Solved Windows Installer not recognizing hard drive

[raw157]

Hello, again

I have an HP Envy Ultra book which I purchased a few weeks ago from best buy. Last night in a very sleepy state, I attempted to install Linux Mint. I have done this before on my desktop and never had any problems.

When I boot up the laptop, I get a gnu grub screen. I tried everything I could think of to fix the boot record and eventually decided just to reinstall 7 and move on.
I thought I had a back up flash drive, but windows did not recognize it.

I used a bootable windows 7 flash drive I had from the PC I built laying around, and figured I would use that.

I go command prompt in the windows installer and try to list my disks and it only shows the flash drive, nothing else. When I go to start the computer and select the boot device, it does recognize the hard drive.

I cannot get the windows installer to recognize the hdd. Is there something I"m missing here?

Thanks
Raw

 

[Golden]

Hi,

Does your disk show in the BIOS?

What is the exact error you get when you try to install Windows 7 from the USB? Make sure the USB is plugged into a USB2 port, not a USB3 port.

Regards,
Golden

 

[raw157]

Hi,

Does your disk show in the BIOS?

It shows the hdd in the boot order in the bios.

What is the exact error you get when you try to install Windows 7 from the USB?

I'm not getting any specific error. There are just no drives listed in the installer window.

Make sure the USB is plugged into a USB2 port, not a USB3 port.

I'll double check

Regards,
Golden

Answers above

 

[gregrocker]

Did you mark the Win7 or it's 100mb System Reserved boot partition Active then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times ?

If that fails try wiping the HD of GRUB with Diskpart Clean Command from installer command line.

If reinstall fails start over with the latest official installer ISO burned to DVD or rewritten to flash stick from Step 1 and 2 in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

If the flash drive fails again then try DVD.

Report back exactly what happens with each.

 

[raw157]

Just a quick question. After every time I use the usb and try to reboot, it gives me a boot manager error and I have to go back and remake the Windows 7 USB. I've never had this happen, should I try a different usb?

 

[gregrocker]

How are you writing to stick? What is the ISO source?

 

[raw157]

I'm using the windows usb tool.
I made the ISO from a windows 7 disk a purchased.

 

[gregrocker]

It may be corrupted. Follow the steps I posted in order.

 

[raw157]

Okay, I tried to marking it as active. It only displayed my flash drive, nothing else. I did the system repair and went to reboot and recieved the windows boot manager error again.

Going to do the clean reinstall now.

 

[raw157]

When I try the clean install, windows installer still does not detect my HDD.

Edit: When I tried to restart the windows 7 from the flash drive, I recieved a disk read error. This is the second flash drive I have attempted to use.

I do not have a usb cd drive handy but am considering buying one tomorrow.

 

[gregrocker]

Test the HD using maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan
followed by Disk Check run from installer Command Line

 

[raw157]

Okay, from everything I've read the way my hdd works is like it is a raid setup.
The link you sent me said it may not work with a raid setup.

I did run the built in hp hard disk test and it passed both tests.

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have two HD's configured into a RAID array?

If not then enter BIOS setup, set SATA controller to AHCI to try install. If that fails, try IDE.

If so I would unplug one HD and do the same unless you want RAID. Win7 doesn't much like it though.

 

[raw157]

I don't have the drives plugged in. This is stock from hp. I looked earlier at changing the ide thing like you mentioned but could not find it in the bios.
Where is it usually?

 

[gregrocker]

Under storage controllers or HD. You can access your mobo manual on the HP Support Downloads webpage to study this fully.

Do you have a newer BIOS update available from there?

Please update your system specs in bottom left of your post since it says you built your HP.

 

[raw157]

I appreciate all your help.
I fixed it earlier this evening. I booted into a live linux distro and just deleted everything on the disks, formated then installed windows with a usb.

Again, appreciate the help!