

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

WOW... this answer is a godsend. I've been working at this problem ALL day. ignatzatsonic, you are my hero!!!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello claaaay13, welcome to Seven Forums!



Have a look at this tutorial at the link below.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

 

[thivankakw]

Thanks a lot

This really helped... Thanks a lot for the information...

 

[juleswithoutaim]

Thanks!

That did it! Brillant, thanks a lot!

P.s.: Still wondering why Win7 doesn't detect unpartitioned drives :shock:

edit: If one doesn't find a command prompt, you can find one somewhere behind that "repair windows blabla...." after booting from a win7 setup disk. (or does this shift+F10 thing still work in win7)

 

[theog]

That did it! Brillant, thanks a lot!

P.s.: Still wondering why Win7 doesn't detect unpartitioned drives :shock:

New HD's need to be set up first.

 

[juleswithoutaim]

New HD's need to be set up first.

HD's where you just manually overwrote your partition table, that is

 

[Danmaan]

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.

 

[toughbook]

Well this is nuts. I have a Intel 80 Gb SSD with W7 on it. Boots fine, no problems at all. It is an old install and want to do a fresh install.

I am getting the 'No Disc Found" when it tries to install. I tried the diskpart and it says my drive is Invalid. How can it be Invalid when I can take the disc out and boot into an OS?

 

[baarod]

Well this is nuts. I have a Intel 80 Gb SSD with W7 on it. Boots fine, no problems at all. It is an old install and want to do a fresh install.

I am getting the 'No Disc Found" when it tries to install. I tried the diskpart and it says my drive is Invalid. How can it be Invalid when I can take the disc out and boot into an OS?

You said, "take the disc out". Out of what? Was the SSD in another computer where 7 was installed?

 

[gregrocker]

Where did you get Win7 DVD? Have you used it to successfully install before? Did you burn it yourself?

Run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html from Win7, then boot the DVD and try install again, post back the verbatim error message and the exact step shown here where it occurs: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html.

 

[FogartyFOTO]

Holy crap - what a pain. Could Microsoft make it any more difficult to do a fresh install of Win7 on an older PC? The POST sees my drives. The BIOS sees my drives. DOS utilities see my drives. An older OS (WinXP) see my drives. But Win 7 cannot, or could not, until I did the following (in no particular order). What a pain!!!

1. unplugged all unnecessary drives. In other words, I unplugged a 2nd CD drive. I unplugged a striped RAID array. I unplugged my floppy/CF card reader. I left just the primary CD drive (where my Win 7 install disc was) and a single 500 GB WD SATA drive.
2. tell the BIOS that the 500 GB SATA drive is SATA, not IDE (as I had tried before, unsuccessfully).
3. run DISKPART from a DOS command window, from within the Win 7 Install environment ( <shift-F10> ), as described by ignatzatsonic above


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

***********

Loading drivers from a USB drive from the motherboard manufacturer didn't help at all.

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!

 

[crimzonred]

Thank you so Much the above command prompt diskpart worked perfectly. I just had to change my drive from IDE to AHCI.