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Hard drive not appearing in Windows Install

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  • Windows
  • Hard Drives
Last response: in Storage
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September 24, 2014 4:59:42 AM

So I'm trying to do a clean install of Windows after my dad's computer got wiped for some unknown reason, no idea what happened because I wasn't there to see it happen. Regardless, I've done this once before with a previous OEM product, however this time the HDD won't appear in the drive selection area when installing Windows. When running disk manager in Hiren's it appears so I've ruled out a hardware failure. I've spent a fair amount of time attempting to fix the issue but Im at a loss. Here are the specs for the computer:

Acer Aspire AM3470-UC10P

OS: Windows 7 Home

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green 1 TB WD10EARX model

CPU: AMD A8 3800 APU

GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6550D

RAM: 6 GB



Thanks in advance for any help and insight!

More about : hard drive appearing windows install

September 24, 2014 5:16:00 AM

When the install starts, can you manually configure what partitions Windows installs to? You might have to remove existing partitions so that Windows can create a new partition to install.
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September 24, 2014 5:18:38 AM

Hey there, ZenShredder!

I'm sorry to hear you are struggling with this.
This might be a problem with the power, the motherboard or the data cable as well. Since the drive is recognized on another computer, we can rule out defective HDD.
Have you tried plugging the HDD in a different SATA port?
If you have another SATA HDD, you could try plugging it in as well and see if it works.
This can rule out the mobo, cables and SATA ports as problematic, if it works.
Check out this link about installing Windows using the MBR or GPT partition style:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn336946.asp...

Hope this helps you.
Good luck! Keep me posted if you have any questions!
SuperSoph_WD
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September 27, 2014 4:09:35 AM

Thanks for both of your responses, while neither were the solution, they helped me narrow down the problem! The issue was that Acer thought it was a good idea to set up a WD caviar green drive with a RAID 0 boot configuration despite there 1. Being no other drives in the system and 2. Not even having additional partition to set up a RAID 0 boot config if that is even possible to begin with. I was thoroughly confused, dumbfounded even by this, however the issue is resolved and now this thread can be closed for discussion. Thanks again!
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September 27, 2014 7:26:44 AM

Wow. That is unique.....
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October 4, 2014 2:32:53 AM

ronintexas said:
Wow. That is unique.....


Yes, that was quite an odd thing to have happened, whatever the case it's resolved and that's what matters. Although I'm slowly starting to not like Acer not only because of this but a laptop I just purchased for my brother being finicky with turning on...
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