no hard drive found installing windows 8.1

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Nuno Fernandes

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Jun 26, 2015
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Hi. I'm having a problem locating my hard drive during my windows 8.1 intallation.
A couple days ago, i tried intalling ubuntu alongside my windows 8.1. However, the whole process failed and i couldn't boot to windows, so i just installed ubuntu and removed windows completely from my pc. Now, i made a bootable usb device with windows 8.1, and when i go to install, in the screen where you have to choose in wich partition you want to install, there are no partitions!
However, this had already happened tom me before in another pc (yes, very stupid of me to fail twice), and i then found a solution that was basically opening a sort of command prompt (during the installation, in the same screen) and typing some commands to format the hard drive and making it appear in the list and ready to install. But i can't find the forum where i saw it no more, and i really need it. Can any of you help me? Thank you :)
 
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Hi! I've had that problem too and it was because the BIOS could see, initialize and boot on my usb drive, but once it was loaded, the Windows 8.1 installation image wasn't seeing the usb device. I found that as I was trying to access drivers on another usb stick, but I realized the one with the windows 8.1 wasn't even there. I've had less problems in general using burnt DVD. You may try to give additional drivers manually to the Windows installer on the screen where it says that no devices has been found.

Even though a hard drive already has written content, or you just bought it and it hasn't even been initialized, the Windows 8.1 installation image should still be able to see it.

If you want the command lines to empty a drive, here...
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Samwell9854

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Jun 17, 2015
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Hi! I've had that problem too and it was because the BIOS could see, initialize and boot on my usb drive, but once it was loaded, the Windows 8.1 installation image wasn't seeing the usb device. I found that as I was trying to access drivers on another usb stick, but I realized the one with the windows 8.1 wasn't even there. I've had less problems in general using burnt DVD. You may try to give additional drivers manually to the Windows installer on the screen where it says that no devices has been found.

Even though a hard drive already has written content, or you just bought it and it hasn't even been initialized, the Windows 8.1 installation image should still be able to see it.

If you want the command lines to empty a drive, here are some that shoud help you:

diskpart
list disk
##Here, you should see your hard drive (and maybe more); otherwise it isn't detected, try using a burnt DVD
select disk #
##The "#" should be the number of the drive you want to install windows on it
clean

From here, I would suggest you to let Windows create the volumes as it automatically creates another volume of ~300MB itself
 
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Nuno Fernandes

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Jun 26, 2015
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I now recall those commands now, thank you so much :)
 
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Samwell9854

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Jun 17, 2015
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4,560


When we talk about an HDD or SSD, they, on their own, don't require any drivers. Here are two reasons why you might not be able to see your hard drive while installing Windows:
1. The media you are using to install Windows cannot be seen by the installer without additional drivers. In other words, when you boot your computer, the BIOS (which is the computer itself) was able to see and boot on your USB stick (if it is still the case), but once the Windows installer finishes initializing, IT (the Windows installer itself) is not able to see your USB key. Thus your problem MIGHT NOT BE the hard drive which isn't being seen but instead it's the installation media (the USB key) which has been lost in the process. This scenario can happen if you used a USB 3.0 by hoping you could drive the installation much quicker than from a DVD, but the Windows Installer doesn't have the required drivers. You may prove this by trying to browse for drivers and have a look at what is being seen by the system. If you can't see your USB key, there you go. Otherwise...
2. The SATA controller (which takes care and is responsible to "show" the devices connected to it to the system) requires some drivers. This is unlikely in branded computers, may it be a tower or a laptop, but not impossible. This normally happens if you have a RAID controller for hardware RAID, but that's another topic. Anyway, you'll still require to provide the additional drivers for the controller.

If the text before is too long, just read this: Easiest solution, which includes a lot less pain in the ass (except if you really know what you're doing), I would recommend using a normal DVD for installing Windows, an official one or just by burning an ISO. CD/DVD drives are very old, still common and it's compatible with anything. Yes it might take longer to install Windows (or other distros like Linux), but except if you are really decided and plan to install more than 5 computers per week, just try out the old CD/DVD way. :)
 
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