No drive detected on Vista installation

[dodger46]

HP DV9000 Laptop, replacement HDD, Seagate Momentus 100Gb. BIOS not sophisticated enough to see if Drive recognised, but it does pass the HDD Diagnostic Tests. When trying to install Vista, no drive detected at the 'Where do you want to install Wndows?' screen. Booted the laptop from a USB drive into Ubuntu, detected the HDD OK. Used the Vista Install disk to get to CMD prompt, was able to format drive NTFS successfully. Wondered if Vista needed Drivers, (shouldn't!) couldn't find any on Seagate site. Stumped!

 

[dodger46]

have you tryed this one?
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-52984-1&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=2093&product=3330177&sw_lang=

Think that's for an external drive. Would have to have Windows running to install it. But i can't install Windows until setup can 'see' the HDD! Just booted the Seatools for DOS and that finds it and tests it OK. Why can't Windows Install see it???

 

[dodger46]

use the 'F6' when booting from the DVD.

That merely invites me to browse for drivers I don't have. The HP Sofpaq is only of any use once Windows is installed. Just for kicks I tried Windows 8 (Ultimate Evaluation) with much the same result, only the drive could be seen but not written to.

 

[dodger46]

Tried another HDD from a TX2000 with Win 8 installed, and it worked fine. So I can test the drive, format it from the DOS prompt, run Windows, but I can't install an OS to it... baffled.

 

[ELMO_2006]

How is the controller in the BIOS set to?

Is it set to AHCI or RAID?

 

[dodger46]

BIOS very simple, no AHCI or RAID available. Can only change Drive Priority and Boot order, and I've tried all combinations! I suspect it's a BIOS problem though, and if I can get Winflash to work I'll try a BIOS update out of desparation...

 

[dodger46]

Just for luck i threw in an XP Pro disk, happily installing as we speak. Now, will I be able to upgrade to Vista then Win 8 as I set out to do in the 1st place... still baffling though.

 

[ELMO_2006]

Seems like your original HDD had a system prepared partition for recovery and since the HDD has been replaced, the laptop may be searching for this missing partition.

I'm not sure if the link helps, but it's a start:

http://tim.id.au/laptops/hp/hp%20pavilion%20dv9000%20dv9200.pdf

You can also contact HP and ask what options do you have.

 

[dodger46]

Seems like your original HDD had a system prepared partition for recovery and since the HDD has been replaced, the laptop may be searching for this missing partition.

I'm not sure if the link helps, but it's a start:

http://tim.id.au/laptops/hp/hp%20pavilion%20dv9000%20dv9200.pdf

You can also contact HP and ask what options do you have.

Shouldn't affect a Windows installation though, anyway, the XP install failed with a 'DIsk Read Error' so back to the drawing board...Thanx for the Service Manual, was my next port-of-call...

 

[dodger46]

We live, we learn! Put the Drive with Win 8 installed back in and flashed the BIOS to the latest edition. Same result, no drive found with the other HDD installed. Thinks, can't be the drive itself, could it? Hot swapped the Win 8 drive back in whilst still on the 'No drive found screen', refresh, Voila! Success, all partitions seen, ready to go...
So, despite having passed every test thrown at it, including the long test on Seatools for DOS, it was the Drive at fault all along... so as I can't give myself 'Best Answer' perhaps a Mod would put this sorry thread out of it's misery and close it, perhaps it may help someone with the same problem in the future...

 

[dodger46]

Stop! Hold the front page... Altough the Drive's partitions are all visible and accurately reported, when I decided to install to an empty partition, it came up with the message 'This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk, ensure this disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu' (As far as I know, it is... ) The plot thickens...

 

[dodger46]

Relax. Seemingly the hot swap was the problem, started the installation afresh and so far so good...
Admit defeat. Installation eventually broke down. Final conclusion? Motherboard fault, can't be anything else, summat amiss with the Drive Controller...
I think you should be able to award yourself 'Best Answer', no points awarded to avoid cheating, but at least if the problem is solved it might help someone else!