Windows 7 Can't Find Hardrive During Setup

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Awesomer361

Reputable
Oct 1, 2014
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Hi there,
I am having a few problems with the installation process or windows 7 Ulimate.

Basically what happens is when i try to find a hardrrive to install windows on, it apparently cant find one, even though it is clearly plugged in. It is recognised in the BIOS. Ive gone to many different forums and they have been telling me to format the drive in command prompt, but it cant find my hardrive in diskpart when i list the disks. All it has is disk 0 with no storage and no available storage.

I will lost my specs below:
OS trying to install: Disk version of Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
Hardrive: Western Digital 320GB
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L

Thanks to all who try to help,
Angus


PS, I already posted this in another thread, but I accidentally answered it as 'best answer'.


 
Solution
photonboy
Hi,
1) Was this a working drive?

2) Have you tried a working (verifed with other device) SATA cable and POWER cable?

3) Have you tried different SATA connectors?

4) You can always try a Low Level Format, though I'm not sure if that would help or not. You can use the UltimateBootCD tool to:
a) apply a LLL (write zeros), then
b) diagnose drive
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Other:
It's a separate thing, but you may want to consider Windows 10. In fact, if it's a driver issue it may have the driver included whereas Windows 7 may not.

Other:
- try in a different PC
- try booting to a Linux distro like Ubuntu or Mint (don't install, just run from USB or DVD) then see if you can access the hard drive (read and write)
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photonboy

photonboy

Titan
Jun 20, 2006
21,567
13
85,015
Hi,
1) Was this a working drive?

2) Have you tried a working (verifed with other device) SATA cable and POWER cable?

3) Have you tried different SATA connectors?

4) You can always try a Low Level Format, though I'm not sure if that would help or not. You can use the UltimateBootCD tool to:
a) apply a LLL (write zeros), then
b) diagnose drive
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Other:
It's a separate thing, but you may want to consider Windows 10. In fact, if it's a driver issue it may have the driver included whereas Windows 7 may not.

Other:
- try in a different PC
- try booting to a Linux distro like Ubuntu or Mint (don't install, just run from USB or DVD) then see if you can access the hard drive (read and write)
 
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Solution
S

ShadeTreeTech

Distinguished
Jun 23, 2011
95
0
18,660
Uncommon in Win7, but absolutely does happen where the SATA controller isn't recognized by the Window's PE SATA drivers. Grab your motherboard's SATA drivers (web site or mainboard disc), and load them after the Windows installer gets to the point where you select the drive. Look at the lower half of the screen should have a LOAD DRIVERS option.

I would avoid IDE mode. That's really for backwards compatibility. AHCI has been around for quite a while.

Photonboy is also correct to ask if it's a known good drive.
 
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