hard disk

[kashwashwa]

I'm trying to install Windows 7 on a new machine. I'm just using a 1tb WD Green hard drive.

When I try to install windows, it shows that there are no disks available to install onto.
It DOES show up in the BIOS.

I followed a guide on another forum that said when at windows installation to go into the cmd prompt and under diskpart to enter "list disk" and then "fix disk".

However on that machine when I type list disk it says "there are no fixed disks".

I put the hard drive in another machine, and it DOES show up when I type list disk, which is confusing to me since it didn't in the other machine.

I tried changing the SATA cable, that made no difference. In the BIOS I tried changing the hard drive from IDE to AHCI, no difference also.

Any ideas why that machine isn't seeing the hard drive at installation?

 

[CiPHER]

You forgot to provide details about your motherboard, and to what controller the disk is connected to. For example, it might be possible you connected the drive to another controller than your chipset controller, like ASMedia or Silicon Image. It is possible your disk will not be found by the setup, because it needs special drivers for that controller.

If you provide your motherboard brand and type, i can look it up for you.

 

[kashwashwa]

You forgot to provide details about your motherboard, and to what controller the disk is connected to. For example, it might be possible you connected the drive to another controller than your chipset controller, like ASMedia or Silicon Image. It is possible your disk will not be found by the setup, because it needs special drivers for that controller.

If you provide your motherboard brand and type, i can look it up for you.

Sorry, it's an Intel DH61SA

 

[CiPHER]

That is strange, since that board only has one controller with 2 ports.

You also said you changed the SATA cable already, and that the drive is detected in the BIOS.

I did have some issues with Windows setup in the past where the harddrive had an existing partition scheme that Windows did not like. So you can try booting an Ubuntu Linux livecd and wiping the harddrive clean unless you are sure it has never been used and thus is totally empty.

You might also try supplying Windows with drivers. You can click the button Have disk during the phase where it detects your disks. Have a USB stick with extracted Intel chipset drivers on it. Though you should not need those if running in IDE compatibility mode. So this is rather strange.

 

[kashwashwa]

That is strange, since that board only has one controller with 2 ports.

You also said you changed the SATA cable already, and that the drive is detected in the BIOS.

I did have some issues with Windows setup in the past where the harddrive had an existing partition scheme that Windows did not like. So you can try booting an Ubuntu Linux livecd and wiping the harddrive clean unless you are sure it has never been used and thus is totally empty.

You might also try supplying Windows with drivers. You can click the button Have disk during the phase where it detects your disks. Have a USB stick with extracted Intel chipset drivers on it. Though you should not need those if running in IDE compatibility mode. So this is rather strange.

The disk did have something on it before. Overnight I did a 'clean all' on it using the machine that can see it. I'll try a full format on it right now as well.

If that doesn't work I'll try supplying the chipset drivers.

 

[Ketchup]

The SATA ports are from the H61 chipset, so the first thing you want to do is boot into the BIOS and make sure the drive is listed there. One easy way to look at this is to see if the drive is listed in the boot order screen. Once you see the drive here, it should show available in the Windows 7 boot process.

 

[kashwashwa]

The SATA ports are from the H61 chipset, so the first thing you want to do is boot into the BIOS and make sure the drive is listed there. One easy way to look at this is to see if the drive is listed in the boot order screen. Once you see the drive here, it should show available in the Windows 7 boot process.

Right, that's the odd part. It does show in the BIOS but not the windows 7 boot process.

 

[Ketchup]

That is odd. Have you tried swapping SATA ports? Windows 7 should come with drivers that will work with this chipset.

 

[ronbo613]

Does the drive have an operating system on it from previous use?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Sounds like it's been GPT formatted.

 

[C1]

Ive seen this before. [You probably just have trash on the drive - ie, in the zero sector.]

"WIPE" the HDD then NTFS reformat it (ATF compliant of course) then it should work fine.



PS: re - Sounds like it's been GPT formatted.

Ya, it might be formatted as something the WIN 7 OS installation doesnt recognize. Therefore, start from scratch (ie, partition & format the drive to something you are sure about).

 

[razel]

There is no 'fix' command in diskpart. Also be weary of clean all. That clears the entire disk which you do not need to do and as you noticed, takes HOURS. clean is sufficient for clearing boot area and partition table and takes just seconds.

I would try to run a different OS install another Win7 DVD or Win8 to see if you get the same issue. You're not going to install the OS, just want to see if it sees the disk. You could even try the same install media and hard drive on the other computer. Just disconnect the original HDD.

 

[kashwashwa]

This is getting ridiculous... it's got to be a motherboard issue.

I tried a different hard drive, an older seagate 500gb, and this is what is showing up when I try to install windows (was using a 64 bit version, also tried a 32 bit disc, same thing):

I used a usb stick to install chipset drivers, and it still shows the same thing....

Also, this is a brand new board from Intel for a board I sent to them on RMA.

 

[CiPHER]

So your drive is detected, it just displays a message that Windows cannot be installed to that disk.

This is what i got when the disk had existing GPT partition scheme on it. Did you zero-write the entire disk already? That ought to solve it.

 

[kashwashwa]

So your drive is detected, it just displays a message that Windows cannot be installed to that disk.

This is what i got when the disk had existing GPT partition scheme on it. Did you zero-write the entire disk already? That ought to solve it.

I've never done a zero-write, thought you'd meant a full format which I had done. I'll try a zero-write and hopefully that'll do the job.

 

[razel]

Thanks for the screenshots. That is very interesting. Diskpart sees 4 disks. None of them are listed as 500GB. However on the install. It's clearly showing disk 0. What'd I'd try:

Get back to that screen where it's detected. Ensure the size of disk 0 is 500GB or close enough. Press SHIFT-F10 to get to a command prompt. Then our favorite tool diskpart:

sel dis 0
lis dis 0 (DOUBLE CHECK IT'S THE RIGHT ONE)
clean

close the window, click refresh.

 

[ArisVer]

I suggest a BIOS reset and if it does not work clear the CMOS.

 

[kashwashwa]

I thought I had it there... i finished the zero write using seatools, restarted and windows 7 actually started installing! then about 1 minute into it, an error came up - something about not having data to copy.

I reset the computer, it said there is no bootmgr, so it wouldn't even get into the windows install process.

I reset bios, and the computer again, and now the seagate hard drive isn't showing at all once again.

It seems to me that maybe the sata ports or sata controller is malfunctioning in the new mobo? Why would the OS start installing and then be unable to continue part way through? The hard drives are super inconsistent as far as what they are showing up as too.

 

[Ketchup]

So is there a file system/ partition on the drive now? If there is, remove it and see what hapoens.