"Windows cannot install to this disk"

[giantman]

Alright so I can this program called "HDDErase" which uses the hard drive itself (ATA) to do a "Secure erase" instead of using software. Basically, it sends a erase command to the disk itself.

Wipes out HTA (Host protected area), bypasses bios, wipes every single sector on the whole hard drive including bad sectors, remapped sectors, hidden sectors, ect.

After it finished I put in my windows 7 installation disk and rebooted. When I got to the install screen and clicked on my 200GB ATA Western Digital disk it won't let me proceed. When I view details it says:

"Windows can't install to this disk. This disk may not support booting. Ensure your disk controller is enabled in the BIOS menu."


Something happened when I ran that program. Now Windows (7) says that the disk may not support booting from, so I can't install it to the disk.



What I've tried:

1) Editing bios options
2) Unplugging pins to 'clear bios' and then using "Default Settings"
3) Unplugging pins and trying "Optimized Fail-Safe settings"
4) Downloading a manual for my bios -- Phoenix Bios or "6.0 PG" and trying to find out how exactly to enable my disk controller.
5) Re-detecting my hard drive in the bios. It's set to autodetect.

I don't know what to do next. I need to figure out if my "Disk Controller" is enabled or how to enable it I think.

Right now I'm on a Linux Live CD googling for a solution. If anyone is familiar with the Phoenix 6.0 PG award bios utility setup thingamajig and can point out where to go to enable the disk controller then I think that should fix it.

 

[giantman]

Wait a second...the program may have locked my drive by default as I've read. I'm going to reboot into the program and see if I can unlock it.

It uses a default password to lock the drive I guess. Brb.

 

[giantman]

Alright it was the HDDErase program that disabled my hard drive and wouldn't / won't let me install again. I had to unlock it using the program.

 

[Bill2]

Just intrigued, what made you use hdderase?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello giantman.



In future, if you need to do a wipe "secure erase" to a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) use the in-built feature in Windows, this method can be used to do any HDD in the PC, not just the 'boot' drive; have a look at this tutorial at the link below.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation


If ever you need to wipe a single partition, have a look at Option Three of this tutorial to do a partition specific wipe that will mark the partition as "Raw" and leave the partition intact for further use.

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD