Installed new hard drive, Win 7 won't load

Nola05

Commendable
Jul 8, 2016
2
0
1,510
First time posting a question.
ASUS B53J laptop, about 6 years old. The 500GB hard drive took a dump, so I bought a Seagate 160GB to install. After installation of the HDD and trying to load Windows 7 from the 4 backup disks I made 6 years ago, I'm running into problems.

When first powering up the laptop, i get a completely black screen with the text, "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key". I insert my backup Disk 1. I get a dialogue box titled "AI RECOVERY" saying "Are you ready to restore this image?" I click the 'OK' button.

I get another "AI RECOVERY" dialogue box, this time telling you "Restoring will overwrite your hard drive. Do you want to continue?" I click the 'OK' button.

I get an "AI Recovery Restore" dialogue box that says "This DVD/BD will help you recover hidden partition. Check the AC adapter connection and do not interrupt the restoration process." The computer automatically ejects the first disk and asks for the second. I go through all 4 Disks.

Eventually I get "Successfully restored the disk from the ASUS Recovery DVD/BD. Elapsed time: 00:XX:XX"

It's at this point that nothing happens. All I get is the original black screen with "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key".

I've been in the BIOS. BIOS Version 1.27.118 from American Megatrends.

Under the advanced tab, it states "Windows OS Version [Windows 7]
SATA Mode Selection [AHCI]

Under the Boot tab, it has Boot Option #1 as [PO: ST9160412AS ...]

Any ideas on why Windows won't boot up?
 
Solution
Not having used that program, I don't know what exactly it backed up. It's possible it only backed up your C: partition, and not the other data Windows sometimes sets up to successfully boot. Or it didn't restore these because your new drive is a different size than the original.

Do you have a Windows 7 install DVD? Try booting off that and running a repair. Automatic first, manual if that doesn't work.

https://neosmart.net/wiki/recovering-windows-bootloader/

Edit: If you don't have a Win 7 install DVD, you might be able to download it from Microsoft with your serial key.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7
Not having used that program, I don't know what exactly it backed up. It's possible it only backed up your C: partition, and not the other data Windows sometimes sets up to successfully boot. Or it didn't restore these because your new drive is a different size than the original.

Do you have a Windows 7 install DVD? Try booting off that and running a repair. Automatic first, manual if that doesn't work.

https://neosmart.net/wiki/recovering-windows-bootloader/

Edit: If you don't have a Win 7 install DVD, you might be able to download it from Microsoft with your serial key.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7
 
Solution

Keith_Vanilla

Commendable
May 31, 2016
9
0
1,520
I agree with the other post. You will need to reinstall Windows fresh. When this happened to me I found a great install CD on ebay, very reasonable $6.

After the clean install you may be able to plug in the old hard drive using a USB hard drive enclosure and rescue your data files.

Good luck.
Keith
 

Nola05

Commendable
Jul 8, 2016
2
0
1,510
I tried changing the SATA mode. There was only one other mode to choose from, IDE. I changed to this and nothing happened. Win 7 still wouldn't load. I'm going to attempt to get a clean version of Win 7 install from Microsoft using the link provided by Solandri above. Cross your fingers! And thanks for the help.