Windows 7 Install Won't See New Seagate 500GB HDD but it is seen in BIOS

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

MatthewHinton74

Reputable
Jul 17, 2014
2
0
4,510
Help. I have been working on this for 3 days. HP desktop crashed. Bought new HDD to install. It is a Seagate 500GB. Usually you plug in the data and power on drive, use USB or CD/DVD to install windows 7 and format/partition from inside the install and your good. No such luck this time.
All cables connected properly. They have been seated and reseated, exchanged for known working cables, etc. I installed brand new 520 watt PS. I have removed all memory sticks and inserted one at a time. All sticks pass test. Ran HP Diagnosis tools, CPU, Ram and HDD pass tests.
When I start computer, HDD is seen in BIOS. When I get to the part about choosing drive to install win7 on, NO HDD listed.
I have a Insignia enclosure that I put drive into, connected it to my laptop and initialized drive, formatted and partitioned. I have pulled the CMOS battery and reset to defaults.. I have even tried to install Live Linux from CD/DVD. No luck on this, which is unusual.
I am at a loss on what else to do.

The specs are
HP M8000 Desktop
AMD Phenom 9550 Quad Core 2.20Ghz
2GB Ram (had 5GB - 1-2Gb and 3- 1Gb Sticks)
Insignia 520 Watt PS (Had 400 Watt PS)
Built in Video
Built in LAN

No capacitors blown on MB, all looks good. It powers up, goes thru POSt, into BIOS.
 
Solution
P
Sorry, I misread your post. Now I see why this is so perplexing. The new HDD is "seen" in BIOS and has been tested with utilities and found to be just fine. Yet Windows Install cannot find it. Right?

I am assuming your HDD is of the SATA type, not IDE. Is that correct?

Only four thoughts come to mind now.
1. Is the SATA port you have connected the HDD to Enabled?
2. Is the SATA Port Mode set to AHCI (recommended), and not RAID?
3. Is that HDD set in BIOS as the second Boot Device (after the optical drive)?
4. A few mobos prefer to have the boot HDD unit connected to the SATA1 port. But have you tried it on other ports?
Sort by date Sort by votes
P

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
Oct 19, 2006
11,278
1,031
69,340
First of all, is your laptop's BIOS able to BOOT from an external unit (the Insignia enclosure) containing a HDD? Many are not - they can only boot from an internal device.

Second thought - sometime when you start a Windows Install, it goes looking for an EMPTY HDD. If it finds one that already is occupied by a Partition that is Formatted and ready to accept data, it considers that one NOT available. IF you CAN boot from an external enclosure AND Windows Install can detect the drive out there, you may have to tell the Install routine to Delete that existing Partition and start over to make its own for the Install.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

MatthewHinton74

Reputable
Jul 17, 2014
2
0
4,510


Im using a desktp to install on. Laptop was just used to verify hdd. I tried empty hdd first, nothing. So then formatted it. Still nothing. Cant boot external enclosures either
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
P

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
Oct 19, 2006
11,278
1,031
69,340
Sorry, I misread your post. Now I see why this is so perplexing. The new HDD is "seen" in BIOS and has been tested with utilities and found to be just fine. Yet Windows Install cannot find it. Right?

I am assuming your HDD is of the SATA type, not IDE. Is that correct?

Only four thoughts come to mind now.
1. Is the SATA port you have connected the HDD to Enabled?
2. Is the SATA Port Mode set to AHCI (recommended), and not RAID?
3. Is that HDD set in BIOS as the second Boot Device (after the optical drive)?
4. A few mobos prefer to have the boot HDD unit connected to the SATA1 port. But have you tried it on other ports?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
D

DarkSwader

Reputable
Jul 20, 2014
5
0
4,510
If it is an external hard drive, Go to Control Panel, Device manager then go to "Disk defragment" and see if it shows up in there. Normally if the hard drive is new and doesn't show up in my computer it needs a path letter. Before I get into that go to Device manager and follow the above answeres
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

Majk_M

Commendable
Aug 18, 2016
2
0
1,510
Hey guys. I had the same problem.

My solution was, that I had to put my installation USB into another USB port. I took it from the rear USB slots and put it into front. Woi-la .. and it worked for me. Suddenly the Windows installation process could see my HDD. Spent 4 hours solving around before I tried this. Hope this will help somebody. :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom