Windows 7 doesn't recognize SATA hard drive

I think this is a case of definition misunderstanding.
You said "upgrade". To upgrade required an operating system in place from which to upgrade. Example: upgrade from Vista to Windows 7.

If your HDD is new (blank), then you need the FULL version of the Windows 7 not the UPGRADE version.

You should be able to use the upgrade media even if there is no previous OS on the disk. This is a valid thing to do if you've removed the disk with the old OS from your system so that you haven't "burned any bridges" in case there's some problem with the installation. See: http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_...

Note however, that this is in violation of the license agreement if you don't own a previous OS that will be replaced by Windows 7.

I don't have the 'upgrade' version of windows 7. I have the full version. Cost me $200 from best buy.

Trying to install on a blank hard drive.

I do, how ever, have an 'upgrade' version of 32 bit that I put on my laptop, the computer I'm now using.

PS, I mentioned upgrade because it gives me the options to do a 'custom' install, and an 'upgrade', with upgrade being above custom.

Did you partition and format your new HDD during the installation process?

If you select "Custom" install it should give you a screen that lets you select where to install windows. For a brand new disk then it will just show "empty space" on the drive. If you tell it to install into the "empty space" then it will automatically partition and format the available space on the drive.

If you want to partition it yourself then you have to click on the "Advanced..." option on that screen which will give you some more choices.

If BIOS sees it and it's plugged into a blue connector, Windows Setup should see it too. In BIOS you can also set controller modes, but Windows 7 has generic AHCI drivers and I believe it also supports that chipset's RAID modes.

At any rate, you're also given the option to "load drivers" when it can't find the disk. Did you even notice that? You can click the "load drivers" icon and insert the driver CD, then do what comes naturally.

Windows set up does not see it. BIOS sees it. It is plugged into the one of the blue connectors on the motherboard. The motherboard is defaulted to IDE, but even when set to AHCI windows installation does not read it.

The hard drive did not come with a disk that has drivers, and the manufacturer's website doesn't have drivers on it, at least not that I could find.

To clarify, the windows 7 installation process doesn't show me as having any place to install it, at all.

The hard drive never needs drivers, not even with an old OS. If windows needed drivers for anything, it would be the MOTHERBOARD. And if that didn't come with a driver CD, you have a whole different set of problems.

But you don't need drivers for IDE mode, so unless you have a bad drive or a bad cable, I don't know what the issue is. Windows should be showing "unpartitioned space" at the prompt you mentioned.

I put computer together. It powers on. It goes to the motherboard screen. I hit f12 for bootmenu, boot from CD drive. In the CD Drive is my windows 7 64 bit full disk. It is not an upgrade disk. I hit the custom install button. It asks me where I want to install the operating system to. It does not have the hard drive that I have plugged into my computer on the screen for options.

Please just tell me where I can go from here?

The manual for the motherboard specifically states that the OS needs to be installed before you put the motherboard's disk in.

Have you tried the SATA2 driver or SATA2 Preinstall driver?

Edit: Looking at the manual, there appear to be three different SATA controllers on this m/b. Have you tried using different SATA connectors. You say you're using the top one; try using the 7th one or the 9th one.

Which one would I use? Thank you for pointing this out, by the way.

I'd try the Preinstall one first and the other if that doesn't work. Also see my edit to my previous post.

First of all, you're ALREADY using the CORRECT ports, which are the blue ones. Second of all, if you clicked the button that said "Add Drivers" at the prompt you mentioned, Windows Setup would ASK for the motherboard CD...really! Third, you don't need drivers for IDE or AHCI mode with the blue ports and Windows 7, soooo...

If you have both the data cable (probably yellow) and the power cable (probably black) connected to the drive, and Windows can't see the "unpartitioned space" at the prompt you mentioned, you probably have either a bad cable or a bad drive.

Agreed, bad cable or bad Hard Drive.

When I inserted the drivers disk and spent time going through all the folders, some of the drivers, while compatible, still didn't make my hard drive show up. I'm going to try another cable, but I have tried all the available ports for the SATA cable at this point.

Will try new cable, pre-install software, and another hard drive.

If that doesn't work, recommend you try the default installation approach instead of the custom install.

If that works, you'll at least know your hardware is good.

Default? The only options are custom and upgrade. Is there some default install I'm not aware of?

Tried all the drivers linked, all the SATA cables the motherboard came with, all the slots on the motherboard. Is it the hard drive? If it's the hard drive why would the BIOS say that there i an attached drive with 1000gb free?

Also, when ever I hit anything besides Delete (BIOS settings) or F12 (Boot menu) it goes through a few screens very quickly and then gets stuck on 'Verifying DMI Pool Data'.

This might be of some help to you...
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Installing-...

Click on "Using the Custom installation option if no operating system is installed".

My problem is that at step 7, no hard drive is shown. There is nothing in the box where a hard drive should be listed.

Can you not "click Unallocated Space if no partitions are listed"?

Surely a bit difficult if no disk is listed!

And the problem! The window that says 'Where do you want to install Windows?' has no drives listed. I'm trying to figure out how to get it to list the drive.

Bah, I'm just going to take it to a store and see if they can fix it.

Just so you know I built a computer 2 days ago and had the exact same problem. (motherboard: GA-P55-UD3, hard drive: WD10EADS) The drive appeared in the BIOS but not in the Windows 7 install.

Anyway, I took it into the shop where I got the parts, and they found that the hard drive was faulty. They replaced it, and Windows 7 installed correctly on the new one. ^_^

I have the same problem. How did you fix it?

Yes yes .. have the exact same problem as described above. Brand new installation of Win 7 64 bit Home on new SATA 500 gig hard drive. Bio recognizes the drive . Formatted the drive .. can access drive from DOS prompt. can copy files to C:. But Win 7 does not see the drive no matter what I do.

thank you Kwiftee .. think I will take a quick trip to Walmart and see if I can find a new drive .. This one was an OEM from Fry's and I think was previously loved

Had same exact problems with WD caviar blue. went out bought a new hard drive of the same exact type and windows loaded up fine. Also i kept the one that woudn't be read and after windows worked i was able to format that one easily. Not sure if this is a hard drive thing or windows 7 thing. but new HD should do you justice.

I am having an almost identical problem but i know my hard drive is still 100% because i tested it now where it really gets me is that i had Windows 7 x64 Ultimate installed on for several months, until a windows update started causing errors for a couple days then Windows 7 would no longer load under any boot mode (such as; load normally, safe mode, command prompt) then when loading the installer it hangs for approx. 4 hours before loading the "install now" screen, click custom install, and i can see my Programs HDD, and my Storage HDD, but not my OS HDD (yes i need the drives set up like that, no i can't just put my OS on a different disk. also all my drives are SATA) so i installed Ubuntu 10.10 on the OS HDD and there were no issues, ran tests on the drive, 100% pass. so i decide i'll try again with Windows 7 but no change. So i installed Windows XP x86, no problems ran tests on the drive 100% pass. tried Windows 7 again, but it still won't install.

any ideas?

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey